Will life ever go back to normal?

[freddotalks]

I'm really struggling to deal with this anxiety. I just keep looking at my gorgeous baby and thinking what will his life look like. I just want to wake up from this bad dream and do normal things with him. I keep crying.

Thank you all. I know I'm probably being selfish. Of course my heart breaks for all of us who will get this and lose our lives/our loved ones.. but I battled infertility for so long and finally have my baby and I feel like I'm having his first year taken away from me. In the grand scheme of things it's not important but it feels like everything.

The CFR at a true infections in the population level is not 7%, this is a condition where a large proportion are completely asymptomatic and another large proportion get mild symptoms and will have had it and not known.

I'm concerned for all the over 70s that have to self isolate for months. I get why they need to but it will be very hard.

Not helped by the posts of such as yourstunbridgewells and AngelicaKauffman

Sorry! But at least that is a legitimate concern for your daughter, whereas this virus is not, in the long term.

*YoursTunbridgeWells

I think it's excceedinlgy naive to think that life will ever go back to normal as such. This experience will scar a generation who managed to survive it.*

People were scarred after wars and other diseases but carried on after.

There will be change but life will go on.

I saw a poster saying how bad it was and then putting "lol' in their next post. Do some people think it's funny to scare people and act as if they are scientists and know better than everyone. This paragraph is not aimed at you Tunbridge.

Yes of course it will.
Maybe in 2 months, maybe in 6 but we'll be back to bickering about brexit soon enough.

Yes the pandemic will end and nearly everyone will survive but this is one of those seismic world events that come along perhaps 5 or 6 times in a lifetime. The two that come to mind in my lifetime are 9/11 and the oil crisis in 1973 - things went back to normal but on one level they were never quite the same. After 9/11 people became paranoid about terrorism, the US blundered in to Iraq and then withdrew from its previous world-leading role. The oil crisis brought an end to the optimism and belief in the superiority of the western way of life which characterised the 1960s. Things will go back to normal after covid, but they will never be the same, travel will become more difficult as countries will demand health checks on visitors, governments will have to spend more on health services and I think the economic cost of it all is going to be colossal, far more than 9/11. Most of the travel and hotel industry will go bust unless the government bail them out (which I think they will have to do).

OP, I had cancer when my dd was a baby. I felt like this as well, but life did become normal again and although my baby experience was different to what I had expected, we are so close and I am sure that is in part due to having gone through such an awful experience at such an important time. I didn’t take anything for granted . You’ll find ways to adapt and enjoy the next few months with your baby. I’ve learnt- stuff happens, but we get through it.

For God’s sake. It’s not the plague.

Yes things will return to normal and I think they will be better.

We might appreciate our elderly more, we might have better hygiene, employers might be more flexible about working hours and working from home, people might realise they don't need to travel so much to boring meetings.

I actually think this might be a little but if a reset for the world so we can realise what is and isn't important in the big scale of things.

For goodness sake if the airline industry collapses it might just help save us from global warming!
That will definitely kill more people than Corona.

Take a deep breath people 😊👍

yes things will return to normal in that things will open schools return work will go on but things will be slightly different. Business for example may well go under. I suspect people will spend more time in their own countries and less foreign travel

we probably will wake up to the environment etc. and I think we will learn not to take everything for granted

freddo just think if you have to self isolate of all those lovely snuggles and fabulous time bonding with your little one. Honestly try not to worry, you and your little lad will be fine. I do feel very sorry for anyone trying to quarantine with toddlers, because they really do need more exercise that collie dog on speed, but otherwise we will survive

I would like to think all this self-isolation might roll over to people with bloody Norovirus in future, but I dare say it won't.

@tootyfruitypickle Thank you. That really helped. I hope you made a full recovery.

We will have a new normal, just as we do post 9/11.
In this country we have got used to there always being food/supplies/takeaways available when we want them so a lot of young people (by which I mean under about 50) don’t keep the kind of store cupboards familiar to older people. I’m older and didn’t have to panic buy because it’s normal for me to have enough staples in to get by on for a couple of weeks. I think after this millennials will probably doing the same.

Hopefully some of the hygiene measures will also become habit and we will be better at handwashing, containing coughs and sneezes and staying home when we are infectious, rather than assuming we are invincible and that any illness will be cured by a dose of antibiotics.

And some people (hopefully a very few) will lose loved ones earlier than expected and their lives will be changed forever.

yes I think we forget how much 9/11 and 7/7 changed the world because it became the new normal without even realising it.

I think we forget how much 9/11 and 7/7 changed the world

There are millions of people who weren't remotely affected by either of those. They may have been shocked but life went on as normal for most.

It's nothing like Coronavirus which will affect us all, some more than others.

Compare it with WW2 which really did affect everyone in Europe.

I'm hoping that the new normal the other side of this will be a lot less commuting and a lot more WFH.

And hopefully less concentration of jobs and homes in the larger cities. Let's spread people out more to avoid the congestion/crowds etc to help prevent a similar recurrence.

Also hopefully less air travel - and that will help counter global warming too. Do we really need to go to Benidorm for a stag or hen party?

Let's get back to localism as the norm.

I can also see us starting to produce more in the country again and less reliance on imports/exports - another good thing.

yes I think we forget how much 9/11 and 7/7 changed the world because it became the new normal without even realising it.

I think the key distinction here is between "the world will change" and "my life will change".

9/11 and 7/7 undoubtedly changed the world. But they had very little impact on my life, or on everyday life for most people.

Life will go back to normal very quickly for those who are lucky enough not to loose anyone. Those of us who do will get over it eventually.

OP I have a young baby too and feel similar, it is quite scary.

Depends what you mean by normal! I’m sure the self isolation will end and we will be able to leave the house/supermarkets will go back to normal etc.

Would be naive to think there will be no economic effects though! The aviation industry is likely to see significant changes/suffer greatly from closed borders and grounding of flights. The flight companies which survive could be forced to ensure people are well before travelling in future (temperature check maybe?).

Banks & big industry are already suffering, many companies, big and small, could be wiped out by stock market crashes, prolonged lockdowns or general slowdown in the economy.

We don’t have much local industry or British manufacturing industry now (sorry assuming you are in the UK). Therefore the Haulage industry will be affected by lack of air freight and imports. We import heavily so may see a reduction in goods and produce available to us. Equally our exports could be affected and associated industries.

There will probably be knock on effects for all sorts of businesses - tourism/hospitality another good example.

Most of these effects will hopefully be temporary. There are some potential positive changes too though - good hygiene practices carried on, if flight numbers are reduced this would certainly help global warming (which is a bigger issue for our kids), interest rates are already lowered so borrowing and mortgages may become cheaper for a while, gvmt might be forced to invest more in local manufacturing and industry rather than rely on imports.

Perhaps wishful thinking with some of these. Anyway to sum up sorry rambling; I think every day life will probably return to normal for most folk, however there may be many people out of work and has others noted, many living with grief.

It may take a long time for economy to recover, but hopefully it will, eventually.

Of course it will go back to normal.

Honestly, I don't know what on earth has happened to MN over the last few weeks. I've never read such hysterical rubbish.

My DS was born during the swine flu epidemic, which DH was unfortunate to get and it was really scary too but life returned to normal quickly.

There is so much misinformation on here at the moment I can see its really fucking with people's mental health.

@Sallycinnamum Very well said.

@Sallycinnamum I totally agree.

I think it is disturbing on here just how many people are enjoying this and feeding on hysteria