What the Covid crisis has taught us about ourselves

For over 18 months, Covid-19 has been circling the globe, mutating, and putting everyone through various stages of misery. However, it has been a learning experience for most people, and none thing that we all discovered is that we are not as hygienic as we hoped all were. Here are some of the lessons that we are walking away with.

Face masks may be here to stay, long after Covid

Face masks have been a hot topic of the past year or so, since being made a mandatory requirement in many countries for several months. The debate continues on whether they really are effective or not. What we do know is that other countries around the world have been using facemasks during cold and flu season to stop the spread of common viruses. At first, masks were hard to come by but now ordering online makes it easier than ever to continue to protect yourself from common viruses if you so wish. Will face masks stay around? Probably. It may not be a year-round thing, but many people believe in the benefits of wearing them in the winter months and have been talking about doing so.

Nobody washes their hands as much as they should, or how they should

Washing your hands has become second nature to most people but it was kind of shocking when the governments announced that people needed to follow a handwashing guide. Much to most peoples horror, nobody has been washing their hands properly for years. Now, scrubbing your hands in public as if you are prepping for surgery is second nature. Hand sanitiser has also become a handbag essential in case you can’t get near a sink. Many people will adopt a better handwashing practice in future and hopefully, we can teach our kids some better habits too.

Essential workers are not who we thought they were

When the world was forced to shut down, there were a few people that had to keep trucking on. The essential workers. The bus drivers, the nurses, the food shop owners, the bin collectors, the cleaners, the HGV drivers, the postal workers. All of these people continued to work in order to keep the world running at a basic level. Meanwhile, everyone else took to their kitchen table with their laptop and began working from home. It really showed how unnecessary some things are and how important our essential workers are. It also showed that many people can work from home if they have a good internet connection and a half-decent workspace.

Homeschooling is hard

Children, love them as we do, can be hard work when they are cooped up all day. And, with the added bonus of having to home school them, parents were ready for climbing the walls! A lot of parents’ mental health took a bashing at this time. Every time a message or update from our childless friends appeared saying that they were bored working from home, we had to stop ourselves from dropping our kids off with them for a few hours. After 18 months of intermittent homeschooling, it is safe to say almost every parent is more grateful for schools than ever. Working from home full-time and trying to homeschool children is not a sustainable solution.