Survey f inds lockdown a big letdown for lovers

PREDICTIONS of a coronavirus baby boom may be ill-founded, if the findings of an Irish Mail on Sunday survey are anything to go by.

While 14% of you say you are having more sex amid the lockdown, 24% said they were getting less jiggy with it while cooped up at home, compared to before the restrictions came into force. The remaining 62% said their sex lives remained unchanged.

The findings come from a survey of readers of our sister websites rollercoaster.ie and evoke.ie with the nearly 1,000 respondents being predominantly women.

On the thorny issue of household chores, 19% now find that they and their partner are sharing the housework more equally, while 10% said the distribution was less equal, and 71% said there was no change.

It’s a similar situation when it comes to where the burden of childcare falls, with 15% saying they were now sharing duties more equally with their partner, compared

‘24% are getting less jiggy with it at home’

to 10% who said the burden was falling less equally.

Despite so many of us being cooped up all day with the kids, just 6% said they now feel like spending less time with their children, compared with 44% who want more.

The result is similar when asked the same question about their partners. Just 5% said they were now more likely to split up compared with 28% who said they were less likely to do so. Meanwhile, 39% say their general mood had got a little worse during lockdown.

The survey also found that 37% of respondents were working from home for the first time, compared to 8% who were already home workers before the crisis.

Another 17% were working outside the home, while 38% are not working at all.

Worker satisfaction is a mixed bag, with 8% saying they are now enjoying work a lot more, while 17% were unhappier.

More than half the respondents said the thing they missed most during lockdown was meeting up with family, 21% missed their friends, and 14% missed eating in restaurants and cafés.

Having a haircut (82%) and going on holiday (75%) were the two main activities cited by people who said they were prevented from doing something by the crisis, with a worrying 26% saying they had been prevented from going to the doctor.

On the subject of money, 4% said their income had gone up a lot, compared with 15% who said it had dropped significantly.

And it seems we are a nation of shamers – when it comes to easing the lockdown restrictions, more than half of respondents feel it is okay to publicly criticise people on the streets who breach social distancing rules, compared with

37% who disagree.