Not looking forward to going back to 'normal'

[lorisparkle]

Whilst in many ways I am glad that lockdown is easing there are certain things I am not looking forward to,

Before lockdown I was rushing here there and everywhere - from work to picking up children from childcare to home to some sporting thing to home to some parents evening etc etc. I felt like a hamster on a wheel.

There was also issues at work that I could forget about but with work opening back up I am going to have to face them head on.

DH was also having work issues and now those are all coming back again and he is back to being Mr Grumpy!

Anybody else????

Don't go back to it then. Make changes - less clubs, reduce or condense hours?

I'm not totally looking forward to it, but my children are so ill suck it up.

Going straight into a supermarket. Going to a restaurant. Being free to do anything. The school run. The rushing around. Having a secure job with no fear of losing it.
God I miss those days. Will they ever return?

The day to day stresses of life have been removed here since lockdown.
We are very fortunate to have remained well as a family and have not taken this for granted.
The adults in our family have returned to work and work is stressful but we are really determined not to go back to the hamster wheel situation.
We’re planning to drop a lot of social stuff we crammed into our lives. We don’t need to fill our time to the max. We’ve all benefited from a slower pace of life here.

@Hearwego

Going straight into a supermarket. Going to a restaurant. Being free to do anything. The school run. The rushing around. Having a secure job with no fear of losing it. God I miss those days. Will they ever return?

Me too. Just the sheer freedom to do every day things without the threat of a potentially deadly virus hanging over our heads. I guess the virus will never be gone now, but hopefully it can be controlled via vaccine/effective treatments so that we can return to moving and interacting freely.

Same here, I'm dreading September when kids are back in and life is almost normal, we as a family are making a few changes but nothing to majorly impact my life....

I don’t understand how people can say stresses have been removed by lockdown?

Life is more stressful.

Worries are magnified.

Of the 5 people I know who have died during lockdown 3 were suicide. (None were coronavirus).

Both of us are on reduced salaries now.

I can’t work because nursery is closed and my office is closed. I’m on unpaid leave instead.

We have bills to pay. Family waiting for cancer treatment. Elderly parents who have aged 10 years since lockdown.

Couldn’t care less about after school clubs to be honest. If it’s too busy for you stop going to them. Be grateful that’s all that was worrying your life before now.

I’m not looking forward to ‘normal’ again. Life has been very paired down and I like it that way.

FFS people are losing their jobs and their homes. Probably struggle to buy groceries.
And people are worried about the stresses of taking kids to after school clubs!
Have some perspective!

God no, I can't wait. I've been on furlough since March and I've just had the news that I'm going back to work after weeks of worrying I might be made redundant. Bring. It. On. Can't wait to get back to normal.

You know if you didn't like how life was before you can make changes? No one is stopping you.

I think it wont be back to normal. I'm just grateful to be alive with a job tbh.

People who don't want normal clearly haven't had to deal with elderly parents with serious non covid health issues. I would very much like my 93yo father to be seen by his GP so he doesn't end up with an emergency hospital admission.

I don't work due to respiratory issues.
It's a new normal. I loved going out for a meal and the pub. I won't be rushing.
I think I shall ever more carry hand gel and not be as tactile as I once was.
I have my two young people living with me. They are going to be the same because they are aware.

Be grateful that’s all that was worrying your life before now.

That’s exactly what people are doing.

You are incredibly unlucky if you have five people you know personally have died during lockdown and especially 3 suicides. I only know of one person in my entire life (50 yeas) that killed them selves and that was a friend of a friend I’d met once. And so yes, I do appreciate and love the fact everyone I know is fit and healthy.
Equally lockdown has good been great for some people’s mental health. Being paid to stay home is a dream for some. I for one appreciated the seven weeks I got.

Obviously facing redundancy is a nightmare. However I know multiple people who have found second jobs during lockdown and of my friends at least two have found better jobs.

So playing top trumps misery every time people say they’ve liked lockdown is unimaginative.

I really love rushing around. I love the after school club dash, the commute to work (to be fair my commute is a lovely country walk though!) And I love seeing my children and talking about what they've done that day rather than desparately wanting them to be in bed so I can get on with work.

The calmness other people describe by this 'opportunity to pause' is like quicksand to me.

@Bellesavage commute?
Define commute someone before I break my head

I've hated every second of it, I've felt suffocated and dictated to. Can't bloody wait for things to get back to the way they were..... starting tomorrow 🍾🍷

I am pretty quiet anyway, so the one thing lockdown has given me is peace from people asking me 'do you want to do x' and 'what did you do at the weekend'.

I am also thrilled that team aways days are over!

But overall, the freedom to just go to a place without thinking about it is a huge loss.

It sounds, OP, like you need to build back better just in your own life, and not let yourself get too busy again?

I think lockdown has shown the things we can do without. I worry the economy can't do without them though!!

Society is set up for us to live life running on a wheel. Just look at the big push to get everyone back out spending asap - I saw one poster sneering at someone who didn't feel safe going into a pub "do you just want to see the economy collapse?"

We are expected to be consumers all the time. It is good for the economy if we are all busy working, busy shopping, busy spending money at leisure activities, busy travelling, busy taking our children to 5 activities a week, busy buying things that we don't need or want... whether this is great for humans on an individual level is debatable.

During lockdown that's all stopped and some of us have realised that it doesn't leave a void. I've really appreciate the chance to slow down and have increased family time. However I am aware of my privilege: I live rurally with secure employment. For a lot of people though we need to return to spinning that wheel or they will go under.

I’m surprised how it’s taken a global pandemic and nationwide lockdown to make people see that they didn’t enjoy their lives much... did you not realise at the time?
I can’t wait to get back to my ‘normal’ life, because I’ve always worked hard to make sure our lives as a family were exactly how we wanted them. Too much rushing around? We stopped doing it. Focussed on the things that were a priority.
That’s why I get so pissed off at the sanctimonious ‘slow down and appreciate the birdsong’ type posts. I already did that.

I have enjoyed, and will miss

a) the absence of school running traffic, and the way people park on our street
b) the lack of traffic noise (already gone!)
c) the lack of aircraft noise
d) the lack of noisy parties (there has only been one so far this year, and it made me so grateful about all the other industurbed nughts)

The quietness has been really calming!

I much preferred my normal life and I want to get back to it ASAP.

@Drivingdownthe101

I’m surprised how it’s taken a global pandemic and nationwide lockdown to make people see that they didn’t enjoy their lives much... did you not realise at the time? I can’t wait to get back to my ‘normal’ life, because I’ve always worked hard to make sure our lives as a family were exactly how we wanted them. Too much rushing around? We stopped doing it. Focussed on the things that were a priority. That’s why I get so pissed off at the sanctimonious ‘slow down and appreciate the birdsong’ type posts. I already did that.

Your post about not liking sanctimonious posts was really sanctimonious

Nope happy for life to return to be honest. Human beings do not thrive by being holed up at home despite what they think. It's a temporary existence only.

How so? People on here are being made to feel guilty about wanting to get back to ‘normal’, it seems to be morally superior somehow to have realised the error of our consumerist ways and to have realised that all we need is nature birdsong.
Well bollocks to it. I enjoyed my life. I deliberately organised it so that I did. So yes, I want to get back to it.