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Original poster

If this takes five years

153 replies

alfieum · 10/02/2021 12:43

I keep seeing people saying they are happy to wait as long as it takes. Are there really people on here who would live like this for two, five, ten years?

OP posts:
SprogletsMum · 10/02/2021 12:45

Not a chance. This is too much now. If the kids don't go back to school on 8th March I'm taking up the key worker spaces that they could have.

Manteo · 10/02/2021 12:46

@SprogletsMum my daughter (only child) has been off for a month and I've just sent her back this week on a keyworker place.

RedskyBynight · 10/02/2021 12:48

There is a distinction between "happy" as in "I'll do it because it's necessary and the right thing" and "happy" as in "ecstatically pleased about".

Example - parents being happy to change their child's nappy :)

I don't want the restrictions to be in place for a second more than they need to be, but will I put up with them for a couple of years if they need to be in place for public health reasons? Yes, of course. It's not actually possible to break that many restrictions anyway (aside from meeting family/friends). I can want to go to my workplace and the gym as much as I like; they are still remaining stubbornly closed.

borntohula · 10/02/2021 12:48

No way 😅

SmidgenofaPigeon · 10/02/2021 12:49

Oh think the people who say things like that must be looking at it from a pretty privileged vantage point, or possibly they were never much interested in living a full life beforehand... or perhaps older retired people who don’t have a lot of family and are happy pottering around their locality and taking holidays close to home. My friend on furlough then maternity leave who is loving being totally wrapped up in the cocoon of her new baby/staying inside and going to the shops once a week says crap like this all the time, I had to hide her on Facebook as it was supremely self-absorbed and irritating.

I don’t understand how many people can truly sit there and say they’d be happy to do this ‘for as long as it takes’.

TheKeatingFive · 10/02/2021 12:50

I presume anyone saying yes to this doesn’t have older relatives they’re close to. 5 years is a lot of time to not see people in their 70s.

For me, no way.

CrotchetyQuaver · 10/02/2021 12:51

I don't think it will take 5 years? The stats show the numbers are thankfully coming down, meanwhile the vaccination programme is going well. I am hopeful that we will be back to some semblance of "normal life" by September. Perhaps with overseas travel restrictions to "unsafe" countries. I'm just hanging on in there currently and think a lot of others are as well.

o8O8O8o · 10/02/2021 12:54

I'm not happy about waiting for as long as it takes, but what choice do we have?
I can't break into all the businesses that are closed and demand that they serve me so that I can do the things I used to enjoy before the pandemic 🤷‍♀️

vera99 · 10/02/2021 12:54

Trust me it won't if man could go to the moon in 1969 this should be a walk in the park metaphorically. Socially distanced and without sitting on a bench with a takeaway coffee in year 2 obviously.

Original poster
alfieum · 10/02/2021 12:55

CrotchetyQuaver I don't think it will be five years either, god I am clinging to some normality after the vaccines. But I keep seeing on threads here people saying 'as long as it takes' and such like. Just wondering what that time line is for people.

OP posts:
TheKeatingFive · 10/02/2021 12:55

I can't break into all the businesses that are closed and demand that they serve me so that I can do the things I used to enjoy before the pandemic

You can start seeing family and friends, surely that’s obvious.

IcedPurple · 10/02/2021 12:56

@alfieum

I keep seeing people saying they are happy to wait as long as it takes. Are there really people on here who would live like this for two, five, ten years?
Tell them furlough is ending or their once secure job is threatened by long-term lockdown, and see how many of these people will shrug their shoulders and smugly say 'as long as it takes'.
YouDoNotHaveTheAuthority · 10/02/2021 12:56

No.

They're asking people to sacrifice a lot.

As a Single women in my 30s, I'm not prepare to let my fertile years disappear in lockdowns. I and friends in similar circumstances are prepared to wait until the summer.

TheKeatingFive · 10/02/2021 12:57

But I keep seeing on threads here people saying 'as long as it takes' and such like. Just wondering what that time line is for people.

I don’t think they’ve thought it through tbh. It’s just a line they’re trotting out.

If they really thought about what 5 years of this would do to their industry, public services, their children’s education, the state of the NHS, I doubt theyd come to the same conclusion.

Delatron · 10/02/2021 12:59

Life is very short isn’t it. Do we think people are happy not to socialise and see family and friends for years? I think not.

Grandparents not seeing their grandchildren grow up and change. Especially when they don’t know how long they’ve got left?

I think most people would take their chance with the virus/the police!

Do we think businesses can stay shut for years? Nope.

TiredAndBonkers · 10/02/2021 12:59

It's selfish, privileged people saying that. Not necessarily privileged in the standard sense, but in ways like not living alone, having a partner, having children, having a secure job/home. They can't see that people without these things are disproportionately being made to suffer, and miss out, forever for many things (I can't be the only single woman with a loudly ticking biological clock).
It's horrendous because we don't have an established way of recognising these new forms of privilege or fighting to make things fairer.

MarshaBradyo · 10/02/2021 12:59

No

Original poster
alfieum · 10/02/2021 13:00

Replies so far are very heartening.

OP posts:
MarshaBradyo · 10/02/2021 13:01

*Tell them furlough is ending or their once secure job is threatened by long-term lockdown, and see how many of these people will shrug their shoulders and smugly say 'as long as it takes'.

Yep realising you’ll be one to take a financial hit generally works.

TiredAndBonkers · 10/02/2021 13:01

@YouDoNotHaveTheAuthority

No.

They're asking people to sacrifice a lot.

As a Single women in my 30s, I'm not prepare to let my fertile years disappear in lockdowns. I and friends in similar circumstances are prepared to wait until the summer.

X-post. I've been wondering about sperm donation to have a family. I bet the lockdown lovers will be the same people passing judgemental comments about that!
IcedPurple · 10/02/2021 13:02

@TiredAndBonkers

It's selfish, privileged people saying that. Not necessarily privileged in the standard sense, but in ways like not living alone, having a partner, having children, having a secure job/home. They can't see that people without these things are disproportionately being made to suffer, and miss out, forever for many things (I can't be the only single woman with a loudly ticking biological clock). It's horrendous because we don't have an established way of recognising these new forms of privilege or fighting to make things fairer.
Yes a lot of MNers have their lives all figured out, or so they think. Secure (they hope!) job, naice house in which to WFH (so productively!), a partner and children. They don't understand how lockdown affects those many who have none of the above. Hence the 'as long as it takes' smuggery.
loulouljh · 10/02/2021 13:04

I really really wouldn't..nor would I expect anyone else to do so. Madness..

borntohula · 10/02/2021 13:04

@TheKeatingFive

I presume anyone saying yes to this doesn’t have older relatives they’re close to. 5 years is a lot of time to not see people in their 70s.

For me, no way.

Or relatives who are ill.
o8O8O8o · 10/02/2021 13:09

you can start seeing family and friends
I have no desire to see family or friends ...I'm glad of the opportunity to dump them all 🤭
I want to get back into the gym, I want everyone else to go back to doing the things they like doing so that my running and cycling routes are free of people!!

AuntieStella · 10/02/2021 13:10

@RedskyBynight

There is a distinction between "happy" as in "I'll do it because it's necessary and the right thing" and "happy" as in "ecstatically pleased about".

Example - parents being happy to change their child's nappy :)

I don't want the restrictions to be in place for a second more than they need to be, but will I put up with them for a couple of years if they need to be in place for public health reasons? Yes, of course. It's not actually possible to break that many restrictions anyway (aside from meeting family/friends). I can want to go to my workplace and the gym as much as I like; they are still remaining stubbornly closed.

Agree

I am happy to have restrictions for as long as it takes, provided there is, as now, of scientific evidence (emerging) and explanations of policy, and also noting what other countries are doing.

That not glad, ecstatic, salivating or whatever the epithet of the day is.

It's doubt what's necessary for the common good. And right now that means restrictions until hospitals (esp ICUs) are no longer so very full, and if new variants arise, restrictions until the vaccine is updated and re-administered.

Also strict quarantine until enough of the world is vaccinated that everywhere is low rate. Happy as in glad about that, no. Happy in that life will be better if at least slow the arrival of new non-indigenous variants, then yes