Please help me to find some enthusiasm for this holiday

[PennyCrayon1]

Yeah I know. Absolute first world problem. I am a spoiled and privileged individual. I’m not proud of this one.

Basically we are going on holiday next weekend. Abroad. For a week. Two kids, ages 7 and 8, who are climbing the walls with excitement.

I haven’t done anything. I haven’t packed or planned anything. Not a damn thing. I have no clothes to wear (too fat) and my swimming costume needs replaced and I wanted to put little bags of stuff together for the kids to do on the plane. Get my hair and nails done etc. clean the house. I’ll be lucky at this rate to get the very basics done. I have absolutely nothing to wear myself and I don’t have time to shop and there’s no summer stuff in anyway.

i work full time in a very intense job. Getting out on a week’s annual leave is a brutal uphill struggle of a task and I’m feeling anxious about the amount I have to do. This week I got some really disappointing work news which I’ve been trying to push to the back of my mind but it’s dragging me down and heightening my anxiety around it all. At the same time we have work being done on the house. I am dieting hard. The kids are great but full on, clubs etc. There’s just a lot. And I have woken up this morning with what I think is an eye infection so that’s great.

i think i am just exhausted. I’m usually really good at digging deep in the way that mums do, and making sure it all happens successfully, but I just don’t seem to be able to find it this time. Husband (who is very good and is already carrying more than his share of the load) has noticed my arse dragging and has gone from gentle encouragement to “seriously we really need to get cracking now…”. Pressure. At this point I don’t even want to talk about the holiday. I feel a bit frozen.

I just want to lie in the bath and watch Friends and drink wine. I don’t really know why I’m posting to be honest. I just needed to say it.

Hope the holiday goes brilliantly and the ChatGPT list works out. First items on the list might be to double-check everyone's passport is OK and make sure copies of travel documentation are to hand and ask a pharmacist about the eye. Do you need to get any foreign cash?

I was actually thinking the other day that a Mumsnet 'generic packing and planning list' might be quite useful as a sticky page that people can point each other to and new additions could be added to. I suppose it would need a bit of active curating periodically - and almost impossible to cater for everyone (medical, number of kids, type of holiday).

There are plenty of generic packing lists on google of course https://www.google.com/search?&q=generic+packing+list - I don't know how many of them also include the 'holiday admin' stuff (passports, visas, make a note of hotel phone number and address, numbers for taxis, insurance phone number etc).

One way might be to get a bit of A4 paper and split in half top to bottom, and then split the bottom again vertically so 3 segments in all. Top might be your brain dump of items to pack that you add to whenever one pops into your head. Bottom two might be 'to find / buy' or 'to check / do' (e.g. if something needs washing or something needs charging).

Personally I use the wonderfully helpful WorkFlowy (free*) on my laptop (it's browser-based and there's a phone app) which lets me dump in a bunch of bullet points as they occur to me -
• coat
• shoes
• clothing
• toothpaste
• hairbrush
• wash bag

and then re-order them by dragging and dropping the bullet point, nest them (indent) or drag and drop below but slightly to the right to make categories.
• clothing
........• coat
........• shoes
• wash bag
........• toothpaste
........• hairbrush

If you hover over any bullet a little menu pops up and one of the options is 'complete' which then greys the text and puts a line through. Very satisfying.

I think the really great utility is the brain-dumping, re-ordering and nesting. Of course you can do this with a bullet point list in Word but dragging and dropping the bullet is much harder (and not doable at all on paper!).

*The free version gives you 250 bullet points per month I think (I pay for an annual subscription because I'm a heavy user for work event organising, project planning as well as trips away). You can colour words or highlight them too.

If you press SHIFT+ENTER you can add a note to yourself about any bullet point and you can of course reduce the number of bullet points by putting things like pants, socks, bras, tights, vests or whatever onto one line!

Some alternatives to WorkFlowy: https://www.reddit.com/r/Workflowy/comments/nmcs23/alternatives_to_workflowy_that_allow_simple/

Jo

Unless you have people staying when you’re away fuck cleaning the house.

You’ve got this. 5 nights of 30 to 45 mins and you can get most of it sorted. What kind of holiday?

Focus on sorting stuff for yourslef. Order some swimming costumes now, Next generally has quickly delivery. Order on credit card, order all you might like in a variety of sizes you can return the one you didn’t use when you get home. Check your clothes, sunny beach/pool holiday? ,3 swim suits, 4 day dresses, 4 evening dresses, flip flops, flat night time shoes silver or gold so go with everything, knickers, one nude bra and one dark bra. 45 mins to order stuff

Do you really need your hair and nails done? If yes, try and book them in or nails can be done there.

Go on boots website and order toileteries and then you’re done. Don’t forget paracetomol, immodium, bite and skin cream. Total - 45 mins, including writing the list

How long is the flight? No more 5/6hours? If the kids have tablets load of them (15 mins), make sure headphone work (5 mins) order them a couple of new books (amazon), some pens/pencil (10 mins) and either grab them 2 magazine each on the way home from work or at the airport. Grab some snacks too and that’s the stuff on the plane sorted. 15 mins Total - 45 mins

Keep your packing list for next time!

I feel you so much. This was me at the end of the school summer hols when we'd arranged to go away (not even abroad!) And I could not be arsed! I just threw stuff in a bag. Didn't do anything for myself I wanted to. I got there & hated the first day. And then i relaxed a bit & overall had a great time. Just look after yourself & be kind to yourself.