What 'big' things have you missed out on because of Covid?

[Bridecilla]

Mine are:

*Our wedding last July
*Mam and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary party
*DPs 50th birthday mini break

I kept ds1 & ds2 away from me for longer than originally anticipated when I had ds3 in April. They stayed in their grandma house for lot longer than anticipated.

I had to ask dh not to visit ds3 in NICU because only one parent per day was allowed then and I wanted to see baby myself to help with establishing breastfeeding. Luckily dh agreed.

My uncle had heart surgery and we couldn’t visit his family or him.

Dsis 22 has an operation tomorrow and no one is allowed to visit her.

My grandmother "missed out on" her last rites before she died. A very painful reality.

Dh's 50th in April
My 50th in 3 weeks
Summer holiday
My best friend's wedding - postponed until April and then done with just them and 2 local witnesses in July (I live 90 miles away).

We're very glad we had our few days away for our 25th anniversary last December as it wouldn't be happening this year!

Nephew's wedding
Colleagues funeral (non-covid)

Any holidays at all since February

A full week plus a weekend folk festival.

My nephew’s wedding (postponed by a year)

Being there for my mother when she had a cardiac procedure

DS's GCSEs
DD's first uni hospital placement
Summer holiday abroad
Comedy gig (one of DS's Xmas presents from last Xmas)
Trips to see the in-laws

Being able to give my good friend a proper funeral / send off.

...usual birthdays.

Nans 100th birthday celebrations
Nieces 18th birthday celebrations
Holiday with girls I trained with to celebrate 20 years in nursing

March: holiday to Florida
April: weekend with family to celebrate My Grandmas 90th
May: week away with in laws for fil’s 70th
August: 2 weeks in Spain
September: re booked Florida trip

My god son's wedding (postponed 3 times and now the hotel has gone bust).
Probably the last family holiday away with my mum.
A girls' weekend at a spa - again, unlikely we will ever be able to get the six of us together again.

Taking DD to Disney for her birthday
Our much planning wedding anniversary trip away
And the wonderful run up to Christmas feeling in the shop where I work.

I'm a professional musician for context.

April:

• 2 week residency with my company in a beautiful southern Germany town
• 1 week trip to South Korea for a competition
• My first section leader appearance in the orchestra I'm training with
• Weekend tour to Austria

May:

• 1 week tour to Israel
• WW2 commemorative concert in Berlin with musicians from all the sides involved in the war
• 1 week European tour

June:

• My end-of-degree recital. Instead of celebrating with family and friends in a real hall, I filmed myself on my iPhone and submitted that...
• 1 week tour to Japan to perform at the pre-Olympic Festival

July:

• 2 week tour to China
• World event for my (niche) instrument which only happens every 5 years and for the first time since 2004 was being held in Europe which meant I could afford to attend.

I last saw my mum and my best friend at the beginning of July.

Since September, I've missed out on 8 weeks of normal work, plus a 3 week Canada tour and a competition event in Italy.

Next week I should have been packing for my graduation in London. Instead I'm ordering zoom links so my family can watch my name being screen-shared whilst I'm at home in pjs.

I have no work (or income) for the next 2 months, can't travel anywhere over Christmas unless I volunteer two weeks of my life to stay in quarantine, and the biggest project in my professional career to date, which was happening in February, has a 50/50 chance of being cancelled.

2020 has been great...

Spa weekend with my mum, taking dd3 over to UK to see my great aunt who hasnt met her yet, a trip to centerparcs in the summer with husband and kids, my sils hen and brothers wedding cancelled twice. No Xmas play for dd2, dd1 missed her school tour to dublin zoo. Xmas panto in the gaiety that we bring the kids to every year. 2 Gigs for dh, not getting to meet my friends new baby.

We've missed a couple of holidays but far more importantly, my teenagers have missed a huge chunk of their education.

My brother's wedding was meant to be abroad in August 2020 - postponed for a year but who knows if it'll happen.

I have a nearly-one year old, and so many of the things we were planning to do with him haven't gone ahead - groups, playdates, in fact I finished mat leave earlier than I planned because we were worried about DH's job so pretty much all of the mat leave I had planned. My brother was so excited about becoming an uncle and he's only met his nephew a handful of times.

My cousin passed away last week and I can't go to her funeral and more importantly my mum can't be there to support her brother, who was my cousin's carer and is in bits. He has Covid now, and he also has emphysema so we are all worried. He doesn't seem to have much of a will to live himself.

As a family we have missed

Meeting up with Australian relatives in the med in the summer
Dds prom
Dds GCSEs
Dds last school day
Jls concert
Killers concert
Holiday to Wales
Camping trip with friends
Dds 18th birthday celebrations
My 50th birthday celebrations
Sil 40th birthday celebrations

Plus just being with friends, freedom to do as we want

My nieces christening
My parents Ruby Wedding
Dd1 missed half her first year at school, so her first sports day, class assembly etc, and I cant see any of that happening this year either

I'm so sorry for everyone who missed major life celebrations and important events.
But shocked at the number of people who have missed multiple foreign holidays - don't you feel bad about the amount of C02 and other greenhouse gases that flying puts into the atmosphere?
I love holidays and flying but limit myself to once every two years. Also in normal times there are lots of lovely places to go nearer home...

Sorry I didn't mean that to be insensitive to people who had missed funerals and other really important events. I know this year has been incredibly tough. I was just surprised at the number of people having multiple foreign holidays.

Moving house and getting my daughter into our school of choice. Fell through due to Covid and now there is far too much demand and we are priced out. Too late now.

Various trips away but less bothered about that.

My big birthday party
Wedding in Amsterdam
Sisters country wedding
Festival
Various EU holiday
Sons big birthday party

Daughter's 18th and 21st.

Three weddings not ours. Mum and dad's 60th wedding anniversary and two proper funerals. Plus a cancelled and not rescheduled spinal operation for me.

Oh and one years salary from my newly opened business and not able to get any govt gelp whatsoever

Fortunately nothing unique/ life events.

No annual visit to ILs (another country)
Seen little of my own family & friends.
Annual weekend away at an event, and due to the timing, I'm not holding out for it going ahead in 2021.
No camping due to stupid toilet rules. We did manage a week in a caravan but kept it shorter due to restrictions on indoor activities.

It's just been the grind of no punctuation to the year and no confidence that things will happen until the last moment. No excitement of anticipation.
And all the little things like deciding the weather's rubbish so we'll gather the swimming kit and head out.

In a parrallel universe I'd be looking forwards to a big birthday, but there's no fucking point now and I'll be lucky if I can head to a pub in the middle of another muddy walk the way things are at present. No point in having actual plans to look forwards to.