Will lots just say 'stuff it' come the 23rd?

[JuneSummer]

It'll soon be a year since lockdown was first called and me and DH have been watching lots of TV coverage over the last few days. It's just dawned on us this week that we have now not seen our parents for a year, the DC haven't hugged their grandparents, we haven't been for any days out as a family, DC1 hasn't had a single uni class in person. The list goes on.

DH and I are now quickly coming to the conclusion that we just cannot and will not go on living like this any longer as a family. Particularly when there seems to be no end in sight if you listen to people like Chris Whitty and Christina Pagel (who was wanting masks and social distancing for the foreseeable future last night on the news).

Both sets of parents are in their mid 60s and have been vaccinated. We are now strongly minded to visit both at the beginning of April and allow them to see their DGC.

I suspect we will not be alone. Will lots of people simply say 'no more' upon realising they've spent a year of their lives not living?

@HazeyJaneII though actually if children meeting up with family will affect your decision to send your kids to school or not, I would assume they all are and make your decision based on that. I would put money on most of them seeing family and having play dates with other kids, even if you haven't been told.

I also think there's a huge difference between seeing 1 other household and seeing several different households regularly. My DF and DH work out the home, we have a mass testing centre nearby that people working out the home are encouraged to use regularly which my DF and DH do, also 2 out 3 of my dc are being tested twice a week in school.

@ LoopyLockdown
That sounds so shit for you. What a totally crap time you have had. Forget about your husband he is a wanker. Get on some dating websites and look to your future and meeting someone to treat you properly like you deserve!!! 💐

I am pleased your following the rules, most people I know are.

To the rule breakers (!), do you know anyone who has been seriously ill with Covid or left with long Covid or died? I do.

To the rule breakers (!), do you know anyone who has been seriously ill with Covid or left with long Covid or died? I do.

I don't know anyone who has had Covid at all. Cases are pretty low where I live. When they were open neither of my children's schools had any cases. I do know a few people who have had tests but all negative.

@Workinghardeveryday yes I do. I also know people who have died, been seriously ill and have got post-viral syndrome from other viruses, and people who have had to be really careful about seeing others at certain times as they are vulnerable to other illnesses. Covid is no different from any other virus or disease, these things have always happened, people will always become ill and die from them.
The only difference really is the amount of people catching it and becoming seriously ill from it when we didn't have the vaccine rollout was too many for the NHS to cope with. Now we have the vaccines we will live with covid like we do every other virus. Unfortunately some people will still get seriously ill and some will die but that's the way of life isn't it?

If the June date gets pushed back how long do you think we should not be allowed to have a normal life? COVID isnt going away. We've made sacrifices for the last year. Only on MN would that not be enough

When you call people selfish, just remember that we've given up a year of our life unquestioningly to restrictions. Not my definition of selfish. Fed up of people calling me selfish cos they want me to give up more

The facts don't care how we feel.

Or how much time has elapsed.

We can do it right this time

Or we can do it again.

That's just how it is.

@PrincessNutNuts

Case rates do matter because of new variants. How many new and worse ones do you want because you said "Cases don't matter" and gave it every chance to mutate. Again.

Case rates do matter because with a more transmissible variant more cases = more deaths purely because of maths. The faster it transmits the faster it gets to people it can make seriously ill.

This is true but if we open up the borders like it sounds like they’re planning, then mutations will get imported anyway.

If someone is mixing in several different households I do think that's selfish and I don't want to have any contact with people like that however much they go on about their perceived sacrifices.

Unfortunately when I go to a hospital appointment next week I won't know or be able to make choices about these people and their levels of responsibility and basic decency.

@loulouljh

I know very few people sticking to the rules now. I don't know anyone going mad and partying but people are going to other people's houses etc now.

Same here. And I can't blame them one bit.

I think it's also selfish to expect people to give up over a year of their lives.

@ilovesooty We never get to make these choices in life, we never know who we are sitting next to in public, where they have been, who they have seen, what illness they might have. That's a risk we take when we leave our house every day, and always has been. I would hope that you won't have to sit closer than 2m to people in a waiting room, and if you are vulnerable to Covid you've had your jab. But further than that it shouldn't be down to other's actions, and soon won't be when restrictions are released so I hope people get used to that idea.

I actually find it quite sad that people's decency is being judged on whether they have seen their mum or not. Because that's what we are talking about here, not big house parties or raves, but people seeing their mum and dad, brother or sister.

@Wellbythebloodyhell

I fail to see the point of vaccinating people if we still need to continue with these tenuous restrictions long term. We will never eradicate covid we have to live with it, and I mean actually live our lives not merely existing behind closed doors.

It's not long term. It's medium term, measured in weeks and months.

Obviously it takes time to vaccinate 60 million people with two doses.

If we do this year right I have hope that it will be over this time next year.

If we don't, we could be stuck with it and the NPIs, permanently.

We almost "lived with it" for a few weeks last summer.

How did that work out for us?

It put us into another 7 months of restrictions and 80,000 British people died.

You don't "live with" something this transmissible.

You throw your country into chaos and watch your people die.

The facts don't care how we feel.

Or how much time has elapsed.

We can do it right this time

Or we can do it again.

That's just how it is.

Or we can get on with the business of living

What’s the point following the rules if CEV people, who have been the ones this was all sodding for, are saying fuck it now?? I can’t believe the utter selfish cow that’s CEV, vaccinated and now socialising with everyone and anyone upthread.

It's not long term. It's medium term, measured in weeks and months.

It's been a year already, how is that weeks and months

We almost "lived with it" for a few weeks last summer.

Nobody had been vaccinated then. It's not comparable at all

it's not long term, it's medium term measured in weeks and months

We are already a year in and you've just stated you hope it might be over by this time next year so that's not weeks and months is it, that's years - long term

If we do this year right I have hope that it will be over this time next year.

So that would be two years in total then. Not 'weeks and months'.

People need to be realistic about how long average people are willing to put lives on hold for. Lockdown isn't a pause button, it's time we don't get back.

I have elderly parents. They may not have much time left. I'm not waiting around for a year now that they have their vaccines, I'm a bit taken aback anyone would expect that tbh.

[quote PrincessNutNuts]@Wellbythebloodyhell

I fail to see the point of vaccinating people if we still need to continue with these tenuous restrictions long term. We will never eradicate covid we have to live with it, and I mean actually live our lives not merely existing behind closed doors.

It's not long term. It's medium term, measured in weeks and months.

Obviously it takes time to vaccinate 60 million people with two doses.

If we do this year right I have hope that it will be over this time next year.

If we don't, we could be stuck with it and the NPIs, permanently.

We almost "lived with it" for a few weeks last summer.

How did that work out for us?

It put us into another 7 months of restrictions and 80,000 British people died.

You don't "live with" something this transmissible.

You throw your country into chaos and watch your people die.
[/quote]
Yep, until the next mutation comes along that renders the jab less effective, back to social distancing, then lockdown, then posters like you saying ‘It’s just for a few more months..’

No. Enough is enough. We have given up a year of our lives and tanked the economy. It’s not selfish to now say it’s time to move forward and live with another risk thrown into our already risky lives.

@BonnieDundee

The facts don't care how we feel.

Or how much time has elapsed.

We can do it right this time

Or we can do it again.

That's just how it is.

Or we can get on with the business of living

We're all "living" *

Your way increases the dying.

*Apart from the 150,000 who have died of covid of course.

To the rule breakers (!), do you know anyone who has been seriously ill with Covid or left with long Covid or died? I do

Covid doesn't trump everything though. Why do you think that this^^ is some sort of 'gotcha'? What do you people actually want? To stay locked down forever? To be told that you cannot see your family or friends or earn a living indefinitely? You insisted that it was just a case of waiting for the vaccine, well, it's here and millions have had it and it's working. What more do you actually want from other people?

We're all "living"

You're going to have to take on board that sitting at home, doing nothing, seeing no-one and being separated from close family and friends isn't living in any desirable way for many people.

If you want to keep 'living' like that and it makes you feel 'safe' then crack on my friend. But many of the rest of us have reached our limits of 'living' this way.

I think a lot of people, me included, don't want to live if it's under restrictions like this. This is not living as people mean it.

@Wondermule

If you think the economy is trashed now, and your life is not what you would choose now - even with restrictions limiting the spread, what do you think lifting the restrictions and allowing the virus free rein will do to all of our lives?

No one actually thinks we can pretend it's not happening and just "go back to normal" do they?

I mean, what do you "We've given up a year of our lives, enough is enough" crowd think will happen if we lift restrictions and "go back to normal"?

Agreed. It is not living. It is some sort of half a life..(think thats from a song!!). We are done now.