Children: ‘No Christmas, Please!’ YAY!

[PoliticalPossum]

So, my teenagers confirmed last night they don’t want to do Christmas! They just want to spend the day with family, relaxing, eating good food, playing with the dog and watching old films - no roast, no presents, no forced interactions with family they don’t like.

Not sure whether to laugh, because honestly just eating nibbles, fruit and salads all day whilst we watch Star Wars and DH loses so badly at scrabble he tosses the tiles across the table again sounds amazing, or to cry tears of joy because they actually agreed on something together (honestly, it’s the first time I can remember them ever agreeing)

Not even anything to really comment on here. I just wanted to post and say how happy I am that we all get a day off and can actually just relax without any pressure! Obviously did not say this to them, just nodded and said ‘oh that sounds lovely’ but I am so pleased!

People could at least read MNHQ's comment before coming on to deliver a lecture about arseholes/troll hunting/bratty teens!

In a thread designed to get people all frothed up about no presents, the OP has given all of us the most beautiful gift of all!

OP, if you're reading from the island of deregistration, thank you!!

And have a mother in her late 80s???

So your mother had you when she was almost 60?!

@PoliticalPossum???

@biscuitsandbooks I since have and appreciate it may all be made up. But even so the original post really didn't seem that far out to me...

That makes me a bit sad actually🙁

I’m thinking maybe Julie Walters (resuming her Two Soups! character) as the mother, and Miriam Margolyes as the MIL.
Both bring the most enormous suitcases which are full of bottles of Harvey’s Bristol cream, pork pies, bombay mix and at least 6 dog eared paperbacks of absolute filth.
Both loathe salad but after a monumental
eruption by the OP a few years ago when a bowl of tabbouleh was thrown at the wall they both keep schtum but share meaningful brief looks at the table each evening.

MIL steals the teaspoons for the lols

Worth celebrating OP and have a lovely day.

What is this about the husband and the university coursework and why have I never seen it???

The far out bit of the original post is the decision on no presents one week before Christmas - when obviously presents have already been bought. Making that decision in advance is one thing, but it was obviously pretty questionable. The Scrabble thing was a bit yikes. But staying home and eating what they want was very unremarkable and most posters replied along those lines - do what you want, Christmas is a time for spending time with your family and having the things you like.

The OP was then getting pretty stretched trying to come up with an explanation on the present front - oh we have bought them but even so the kids don't want them, sure, whatever - and it all came crashing down on the disparity of the ages (teenage children, 30yo mother who has been hosting for twenty years 😬, grannies in their late 80s!) which was so irredeemable the OP had to deregister rather than try to salvage it. I don't think there's much 'may be made up' about it!

I’d give up pigs in blankets to watch two ancient women gleefully discussing dirty books

They also each bring stashes of indulgent, rich food and snacks in gluttonous quantities, smuggled in their cases, to share midnight feasts every night under cover of darkness, sneaking into each others' rooms, frantically having to brush away the crumbs of evidence when OP comes in with a morning (herbal) cuppa for them the next day 🙊

...just realised your post already referenced their sneaky stashes of food. Oh well. They bring EVEN MORE 😂

You’d think if you were going to go to the trouble to make something up like this you’d at least keep a piece of paper with your story on it to keep it straight 😂. If you’ve said you are 30 don’t make your kids older teens and say you’ve been hosting your mother in law for Christmas for 20 years 🤣. It’s just basic maths.

Low quality trolling really. I’d expect more effort. Ask your adopted teens to get you a notebook when you do presents do you can keep track of your storyline in 🤣.

Such a shame, the OP had a great starter for a MN bun fight and fucked up with her numbers. I was waiting for her to say she was adopted from a Siberian orphanage when her 51 year old mum was stopping off on a cruise.

I feel like I have missed out by not reading the cum on homework thread. Is it in classics?

🤣🤣🤣

Me too. Look how many people engage when people just say that they are sad or lonely though. If someone was wishing they had the teens and dog etc, people would understand and engage.

And how many threads you can respond to people on.

You don't need to make up a life to talk to people.

This is pure bliss to me. Merry Christmas indeed!

Oops! Just seen the conflict! Can someone more veteran explain what's the matter with this thread? I obvs just read the OP, then commented and then read the rest of it. I'm not sure I understand: the OP is a troll?

No one can say if the op is a troll. However judging from her own words - 31 year old mum to a 15 and 16 year olds supposedly adopted from another country, having hosted her mother and mil for Christmas for the last 20 years (since she was 11), on top of darling teens saying they’re happy with a salad and no gifts for the day itself… is it something that you can believe as plausible?

You can always do 'See All' on OP's posts if it's a long thread, and if MumsnetHQ have commented you can jump straight to their post from the top of the thread. It's always worth doing if there are a lot of posts as generally threads move fast and a lot of information comes to light!

In this case the OP made the whole thing up and none of the saintly teenagers or wine-swigging grannies exist at all.

But folk were being rude from the very first post when the story was perfectly plausible.

Not really. People did ask questions about the presents, as it did seem odd - based on the fact Christmas is a week away, it was reasonable to assume the OP had bought presents for the kids already so it is strange to not give them. Most people said go ahead, do what you like though.

But people were rude from the get go, there's not really any disrupting that, it's there in black and white. It wasn't necessarily odd about the gifts, but even if it was, there was no need for the rudeness.

“Oh, Dor, where’s the salad? And I’ll say, Oh, Fatty where’s the cash.”

One or two, not many. There are always a couple of posters who have to be argumentative but skimming the first page of the thread there really isn't much in the way of rudeness standing out.