Don't know what to expect with people anymore

[SilverGlitterBaubles]

Anyone else feel a strange sense of being discombobulated by not knowing how to read people anymore. Some people have jumped at getting back to normal, others are being ultra cautious, some are a pick and mix of these. There's a wide range of interpretations on rules and then we have those who think it's all a big conspiracy. What is most common is that people feel pretty strongly about whatever way they have decided to do things and that their views are right. I am not judging any of them but just wondering if anyone else is surprised by not being able to gauge people anymore as I find I am constantly thrown by this.

All you can do is control how you react. You can't do anything about how other people go about things now.

@XenoBitch

All you can do is control how you react. You can't do anything about how other people go about things now.

Agree with this. Certainly my circle of friends and family aren't anything like I expected so I've stopped wondering or worrying and just focus on me.

I don’t know anyone who thinks it’s all a conspiracy. Some of my friends and acquaintances are being more cautious than most, but it’s all due to existing health conditions. The vast majority of people I know are just getting on as normal.

I was a bit thrown a few weeks ago at work when I needed someone to attend a construction site with me and they refused because they were worried about covid. I’ve been on sites throughout, and they were the first person I’d come across who had expressed reluctance to come to a site meeting.

I jumped at getting back to normal and that's when I caught it! I'm still super keen to ditch masks, etc. though. We need to accept covid as part of our lives eventually.

In real life, everyone I know has on the whole reacted/behaved very similarly. I have one anti-vax friend but luckily she’s not forceful about it, just doesn’t want it for x,y,z. Fair enough, her decision. I’m still happy to socialise with her.

Otherwise, we’ve all been the broadly the same. Followed most of the rules, broken them here & there for various good reason. We’ve all sent our kids to nursery throughout (those of us with younger kids). We have all approached the removal of restrictions with real joy & are out and about doing as much as we possibly can this summer. No-one is overly worried anymore except for the risk of isolation but thankfully close contact is gone. I’ve had a busier social diary this year than ever before to be honest!

I certainly don’t see any hint of the rediculous behaviour seen on mumsnet where it’s either ‘we are all doomed’ or ‘everyone is a selfish twat for going to a pub’ to the other extreme of thinking covid & lockdown isn’t real. In my life, it’s all pretty calm & neutral. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Covid is now like politics, a topic you just shouldn't discuss without disagreements

@Bobholll

In real life, everyone I know has on the whole reacted/behaved very similarly. I have one anti-vax friend but luckily she’s not forceful about it, just doesn’t want it for x,y,z. Fair enough, her decision. I’m still happy to socialise with her.

Otherwise, we’ve all been the broadly the same. Followed most of the rules, broken them here & there for various good reason. We’ve all sent our kids to nursery throughout (those of us with younger kids). We have all approached the removal of restrictions with real joy & are out and about doing as much as we possibly can this summer. No-one is overly worried anymore except for the risk of isolation but thankfully close contact is gone. I’ve had a busier social diary this year than ever before to be honest!

I certainly don’t see any hint of the rediculous behaviour seen on mumsnet where it’s either ‘we are all doomed’ or ‘everyone is a selfish twat for going to a pub’ to the other extreme of thinking covid & lockdown isn’t real. In my life, it’s all pretty calm & neutral. 🤷🏼‍♀️

This is my experience too, down to the one anti vaxx friend! Everyone I know is really moderate as to how they have approached it. Broadly followed the rules, got vaccinated, living life as close to normal as they can. It's only online really that I see the extreme reactions either way.

It's something I've been finding difficult since summer last year when restrictions were easing, but the mentality of many people I knew remained hyper cautious (without underlying conditions to consider). Although I went out and did things last summer, it was very much contained to my immediate family as wider family and many friends had no inclination or (time) to meet. With so many people getting judgey about people having the audacity to do normal, legal things (which includes repeatedly snoozing a cohort of people on fb for sharing sanctimonious memes,) it was difficult to reach out to other people lying low, keeping their thoughts to themselves.

It's still not settled back to normality. Some of it is me struggling to make arrangements and cope with a future more than two weeks ahead while life is still rather unsettled. Some of it is still struggling with working out where other peoples' boundaries are.

It's not that long since I've been running in the middle of nowhere and had masked people flinging themselves into bushes to avoid my diseased miasma, and when you've still got healthy family who consider meeting indoors to practically be a death wish, it takes a while to really build up normal social confidence.

The social damage has been immense. It's not as simple as just getting on with your own life because our lives are inter-linked.

Am still quite cautious that’s personal. Am double jabbed but I know that am still not immune. People can do whatever they want really as long as am looking after me and my family. I’ve had COVID before I don’t want to catch this fucker again during my pregnancy

There seems one thing that is easy to judge. You know anyone without a face covering is under 40. In general OP you are right I think.

It's not that long since I've been running in the middle of nowhere and had masked people flinging themselves into bushes to avoid my diseased miasma, and when you've still got healthy family who consider meeting indoors to practically be a death wish, it takes a while to really build up normal social confidence.

Curious, judgemental language there, @BogRollBOGOF. If it takes a while for you to build up normal social confidence, that likely also applies to others. I think it's wise to make assumptions about other people - particularly with regards to their mental state.

My experience is very like @Bobholll and @Budsaway, it’s really not a big factor in my or most people’s lives that I know now. I also don’t know any conspiracy theorists. I know one person who is unvaccinated (that I know of, because vaccines haven’t come up with most people in all honesty which obviously tells you something) but I wouldn’t call them anti-vax as they just don’t want the vaccine personally but are very much for it on a wider level, particularly for vulnerable people.

I’m probably busier these days than I was pre-Covid because I’ve become a bit allergic to staying at home but equally I’m not sociable enough to have things with friends planned every weekend until Christmas, so I am a bit baffled when I read things like that.

I’m guessing the people that are angry about pubs being open etc are just sitting at home behind their computers every day and so not really people most of us will ever meet. I wonder how many of those people were really out and about much before all of this too though (excl CEV).

I think what throws me is that I am vaccinated and back to normal or new normal whatever it is but others I assumed would be like minded throw a curveball by having a completely different attitude to what I would have expected. It's also that some that feel very strongly about it and it is almost like religion or politics, a subject to tread very carefully on. Not sure if I'm explaining myself very well

It is an odd time. I was in a shop yesterday with most people not wearing masks, when a lady came in with gloves, mask and antibacterial wipes for everything.

The contrast struck me.

@namesnamesnamesnames That's it exactly.

I think I know what you mean - I've been surprised the whole way through by who's very gung-ho and happy to do everything that's allowed and who's very, very cautious and wants to take every precaution going. It's definitely not who I would have predicted.

I just get on with doing the stuff I want to generally, though there's a few friends I'd like to see who are still very cautious, which makes meet ups difficult to arrange. I am in fact happy to do whatever they're happy with, and would never pressure someone to do something they felt was a risk at a personal level, but if they only want to do outdoor meet-ups and it's pouring with rain, for instance, it does make it hard!

I have the extremes amongst the people I know
A friend who thinks covid is lurking around every corner and floating in the air ready to pounce / sanitises her hands every few mins / wears her mask everywhere still
Another friend who has always said it’s nonsense/ hoax/ we all over reacting. Refuses to sanitise /never worn a mask or done social distancing

I think most of us are somewhere in the middle of those extremes

newnorthener I'm over 40 and not wearing a mask in shops. I'm a teacher with my own kids in schools too. Hundreds of contacts every day, not been sanitising for months since the 'airborne' element was confirmed. The kind of masks and the way people wear them does v v little. I conformed when it was required but now it's not. I'll SD and respect other people's concerns (my MIL is v v anxious still) but that's it.

If I message someone asking to meet up or for their kid to come to a playdate I make sure I give them a chance to have their say on whether they are comfortable with what Im proposing and suggest different/decline. Most people are not even thinking about it and think Im being over the top!

I continue to wear masks in shops out of politeness to anyone else feeling scared not for myself.

It's just more manners/courteous actions to add on to what we should have already been doing imho.