IABU but I do not like outside

@ConBatulations I agree about the eyesight comment: it affects my eyesight if I stay indoors for too long, especially if I'm on screens.

Being outside is vital for well-being (one reason of many I think Saint Boris's lockdowns were EXTREMELY harmful, especially to children). Yes, it can be a bit impractical, with British weather. But you layer up, you wear clothes appropriate for outdoors.

It also seems to be a Mumsnet thing to moan about nice spring and summer weather as much as cold and wet weather.

I am the opposite, I get cabin fever and I need a daily schlep like I'm a dog. You do you though. Do you have anyone in your life who can do the outdoorsy stuff with your kids instead?

Im like this op im single and childless thank god.

I do kinda get what you mean. It’s very sensory overload when we suddenly get mega sunny days from 6am to almost 8am. I’m always a lot calmer on grey or even drizzly days.

I used to be like this... mainly because of horrendous hay-fever, so I was effectively allergic to being outdoors for most of the year (or indoors, if we were visiting someone who had flowers indoors)! Also, outside was too busy and full of people, unless I took the dog out for a walk over the moors.

I then had a very indoor job (primary school teacher), where I didn't set foot outside in daylight at all, apart from on Tuesday mornings when I did playground duty. I discovered that I did not like being indoors at all times, either!

I now work outside in the countryside. It is generally OK (fairly quiet, very few people, etc.), unless it is inconveniently windy, icy, or too hot! I am too pale and my sensitive skin just goes lobster red when exposed to heat. I much prefer cold weather, when I can layer up like an onion. In hot weather, there are only so many layers that I can safely remove before I risk getting arrested for public indecency!

Poeple like OP are a worry. It's not great to see 'outside', as they put it, as some alien and dangerous place. This is the UK - not Australia, where I grant you, there might well be dangers lurking for children's play.

I don't know where our education system has gone wrong to produce attitudes like this. "Bugs' is always a giveaway. Do you mean the fantastic world of butterflies, moths, spiders, beetles, bees etc etc etc?

I think we need to worry for nature and the planet with attitudes like this - I thought they were a thing of the past.

OP - you need to seek help to overcome your irrational fear of 'outside' for your sake and your children's.

I agree with a lot of this - eating outdoors is vastly overrated, unless conditions are perfect (which they rarely are!)

I totally get this. Don’t get me wrong I love my garden and do a fair amount of gardening and making it look really nice. But when a friend comes round and suggests we have a cup of tea in the garden I just don’t get it. I’d prefer to be indoors albeit with the patio doors fully open and admire my garden from there.

there’s no anxiety in that - just preference.

Fair enough. If I lived in a busy, urban area I would definitely like going outside a lot less. All I can hear outside my house at the moment is the birds. I just went for a run in the sunshine - it was lovely!

I find summer difficult because as soon as there’s even a hint of sun, everyone insists on sitting outdoors to eat etc and I can’t stand it. It’ll be 17 degrees, windy AF, napkins flying everywhere…such a joy.

I'm generally very outdoorsy but I completely agree with this - having full-blown meals that you prepare yourself outdoors seems like a monumental amount of hassle for basically no reward. My father in law 'treated' us to a 'barbecue' a few years ago so we could 'enjoy' eating outside when they visited in the summer. It's not really a barbecue - it's a small gas grill that is completely unsuited to cooking a proper meal. Nevertheless it has become the law that we must use the fucking thing to cook if it's not raining between May and September. I can't stand it - it takes five times as long to cook everything, everything except the last thing to go on is cold by the time it is actually eaten, somebody is always faffing about going back and forth to the kitchen to fetch something that would normally have been within easy reach, the in-laws go mental every time an insect comes within ten feet of the table, or if the sun is in their eyes, or if it's too hot, or if it's too cold, or if there's a cloud, or if there's a breeze etc. And then I'm expected to compliment the in-laws on their culinary skills and say it's just like being on the Med. It's just shit.

I don't love outside, its nice if the weather is good, not too hot, and there's somewhere comfortable to sit. Otherwise I'd prefer to be at home on my sofa. The noise in a soft play is a not insignificant part of why I don't have kids so not with you on that.

Growing things in your garden is a bloody tyranny, I found that out in Lockdown.

I've figured out that I'm extremely sensitive to temperature changes. So gusts of wind, even if they're not that strong will take it out of me. I've invested in a quiltet onesie which really makes a HUGE difference so I'd recommend one of those to make it more bearable. I like the smells and the sounds of outside, the colours.

Me too!
It's beautiful today, sunshine & blue sky, and I just couldn't wait to get outside.

I go for a walk 30 - 40 minutes every day and try to do this as early in the morning as possible because apparently it helps to regulate your circadian rhythms which promotes good sleep amongst other things - I struggle a bit with insomnia and have tried many things and this really does seem to make a difference

Absolutely not. I'll always take sitting outside to being cooped up indoors, particularly after such a long, miserable winter where it didn't stop raining for like the first month and a half.

Met up with some friends at a pub on Sunday. It was terribly crowded, noisy, and hot. But they still wanted to sit inside. It was a bit windy, sure, but still sunny and we'd have been perfectly fine sat outside in jackets.

Some people are just too delicate for their own good.

What I dislike about outside is traffic, cars blasting crap music, People shouting into mobile phones, and bloody little delivery bikes everywhere with people dressed in black looking miserable in helmets, it’s like a swarm of human bluebottles. Also , lime bikes clogging the pavements and most recently, People freely scooting and cycling on pavements, I mean, seriously! Other than that, outside is nice, I used to like it, but it’s definitely gone downhill.

Trouble is you know that being an no go out person is not a realistic option for your children. Not good parenting.
I bet if you go you will find it not quite as awful as you are imagining it to be. Yes, it can require a bit of effort but anything worthwhile is.

Each to their own, but I hate being inside all the time. I feel cooped up. So glad that better weather is coming!

YABU. I love being outside unless the weather is properly grim. The idea of preferring soft play to a park or the countryside boggles my brain. Soft play is awful - livid-coloured, sticky plasticky surfaces, loud echoey atmosphere, crap food and quite often lots of bad parenting. I'm very glad to have left that stage behind. We moved to a rural area in order to get more outside!

Anyone who prefers a soft play play over a walk by a river when the sun is shining is absolutely crackers IMO but you do you 🤣

Please continue to spend time outside with your children as it's really important for their eyesight. Take a waterproof picnic blanket and thermos. Meet a friend.

I love outside. But I don't expect it to match inside for sitting in comfort or good dining conditions. So I work with its strengths and do the things it best delivers, good conditions for excercise through walking in fresh air with stimulation of the scenery. The sensory experience of the smells and feel of sun, breeze, rain etc. Seeing things up close that would be inaccessible from outside. The opportunity for DC to take up more space, make more noise and engage with different things, and the pleasure of watching them. Seeing animals and birds in the flesh. Outside isn't a rubbish version of inside. It's an entirely different thing.

It’s a germ fest though 🤢