How did lockdown affect you positively and negatively?

[SeasonallySnowyPeasant]

Aside from the obvious things that affected everyone, e.g. not seeing friends and family.

For me, the positives were:

• Enforced WFH meant no commuting, saving a shed load of money and stress;
• Having everyone WFH has changed my company leadership's attitude towards it completely, hooray!
• No social pressure to do anything so I feel a lot clearer about what I enjoy doing socially (things I missed) and what I don't (things I was relieved not to have to go to);
• Ditto with friends;
• I spent a lot more time with the kids;
• I spent weeks on end with my DP 24/7 and thoroughly enjoyed his company.

Negatives:

• Had to postpone my wedding and honeymoon;
• Had to postpone our family holiday;
• It was more challenging to start a new job;
• 10% temporary paycut;
• Homeschooling was stressful for everyone;
• All of us have put on weight, despite doing Joe Wicks every day;
• I've only had half a day's holiday since Christmas and that was to attend a funeral.

Positives

Got into a new routine
Stopped food shopping so many times a week.
Cleaned a tided all the house.
Restarted writing letters.
Started running.

Negatives

I was ill.

Negatives:
All of DH's organized work events he prepared for all through 2019 involving books and people meeting and talking - he's freelance - was cancelled and he is not in a line of work to get compensation.
Everything I enjoy that takes me out of the house and among people (local community events theatre, festivals, choirs, music, workshops, courses) was cancelled.
DMil could not end her days at home and is now in a care home - and she could not have visitors.

Positives: DS's (AS) school results improved slightly with online lessons.

I do not care for 'walking around shops', 'hugging relatives' or going on holiday.

... oops, too soon.
apart from that nothing changed

Positives:

Negatives:
Hated working from home
Put on weight.

That reminds me

Positives

DS school work improved as he wasn't "distracted but the teachers and other kids."
Saved money.

Negatives -
I lived in a flat with no garden. Hell.
I was furloughed so went weeks with no adult contact (single parent).
DS struggled to engage with school work and was in tears most days. He is an only child so went weeks without seeing other children and this has affected his confidence terribly. He was too shy to play on the park the other day as there were lots of children he didn't know.
I'm an extrovert and enjoy socialising with family and friends. Having this taken away was horrible.

Positives -
Nothing at all. It's been shit. Thank god that we can socialise again and roll on school starting in September so DS can get back to normal.

Negatives
Financially suffered as self employed and was not entitled to any grants only uc, been back at work 2 months and still struggling to catch up.

Nearly had a mental breakdown trying to source childcare or lose my clients

Positives
Moved into a new house just before lockdown so had LOTS of time to get it feeling like home.

Spent lots of time with the kids without dragging them around to get stuff done. Was nice to just stop and play and give them my attention. Something that will now become regular.

Managed to heal after a marriage breakdown and we actually got on quite well and became friends (that's gone out of the window since tho ... now back to reality!)

Had lots of time to give friends and family albeit virtually

Haven't felt poorly or run down since February

Got a nice tan

Another positive:

• We finally got round to redecorating the DC's bedrooms.

@Waxonwaxoff0 I'm an introvert and have appreciated having so much time to myself after the DC are in bed. I've read on here about how bad lockdown has been for mental health and tried to understand what it's been like for extroverts. I suppose it's similar to how I would feel after 3 months of conferences with built-in 'networking time' and unofficially mandatory late nights at the hotel bar .

@SeasonallySnowyPeasant it's definitely hard to see it from the other side. Whenever I read about people "enjoying a slower pace of life" in lockdown I just think UGH cos that's my nightmare! I'm sick of my own company and sick of staring at the same 4 walls.

I'm going back to work next week and I can't wait to be able to see and talk to other humans daily!

My positives were:

Slower pace of life and not really being bothered about late nights and lazy days.

Ds2 has totally changed personality, he's really calmed down and everyone has got along so much better in general.

Negatives...

Thought we'd save shit loads of money during lockdown but soon realised we spent a fortune on shopping so we're still skint 🤦‍♀️😂

Alllllllll the bloody meals and snacks and drinks, gah I'm sick of the sight of food! DD's fussy, ds2 is vegetarian, ds1 wants everything healthy, dh wants proper meals and I just don't care as long as it's chocolate, which brings be to my next negative...

Junk food - if there's no crisps/chocolate/snacks there's nothing in!

Very very little exercise but it hopefully won't be long before life is 100mph again and everything is "normal".

One thing spending so much time with the DC has done is shown me more of their strengths and weaknesses academically. It's one thing being told about it at parents evening but quite another to actually see it. It's good to know where to give the extra support when they go back to school and life starts speeding up again.

Positives:
I have got a few things done around the house, decorated because of having a week off with nothing else to do and could buy (much needed) furniture with what I saved in petrol.
An hour extra in bed because of wfh.
The dog has enjoyed having us home.
I quite like my children.
Negatives:
I’m fat and made mainly of gin.
It’s no wonder I am fat, I am always thinking about food, it’s the having to plan ahead and continually planning what to buy then what to cook and what to eat.
The rest of the house needs decorating to match.
Work is busy and wfh is not effective.
I don’t enjoy my own company.
As much as I am enjoying being allowed out, it’s such hard work.

Positives:

• Finally decorated 2 spare bedrooms and they look quite good.
• Garden looks less like a forest (we have flowers and everything. Grass much less patchy).
• Learnt to cook a couple of new dishes.
• Have kept the house ticking over while DH works. (Very 1950s but it has worked for us).
• Have enjoyed our daily lunchtime walks where we've discussed so much. Lucky to have each other.

Negatives: Parent in a care home. So much stress and sadness 😔

Furlough is now Furl-no. Become an unemployed statistic like so many others 😢
DM quick to criticize my lockdown weight gain then rings in the middle of my YT Dumbbell workout asking what the noise is 🤨🙄

Positives
Working from home
Things feeling slower, less pressure to do stuff, am an introvert with chronic health conditions so this is a massive stress for me usually.
Getting to know some neighbours a bit.
Being lucky to have a (rented) garden, started growing some veg and the weather was amazing for a few weeks.
Doing loads of sewing

Negatives
Catching covid and having weeks of being really ill.
A health treatment being delayed indefinitely due to covid..being skint due to having to pay privately instead.
Put on weight

Positives-
-Loved discovering new walks in my area and seeing how they changed with the seasons-I know much more about nature now
-getting the garden looking nice
-had some nice times playing with kids-rediscovering old toys and simple garden games
-learning to accept that we don’t have to be ‘doing stuff’ all the time to make the most of our lives (although am happy to now have the option to)
-i did actually appreciate a lot of the ‘in it together’ stuff even though it got taken too far by many! The first clap was very emotional and I liked seeing the rainbows in peoples windows. I quite liked the VE Day celebrations too.

Negatives:
-Dh and I both working from home but bulk of childcare and homeschooling and housework falling on me-awful
-Kids and I both really missed our friends.
-put on weight, drank too much, stayed up too late
-missed out on several trips and occasions we were looking forward to although we have been lucky not to lose too much money

Positives:

• gave up alcohol
• lost 7lbs
• have got a good argument for being allowed to work from home sometimes, as have more than proved it is possible
• home working and no commute gave me more hours in the day. I can do yoga in the morning and have a nice lunch in my garden. Better quality of life.

Negatives:

• Dont get to hang out with my mum in either of our houses (garden only as she is shielding)
• have lost the childcare my mum could provide
• can’t visit my dad who lives abroad, so trip to see him has been cancelled. He’s old and not that well, so it’s hard...
• my kids have turned bloody feral! 😆

Positives:

-dh no longer needing to commute

Negatives:

• DH being home all the time.
• a ruined relationship with my DD after trying and failing to be all things (mum,.teacher, friend)
• agonsing tooth pain, which I still.cant get fixed because no dentist will take me
• a toddler who has never been ill and desparately needs to exercise their immune system
• a toddler.who has never met another child apart from their older sister.

Positives

• Saved soooo much money. My monthly fuel bill for the car went down from £200 to £25. It's now back up a bit, but not to the full amount
• Figured out positives to going to work so now when I do go in I appreciate it more - change of scenery, having the drive home to decompress, lovely colleagues
• Once we were allowed to meet other people outside I messaged the mum of DD2s friend and we have been having weekly walks. With this I feel like I have got to know her better so might have made a new friend myself
• I can dance about while working cos no-one can see me at home.

Negatives

• People. Everyone getting a superiority complex and getting angry at everyone else.
• Not going to Butlins
• Not going to parkrun
• Not going to races (the running kind eg great north run etc)
• Getting into the habit now, but at first remembering the new rules like which way to go round the supermarket and keeping away from other people and trying not to touch items unless I was sure to buy them was a bit tiring at first (of course I knew why it needed to be done and understood the issues, but actually doing it and breaking from behaviours I never really thought about before took more thinking and work)

Negatives:

Elderly parents shielding so that I was unable to see them even when they had serious health crises (not Covid 19 related). My mother was admitted to hospital twice and I really feared that I would not see either of them alive again (thankfully I finally got to visit them last weekend).

I got made redundant and although the reason for that was not Covid 19 related either I have now ended up back in the job market at the age of 54. It is like groundhog day. Very few people are hiring. I'm the wrong age really and don't feel I have any real prospects at the moment.

Positives:

Lower fuel bills as I am hardly driving anywhere at the moment. Other than that, I am having difficulty seeing any at the moment.

I think with the lockdown, my anxiety has taken a massive step backwards.

I was just starting to go out and about by myself and now I have a panic attack taking the rubbish out.

I really hated homeschooling, I am a shit teacher and my son learnt more swear words than he should know.

Positives, I have spent a lot of time with DS and we finally sorted out the shit ton of lego we have

Positives.
As a workaholic I could stop.
Ate meals everyday.
Saw dh and DS more than I have in decades
Spent time chilling and exercising
Probably rebuilt my.relationship
Discovered I am in fact an introvert
Finally got dh to eat better and lose weight
Negatives.
Earnt20% less but didn't buy anything for weeks anyway
Worried about all 3 of us losing our jobs.

Positives
Loved working from home
Lot more relaxed and happy
Seeing kids more and spending more time with them
Saved loads of money on commute, parking, lunches out
Saved loads of money by not eating out in evening

Negatives
Having to listen to neighbours kids screaming all day
Medical appts delayed

Positives:
No 'fear of missing out' e.g. not feeling bad for not going out on a Saturday night or not having any holidays booked etc.

Enjoying the peace and quiet, nature, fresh air, dog walks.

Doing shopping and errands for shielding neighbours.

The first few weekly claps, very emotional.

Negatives:
DH and I were both unemployed at the start of this, things were just about looking up with interviews etc and then nothing. Now the job market is flat in his sector and I keep getting constant rejections

I was found to have high blood pressure towards the end of lockdown, probably had been there a long time undetected but lockdown and unemployment anxiety didn't help.

Worrying about if my pets would still be seen by their vet, thankfully my fears were unfounded as there was no problem with accessing veterinary care although some non essential work was on hold for a while.

Missing my family.

Realising I have no real friends

Positives:
More time with the kids

Negatives:
More time with the kids

Negatives:
Shielded my mum so well she's now in a psychiatric ward
Positives:
Fuck all