I'm done

[nomore33]

I cannot do this anymore. I work in an industry that has been completely destroyed by Covid and me, DH and our young DC are now facing an extremely difficult future financially. I have no option really but to retrain, which could take years - and I don't know where to start or whether there will even be any jobs at the end of it.

We've lost almost everything we've worked so hard for (including our home, which is now on the market) for a virus with a death rate of 1%. It's beyond soul destroying and I'm so tired and sad. I feel completely beaten down by life and like me and my family don't matter - it's all about Covid now. Honestly, what is the point?

I agree OP.
Covid hysteria has destroyed so much.

Your anger is at covid, it did this not the people trying to prevent mass death.

Really? Read the bloody room for Christ sake!

It’s not a 1% death rate in children @OakSnows
That rate is for all ages and very much weighted towards the over 80s don’t pretend you don’t know that. It doesn’t take much of an understanding of statistics to work it out....so your class analogy is simply not true.

We know the stats on healthy children dying from this...

It’s so shit OP. Sorry you’re having such a hard time. The affects of these prolonged lockdowns will be felt over many, many years. Even lifetimes.

Interesting to look back in a few years and work out whether our response was proportionate.

I

Also agree it’s not even a 1% death rate overall. It’s much less. We have no idea how many asymptomatic cases there are out there..

I hear you. It is utterly shit and soul destroying. I am so sorry you and your family are going through this.

I am not sure I have much useful advice re jobs etc. Local supermarkets might need people, esp delivery drivers? Child minding?

Hang on in there.

@unmumsymummy21

I want all the people continuously campaigning for endless lock down to read your post and fucking listen. It's time for this to stop now. I'm so sorry and my thoughts are with you.

We need a clear way out now. Variants or no variants. This is the end of the line.

I am another one who would like to share your post far and wide amongst all those demanding ever longer and harsher lockdowns. Enough.

I am sorry to hear about your problems. Even if I supported lockdown, I didn't think that they were any less important than covid casualties as poverty itself is a cause of death.

I would like to put a disclaimer that I am lucky to wfh and to be able to pay my mortgage; however its not like i am in a huge house, i am in a london flat and in my 20s with my parents 8 time zones away and I haven't seen them for more than a year; we also have a lot of family in other countries. Less importantly, my wedding (which I waited a long time to have as I was saving up to buy a home) has been delayed indefinitely. So its not like I am completely unaffected.

But the approach that the UK is taking is not unique to the UK. Most countries have locked down, some have shorter lockdowns as they were able to keep infection rates down (in my home country, lockdown was only for a month or so). We would be a pariah if we didn't lockdown when infection rates were so high. i am disappointed that we had these extended, start and stop lockdowns which are overall more damaging to businesses than if we did it properly so that businesses could open up earlier. Instead the government didn't act in time and this cost the economy far more.

No one likes lockdown and I wish with all my heart it can be lifted, i just don't see any other alternative. Businesses all over the world have been decimated due to lockdown unfortunately, but i think the countries that have handled it well have managed to open up far earlier and this means that some businesses would have been saved as a result. I hope that when we all get vaccinated, the economy can open up and things would improve.

I don’t want to single out the U.K. government but I think there’s been a collective failure on the part of most Western. They’ve failed to protect the economy, failed to protect education, failed to protect livelihoods and haven’t done great at protecting the elderly/vulnerable.
Many countries in Asia have don’t much much better on all those fronts.

Imagine what we’d be saying if China’s economy had tanked and they had a death toll of 2 million, while the US economy was gliding along with “just” a couple of thousand fatalities. Well that’s what happened, but just the other way around.

A massive collective failing mostly due to complacency and a political class that have spent their privileged lives on autopilot.

[quote nomore33]@Rupertpenrysmistress how easy is it to get into something like nursing for a washed up, middle aged mum like me?[/quote]
Hi OP

We are in the same position as you, main difference being we rent our home, so have so far been ok with that one.

But I did want to say my mum retrained as nurse in her 40s, so it really is possible, but not an easy career

I’m so sorry OP, how devastating for you. I’m thinking now like so many others that we need to accept Covid is here to stay and we need to start opening up again or there will be nothing left.

The other thing is that it’s all very nice having a very cosy pro Tory press when things are going smoothly enough. But during times of crisis we need a press that holds government to account, and this government has been given one hell of an easy ride given its utterly shite performance.

Credit where due for getting the vaccinations off to a good start, but the extent of economic damage the past year - the worst in the developed world. while STILL failing to protect is basically unparalleled. But all they’ve receuved as reprimand is a little tututting at best as 80% of Britain’s press and media is in the Conservative Party’s pocket.

You have my sympathies OP I would be devasted too. Myself and dh are on furlough.I cannot imagine having to sell our home.My heart goes out to you.

My heart breaks for you, OP and anyone else who feels like they have lost everything.

I am done too. I think of how amazing my pre-covid life was. It was so busy and exciting and full and the last twelve months have been terrible. Just a mass of nothingness. I can barely remember any of it because it's been so bland - just one shit day after the next (with a small amount of fun at a few intervals last summer - but nothing compared to what I had planned).

The only thing that is helping me - and I hope it will help you too - is that this won't be forever, and believe me when I say I will be grabbing my life back with both hands when I can. So hopefully your industry will recover (even though you might have to take interim jobs for now) and you will be able to go back to whatever it was you have worked so hard for in the past.

@noeffingwayyyy

So much sympathy for you OP . DH is in the same position - he's spent 5 years building up a niche self employed career in an industry that's been absolutely decimated and unlikely to return, all his hard work looks like it's been for nothing right now and he is totally gutted. We are so lucky that my salary just about covers our outgoings, otherwise we'd be in the same position as you, having to sell your home must be heartbreaking.

I wish I had some cheery uplifting words for you, but all I can do is empathise with how utterly shitty it is, and hope for better days for us all.

What industry is this ? X

Very similar circumstances too here OP. Practically identical. I’ve just secured a job as a support worker to keep our heads afloat for the time being. It’s been tough. Can you research jobs like that for now?

I can’t believe anyone is so stupid to think that 1 in 100 children would die of covid if there were no restrictions. I can only assume that poster is hoping other people are stupid enough to believe them.

And yes OP it’s been ghastly. DH’s income has been pretty much zero for the last year and no idea when if ever it will recover. We can manage off my income thankfully but it’s very stressful

There are different routes into nursing now either 3 year degree at uni, you can do access course to get relevant course requirements or, nursing apprentice where you start as a band 2 train on the job and become a registered nursing associate so band 4 (I am a little unsure how the band 4 sits in the nursing team. You can then do 1 year at uni to become a band 5 (registered nurse).

I'm so sorry OP
The covid hysteria really has to stop
People need to realise the destruction being caused to people's lives

@Redtulipses

Say you have 3 kids, in a class of 33 each. 1% death rate is one of your kids losing their friends.

No, the death rate among children is far far lower than 1%!

Also there would have been a %age of those kids dying from non Covid illnesses.

I agree with you OP and I’m so sorry. It felt wrong right from the start - it was as though we had forgotten that every year people die. I read that barely anyone has died from the flu this year. Yet next year that could be significantly different. Sorry op.

@RedcurrantPuff

It is terrible. All to shore up an NHS we didn’t fuck up and to save people who are generally older than the average life expectancy anyway. No one wants anyone to die but there has to be more to life than everyone losing their livelihood and futures to save them.

So you’re willing to sacrifice people older than life expectancy? Strange way of looking at it. Personally I’d wish we had taken more of a New Zealand approach. We acted too late but hopefully the vaccines offer a way out.

@Cam77

The other thing is that it’s all very nice having a very cosy pro Tory press when things are going smoothly enough. But during times of crisis we need a press that holds government to account, and this government has been given one hell of an easy ride given its utterly shite performance.

Credit where due for getting the vaccinations off to a good start, but the extent of economic damage the past year - the worst in the developed world. while STILL failing to protect is basically unparalleled. But all they’ve receuved as reprimand is a little tututting at best as 80% of Britain’s press and media is in the Conservative Party’s pocket.

Yes imagine the press if this was a Labour government - “they’re imposing communism”, “they’re decimating the economy” whereas Boris has had a VERY easy ride.

[quote unmumsymummy21]@SpringtimeBluebells you're absolutely right. People working from home are very unaffected financially by this and they just don't understand how it is for people who've lost everything because of a virus which over 90 percent of people survive. [/quote]
I wfh and am unaffected by this financially, but by god I am totally on your side!!!!

Enough is enough now. This shit needs to end!!

@Wherediditgo me too ! My sector is booming. I'm not gloating. It's not fair. Enough is enough. People are suffering from the effects of not having food on their table. This is not OK. I can hide behind my sofa all I want, getting my Ocado deliveries. It's a minor inconvenience at most for someone like me. It's just not fair on others who have literally lost everything. I'm not saying I haven't suffered. But more mentally and also because I'm vulnerable health wise. But that's nothing compared to the OP.

unmumsy same here - suffered mentally but nowhere near this level. I really fear for the millions of people in this position up and down the country. This is just utter bollocks. Feels like we’ve woken up in an Orwell novel sometimes!!