What is your hardest sacrifice during the pandemic?

[Lockdowner35]

Apart from seeing family I would say going to the cafe and going to the football

No socialising in general , miss friends , the kids seeing friends, going for meals , days out etc
I don't like my own company so normally always pop round friends/ family or they pop in to me etc

@Funkypolar

Not being able to go dogging.

Just for me, not sacrifices I see for my 3 kids...

No time to myself - can’t get through more than 5 mins without a child wanting help with home school or something to eat..might be insane by the end of 6wks+ of ‘Muuuum’

Tennis - I’d feel less aggrieved about this if I believed there was any risk attached to being outside and usually 20m away from my opponent!

My only child’s education, mental health and well-being. It’s currently illegal for her to meet another child in person (kids included in the rule of 2 people meeting outdoors) and I am eaten up with guilt about what the long-term effects will be.

Can't hug my pregnant daughter.
Can't hug my grandchildren.

Should add that I know I am incredibly lucky if these are my biggest sacrifices, they are the things I feel the absence of the most - for so many people things are truly awful.

Ironically - not having any time to myself. Three teens/young adults in the house the whole time.

Being spontaneous.

Watching dd3 do her sport

Taking dd2 to see universities

Seeing my friends

Live music and social nights out with friends getting drunk and laughing.

I miss hotels and going for mini breaks / holidays
Planning something a month in advance and knowing it will happen
I don't miss dating but I miss the opportunity to go on dates

Miss choir that's the biggest thing I missed at Christmas the Carol concerts etc

For myself,

The cinema (and just new movies in general).

Being able to meet up with my friend in the warmth with a coffee rather than on another frigging freezing cold, muddy walk.

Parkrun.

For my kids,

The usual socialising with friends in person and school experience.

My son is a talented runner and would have been top of his age group last year. Gutted he had to miss out on so many cancelled races. He’s still training but finds it hard without the motivation of races to work towards.

My children's education.

Oh and holidays abroad of course!!

Not seeing my mum and sister in Ireland

I miss taking the kids places like the science museum or to a cafe for a piece of cake. I feel bad them being stuck in all the time. We're all bored of the same parks.

Not going to family funerals and watching them over zoom

My freedom
Bloody hate it

And being treated like a 2 year old

Soft plays

For my kids - the loss of their extra curricular stuff, and the sorts of days out we used to be able to have. Even when we got a lot of that back over the summer it was harder work than it used to be, so I was grateful but still missed the old ways.

For me - seeing people inside. Hugs. Live music.

I’m also really saddened at how furious and divisive the world seems to have got, but that’s not quite the question being asked here I think.

My children’s education, in particular my DD’s GCSE’s.

Holidays and travel are a huge part of my life in normal times. The last trip I took was to Bavaria in February. I have been outside a 25 mile radius of home precisely once since. I have almost forgotten what it’s like to leave the country.

DD university education
DS coping skills (AS)
DH work
low cost community events (amateur theatre, music, singing groups, workshops)
football
visiting archives

Being able to plan stuff, even small things, like a coffee shop with a friend, or a haircut, and knowing that they will happen. Also going to actual work instead of my kitchen, then at lunchtime having a wander round the shops, and picking up a nice sandwich, or testing some perfume in John Lewis.

The fact I’m likely to have to give birth alone while DH stays at home with our DD 😞 we’ve got no childcare because both sets of grandparents are CEV and we don’t want to risk them 😕

Not being able to go on holiday

The absolute waste of my maternity leave and the disappointment I feel when I think of what it would have been like had my little girl been born in a different year. We have tried to make the best of it and thankfully had a couple of months of sort of normality in summer/autumn thanks to being in tier 1 but it’s tough at the moment and it’s looking like I will be returning to work just as we get some normality back, the guilt I will feel if we have a second child in normal times and what my first had missed out on will be really tough I think. I also really miss travel and had really hoped to be able to get a few holidays in outside of the UK before I go back to work . Trivial things to some but very important to me.