Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

This Dry January thing...

36 replies

prettypleasewithsugarontop · 01/02/2014 16:22

AIBU to think that if you're doing this to raise funds for a charity (well done) - then why would you spend every day whinging about going without drink Hmm I don't get it. I sponsored a 'friend' on 2nd Jan and she has spent every day going on about win and desperate for a drink etc. She posted a photo on FB at 00:12 this morning and in it she was necking one of those whole bottle glasses full of red wine Hmm

It is possible I an being/feeling unreasonable but I was still a bit Confused I am teetotal btw

OP posts:
everlong · 04/02/2014 07:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SelectAUserName · 04/02/2014 07:16

I've been thinking about this some more. Over thinking? Probably.

I couldn't give a toss what people choose to give up privately for their own health, or on a whim to see if they can do it, or for Lent or whatever. I just dislike the fact that by making Dry January a charity "thing", some people are acting like their relatively easy self-sacrifice - and if their relationship with alcohol is balanced then it should be easy to give it up for a month, and if it isn't they have got some degree of problem, regardless of protestations to the contrary, and should probably take it as a warning sign - is on a par with running a marathon or climbing a mountain. It's the martyrdom and the whinging and the incessant countdown that is so annoying. Seriously, if it's that hard to go without for a month, go to AA or make a GP appointment and if it isn't that hard, then shut the fuck up about it.

I enjoy alcohol - a cold crisp cider on a summer's day, mulled wine at Christmas, kicking back with the odd bottle of Desperados - but if I "couldn't" drink it for a month, for whatever reason, that wouldn't be much hardship. I fucking love blue cheese but I could go without for 31 days; there are plenty of other delicious things to eat (and drink) in the meantime.

PiratesLifeForMe · 04/02/2014 07:23

Agree with it being odd to make it a charity thing, I'd've felt it was a bit cheeky to ask to be sponsored for it.

angeltulips · 04/02/2014 07:24

I did dry January (not for charity though, I just did it) & it fucked me off how much bloody time I spent explaining to people why I wasn't drinking and now most of my friends think I am pregnant

Perhaps these people (in a cack-handed way) are feeling pressure from friends so are pre-emptively moaning, as it were? (Of course there's always the option of deleting them from FB if you're so catsbumface about everything they post.)

And I DID find dry January hard. Not in a I've-got-DT way, but in a I-enjoy-alcohol-in-many-situations way. Does that make me drink dependent? Perhaps, mildly so. It's one of the reasons I do dry January every year, to reset and re recalibrate for the year. You should pick those judgey-pants out of your arse & support your friends if they have similar motivations.

HoneyDragon · 04/02/2014 07:26

fluffy if I hadn't challenged myself to stop drinking I wouldn't have now been sober for five years. So you go on hating people from your bubble of perfectness.

I get people are entitled to their opinions but alcohol is a demon for many people, who feel they can't admit because of the sanctimonious and mean.

I'm proud to be sober. I'm glad dry January now exists for the people it has helped by giving them a socially acceptable reason to try and stop. It does more good than harm.

Op. Your friend might be a twat. But that's not the campaigns fault.

Dry January is a good postitive thing. As is Stoptober.

DarlingGrace · 04/02/2014 07:33

I've had to block a Sports Relief page on FB. I'm sick of being harangued by someone who will be doing their chosen sport - the thing they do as a fun hobby. If they want to donate 20 million groats to a Pre-School in Peru, well marvellous, personally, I don't. So shut up and go away. Thank you.

AnnaLegovah · 04/02/2014 07:36

What I dont get is the unncessary night out at the end of Dry January. I know 2 friends who made a big fuss of being dry all month and then got totally slaughtered at the weekend 'as a reward'. And thought they were very grown up and hilarious. Hmm

NotNewButNameChanged · 04/02/2014 08:32

I think people who ask to be sponsored for Dry January have a flipping cheek. I wouldn't ask people to sponsor me for not eating a Cadbury's crème egg each day in the month leading up to Easter and then post a status update of me sat eating 50 of the bloody things.

People will be asking for sponsorship for observing Lent next.

If someone wishes to abstain for a month, good for them. Just don't ask others to sponsor you, but put the cost of all the alcohol you would have drunk into a charity box yourself.

VampyreofTimeandMemory · 04/02/2014 08:44

I don't get it either, I'd have no problem abstaining for a month.

PlainBrownEnvelope · 04/02/2014 08:48

But people find different stuff hard and people find different stuff habitual. I agree that going on about it is not that helpful but at the same time the idea is to sponsor people to do stuff they find difficult, not that you find difficult. To be fair, dry jan is more of a challenge than bloody Race for Life aka ' walk less far than my daily commute and ask for cash for so doing' and that's a massive fundraiser.

VampyreofTimeandMemory · 04/02/2014 08:53

I sponsored a colleague because ultimately, that money has gone to a good cause.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread