Do you feel life is on hold?

[ivykaty44]

Are we all just holding back a little bit from job hunting, booking holidays making plans with friends etc?

I feel that I’m just going to work & going home & staying there, haven’t been shopping for 10 days

I’d planned on going to Portugal at the end of this month but had to cancel those plans due to other reason, haven’t booked any holidays for this year or made plans with friends

Anyone actually make future plans?

Mine's not really. I'm still working, still socialising. Our work encourages 1-2 days WFH a week anyway so 5 days wouldn't be a stretch.

Obviously I'm not booking any holidays but then again I pledged not to fly abroad in 2020 ANYWAY after a crappy long-haul flight and generally being sick of flying! So it hasn't really affected me much. Just had an offer accepted on a house, and found out today interest rates have been slashed, which is great news for us.

I definitely am. It's my birthday next week and I don't want to think about it because every time I do I think it'll be my last and it's pointless getting excited over it or making plans. People keep asking me what I want I just say I don't know because I know if (when) I get Coronavirus I'll die and there's no point.

Was planning to take Dd on holiday in the summer and I don't want to book anything.

It's really affecting my already poor mental health and health anxiety. I'm absolutely terrified to go to work at the weekend. I'm too scared to even go to Tesco!

Yes, definitely on hold socially and financially because nobody knows how this will play out.
I find it hard to get excited or look ahead to events that may not happen.

Some of the measures I'm taking

Not booking holidays
Not socialising
Dad not picking my sons up one day a week
Not visiting vulnerable relatives
Not going out for meals or having takeaways, cinema
Not buying clothes, non essentials
Not getting the carpet fitted I've saved up for!
Minimising sons' bus journeys

Although my employers remain as beligerent as ever that it's a fuss over nothing.

It really depends on the next 3 weeks. We will be at 15,000 people then. The death rate is higher than sars because the incubation period is longer so it spreads more. Then we will be into isolating vulnerable groups then the wider population. So that is beginning of June at earliest before we get a handle on it. Unless we take more aggressive measures.

We're certainly being very careful. My daughter isn't going on her long awaited school trip to America. We probably won't bother with our already paid for Easter break. The idea of cleaning our accomodation and staying away from busy areas such as playgrounds and restaurants doesnt sound like much of a fun break.

I've postponed a non urgent appointment at a very busy local hospital for my son and I'm only going out during quiet periods (sahp) and my son is under his rain cover while I'm wearing a disposable mask. My husband wears a mask on the bus to work.

We probably won't do our usual Saturday afternoon restaurant family lunch either.

We live in London. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Not on hold but being sensible. We usually would go away Easter only in the uk but have left that as not necessary. We have two holidays already booked but only uk so again will have to wait and see.
It's one of those things in life you have no control over so worrying wont help.

In limbo more than on hold. We have a holiday booked to Disney world in summer holidays , it's already paid off, we should be being excited planning fast passes and dinner reservations ( which you have to do months in advance now) but it all feels so up in the air, it's like I'm worried to get excited as I'm preparing myself for not being able to go. Also preparing myself for the crap of having to fight the insurance company to get any money back

Yeah, I feel my life is on hold. I am recovering from a operation, gave my job up. I was considering either looking for another job or doing some volunteer work. I wanted to start swimming weekly. We booked a summer holiday and then all this kicked off, its looking like we will cancel it now.

So yeah, I am not doing anything at the moment. I don't go out of the house.

Until government advice says otherwise (or my own judgement as I don’t trust the government to tell us the whole truth) I'm carrying on as normal. If we all stop going out, stop shopping, stop using restaurants, stop going to the gym etc, businesses will collapse and more of our high streets and local shopping areas will look like ghost towns when this is all over and we will have lost even more facilities. My DH is in one of the at risk groups and doesn't go out that much anyway, but is not going out any less because of CV.

I must admit though, I would be antsy going abroad on holiday right now, but am thinking it might be a good time to do some UK breaks to support the tourist industry.

The only thing I am doing differently is checking up more on older friends (65+). But most of my older friends are just doing everything they normally do too!

"it's like I'm worried to get excited as I'm preparing myself for not being able to go"

Yes that's it. Its I'm not particularly worried about the virus and I'm not doing anything to protect myself other than usual hygiene. I'm not changing plans myself, it's this horrible feeling of not being certain of any future plans.

Just haven't booked a holiday as the one place we wanted to go to now isn't possible.
I'm a self employed hairdresser and that is what is worrying me the most. I do feel clients are cancelling and saying it's something else when I think it probably is down to corona worries. Even if we don't have a lock down all my clients may not want to come, so I will make zero money for however long that lasts. Stat sick pay may have been made slightly better but for anyone in a customer facing roll who is self employed like myself that makes zero difference....it
all looks a bit grim.
Oh and I'm pregnant. Fantastic!

LameSword I am so sorry it's making you feel that way, it must be horrible.

We don't do much in the way of travelling usually but we do I have our first overseas holiday in 10 years booked for the end of July. I'm optimistic it'll be mostly over by then. I work from home anyway but I'm not stopping leaving the house at weekends to go food shopping not prepping or out for a walk like we normally do.

I'm a primary school teacher,I'm also looking for a new job ,am actually outside potential new school waiting for a walk around.
Both my kids are sitting exams this year .
I've also just had a chest infection.
School has a constant end of term feeling I work with children with SEBD and the anxiety is not helping behaviour.
I'm also a single parent,my parents are elderly.
All of this makes me feel slightly on edge and unsure. I think I'm a bit of a control freak and it's probably feeling of powerlessness.Its very strange !

I'm having a baby next month, so there's only so much on hold that I can do...still having to go in for scans and appointments, still choosing to go to antenatal classes and yoga, and go out to see friends as much as possible because I'm feeling as though it's my last month of freedom in a silly way...also have a baby shower arranged at mine (please don't shoot me) for end of the month, for about 15 people; guess this may be cancelled..

I'm really struggling to understand why the virus would stop you having a carpet fitted or buying a new car. Am I missing something?

Well, I work for myself at home so in that sense, nothing is different; I never get out much!
But I am currently loath to think about holidays etc, even though I had had vague ideas about going somewhere in Europe in April or May.

No change here! I have a party to go every weekend for the next three weeks. No-one around me seems be changing anything at all and it's all business as usual.

I can definitely identify with this feeling like life is on hold. I am beginning to feel very anxious about the lack of certainty in anything at the moment!
I feel as though we can't plan anything or expect that already-planned things will go ahead.
Two of my kids have birthdays this month and I am not sure that we will be able to have the meal out we'd planned.
One is at uni which has already been affected by 3-4 weeks of strikes leading to cancelled lectures, so if their uni gets closed then they have effectively missed an entire semester.
One is doing GCSEs and I am extremely worried that they will be impacted. I'm upset because my child has worked so hard to turn their grades around, having done pretty badly in November mocks - they were on target to pull grades up by at least 3 levels so I would be gutted for them if they lost that chance.
We have tickets for at least 3 concerts coming up, and also one of my kids is worried that the football is going to be impacted!
And perhaps least importantly in the grander scheme of things, but no less worrying, the youngest has a school trip to Spain planned for July. They have never been abroad on a trip before and are so looking forward to it so again I would be really upset if that gets cancelled.
All of these things are worrying me as they are uncertain. If they actually happen, well we would find a way of dealing with it, but them hanging over me as unknowns is just making me really anxious!

It depends how you make your money grandmasterstitch. If it's at all dependant on commercial demand, or investment income, these are very uncertain times.

I'm not putting life on hold. DC wanted to holiday in UK anyway this year so I booked a holiday and have booked several activities already to do while we are there. I know the virus is likely to come over here and spread as it has in Italy, but it's flu. People whose immune system isn't compromised tend to recover from flu within a couple of weeks and resume normal life. It's not a life long illness. We're fairly healthy and if we get it I feel confident we'll recover from it.

grand I'm worried about handing over £1500 for the carpet not knowing what will happen with DH's work or the financial markets, so I'm waiting.

No

Yes my life is on hold and so it should be. Wait 3 weeks and you will see what I mean.