I know IABU but I am totally fed up of lockdown

[detachablehoof]

So. I know I have an awful lot to be thankful for. My family are all in good health, we have no change in our income (yet), my husband is able to work from home, we have a big garden and had plenty of nice weather to enjoy it. There's just us two and our toddler in our house. We're a lot more fortunate than many.

But... I quite honestly don't know how much longer I can stand it. I'm grieving our old life, missing my parents so much, and finding it SO HARD to keep my toddler occupied at home.

I just want to go back to normal 😭 and it doesn't look like there will be a "normal" for a while. It's all just so uncertain and indefinite. It feels like there is nothing to look forward to any more and every day is a chore.

Anyone want to offer some solidarity?

[Biscuit0110]

I think the new normal when it comes will encompass all the important bits of your old life

I don't think so, I live for travelling, I live for seeing new places. It is the only thing that keeps me going, working hard, is the thought that soon there will be a break on the horizon. There is not a time at the moment that I can see when we will all be jumping on a plane and going on holiday. It just isn't going to happen.

[catinasplat]

Yep. Feeling the same. Have still got an income which I am so very thankful for, but still it all feels a bit shit. Also keep worrying about what will happen in the autumn/winter. Queuing for everything won't be much fun then.

[ImDillDandin]

my job, which is fairly responsible with out of hours calls, is the one that's expected to be dropped in standards to organise 'life' chores, yet mine is also more secure) prioritises work. He is a workaholic and sending 10 hours working a day.

I keep reading similar posts. These men are not workaholic they are shutting themselves away to avoid pulling their weight in the home.

[GoofyLuce]

I'm feeling a bit hopeless today As well

I've been hoping and hoping for lockdown to end since it began but it's hit me this morning that even if it does lift I'll probably be expected to go back to work, I still wont be able to take my toddler anywhere and I feel like for the rest of my life I'm going to be worried that this virus is lurking everywhere!

I think it's going to take me quite some time to relax even when the virus is under control

[BrightYellowDaffodil]

@EricaNernie

How does quoting death statistics and “we mustn’t forget” help anyone? People are struggling and they want - rightly - to be able to talk about how they feel, not told, effectively, that others have it worse.

As for saying somethings like travel will never happen again, they will. Maybe slightly differently, but they will because far too many countries are reliant on tourism, far too many people have travel as a hobby and we will just adapt a way forward. Do you really think the tourism industry will just give up and go away?

[TheABC]

Kids are screaming at each other, I was up working until midnight and just need a break. I have close family members in hospital that we can't see and a new niece due next month - no idea when I will get the chance to hold her and celebrate in person with her parents.

I miss going to the coffee shop with my friends, enjoying business networking and my fitness classes. My children are missing out on their friends, their education and their birthday parties.

Its all the small things that allow you respite from the big shit. I cant stop the fallout from Brexit, the forecasted famine in Africa or the lives being lost across the American continent. But I used to be able to take my children out for the day and get them smiling.

[Newyearnewarse]

I feel your pain.


I am generally managing ok but the waves of fear every now and then is awful. I potter along keeping busy with two teens and wfh and we are really lucky to be have nice places to walk every day.
However in the last week or so I have really noticed more people out and about and people's mental health does appear to be suffering more day to day.

Home schooling sucks as well!
My yr9 hates remote learning and my yr 11 has had everything taken away.
I know I am not the only one and I know we have to keep doing it but I get a bit fed up having to be so bloody positive about it all the time.

[MarshaBradyo]

It’s hard to hear news from NZ this morning, great for them, but we are still very much in the mire.

[Sertchgi123]

I’m totally sick of lockdown!

[oldlongjohnson]

Yes truly fed up now. I never got to start my new job so I'm at home with my 2 year old every day while DH works (NHS).
Feel depressed and anxious, but also really angry all the time. My MH has been in check for ages, but I can feel the bad feeling rearing it's head once again.

I just need a day to myself.

[EricaNernie]

Because the numbers become just numbers, the purpose of the lockdown is to flatten the curve, to help us make sense of the lockdown @BrightYellowDaffodil

[MilkTrayLimeBarrel]

I go through phases of feeling very fed up, then thanking my lucky stars for what I have got. I think the worst thing is having no goal ahead, nothing to look forward to - I love Wimbledon and the Olympics (the only sports I like) and will miss these terribly. Even the TV programmes we watch in the autumn/winter are not filming - The Apprentice, Strictly, University Challenge, etc. so not even those to look forward to.

We were supposed to be going to Italy next week and Dubai in November - both not going ahead, of course. A friend and I were going to the Hampton Court Flower Show which I was so looking forward to after having to cancel Chelsea last year due to an attack of gout!

But what can we do? There is nothing to do but sit and wait and see, and hopefully we will eventually emerge from the tunnel to sunny days.

[Myfriendanxiety]

Yep me too! DH is NHS (but not front line) and is doing ridiculous hours in the office. I am a teacher so at home at the minute with a 1 year old and 3 year old. I have no childcare for when I have to return to work as my childminder has a shielded family member and so can’t have them anymore.

I can’t look at other childcare providers at the minute as everywhere is closed and my 3 year old is going to really struggle to go somewhere new. He has sensory difficulties and new environments take an awful long time for him to get used to.

[SoCockneyItHurts]

So glad to read this.....yesterday I hit the very same wall and said to DH how much I'm missing "normal". His response was life will never be normal again and sadly I had to agree. I have zero motivation for anything whatsoever and am stuck in a cycle of guilt and self loathing.

[Biscuit0110]

bright for the foreseeable future, as in this year, we will not be travelling on holiday. I don't know about next year, I think that will depend on how successful we are with developing and rolling out a vaccine.

I would love to be wrong, but I don't think any of us will be flying anywhere for a long time. Most of the european countries (such as France etc) have already announced that they will remain closed until October. I don't know how social distancing happens on charter flights, nor in busy hotels or beaches. I am not sure I even want to be overseas if/when we go into lockdown very quickly again, or worse still becoming ill with corona in a foreign country. For lots of people the risks will just be too high.

[cjpark]

I hear you. Its shit. Is Groundhog Day every day. DH is a NHS doctor so he's has been working 12 hour days and living in the spare bedroom.
My business has had to close so I've been at home on zero pay since mid March trying to homeschool two teens who are constantly angry doing exam prep I don't understand. Our easter holiday was cancelled and they won't give us a refund and our big summer holiday was also cancelled, refunds pending. I've had enough now.

[PippaPegg]

4m baby and 3yo here. I'm bored shitless. Was due back at work and looking forward to it but have extended mat leave instead. Mixed emotions. Had no choice. Both of us FT WFH would be impossible.

I keep thinking how literally every support has been closed off to parents (well everyone really). No childcare, no activity centres are open, no play parks, can't have playdates, no grandparent visits. Literally every single support mechanism is gone.

I'm an introvert so quite sure that I'm suffering less than others too.

One day at a time is all we can do OP.

[Serendipity79]

I feel like this too. Today marks 6 weeks of me and my 4 kids being indoors. My eldest is almost 21, stressed out by not seeing her friends and boyfriend and is fretting that she'll be having her birthday here (1st world problem but important when you're 20!). My 14 yr old is being amazing and is helping me by organising herself and my 6 & 4 year olds during the day with their school work whilst I work from home. My older girls dad pretty much said "See you when its all over kids, mum will look after you" and the younger two's dad isn't involved with them at all for DV reasons. So its all on me to keep them occupied and busy.

Meanwhile my employer has asked me to take a pay cut of almost 1/5th of my salary but continue to work full time from home whilst 75% of our company is furloughed and I am super busy because I'm doing the work of 3 people.

I had a funny relationship with my family anyway - 2 of my brothers both still live at home in their 30's and generally I'm seen as the family cashpoint. Have already been asked for a loan as they're all furloughed and then discovered they've all been off out whenever they feel like it and having their friends round but "its ok as they're sitting in the garden". Then they say they cant wait for us to visit the second that we're allowed.

I have very little in the way of a social life when things are "normal", I'm scared of visiting my own family because of their behaviour and its hard to explain it to my kids when we've followed the rules to the letter. I just keep hanging in there thinking that at least the kids will be happy once things start to ease even if I don't have much to look forward to.

And I repeatedly remind myself that I am so lucky to have not lost anyone to this awful illness. :(

[Foxd0g]

I think if there was just a glimmer of normality ahead, I would be okay. I'm getting fatigued by it now. I need some hope. If there was some sort of plan in place it'd perk me up I think.

I just want normal service to resume at the NHS. I'm due to give birth in the next six weeks, I'm a first time mum and devastated that DH can't be there for a big chunk of it. Also want cancer care to resume as normal for my DSis.

[Hmpher]

Yeah, I’m getting really fed up. My husband lost his job three weeks before this all started. We’ve had zero income for ages now. Neither of us can get a job. I can’t drive (was about to book my test when everything stopped) which makes any job difficult as public transport is hardly running here. My husband’s grandad has died of the virus as has a family friend and neighbour I’ve known all my life. I won’t be able to go to either of their funerals and my husband couldn’t see his grandad before he died. I can’t do any of the jobs around the house because we can’t afford to spend anything now. My eldest son already has issues and is on his second CAMHS referral and dealing with the kids all day every day is draining. I get up early with the youngest and I don’t get a break until about 10.30 as the eldest has lots of issues at bedtime. Then I tend to fall asleep so I don’t really have any time when I’m not parenting.

I still think we’re lucky though, which is keeping me going. It could be much worse. We have a garden, we are all relatively healthy and we live in a rich country. I can’t even begin to imagine how a person living in a warzone or a refugee camp feels knowing that this virus is coming. They won’t have the safety nets that exist in the uk. Can’t even imagine how it feels to be a nurse or doctor working on the front line right now and putting myself at risk whilst watching so many people die. That stops me wallowing and feeling sorry for myself.

[TokyoSushi]

Yep, totally done here too. It just goes on and on and on and it's not even going to be normal when we do get out.

DH is a keyworker and out of the house 12 hours a day, I'm here on my own with 2 primary DC working full time.

I'm usually really social and we all go out a lot/busy with clubs and activities etc, when will they all ever start up again?!

As usual though, I'll pick myself up, put a smile on my face and do it all again!

[Biscuit0110]

Boris really really needs to share what the exit plans are, that will ease a lot of uncertainty, it will ease some anxiety, even if it is months away from execution. He must now start delivering some hope.

Businesses and families can plan. I can order in more gin. We will know where we are. This endless uncertainty is causing some people distress, and could be alleviated. We need to know what the master plan is, so we can mentally prepare for whatever is to come. Even if he doesn't do it soon he risks losing public consent.

[trappedsincesundaymorn]

I'm hating every minute of it. I'm sick of facetime, being stuck at home, being bored and seeing the same 4 walls every day. I want to hug my daughter, go back to work and generally have some purpose in life.

[ThrowbackMagic]

YANBU. I felt I was mostly taking it in my stride but then this week I’ve noticed my mood drop (same with partner and our lodger) and have found myself waking up and wanting to stay there! Was just this moment wondering to myself what I can do to keep motivated. So solidarity from me. It is helpful to know that others are feeling the same.

I’m missing interacting with people, just those every day chats at work, in shops, etc. Visiting family. Being able to socialise and plan things. Opportunities to get involved n stuff.

[Inforthelonghaul]

We have lost 50% of our income, a good promotion and there’s every chance that DH will be made redundant. To say we’re fed up with lockdown is the understatement of the century. Had we been in secure work and unaffected income it would undoubtedly have been more of an extended break and we’d be doing stuff round the house and garden. As it is we’re watching every penny with a view to being able to pay the mortgage a bit longer when the payment holiday ends. We have no savings, have never managed to accumulate any something always needs money spending. My older teens are missing partners and friends and my youngest is desperate for friends and school to start again.

In some ways it’s been nice but it’s getting harder by the day.