If you're an introvert where do you go to 'escape' your noisy family?!

[rosseyv]

I know this won't last forever and soon enough my kids won't want to be around me, which will be devastating. However, right now I have an almighty desire to run away. I'm either at work (loads of people, intense) or at home (noisy, intense kids).

In the summer I do get away for a night or 2 and sit on a beach reading a book, take long walks alone etc. But where could I go in the winter?

I need to recharge and my home is absolutely not a haven. I have zero opportunity to recharge, and it's actually making me feel quite ill!

Any tips from fellow introverts will be gratefully received!

I hide in the utility room / basement / garden quite a lot.

We also have "quiet" time for children once they are out of naps. I don't care what they do during quiet time but it's in their rooms with the door shut.

The library?

Go to a hotel pool,off season usually quiet but relaxing

I do a walk, by myself, every evening after dinner.

Gyms are blissful havens, free of children, on cold, dark, wet evenings.

I hate to say this, but some kids never grow out of it! Even at 22 and 19, my oldest two follow me around like puppies!

I cope in two ways- firstly, when I'm working I wear headphones. Even if I don't switch them on, they muffle background noise and the kids know that I don't want to chat. They don't always pay any attention to what I want, but mostly it works. Secondly, I have a large polycarbonate tunnel in the garden, which I can lock from the inside. Yesterday I was feeling a bit frazzled, so I spent 3 hours in there potting up seedlings. It recharges my batteries for the rest of the day if I get some quiet time with my plants early in the morning.

I spend far too long in the toilet/bathroom.

Long walk,coffee shop,cinema,library or art gallery - all places where I can have some quiet time on my own.

At home I have a garden swing where I escape when the weather allows and leave the kids in the house

Walking has always been the answer but I can't stand the dark, cold, rain at the moment.

Go to a nice hotel for a couple of days like you do in the summer, but read by a nice indoor pool/spa area/lounge instead of the beach.

Otherwise it will just be 10 minutes snatched here and there. If the summer break does you good, put a winter one in too.

Yep, it does continue...my kids aren't even young. If anything it has gotten so much worse as I now have no evening. They want to talk to me until at least 9pm. I try to explain as politely as I can that I'm worn out and can't talk all the time. It's really hard. I need to get new headphones, I've lost mine. Great idea!

I've just joined one, hoping that would be the answer.

Swimming pool, library, bookshop, downstairs loo, nice friend who needs dog/cat feeding, gym - with headphones, book club, night school.

How old are your children? I compressed my hours and have Mondays off. Now my children are at school I have 6 glorious hours every week completely alone.

DH takes DC out for a day/afternoon so I can relax at home and not go anywhere.

I am training for a marathon.

Another consequence of training for a marathon is that I often have to go to bed quite early.

Mine have known from a young age that if I shut the door to my bedroom, they need to try not to disturb me except in an emergency. Yes dd2 doesn't always have her best idea of an emergency and it could easily be that she needs an ice cream now type emergency, but it meant I could take 10 minutes.
When they were too small to be left, I used to have a cupboard door in the kitchen I could sit behind for a quick break. Normally long enough to eat a chocolate biscuit in peace. There was a stairgate on the kitchen door, but they'd be in the lounge so the other side of the stairgate.

Cafe. With noise cancelling headphones if necessary. I hid in a cafe today whilst ostensibly Christmas shopping.

Museums are good.

My family aren't particularly noisy, but I do feel the need to recharge sometimes, if work has been hectic!

I love a long bus ride alone, an hour just gazing out of the window is heaven! Obviously I'm normally on a bus because I'm going from A to B, but if I've needed to buy a travel card due to various commitments in the week, I'll sometimes use it for one of my favourite 'scenic' rides. Either the 'loop' bus that goes all along the coast and back to where you started, or a similar city one. It's not costing me any extra, it's just an hour of free time on a travel card I've already bought!

I go to yoga classes, but I take the tube rather than drive so it takes longer and I mooch in some shops on the way. Prob give me about 3 hours alone at the weekend.

I took up wild swimming. Can’t chatter constantly at me when I’m 100 metres out in the middle of a cold lake. 😂

Honestly, I take myself out for walks even in the winter (weekends or day off during the week). Or I go for a spa day (there’s one near us that does a Friday evening spa session for like £20). Or I go away for a night or a weekend or longer and just re-charge.

@HarpieDuJour . Secondly, I have a large polycarbonate tunnel in the garden, which I can lock from the inside.
I thought you meant an actual tunnel. Like a narrow thing you crawled inside of 😹

I've taken on an allotment
I have an adult autistic son (who won't ever leave home) and who likes to talk...and repeat a lot. I love him dearly but sometimes need space and peace.

He doesn't do outdoors.

It's MY happy place, rain or shine, a couple of hours digging or weeding or planting and the world feels good again!

I have considered that too!But no, this is more like a polytunnel but made with polycarbonate sheeting rather than thin plastic.

A bath, with locked door and a candle.

Yoga in the dark, with. A candle.

Quick morning walk.

A.book.