Which specific moment from this will stay with you forever?

[RosieLemonade]

Positive or negative.

Actually, I'm still playing the 'fake it to make it' game.

@JustCheesz

DD going abroad on a school trip in February 2020.

At the parents information evening, one mum asked if we should be concerned about travelling because of the virus. Everyone else rolled their eyes at someone being 'that' parent!

Looking back, I can't believe the trip went ahead.

Similar experience, DDs school ski trip was curtailed they left half a day early as they fled before borders shut. I was so happy to have her home. It started to feel real then.

The struggle to get my DH back from abroad. I asked him to come home about a week before we locked down here but he said he couldn't. Eventually his company saw sense and they arrived at the airport as the country he was in was closing the borders. He only managed to get back by staging a sit in at the BA desk with his colleagues.

I was terrified he'd catch Covid on at Heathrow. He had no concept of how bad things were getting in Europe. I made him undress on a bin liner in the hall so I could out his clothes straight in the wash while he showered.

I remember DD sobbing and sobbing when she heard her brother in yr1 would go back to school in June but she wouldn't.

The horrible feeling around the time of the first lockdown where I just had this overwhelming sense that I needed my babies at home with me where I could keep them safe. One lives with dad and one has left home, I only have one here with me, plus my stepkids, and I just felt very out of control.

I text my ex husband and told him that if the shit hit the fan with food shortages and riots I wanted DD here with me and not there being cared for by his partner. No disrespect to her, but she has her own child and I knew she’d put her first and I wanted my babies home.

He just ignored me. 😢

Walking through the park on the way to my night shift in ICU towards the end of the first lockdown and seeing it absolutely packed full of people, families, children all sitting together with no social distancing and knowing what I was going into work to do.

My year 6 son, going to school on the last day when the schools closed (March 20th) . He turned to me and said “my children and grandchildren will learn about this in history at school won’t they”. It just felt so momentous. And also very sad.

Negative: Watching the hospital scenes in Italy back in March just after lockdown with the coffins piling up whilst beginning to recover from what may well have been Covid (ten weeks of coughing, fatigue, pleurisy, nausea and fever) and thinking “what if that is what’s going to happen here?”.

Positive: getting my jab in a deserted vaccination centre last Sunday night (all special school staff in my county are eligible).

Bad-the day the schools finish. My youngest wasn't in nursery that day but they confirmed that they were closing in line with the schools so I knew she wouldn't be back for ages (and feared the nursery might not even survive), cried for ages and sent DH to pick oldest up from school as I knew I'd just cry.

Good-seeing my parents who live 3.5hrs away in June. Did a day trip and spent the afternoon in their garden and a walk and watched DD 6 hold my mums hand knowing really she shouldn't be and should keep her distance but it made everyone so happy. Drive thru McDonalds for dinner on the way home!

I think this thread while really poignant with some very sad memories of this crisis is also really a testament to what we have all been through. It has made me aware that are still in the eye of the storm. It is exhausting as a parent not just to be homeschooling but to keep being positive and to keep things as 'normal' as possible for our families while also supporting family, friends, colleagues throughout all of this. to us all and to better days.

Not a 'moment', but an observation > Jeremy Vine on his C5 weekday show seeming to relish in the crisis, and ramping up fear all the time. Prior to the pandamic I loved watching the show, and hearing various viewpoints about current issues. I previously used to enjoy that slot under Matthew Wright, and thought Jeremy Vine was a good replacement. Now, it seems he's using this timeslot to promote his personal opinions about constraining human behaviour - not only about covid-19; but how he can use it to promote other issues that are important for him.

My take from this period is how some have been able to profit financially on the back of a pandemic (I'm not including Jeremy Vine in this), and others have massively suffered. The only positive I can take from the period is that it's people who don't benefit financially are putting themselves out there all the time to help others.

I'd totally forgotten about the heat. After child went back to school in June, I was teaching from the kitchen table. Patio doors open but blinds flapping in warm breeze, completely stuck into the Anglo-Saxons.

Oh god loads.

Going to a toddler class mid Feb and they wouldn't let the kids touch the equipment, made us sanitise at the door etc. To think i thought that wouldn't be as bad as it got!

Traipsing round supermarkets to find CMPA toddler DD some soya milk, as they didn't put a limit on how many people could buy and so people bought tonnes as its long life. Very annoying.

Yes to Boris going into intensive care. I remember saying to DH i hate the man but i don't want him to DIE.

On a more personal level DH going abroad to set up our new life and them closing the borders 4 hours before DD and i were meant to fly and join him. We are still stranded here in the UK. As soon as i took that call i knew we'd be apart for a good while and my heart just broke.

Empty shelves and my managers not turning up for work..... And not advising us.

The day the schools went back in September. I’m a childminder and drop off younger children, but my own dc go to high school. I’d seen them go out to school as ‘normal’ for the first time in months (and that had made me cry, as I was so worried) they leave earlier than me. As I went round a corner, I could see down the hill To there school and they were all in lines, being walked down the other side of the hill in to the building. It floored me completely and I had to stop to catch my breath. It reminded me so much of the last Harry Potter film, where Snape is marching the students in to A Very kdark hogwarts.

As I lined up outside the Primary school with the children I look after, I cried again. I was so concerned about all these dc who had missed so much and were going back in to a school, where they wouldn’t be hugged if they were sad, where any contact would be from behind ppe, where the risk of the virus was now very real after months of being so careful.

My mum and dad getting shielding texts telling them to eat separately , sleep separately, and pack a hospital bag.

And that they could open a window but "do not leave your home."

Two moments stick out for me.

I'd been reading the news about the virus spreading worldwide and a possible pandemic for a while but hadn't really got worried. But I remember I was reading a thread about it all on a different forum when somebody abruptly said, 'Shit just got real' and it hit me. I'm not an emotional type but I did have a wee cry to myself.

And the other was the elation when the vaccine was announced.

Standing watching my beautiful friend go to her final resting place, unable to go to her ceremony. Just heartbreaking.

Worst - BJ's first announcement and fear of food shortages

Best - hearing the birds/less traffic (first lockdown) and spending time with my family - a slower pace of life!

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Sitting down to write to my MP and using photos of Dominic Cummings' face as he was leaving the Rose Garden, and the coffin of the 13 year old boy who died alone, being lowered into a grave by people in hazmat gear. One of them wanted childcare, the other hadn't been able to have his mum or dad with him when he died. They weren't even able to go to his funeral.

It's the only time in my life I've felt moved (incensed) enough to write to my (Conservative) M.P., needless to say it made not the slightest difference. I do know however that 'Dominic Cummings' will be my stock response should any future Tory hopeful ever bother to rattle my door knocker. If they wish to challenge me further, I shall simply shout 'A-level confusion f**k up' at them loudly enough to rupture their eardrums, and no, I will never be able to get past how utterly soul destroying those few weeks were in this household.

That day in February when one of the midwives I work with (I am an NHS interpreter) told me that they were very, very afraid for their ladies and the babies and that it would be very, very tough for a long time.

That day in March when I took DC2 home from school for the last time before summer - DC1 was already home, worried he would never be at his school before finishing primary school - and he was right

That day when I interpreted (over the phone) for a poor lady who was begging the ICU doctor not to call her about her son in the next few hours, as she knew that this next call would be the worst news. There were so many days like that....still are...

And a positive one: that day in December when I got a phone call to be told that if I could get to .... ASAP, I could get the vaccine as they had spare ones for that evening.

Last day of school. We got all the kids together (I know, I know) and sang our hearts out.

Being on the rota for the first day of key worker childcare. 8 children. All terrified. Hardly anyone spoke all day. Fortunately it turned into more of a club as the weeks went on and we could spend all the time outside.

Boris’s stay at home speech, and leaping in the car before he’d even finished speaking to drive a 10 hour round trip to fetch my daughter from her uni flat. Convinced we’d be stopped by the police any moment.

Aforementioned daughter’s 21st, when people we barely knew up and down the street dropped off cards and little gifts to make her feel special.

Endless sunshine walks, with frequent stops so I could send replies to parents whose children were stuck, had lost passwords or locked themselves out of online learning.

My dad getting himself admitted to hospital (twice) - sleepless nights dreading news that he’d caught it and I couldn’t be with my mum. He was fine.

Deciding one Sunday afternoon in November that I did actually have a bit of a cough and probably ought to get a test. Feeling grumpy when the email notification arrived the next morning (“better get ready for work”) then reading the word positive. The relief after days of hacking when it subsided, and when DS finally started eating again as he got over it.

The sinking feeling when everything closed again in January. Working two jobs teaching children in school through the day and doing online learning afterwards. Building up lovely, positive relationships with parents as we try to keep their children on track!

Also, the last day of school in March. I knew that it would be my youngest child last day at primary as I collected her. I stopped and thanked the teacher and she very optimisticly said that she was sure they would all be back in after the Easter holidays, so to save my thanks for the summer term.

My dd never went back to primary school. After being a parent at the school for so many years, that was how it ended and as I was liked out that afternoon, I was so emotional. (They turned out to be shit through lockdown, so I’m glad she left, but on that day, I was so sad to be leaving under those circumstances).

[quote JesusInTheCabbageVan]@RosieLemonade what are yours??[/quote]
One that makes me cry is my 3 year old asking on her birthday after blowing out her candles "But when will I have my birthday party?" My God I sobbed once she was in bed.
The last day of school we listened to Disney songs and danced around the classroom. It was so happy and pure despite the reason there was only 12 pupils in.
In December we had a fire drill and it was the first time we had been together as a school in nine months. All the children were waving at each other.
Just a few there. I don't want to bore people.

Becoming a mum.

Spending the last 3 months of my pregnancy and entire maternity leave in lockdown. It's been bitter sweet as DH has been WFH so has been able to spend more quality time with our son than we ever expected but also really sad that my parents haven't been able to spend any real quality time with their first and only grandchild.

Empty streets in the first lockdown. DH and I taking turns going to the shops and each reporting back empty shelves. Watching the news non stop and not quite believing what was happening. Proper zombie apocalypse style.

Getting sick in Jan-Feb. Coughing on everything and everyone, not knowing why I felt so unwell.