To miss the first lockdown?

[TidyOchreReader]

I know it was a tough time for many but I genuinely loved that first lockdown. I think about it all the time. There was something strangely blissful about slowing down, having fewer obligations and just focusing on connecting with people - even though we couldn’t physically see them. And when you did see someone, the gratitude was immense. AIBU to feel nostalgic for that time?

I miss it too. Of course it was hellish - scary, people dying etc; and for us we were worked to the bone, both working fulltime plus childcare & homeschooling, taking it in shifts til gone midnight. But I do miss the it.

So are the public frightened or happy or what then. Hopefully next time a vaccine programme will come about even quicker and lockdown wont go on as long. They can learn from 2020.

The more people who say they enjoyed it, the fewer people who'd object when it happens again and they try the same illogical and stupid restrictions. We need a more sensible response next time with restrictions needing to be proportional and more mitigation measures to allow things to continue in slightly different ways - not the stupid knee jerk reaction to ban virtually everything, even things that were clearly very low risk!

Glad you liked the quietness! For thousands, it was anything but quiet as they were trapped at home with noisy neighbours who were also enjoying this “ lovely weather” and unable to escape it

Of course the lovely weather was another sign of climate change so even that was blighted

I saw that so much with older people, it was horrendous

Saw it with MIL. Prior to the lockdowns she was pretty independent, doing her own shopping, going to the bank every few weeks to sort out her bills, travelling around on buses etc. She was starting with dementia, but could "cope" with regular routines, i.e. paying her papers every Monday, going shopping by bus every Friday, etc. It was like "muscle memory" for her.

With the lockdowns, she just stayed home and vegetated. We bought shopping for her and took it round, we paid her papers, we drove her to the bank every month. When lockdowns ended, she couldn't use the bus, she had no idea where the bus stop was anymore, no idea which bus to catch, etc., even when we told her and walked her to the stop (literally within sight of her home on the same street!). She'd forget straight away. We started taking her shopping to the supermarket, but she didn't know what to buy, where things were, etc. She never got back to any kind of independence and her dementia worsened almost weekly through lack of doing things for herself.

Oh yes! The terror of not knowing whether family members or friends would be struck down and die, since it was touted as a killer virus wiping out completely healthy, young people, let alone those who were aging or with health conditions. Never knowing whether disabled family members would have a DNR applied to them, purely by dint of them being didabled should they be unlucky enough to end up in hospital. Never knowing whether we were going to be let outside, whether theatres, restaurants, cinemas would ever open their doors again. Missing family events and milestones. Total bliss!

People won’t tolerate another lockdown, certainly not the people who suffered in the first one. We would be unable a second time to pretend that as a country we were a ‘team’ or ‘all in it together’. Which motivated some to go above and beyond last time. We now know the people who kept the wheels turning were exploited, the vulnerable were made more vulnerable and the privileged grew richer. I’d imagine in another lockdown scenario it would be every man for himself.

The people dead against it are more likely to be the noisiest no? If someone enjoyed lockdown or wasnt particularly bothered by it or just mildly annoyed they arent likely to make themselves known, they will just go along with whatever. It's when people feel strongly about something or passionate about something that they protest and make a fuss. So I'm sure the government will hear more from those against another lockdown.

Plenty of people did not feel that terror and plenty knew they just needed to ride it out and soon we would be out and about again and eating in restaurants again etc etc.

That post sounds as though you didn’t really understand what was happening, tbh.
Mystifying.

I hated every single day. I can count all the blessings I had, and I still can’t make them outweigh the horror I felt at having all the things that I loved about my life being taken away.

The carefree life I had has never returned, and never will. I live in fear that it will happen again.

Did we know this, that we would “soon” be back to normal????

Again, this is what we heard from the partying buffoon:
”three more weeks.”
”three more weeks.”
”we can turn this virus around in twelve weeks.”
”this is the new normal.”
”we need to squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze the brakes on reopening.”
”normalish by Christmas.”
“significant normality by Easter.” (Which year?)
”just until over 70s vaccinated.”
”over 60s.”
”over 50s.”
”irreversible roadmap to freedom in June.”
“I meant July”.
etc.

It didn’t look as if it would end anytime “soon”. It was dragged on, and on, and on, with Boris fobbing the public off regularly, and the public meekly accepting it. We were gaslit into accepting lockdown for much, much longer than was originally implied, while our businesses and children’s mental health was razed to the ground, and the furlough bill went up by millions, and billions, and it looked as if it was going to become very, very permanent. This is why many of us did not feel “sure” about when, or even if, normality might resume. I still say that if it wasn’t for the Partygate fury, we might still be having winter mask mandates in shops and so on.

@scalt I was very glad that we were living in copenhagen for the second lockdown - it was all handled much better and none of the nightly doom casts -

And some scientists have admitted that the figure “two metres” for social distancing was made up on the spot, with no calculation. I’m sure the government knew a lot of it was made up, and things were nowhere near as bad as they were telling us. hence partying instead of worrying about killing their grannies. If it was that deadly, they would have been fearing for themselves. They knew a lot that we didn’t.

Misery loves company and the great equaliser is why many many people loved it. I'm not sure what that says really.

I knew some people that were a little concerned about catching the virus but most were just concerned it would make them sick not die.

Well I guess it comes back to what your individual experience of lockdown was. Of course if you hated it or were having a terrible time it would have felt like it was going on for ever. It dragged a bit towards the end for me but cant say more than that.

No OP. I missed my family and friends too much! I just remembered being scared every day and worrying about my diabetic parents who were at risk! Not to mention we lost my lovely grandmother to COVID in the nursing home and we couldn't see her at all! Didn't even get to go to her funeral to say goodbye.

Never want it back.

Plus, there was only so much drinking in the garden every day I could do! 🤣

I homeschooled my four kids whilst holding on to my full time job. My sanity was beyond stretched. I hope I never have to do that again. On the other hand my parents and in laws had a lovely time reading books and walking and telling me how lovely it all was whilst I was hanging on by a thread.

And even if we think 15 month of disruption “wasn’t that long”, it was a a QUARTER of a five-year-old’s life. Lockdowns stole a vast proportion of children’s formative years, and I’m sure that this will bite very hard indeed on years to come, when those children become teenagers and adults.

Well the OP and others are referring to the first lockdown which was roughly 3 months

For me it was wonderful. I worked from home and loved the peace and quiet and spent a lot of time with my adult children. I appreciate for many it was a nightmare

A strange post. Plenty of people knew their own and their loved ones likely risk levels, even at the start of lockdown, and in some cases that would be low. And obviously it could never have been a permanent state of affairs.