Based on six focus group interviews in three age groups, 11/12-, 14/15- and 18/19-year-olds, and a hermeneutic analysis driven by the theoretical concept of lived citizenship, this article sheds light on what happens to children and young people’s lived citizenship, when politicians and institutional representatives are forced to take immediate action in a crisis that intervenes in the lives of all children and young people. A focus on their agentic role in their lived citizenship learning processes is interesting, not least because their loss of rights during the pandemic was a lived experience for everyone. We can conclude that our study gives important insights into children and young people’s lived citizenship during the pandemic. There was room for agency, participation, and negotiation, but many times their participation possibilities were too limited, with no leeway to negotiate.