The dream versus the reality - add your own

[FlamingoCroquet]

Mine is gardening
The dream: watering the roses in shorts and t-shirt, camomile growing in a sunny corner of my lawn, the bees buzzing round the honeysuckle
The reality: it's still freezing cold in May, I'm disposing of 25 snails who decimate even the honeysuckle, and cleaning up cat shit.

honestly I'd love to see the celeb version of this thread. e.g. paris hilton's small dog doing a poo in her handbag, influencers behind the scenes etc. Would be hilarious!

Banking career:

Dream: high status, rewarding, amazing luxe lifestyle, great handbags, team of eager colleagues, supportive peers

Reality: constant sabotage, struggle and passige aggressive take downs by competitive peers 24/7, repeating same old work with nee corporate lingo, no style, team constantly infighting and trying to get one over one another, not enough leftover income to look glam and feel embarrassed stating industry due to looking frumpy, white and asian men treated 100% better and fasttracked

Oh yes, anti-influencers would be fun! Maybe they do exist if you look hard enough.

I'm guessing Citizens Advice.

I'll have to name change now I've probably outed myself.

It could be most of today’s public sector TBH. I thought immediately of HMRC or the Passport Office but it could be anything from Border Force to the Vehicle Licensing Agency.

Oh wait, public sector, not third sector. I'm sure the experience is quite common, though.

bahahahahaha

This is gold! (as indeed is Michael Fabricant’s wig )

A family bike ride
the dream: all of us gliding effortlessly by the canal chatting and laughing until we reach a coffee shop where we sit in the sun with drinks and a bun.
the reality: One can't stop, the other can't go, neither can steer, or it appears, hear what i'm saying. I trip over someone's bloody dog while trying to stop child going into the canal, get an earful from the owner, and pack children off home to and afternoon of tv while I sulk.

Yep. All of this!

Fallowandbar

I reckon it's Probation. They are in dire straights.

The dream - reaching my 40s, life is sorted with a couple of pre-teens and a lovely DH. Comfortably well off and enjoying life as a family. Working my way up the ladder in my career. Lots of me time. Own house decorated aesthetically with people coming in and out.

Reality - chronically ill OH which means no family time or reliable wage. Plus a mountain of urgent debt. Still renting a house covered in mucky fingerprints and various spills. 2 preschoolers who are just plain mad half the time. Not even got 2 pennies to rub together. I stepped down at work and have more than halved my salary as I can't rely on OH for childcare. The only me time I get is when the kids are in bed and I collapse on the sofa before falling asleep mid way through a tv programme. Not exercised in years and everything hurts. My skin is now grey. My hair is following suit.

Le sigh. Maybe my 50s........

Dream: going on a once in a lifetime hiking holiday easily walking across several 3800 m passes and climbing 4100m high mountains and being on top of the world in every sense!
Preparations went well done some training in the Alps and gone to the gym 6x week for the last 8 months

Reality: oh shit what have I just spent the best part of £4.5k on??? Altitude sickness and exhaustion turn the dream into a nightmare. Sleeping in a tent with sub zero temperatures outside.

Oh the sense of relief apon finishing the hike is great... and then there are is the additional sightseeing afterwards! 4100m up with 3 more days of altitude sickness all while rattling in a mini van across some rocky windswept plateau and sub zero temperatures.

I hear you. Baking with the kids was always a horrible experience, not fun, frustrating, messy, meltdowns (me and them). Definitely not the bonding, full of happy memories experiences I had envisaged it to be😬

I honestly think it would be good to collate these into a book for expecting parents! Dispelling all the myths we are encouraged to believe about child-rearing. Ok I wasn't completely naiive about it but so many of the points on here do ring true for how I thought it would be / the reality!!!

This sounds like a '95 MX5, stupid little cars <3

It reminded me of my neighbour running in his underwear to close the roof because it started raining 😂

The dream is a lovely, relaxing and fun day at the beach with family
The reality is hell- sand everywhere, everything is a huge huge effort, you literally don't relax. Everyone ends the day hot and bothered

Dream: days out to cool places with children playing merrily in the sunshine

Reality: terrible traffic, extortionate entrance fees, rain, kids hate it and would rather be at home in the garden

Dream: Family hiking day out, long chats about life the universe and everything whilst admiring stunning scenery and communing with nature.

Reality: Red faced stumpy legged me furiously trying to keep up with marching DH and limber DS while my thighs burn on steep bits. Half of Hampshire’s mud sticking to my boots, clothes get shredded by barbed wire fences, we add 7 miles to the route thanks to a missed turning to a possibly fictitious footpath. Require 3 days to recover full function in right hip.

But hey, at least we can get away with a pizza that evening.

yeah this. I retrained into a professional job (law) from a senior charity management role thinking that it would pay better and I would be working with committed driven people and could be a part of small good professional teams with the added bonus of having more money.

Reality - working myself into the ground for a very great deal less money and having to deal with people who backstab and undermine and outright lie in order to get themselevs to the top of the rubbish heap. I discovered I do not have colleagues, just apparently competition and opponents.

It was not anything like I expected.

Baking with small children

The dream: a fun, bonding but also lifeskill-imparting activity that fills lots of time.

Reality: Some killjoy comes along to tell you cakes are bad for you and you should never touch them let alone bake them

The dream:
Living alone with my dog in a country village, enjoying my part time job and peace of mind after years in an abusive relationship.

The reality:
Constant struggle to get everything done with no help or support, finishing each day alone knowing I've got the same uphill struggle tomorrow and the day after and so on.

Centreparcs

Dream: cycling carelessly through the sun dappled forest with laughing family off to lunch in a forest glade restaurant

Reality: dodging hundreds of walkers, cyclists of varying speeds and sense of direction whilst trying to coax your own 'varying speed and sense of direction' children along... listening to tantruming toddlers and tired grumpy parents before an overpriced fast food experience in a noisy bright plastic cafe

And chain comes off or a child does....cue screaming and oil everywhere