Is this all life will be from now onwards?

[Tartan333]

I have lost hope of things getting back to normal and I mean normal not the awful phrase "new normal".
This feels like existence, all the fun has gone from life, we are all ruled by covid now. Is this it now for the long term? Will it be years before we can do normal things again without masks, distancing, threat of covid etc?

It seems like a very dark future at the moment.

In my city it was absolutely because there wasnt capacity. The Nightingales weren't up and running by then remember.

I would support a Swedish style approach to COVID now (I dont agree end of March was an appropriate time given how high the amount if transmission was then) but given the number of fuckwits we seem to have in the uk I think wed be like Florida in no time.

Try being in Leicester with me 😠 that's what's called shit

@Bol87 so right, so true.

Personally I think this is going to be a very hard winter. I think more isolation is to come and a second wave - I know this sounds terribly pessimistic but that is the way my mind works. If I plan for a bad winter and still no contact with my family then if the second wave doesn't hit, everything above is a bonus.
However I do truly believe that this time next year it'll be over. Vaccines will be found and more effective treatment will be found. By spring 2021 everything will feel more positive.
There will be many people still in a dark place due to mental health, loss of loved ones, financial struggles and we will all need to remember to help people around us.
Prepare for a bad winter, remain vigilant and cautious and we will get through this.

I’m with you OP. I had to isolate with my kids before lockdown started because we had been in contact with a confirmed case and then I developed symptoms and was ill for 3 weeks. At the end of my second week ill lockdown was announced. We live in a top floor flat with no garden. We go out for walks but besides that I feel like me and the kids are just stuck indoors. I was trying to be positive and get creative and artsy etc to start with but now I’m just miserable all the time.

I had covid. It's bloody horrible so please people don't rush to get back to normal! Getting back too fast just brings on another wave.

The 1918 pandemic lasted just over a year and had 4 waves. It showed up again in 1920 but was short lived. It has H1N1 so similar to bird flu. It killed more than ww1. The second wave was brought on by people gathering to celebrate the end of the war. The second wave killed more than the first.

So please, just be patient and stay away from non essential things or it will go on longer and get worse.

I'll be honest - I've not missed anything. Wouldn't mind popping to a remote beach I usually take the kids but not going to travel now. But I've really like being home just me and the kids, even with serious illness. Not looking forward to the pace of life going back to normal - i wasnt keeping up, always panicking, stressing... I was miserable and my life was existing rather than living. Since lockdown my kids are happier, I'm happier..... This is life we can manage.

I guess those desperate to get back to normal feel as awful in lockdown as I do in real life.

Things will return to normal,,,

I'll be honest - I've not missed anything. Wouldn't mind popping to a remote beach I usually take the kids but not going to travel now. But I've really like being home just me and the kids, even with serious illness. Not looking forward to the pace of life going back to normal - i wasnt keeping up, always panicking, stressing... I was miserable and my life was existing rather than living. Since lockdown my kids are happier, I'm happier..... This is life we can manage

Good for you. Maybe you can manage but others can't, for many different reasons.

And the scaremongering references to the Spanish flu have become very boring. Completely different virus, completely different times.

I'm also cheesed off with the contrived existence. I've worked throughout in the NHS, we are weary!
Love jive dancing and my holidays - all out of bounds.
Plus I met a guy in Feb, we had a weekend together in the city then lockdown. Have stayed in touch for the past four months and recently he came down to see me so v excited! But he's paranoid about getting close and distances from everyone until he's satisfied the virus is declining. He works at home and there were no hugs, kisses or intimacy... Its such an emotional roller-coaster and wondering he will be worth the hassle tbh!

IcedPurple
I agree, how can you compare now to 100 years ago.. Disease ridden nation, mortality in their 40s, women frequently dying in childbirth. No antibiotics, no sanitation worth having, filth and sepsis everywhere, no free health service..... Shall I continue?

Chris Witty muted Spring 2021 as a return to normal so fingers crossed and we can have the Olympics to look forward to next year.

It sucks OP and is definitely not ever going to be my normal 🙄

One thing I have noticed though is that the surgery I work in has just had massive Perspex screens DRILLED to the reception area, don’t look very temporary to me

@bemused i take it you dont have to go out to work though ?

@porcupine i thought noone was turned away due to capacity as they would of gone to other hospitals nearby if local one had issues

@strugglingwithdeciding they changed the threshold for hospital admission. So you had to be more hypoxic to meet the criteria for admission. The reason for this was that they were running out of capacity. So people got left struggling to breathe at home. This meant people had to get more dangerously ill before they could be admitted. Some didnt make it,some died at home.

Not a countrywide policy but it happened in several hotspot areas.

No..it will become the new norm. We're already coming out the other side with realistically a peak once flu season hits. But we'll cope

I'm shielding and have probably lost my job, all teen dcs futures are up in the air...but managing mostly to cope by just making the best of each day, one at a time.

Looking forward or backwards is the way of madness,

Thinking about how things should be, how things were, what we can't do will make you feel like a two year old in a tantrum permanently.

I'm mainly focusing on what I can do with my relationships whether irl or online so that I have no regrets if I or someone I am close to dies.

Looking after the family, trying to keep as cheerful as possible.

It's not easy, especially with chronic illness but it is my aim.

@onedayinthefuture

Chris Witty muted Spring 2021 as a return to normal so fingers crossed and we can have the Olympics to look forward to next year.

it won't be 'normal' though. The virus may have disappeared, or be under control. We may even have a vaccine. But we'll also have millions of people unemployed, increased poverty, more homelessness and huge mental health problems. Many shops, pubs, theatres etc are never going to re-open. Our whole way of life is collapsing around us. It is going to take years to rebuild and the new society will not be the same as the old one.

I just can't see a way out of this awful mess.

@AlecTrevelyan006

Yes even if the virus were to disappear now, we would have such a huge task to rebuild things. But the virus hasn't disappeared, nor is it by any means under control. Worst case scenario it might never be. So not only is our society and economy in tatters around us, but the virus rages on far from abated.

I've just watched a video of our covid free workplace with people in haz mat suits going round putting stickers and screens everywhere and big signs. I just want to cry
We are not going back in anyway until September wfh has been hell with constant IT issues and despite this IT still pushing ahead with major upgrades and projects and not listening to what we are telling them.
everywhere is closed apart from take out this and that and from next week oh joy a meal out with Covid precautions.
I just want to give up really this is a shit life

I've given up on this year. Monday to Friday work from home, Saturday and Sunday sit at home watching telly will be the rest of my 2020 as this virus will always be lurking if you take risks with it.

I'm hoping things ease off by next spring and summer but the financial impact really kicks in then. At this point i'm just hoping the whole decade isn't a write off.

@Porcupineinwaiting

In my city it was absolutely because there wasnt capacity. The Nightingales weren't up and running by then remember.

I would support a Swedish style approach to COVID now (I dont agree end of March was an appropriate time given how high the amount if transmission was then) but given the number of fuckwits we seem to have in the uk I think wed be like Florida in no time.

This is the problem. Swedes seem a lot more responsible about it. People in this country just cannot be trusted. Too many are either thick as mince and take liberties or just don't give a single fuck about anything.

The fact the government have completely cocked it up from the start just compounds it. The year is a write off and i'm not going to be sitting in pubs or flying Easy Jet to Spain until there's reliable antidotes.

@Porcupineinwaiting was this really happening though or did mumsnet just decide it was? Our friend is a paramedic and i aaked him about this and he said they never left anyone at home unless they were 100% sure they would be fine

hopefulhalf You are not wasting your child bearing years unless you choose to

My childbearing years are rapidly ticking away and I haven't found a partner. Do you have any idea how much harder that is when we can't socialise as normal? Not to mention not being able to see friends' children I was close to, or do any of the nice things you have the freedom to do without children. Just nothing.

Is it really that bad though? For now try focussing on the positives. Death rate and infection rate in UK is falling and things are opening up. Yes things are different, there are queues and distancing etc but apart from being mildly inconvenient I think a lot of people are making a bit of a drama out of it. By comparison to other countries who have famines and war, we really have nothing to complain about. I know this all sounds very patronising but people just need some perspective on this. Wear a mask, keep your distance and get on with it. Sorry to sound heartless but I really think our attitudes contribute a lot to how well we cope. I honestly don't think it is that bad. Maybe I'm lucky. It's temporary. Life will resume. I'm not in a hurry.