People saying ‘we’ve had a year of this’ - what did you do last summer?

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

I keep seeing people saying things like “my child hasn’t played with anyone else in a year” or “I’ve not seen any friends in a year”. I know some people have been shielding or live in areas that have had tougher restrictions for longer...but if not, what were you doing last summer?

I think I’ve been fairly cautious but we still managed holidays/trips away in the UK, lots of (socially distanced) meet ups with friends and family and my children saw lots of their friends. We’ve been to museums, meals out, swimming etc. Other than children not social distancing with each other I don’t we broke any rules. It certainly wasn’t a normal summer but in comparison with the current (really miserable) lockdown things were pretty decent.

Lots of people I know were regularly in bars, making cinema trips, foreign holidays and taking the children soft play (i drew the line well before it got to soft play myself!)

Are people forgetting what actually happened or did some people remain in voluntary lockdown all year?

I'm in England I'm diabetic & over 50 - and overweight, so I Stayed Home. I sat in one friends garden for a couple of hours (took my own drink) & that was that, apart from walking a bit

No haven't 'forgotten'.

If that's your idea of cautious I'd hate to see your version of threw caution to the wind

Sat at a distance in a friend's garden, had my sister here to sit distanced in mine and enjoy a cuppa and company.
Ate out with a friend a couple of times and with the family once.
Went to Devon for a cottage holiday, keeping well away from the crowds but enjoying the private beach and harbour walks on the private site.

Ate out there (booked before we went away). Limited menu but good covid measures in place and felt very safe.

Spent the summer holidays decorating as we could once again buy non essentials.

Was even able to eat out a little after the summer was over in a group of 4 as that was the rule then.

All our family live too far away for day trips. Parents vulnerable so staying with them seemed too risky and I think the official rules were you had to remain socially distanced indoors? Local accommodation all booked out so couldn't stay nearby.
We had some nice day trips and picnics. Didn't do much eating in restaurants but then we don't normally due to dietary issues. It wasn't the worst summer ever, but I really want to see family again.

@AmelieTaylor

I'm in England I'm diabetic & over 50 - and overweight, so I Stayed Home. I sat in one friends garden for a couple of hours (took my own drink) & that was that, apart from walking a bit

No haven't 'forgotten'.

If that's your idea of cautious I'd hate to see your version of threw caution to the wind

Is Staying Home different to staying home?

Well, I had a trip out to my mum's funeral. But apart from that, not much to do in Greater Manchester. And I was so scared of passing a virus on unknowingly to an elderly relative or my child with ASD I thought it best to Stay At Home for the approx 3 weeks when we didn't have quite as many restrictions.
Yes, I'm bitter.

We went away in uk and see my parents weekly in summer and other relatives
We spent a lot of time at beach as live nearby and ate out a lot
We didn't break any rules doing this and we were careful sd etc

Luckily we lived in an area with low infections and restrictions were lessened for a bit, not the case for some though
And although we did things nothing was normal and all took a bit of planning and being cautious

Well that's because it has basically been a year with a couple of months of carefully seeing each other mostly outside over the summer. Sounds like you are part of the problem OP.

@Mousehole10

Well you’ve just said it yourself, you broke a pretty big guideline. Social distancing was needed so those who actually followed them, no their kids haven’t played with others all year.

We were lucky that our children were in the first cohort back in schools in June and parents were by and large pragmatic that there was little point enforcing distancing within their class bubbles outside the school gates.

Outside of school group bubbles I did encourage my DC to keep their distance from others but not to the point of stopping them playing in the vicinity of other kids in the park etc.

It was the rule of six that killed summer for us and for anyone with 4 or more in their household I should imagine. Plus we expect our children to SD which can be v difficult in places like playgrounds and softplay - even more so when other parents don’t. Sours the experience somewhat.

Last summer my father in law was taken into hospital so we had to juggle working and caring for mother in law with dementia. She spent most of the time at our house so we were all careful.

Then straight afterwards dh caught shingles and was very poorly with it so we all stayed indoors again as much as possible.

Last summer I
-ate out a few times with my DP
-went on two 2 night trips away, one to a place 15 minutes from home
-went to a couple of museums on those trips away
-visited one friend twice, socially distanced
-went for a couple of socially distanced walks with another friend

Family were under different rules and too far away to travel for an outside visit. Other friends either too far away, or not possible/practical to have a distanced visit. My main interests involve big crowds and mass gatherings so they didn't happen last summer.
Yes it was was better than the current lockdown but it was a million miles away from my normal.

I think you have to remember that people were still very cautious for much of the summer and had kids at home. I was lucky in that I got my 4yo into summer camp but our nursery didn’t open until September so I had my younger one at home for 6 months. Many people were juggling work and school over summer.

I’d say September into October was our most normal. We had both children in school/childcare. They were doing activities. Fun was allowed, we went to the pub etc.but... we all got covid by the end of October. Having that degree of normality did bring more risk despite following the rules.

My 6 year-old has autism and pica, my 7 year old and I are CV. So no, we didn't go anywhere outside the house and garden all summer apart from one socially distanced visit to pil's house. Dc went to school September to December but there was no clubs or playing with children from different classes.
I'm desperate to be able to safely take my dc somewhere fun.

In Leicester so couldn't mix indoors at any point. We had a brief period when it was relaxed slightly so we could meet in gardens (rule of 6) before it went back to not even being allowed to socialise there either.

I've not had anyone in my house since march last year - not big enough to social distance in and I doubt most people's are so technically speaking a lot of people did break the rules when the rule of 6 was in. Likewise with eating out /drinking with friends - people were still meant to social distance from anyone not in their household but everyone seemed to turn a blind eye to that!
Yep. This is exactly why nobody has visited me apart from my support bubble DP. I did visit a friend in her home, and we did social distance (one of me, 4 of them) and while manageable it made for a weird, slightly awkward and not normal visit. Not been to a bar, pub or restaurant with anyone other than my DP because of the impossibility of social distancing.

Wfh, eat out to help out once a week.
A 3 night trip to Newcastle. Heavy use of eat out to help out for breakfast in Premier Inn and spoons. (deliberately travelled Monday to Wednesday).
Didn't get proper break until Oct half term, lovely UK cottage with pissy weather.

Some of us actually lost our jobs so there were certainly no holiday or trips or eating out anywhere.

Shielding, because if I get it I might die.

Glad you've had fun though

We ate out twice in the whole of last summer but we did manage one night away in a hotel. Ds1 has been working at home for a year now, today he was abused verbally by a colleague who would never have dared to behave like that in the office but on zoom there’s no one to see you so people are getting away with murder. He is very down . Ds2 went out twice in the whole summer and ds3 managed time away with his mates but they all isolated for 10 days first .

My PIL haven’t been in our house since last March and my parents haven’t left their village for a year . They have deteriorated and are now much much less independent .We are all tired and worn down frankly I think all our mental health is fragile except perhaps dh .

@Pinkcanoftan

Well that's because it has basically been a year with a couple of months of carefully seeing each other mostly outside over the summer. Sounds like you are part of the problem OP.

Acknowledging that some areas of the country have had it much much worse, the national restrictions in England gave us 5 months (June through October) in which some degree of household mixing was permitted.

@Fridget

The lockdown people on Leicester have stayed in for a year hasn’t been voluntary

Just came in to say this, we were in lockdown all summer, no household mixing indoor or private gardens, could meet in parks socially distanced and that was it.

We have enjoyed a grand total of 3 weeks in October when we went to Tier 3 and we're allowed to have people round to the garden, then back to lockdown, tier 4 and lockdown again.

Didn't do anything. We would normally have gone to farm parks, plant nurseries, the fish shop, to look at fish in aquariums, the odd coffee at a supermarket (not the most riveting stuff but at least something) and a holiday in a holiday cottage. Haven't even been inside a supermarket since March last year.

I was in lockdown in a country where the lockdown was a lot more brutal than the one we are currently having. So a year in lockdown.

@KnobblyWand

Shielding, because if I get it I might die.

Glad you've had fun though

I did acknowledge shielding in my OP. It must be very very hard.