How can you do this to your children (and yourselves)?

[endoftheworldaoife]

It has been six months and it's now very clear that covid won't be doing away in our lifetimes. A vaccine won't eradicate it (just as a vaccine didn't eradicate flu).

Most of you seem to be willing to accept social distancing and masks for the foreseeable. And I don't get it. We are a tribal species. We literally die without contact and get sick without communication. Kids are learning arrange, stilted ways of being that will just worsen their digital reliance. OCD is being normalised. Dating will be neurotic and masked. Freshers won't make new loves or lifelong friends like we did. As for their working lives...

I wouldn't mind catching covid (indeed I'm sure we all will sooner or later) so can someone explain to me what on earth is happening in their heads to tip the balance? If it only affected us, I could understand (well, I couldn't but this feels like child abuse on a giant scale).

• @sunglassesonthetable I agree. I have't seen any of this shaming people or snitching on neighbours in real life.*

I've been on the receiving end of it a few times for not wearing a mask. It certainly does happen.

Don't know about reporting neighbours though. Most of them around here were not following the guidance/rules (whatever they were) from day one of the lockdown and no Police showed up, so I guess nobody reported anyone.

@endoftheworldaoife

Lindy, this is the mindset I don't understand. You have had your youth. You've made friends, fallen in love, had kids.

Why are you happy to prevent your children from doing the same? It's utterly selfish - of you!

I think you are catastrophising the impact of the rules. There is opportunity to do many things within limits. That’s a rule of life, in times of Covid or not. We don’t get to do what we want when we want all of the time.

The biggest complaint being voiced about the rule of six is that it stops GPs visiting their family. But that’s the actual point. The level of bleating would be off the scale if the government came right out and legislated that older people and young people shouldn’t be mixing in a domestic setting. It would stigmatise young people and isolate old people. Plus it would be impossible to draft the law.

People have expected their businesses, jobs and incomes to be protected for the past 6 months. The ask that they sacrifice some liberty in return isn’t so great. The new ask that we try to beat the disease whilst maintaining education and industry isn’t that great either. At best it’s dull.

This is all a form of control, by those who run the country. It has also been done, I believe to test us and will definitely be a case of survival of the fittest!
They need to reduce the population there is no doubt about that, and this is another way in which it will be done, there will be some of you who will no doubt shout me down, but I stand by what I say, as we are all entitled to an opinion.

@Redruby25 so your theory then is that leaders of all countries across the globe have conspired to engage in a mass lie to cull the population and increase their control?

@endoftheworldaoife
I can't see the point of saving people from death (a tiny number of people) by making life below worth living

Read that back to yourself !
Do you really think that? If a family member of yours caught it and was put on a ventilator , or left with life-long lung , heart , or other organs problems - how would you feel ?
If the NHS was put under a great strain because the numbers have ( are ) shooting up and your child suddenly had cancer and their wasn't the people to treat them - is that ok ?
If your grandparents, parents, neighbours , friends died of it - that's ok ?
Maybe the 41,000 + people that have died from it and fuck their families according to you , is fine .
You are one selfish woman and I'm sorry covid has disrupted your ' specialness ' but at your above comment , I can only shake my head at your ignorance .

well that's a huge proportion of a child's life. It's a small fraction if you are 45. And a tiny amount if you are over 70 ...

You’ve got this the wrong way round. It is a tiny proportion of the remainder of a child’s life, less so for 45 but a big impact for those over 70.

If you only had a few years left, spending 6 months locked down is a lot to lose.

Children will have decades to recover from this. Pensioners won’t.

There is no endpoint. Parliaments across the world have agreed to all these sweeping new powers and anyone standing up and saying they think it's all pretty undemocratic really that this is all just being waves through without challenge is being labelled as a covid-denier, covidiot, conspiracy theorist or a wacko

@SockYarn - so why do you think so many governments have introduced restrictions if not to try and keep the rate of infection at a manageable level? Do you think there is another reason?

I've been on the receiving end of it a few times for not wearing a mask. It certainly does happen.

Certainly not saying it doesn't happen.

Just that in my experience and of family and friends there is no "desperation " to snitch or chastise people that I see so much on here. In fact the opposite luckily.

The trend has been to be helpful and supportive.

@endoftheworldaoife
I can't see the point of saving people from death (a tiny number of people) by making life below worth living

Read that back to yourself !*

Yep. 😳 You see it all here.

@Redruby25

This is all a form of control, by those who run the country. It has also been done, I believe to test us and will definitely be a case of survival of the fittest! They need to reduce the population there is no doubt about that, and this is another way in which it will be done, there will be some of you who will no doubt shout me down, but I stand by what I say, as we are all entitled to an opinion.

This post makes no sense at all. If the government wanted to reduce the population, it wouldn't bother with all the restrictions - letting the virus run free would be the perfect way to cull the population.

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel

I don't restrict my DS life - he sees his friends, we do outdoor activities, he goes to the one club that is open here. He's eyesight is quite poor / complex and he cannot function well when his glasses steam up - he trips, has accidents and certainly couldn't go skating. He is 6 - your daughter is clearly older.

Please stop comparing other people experience's with your / or your DD experience. One isn't a problem for one person may be an issue for someone else. Please try to have some empathy.
You have very well indicated my point that people are quick to minimise the impact on others (especially children and YP)

Get a grip!!!!!
Theres lots of ways to have fun and enjoyment in life, whilst following the rules

@PhilCornwall1 and that is their choice.

@MintyMabel
I politely disagree. My parents are early 70s - they think they have had a good life and would much prefer that decisions are made to support DGC and improve children's lives rather than prolong their own

[quote SteeperThanHell]@cocopops in a normal flu season we would all be vaccinated - this is not flu.[/quote]
Appreciate it’s not flu but my point is take the flu vaccine, take the extra care that I would expect someone vulnerable to take during a flu season (and let’s not forget the years where flu killed more than Covid that everyone conveniently, seems to forget) and let the rest of society get on with living.

Otherwise, the mental health and economic impact WILL have a devastating impact on them- and who is to say someone being made homeless because they’ve lost their job and home due to C-19 measures is less worthy than the “vulnerable“. Who is to say the impact on a 12 year old child of his father taking his own life due to losing a business he has built up over his entire lifetime as a result of lockdown/continued government restrictions is any less devastating than a person with an underlying health condition getting Covid? Or the person who dies unnecessarily as their cancer treatment was cancelled?

@endoftheworldaoife

Re the vaccines likely by next winter (not before)

The Oxford vaccine won't stop you catching or spreading it, it just lightens symptoms

It doesn't work well on the over 55s (who are the ones with the dangerous symptoms)

About half of Brits don't want to take it anyway because it's so rushed

Living in hope of a vaccine is the act of someone who doesn't fully appreciate that we're not in a blockbuster film and Dustin Hoffman isn't around the corner

Why are you deliberately spreading false information? The oxford vaccine is hopefully going to be ready early 2021. Where have you read that it is less effective in over 55s? I have never heard this, and as it is still bein developed, I don't know how anyone could even know this information.

Every generations view of what is normal is different. Your view e.g. of freshers did not happen for your grandparents as most education was restricted and man and women generally stayed in separate dorms. The world is changing and there will be good things and bad things. Connections may become stronger and more valued as people have fewer of them. You are choosing to have a pessimistic and entitled view of the world, but is perfectly possible in 5 years that things will have balanced out and there will be benefits for people, the environment and how well we take care of each other.

and let’s not forget the years where flu killed more than Covid that everyone conveniently, seems to forget) and let the rest of society get on with living.

@cocopops it is not true that flu kills more than covid.

fullfact.org/health/flu-covid-deaths/

@Redruby25

This is all a form of control, by those who run the country. It has also been done, I believe to test us and will definitely be a case of survival of the fittest! They need to reduce the population there is no doubt about that, and this is another way in which it will be done, there will be some of you who will no doubt shout me down, but I stand by what I say, as we are all entitled to an opinion.

Your last sentence there betrays the fact that, somewhere in there, you know you're slipping into tinfoil hat spouting utter bollocks territory.

Try to bring yourself back from the brink while you still can.

However, I support a young lady with one lung so while everyone else is getting back to normal she's one of the few that needs to be very careful and the people around her need to be very careful

There are c,2m Clinically Extremely People and c.7m Vulnerable..

Not a “a few”

[quote AntiHop]and let’s not forget the years where flu killed more than Covid that everyone conveniently, seems to forget) and let the rest of society get on with living.

@cocopops it is not true that flu kills more than covid.

fullfact.org/health/flu-covid-deaths/[/quote]
I never said or implied that. My point was flu kills a lot of people each year and in certain years (was it 69’?) killed helluva lot of folk. We didn’t have this mass hysteria then.....

[quote IwishIwasyoda]@IncludeWomenInTheSequel

I don't restrict my DS life - he sees his friends, we do outdoor activities, he goes to the one club that is open here. He's eyesight is quite poor / complex and he cannot function well when his glasses steam up - he trips, has accidents and certainly couldn't go skating. He is 6 - your daughter is clearly older.

Please stop comparing other people experience's with your / or your DD experience. One isn't a problem for one person may be an issue for someone else. Please try to have some empathy.
You have very well indicated my point that people are quick to minimise the impact on others (especially children and YP)[/quote]
Fine, it's clearly harder for your son than my daughter (although to be fair she has complexities herself that she's dealing with, and that I try to mitigate against by exposing her to normal active life where I can).

Wow, when did we become a world of snowflakes? My grandparents lived in London in the Blitz, my parents were evacuated to the countryside to escape the bombs, my son was born in a cat 5 hurricane and I coped without support in a devastated island and went back to work when he was 4 months old. And, guess what, we all learned from hardship. My 4 kids are going to be Just Fine (and one of them is year 11 so don't worry - we aren't sailing through untouched) because there will be treatments, vaccines and different ways of living. All you MNs who are blithely ignoring the rule of 6, shame on you. Do you want to jeopardise your kids schooling and your jobs for socialising? Make some sacrifices and grow some balls.

"This isn't difficult, it's beyond anything our species has ever had to endure."

OP, our species has never had it so good. Many of us are able to keep working and contacting others because of the Internet. We have clean, modern hospitals that are staffed with highly educated people.
Past pandemics will have seen entire families die, leaving children orphaned. With no social care safety net this could mean penury, the poorhouse, slavery or starvation. I'm not saying this hasn't been hard for everyone and traumatic or tragic for some but put it into perspective please. We're so f*ing entitled we don't even know we're born. This will pass, we'll all adapt, life as we know it might be changed but not necessarily ruined. Get a grip.

It's difficult and I'm on the fence because none of us know really how this will play out year on year. I wouldn't say it's selfish, it's hard to know what is best for your own family and children.

My children socialise but I'm select about who with, and although at school i do panic they could bring covid home to my older mother or even myself bmi over 30.
The rule of 6 is a pile of cow dung though and i won't be putting my family through it as we are already a family of 6 so it's unfair we can't bloody see anyone. Being a single parent I'm not going to put myself through loneliness for a disease i may never get but yes i do worry