Does anyone else have close family or friends who are still not happy to meet up?

[IncessantNameChanger]

I have a friend in her early forties who will only talk to her parents through a closed glass window. She is horrified I walked through my sisters house to get into her garden as the only other way is via the garage and two locked doors.

My mum has no interest in seeing me or her grand children since last March. Mum, me and dh are all three weeks post our second vaccine.

Anyone else in this situation? I'm not sure my friend will easy to meet up with even if she wants to after her second vaccine. I'm worried I would be on eggshells with her in case I made her uncomfortable.

I wouldnt step over their boundaries. My mum is rather toxic so its probably a perfect excuse to avoid us. I think my friend has long term undiagnosed OCD but she would deny this strongly. I respect her choices totally but I just wonder sometimes when will ever meet up.

My father in law.
He's 79 and is a tricky twat at the best of times so I'm thanking my lucky stars and praying in continues in perpetuity.
He was a drop-in-once-a-day-unannounced chap before the covids.

I'm only meeting up outside and at a distance.

The Third Wave has begun and cases are rising exponentially, inside mixing is too risky.

I remember you from a very recent post Nanny where you were predicting all sorts of doom and gloom.

Meeting indoors with any friends/family comfortable to do so (which is all of them) I’m careful around my gran even though we are both fully vaccinated. I work in large college, lateral flow testing twice a week and anytime prior to seeing people indoors. Seems to working just fine.

This is absolute madness. What happens when everyone is vaccinated and there is another new variant? There is no apparently exit plan for this state of fear which these people are in.

I agree that if you have worked throughout it all it has actually helped maintain a sense of proportion and a more balanced approach to risk.

Yesterday we had a 3 yrs old gs party
All adults vaccinated. It was a fantastic day. All outside 10 adults 5 kids. It was truly memorable and we had a great laugh. Missed it all so much. Had not been together since christmas 2019. A great day for us all bbq bouncing castle. The kids were thrilled to see each other.

No I don’t. Thankfully our friends and family are all happy to do their own risk assessments now and meet up.
After a hard year, we’re really enjoying some normality and it’s bloody brilliant to see people again. My DC are loving their “normal” lives again and the difference in them is so easy to see.

@RoseRedRoseBlue

I remember you from a very recent post Nanny where you were predicting all sorts of doom and gloom.

I was merely summarising the work of SAGE scientists.

Outdoors only apart from bubbles.

I’m vaccinated but am also a teacher and as such, am dealing with many direct contacts daily and even more indirectly. I am a single parent so really can’t afford to be ill. and I have a type 1 diabetic daughter so would prefer she is kept covid free as well.

I am meeting people outside but am not ready to meet inside yet.

@shinynewapple21 I could try that when all restrictions are lifted. The madness with my mum.is that I actually think I caught covid going to see her after a fall and hospital stay. So I have seen her last in Dec as part of her bubble, sat with her twice in the back of a ambulance, chatted to her paramedic in the loading bay ( about her health history) while she waited five hours to be admitted. Then stayed at her house for a week to make sure she was ok. But see the kids? Not on your life.

My friend, I will only see once all restrictions are lifted if I'm honest as I would feel on eggshells. She isnt convinced I REALLY had covid as I was bearly ill at all. I had to keep on repeating it was a PCR and I still cant taste or smell fully. She was always very health anxious. She struggles to accept that it's not a serious disease for some (me) But if she was up for a picnic or pub garden lunch I do miss her.

Yes my DH has total Covid paranoia and refuses to see anyone, he also refuses to allow me to see anyone.
It's shit.
Everyone is different.

I assumed from all of regular cries on MN of 'close the schools!' and 'we need another lockedown!' that the majority of people on here are like this?!

We went on holiday last year, met family last year, went shopping, the kids went to school, my DH has worked outside the home the entire time. None of us have caught Covid and we haven't broken any rules either. There are people who haven't even gone to the supermarket since last March FFS.

Allow you? He isn’t your jaillor!

I thought my friend and her son are quite odd and concerning, but apparently not. They haven’t got anywhere since March.

@NannyAndJohn it's not just that I cant meet them inside. I cant meet them period. Well I can see my mum if i leave the kids at home for another x months / years.

I'm too old to shout at my friend via a window either. I would to protect a old frail relative but not a young healthy vaccinated friend. I'm not comfortable with it.

It's the not seeing them in person at all I'm struggling with. More in sense that our relationships have been maybe forever rewritten.

Will they ever be comfortable? My mum.i will try again when all laws are relaxed as she keeps saying she cant it's not allowed. But my friend? Three weeks post second dose take her into August/ September so that would be pushing outside meet up weather

Am I the only one that thinks it's a complete waste of a vaccination for people that get the jab and then go an and shut themselves up again not going anywhere or even seeing family/friends outdoors??

I'm fully vaccinated, but I'm keeping the places I visit to a minimum and avoiding indoor meet ups. The last thing I want now is to be tracked and traced and told we need to self-isolate. I don't want dc missing even more school and dh will lose a significant amount of money as he is self employed.

Also agree that maybe feelings are dictated partly by what covid has thrown at you. If you can work st home alone your safe in a bubble.

But with a husband who works in a school and young kids all at school it was impossible for us to shut the world out.

What will be, will be I guess. It's a gift that just keeps giving isnt it?

You can thank the gov and media for this hysteria. Totally unnecessary

@LouLou198

Fair enough, understandable.

I think I've realised I found it quite hard to understand other people's perspectives on covid until I had a change of circumstances.

I was shielding until Easter (I work in a post 16 college) and was really quite wary. Whenever I went out I kept my distance and kept interactions and shopping etc. to an absolute minimum.

Then I went back to work, mixing with a few hundred people every day. As time has gone on, I've not necessarily become more complacent but just more aware about managing risk.

We test twice a week and I am lucky enough to be several weeks past my second vaccination.
I frequently have students in my office and we don't wear masks, and they don't always keep their distance well.

I have lessons where I have 20 students in a room and I supervise the resources centre on occasion, which has dozens of students.

I think because of this relatively normal work life, I am happy to see my family and friends indoors. If the weather is nice we'll stay outside, but otherwise we take the managed risk.

I carried on testing during reading week last week, and my DC are also testing twice a week.

I am classed as CEV and last summer I barely left the house, but I feel much more rational and take time to consider risk now. I would absolutely respect anyone else's decision with this, but for me I think going out to work has done me huge amounts of good. My friends who are working from home seem to be more cautious

All our friends and family regardless of age, vaccination status or health conditions are now meeting indoors and living as normally as possible at the moment. That being said I don’t know anyone who has taken restrictions to the extremes you hear about on here and we have been seeing friends and family indoors for months now. It’s madness people have been conditioned and scared so much to still be isolating themselves until one day the government declare its “safe” its not going to happen covid is here to stay and people just need to get on with living.

My mum has relaxed a bit about letting us in the house but she isn't keen to go anywhere public. It's quite sad really.

Yes my DH has total Covid paranoia and refuses to see anyone, he also refuses to allow me to see anyone.

You don't need his permission to see anyone. He can hide if he wants. If he is actually not allowing you to see anyone, that is coercive control and illegal.