It feels like the pandemic has ruined everything

[Triing]

It ruined friendships, driving people apart. It ruined this website with some of the terrible things that people wrote deliberately to upset others. The community in the place where I live has been torn asunder. Backbiting, sanctimoniousness, judgmentalism. People with 2.4 children and big gardens both ignoring and patronising those in different situations. British politics is ruined, awful untrustworthy governments, the economy is ruined and it just feels the world is going to hell in a handcart. I know there are bright spots too, but it really feels like a public reckoning and healing of all that has been said and done that is wrong is necessary, but no-one wants to do it, just carry on, pretend it never happened then use the war in Ukraine as a way to try to shut people up (you'd have something to complain about if you were in Mariupol etc, the 2022 software update of WW2, Blitz etc)

I agree OP

Honestly - I think it was already ruined. Brexit, austerity, the Tories' habitual encouragement of a culture in which everyone's checking that others don't have what they don't 'deserve', impossible competition for housing, a general running down of the country and especially the NHS. I think that those are the cumulative impacts of many years of Tory economic policy but also the outlook that they encourage in us all - and this isn't shorthand for 'vote Labour', I promise.

Winter there is for sure a heavy heavy cost to the political choices that have been made. By 2024, 32 of the previous 45 years will have been under a Tory led government. I weep when I think of the damage they have done. The economic inequality, the nasty selfish competitiveness they foster, the young lives and minds this toxic environment warps into thinking money is everything and only mugs care for others.

It’s ruined my livelihood, although there are other factors. I don’t really know how I’ll come back from it. I had a very comfortable life before, and now it is very much more unpleasant. I do try to appreciate how lucky I was, but it’s not easy to think my best days are over.

It ruined my lively hood and now I’m broke and not sure how I’m going to come back from this! Business completely destroyed!

The pandemic ruined my precious toddler years with my DC who were 1 and 2 when it started.

So many missed baby and toddler classes, missed play dates, missed holidays, missed experiences.

I'll never get that time back with them.

I just don't feel this strongly about it.

We were fortunate not to lose any close friends or relatives to Covid. It was scary, inconvenient and very limiting at times but I really don't feel like it has ruined everything.

I think it ruined everyone's life in a different way. And we need to start rebuilding it.
I really don't want to dwell on what happened. Want to see the positives instead.

Consumerism is a huge issue, not sure if it fuels capitalism or capitalism causes it.

Creates an attitude of "what's in it for me" rather than "what can I do for others"

It only ruined things if you let it or had to because where you worked having restrictions. We have led our lives more or less the same and not allowed our lives to be wrecked as you put it.

to cap it all, and i cannot get an NHS dentist, close on £50 for a checkup!

I don't see this. But I'm sorry you feel this way. British politics has been pretty rubbish for ages, and mumsnet has barely changed. So I think you are wrong about that. But the other things that are more specific to your local community are not true for me. Perhaps you are in the wrong place?

This message by Elena St is vile

I agree with this, and I do feel lucky in that respect. I just don't think that on a world scale, it's that much of a turning point. In fact, Trump went during the pandemic, the environment got a little better, for a short amount of time. The world was not this amazing place pre pandemic.

Why? It's true that not everywhere had the same restrictions.

It changed things. But large world events do that. Our life in the UK has been relatively stable for that past 20 years. Its rarely like that.

It's fine to have different opinions. It's not very nice to call someone a vile just because they didn't agree with you. Isn't that the thing you said on OP, that some people are deliberately saying things to upset others? No one feels good to be called that, just for expressing their opinions.

Where to start!

Well please start somewhere, because I don't see the problem. Some people were more affected than others, it's hardly headline news. Some people enjoyed confinement for example. Some people's lives barely changed. I know people whose lives barely changed, don't you?

Life is different but not all bad.

if you want positivity, you need to try to stay positive.

The people who lost their business didn't 'allow' their lives to be wrecked it happened to them.

I agree it's very hard not to look back and think that life was much more enjoyable before. All I seem to do now is work, come home, eat, sleep, repeat. Even going out is less enjoyable as everything is so much more expensive, and there is clearly a strain on the hospitality industry in terms of staffing whenever you do go out. What else do I find enjoyable? Ah yes, holidays. But if you go abroad then it's still not back to how it was, and may never be. Flights so much more expensive, worries about flights being cancelled, getting COVID and having to cancel the whole thing. Car hire has gone through the ROOF. It's bloody awful. Then the cost of petrol......

I get enjoyment out of my home. But I can't get people out to do repairs for love nor money, they only want big jobs and have got work piled up for 2 years for those who were able to get people out to quote when they were working from home or on furlough (DH and I have worked right through, no working from home for us except right at the beginning for a month).

I've got 2 teens doing GCSEs and A-levels and I feel they've had their education messed around for the last 2 years and missed out on big events. The eldest one applying for uni - it's been brutal this year with A* students gettting knock backs from their unis.....

Trying to look on the bright side but it's hard. I just thank god we aren't the Ukraine. Poor people.

Why? It’s just a difference in opinion.

I personally found this massively judgemental and rude:

People with 2.4 children and big gardens both ignoring and patronising those in different situations

Sounds like you have a massive chip on your shoulder and you’re making massive assumptions about what the pandemic has meant for others.

It really wasn’t the best experience of my life but it passed and it was ok, it did help us bond as a family. The kids got more insular but their education didn’t suffer too much and we’ve come out of it ok. It wasn’t a disaster

I just don't feel this strongly about it.

Same here. It wasn't great but now it's pretty much over and things are pretty much back to normal.