I can speak to this...
Had our first kid six months before COVID really became a thing. I was a Golf Pro at the time. My wife worked in admin for construction. We were both "Essential Workers" and stayed working through the entirety of the pandemic. Dealing with the general Publix during that time, let alone the Boomers... I'm still reeling from it. Golf Courses had to remain open, a window construction company needed to remain open. Not sure that the hell was "Essential" about either of those, but going to work every day hoping you don't bring home the virus to a baby, especially in the early days where we didn't know much about it and who was affected more severely.
We got to watch our friends take six or more months off, making more than we were from the increased unemployment. A pseudo... "break" in the grind that is adult life, while we just kept soldiering on. That is and was beyond exhausting. Couple that with ridiculous inflation from said virus and the worst management of a health crisis in modern history, and the fact that the American Dream has been dead for decades, oh and the fact that we're just subject to daily utter chaos since TFG is back in office, how are we not broken? I'm fucking tired, man.