Life will never be the same, will it?

[Hiidee]

I’m having a wobble...

Life is so different now, and I just don’t see how it’s ever, ever going to be the same again.

I’m genuinely so frightened for what our futures will look like and I can’t help but feel our freedoms will no longer exist.

I feel we are heading to living in a society where we will have “us & them” in relation to vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Unvaccinated won’t be able to eat / drink at certain places, use supermarkets with everyone else, or use public transport.

I am fully vaccinated so it’s not my personal freedoms I worry about, but I don’t want to live in a world that could look like this.

I see restrictions always being a part of our lives now. It’s just utterly miserable.

When I look back at life pre pandemic it just feels like it was a dream.
I mean what did we really have to worry about?
No restrictions/ rules. Just life and living.

Should we just accept that our lives as we knew it are gone?

Er, no, of course we should not just accept that our old lives are gone.

I’m starting to feel like rather than wait to return to the way things were we have to accept the new normal. I actually cannot think about life befor and the enormously of all that happened without feeling overwhelmed- and I consider myself quite mentally strong so lord help those who aren’t.
I also think we are giving away a lot of freedoms and control that we won’t ever get back, my poor children!

In reality, I think that's a tad overdramatic!
But it's definitely very easy to feel like it's true after so long and so much disappointment.

Seriously, just stop it.

Pretty sure no one is going to be stopped from visiting the supermarket.

But to answer your actual question, I hope you’re right. I quite like table service in the pub and not having to queue at the bar.

@Jennyfromtheculdesac

But to answer your actual question, I hope you’re right. I quite like table service in the pub and not having to queue at the bar.

Me too! We went on holiday recently (U.K.) and used an app to order and pay for everything. I thought it was great and hope we see more of things like that.

Presume you also enjoy theatres being closed, kids missing education and wearing a mask, too

I think many people are feeling so down and overwhelmed by everything. At times it seems unreal. I think the UK will return to near normality, but the issue isn't just what we do but what is happening in the rest of the world. Billions of vaccines are required to immunise poorer countries. I just don't know how long it will take to vaccinate the rest of the world as until that happens,life will not quite be back to normal.

I think there will be a ‘reset’, though I suspect it will be temporary.

We’ve had a wake-up call. Some attitudes have changed for the better IMO (how much we value low paid key workers, the importance of community, working from home is not as impossible as employers told us, governments can find the money for stuff if it’s important enough, science is good).

Will any of this last once you can go on holiday and not wear a mask in shops and whatever else it is you’re missing? Not long, I suspect. I think we’ll be back to something very like ‘normal’ in the near future and it will all be as if this never happened.

@Malteser71

Presume you also enjoy theatres being closed, kids missing education and wearing a mask, too

I went to the theatre last week. And my kids are in school… (UK)

not vaccinated here due to previous illness blah blah....waiting to hear what or if i can in future...i recently retired and was looking forward to so many trips abroad to see elderly family etc etc....at least its summer here and warm...dreading winter again if we all stuck in again...i got quite depressed really !

The ones who want us to never return to normality rely on defeatism to achieve their aims. We absolutely don't have to accept a 'new normal'. But to avoid it, to get a return to real normality, we have to be willing to accept the need for temporary measures now (I.e. masks, border control). So that this doesn't become permanent.

Other countries are already (foreign travel aside) living life mostly as pre pandemic normal.

Tunnocks

I’m seeing a west end show next week. My kids have never been asked to self isolate.

Good for us, we’ve been lucky. Not everyone has the same experience

If you're feeling like that about Covid, you should be waaaaayyy more worried about climate change. The impact of that on your children will be ten times worse than this at least, if global economies are not completely overhauled in the next 15 years.

@Tealightsandd

The ones who want us to never return to normality rely on defeatism to achieve their aims. We absolutely don't have to accept a 'new normal'. But to avoid it, to get a return to real normality, we have to be willing to accept the need for temporary measures now (I.e. masks, border control). So that this doesn't become permanent.

Other countries are already (foreign travel aside) living life mostly as pre pandemic normal.

They also rely on selfishness. The refusal to make temporary concessions, I.e. self isolation, quarantine, masks (until majority fully vaccinated). That's what makes the 'new normal' becoming permanent more likely. In the UK, that is. It won't be the same in every country.

@Malteser71

Tunnocks

I’m seeing a west end show next week. My kids have never been asked to self isolate.

Good for us, we’ve been lucky. Not everyone has the same experience

Well I didn’t feel too lucky ‘homeschooling’ two kids including one with ADHD whilst working all hours with no adult to help get any food in as my DH is dead but yeah, I get your point.

@PolkadotSloth

If you're feeling like that about Covid, you should be waaaaayyy more worried about climate change. The impact of that on your children will be ten times worse than this at least, if global economies are not completely overhauled in the next 15 years.

Well there's no hope with that. Not if we won't limit (polluting) flights even during a pandemic.

It's climate change you need to be scared. That is going to fuck the whole world up.

I think this is an inflection point, I'm finding it interesting, although depressing and stressful

@AntiHop

It's climate change you need to be scared. That is going to fuck the whole world up.

Nothing we can do about that. Frequent mass international travel won't stop even during a pandemic. No way will climate change be stopped.

We’ve had a wake-up call. Some attitudes have changed for the better IMO (how much we value low paid key workers, the importance of community, working from home is not as impossible as employers told us, governments can find the money for stuff if it’s important enough, science is good)

We had a short lived wake up call. I listened to a phone in radio show yesterday where supermarket staff rang in to lament how they are being abused in the supermarkets for merely asking people to step back and socially distance. A family member works in the medical profession, she doesn't feel more valued, she said she is completely aware how they put her and her colleagues in the firing line, unvaccinated against covid, without additional time off or pay increases. Employers want people back in the office. The Gov isn't 'finding' any money. They are borrowing money and you and every other working person will pay it back for the rest of your lifetime.

Tunnocks

Mentioning ADHD and a dead husband to prove you’ve got it worse than anyone. Super passive aggressive, sorry you’ve got to face these things, but none if this is about you, it’s about whether we get back to normal.

I am an err on the edge of caution kind of person. I'm very risk averse. But you're silly to consider that this specific pandemic is the one where things don't go back to normal.

We've had many pandemics in the history of humanity and it always goes back to normal.

Things just seem bleak in the moment. That's normal and a reasonable judgement. But life will go back to normal.