Feeling down about the route out of lockdown

[Chance51]

I'm not sure what I'm looking for here, maybe just a place to vent...

We live in Scotland and have a one year old. He has has hardly spent any time with any of our family. Some of my family lives elsewhere in Scotland, and my Dad lives in Europe.

I was so hoping that we would be able to look forward to a date when we could see them again but I feel utterly despondent that I know when I'll be able to visit a hairdressers or go to a pub (activities I frankly couldn't care less about) but have no idea when I'll be able to travel to do a different area to see my family. It looks like international travel could be ruled out for the whole year in Scotland so I have no hope at all of seeing my father, even though he has already had coronavirus so isn't vulnerable.

I just feel so frustrated that I will soon(-ish!) be allowed to take part in really high risk activities like being indoors for a prolonged period of time with many other people, but I can't do something really low risk like meeting my parents half-way between our houses for a socially distanced walk outside.

I'm not sure anyone can ban you from travelling to Europe to see your father. You may have to isolate on arrival, but can go.

It's all very well to say people can travel abroad but realistically how many people can afford the quarantine costs? (in time and money). I know i couldn't.

Countries are looking at vaccination passports for travel, if not you might be able to travel subject to negative PCR tests. Unless your Dad is on a country which is high risk due to a variant, I'd be surprised if either you or him couldn't travel one way or the other this year.

My colleague recently had her elderly parents stay from abroad. They were able to travel on providing a negative PCR test either way. They stayed for ten days. Not sure what the rules are, but they isolated in house and on the fifth day had a PCR test (negative) so then went out for local walks. Not sure if she had to, but my colleague paid for a PCR test before her return to work.

Last year, even with lockdowns/restrictions we went away on three short breaks within England (where we live). Although, we don't know when things will ease, surely this year surely can't be any worse than last year, in terms of what you could do in the summer/autumn. Try and hang on in there.