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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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To be thankful Christmas is over for another year....

564 replies

Oakenbeach · 25/12/2019 13:00

Presents opened by 6am.... Dinner eaten and decorations RIPPED down and back in the loft. Roll on New Year.

OP posts:
Lovemusic33 · 26/12/2019 09:47

Hope you got some bargains in the Next sale OP. I used to do the next sale when the kids were small as I could kit them out for the year, now they are older they want designer stuff and adult clothes (Next adult clothes doesn’t really suit teens), I don’t really miss going to the sale, it was crazy with all those people coughing their germs over me and pushing.

OhHolyNightWaking · 26/12/2019 09:51

What a miserable thread! Confused

Oliversmumsarmy · 26/12/2019 10:00

You pay more using the apps (at least where I live).... but my organisation means I never get stung by things like not having enough change and having to pay more

I travel up and down the country and have never come across this before.

How does that even work?

You must live in the only area in the country that paying by actual money with its extra expense of having to get someone to empty the machines is not only a different price but “cheaper”

Around here it is £2.20 per hour and you have to pay by phone.

Having said that, today it is free parking in any bays and on single yellow lines.

As for the Boxing Day sales
From what I have seen people show me they have bought in the Next sale it all looks like jumble sale items.

Do you actually need anything or is it just buying for buying sake because that is what you have scheduled

How can you live for the now if you don’t know what you’re doing next

Ultimately no one can know what they are doing next as fate has a hand of kicking the chair away just as you sit down.

Given the global problems we have there is no way I would book a holiday months in advance.

I do know someone who is almost exactly like you.

She had list upon list of schedules. One was from when she was 15

Get a degree
Qualify In another profession
Get married
Have a child
Live abroad

All of these things she achieved

She is quite proud of what she has ticked off her list despite her family looking on in horror and at the time trying to tell her that it would all end in tears if she didn’t stop planning.
Her marriage didn’t last because once she had ticked off Get Married from her list She just moved on to the next thing on her list.

Her child was just another box ticking exercise.
She couldn’t get her mind round that her child wanted to spend time with their mum playing or just doing stuff that had no purpose.

Spending time with her child had to be whilst doing something else.

Time has passed and she is a very lonely woman.

Her child is grown up and has a life of her own and sees more of her aunts, uncles, father and grandparents than she does her mother.

Friend is only just realising that her child, and her family are one unit and she isn’t part of it as they plan to do something in the here and now and she needs a years notice.

Friend has I think tunnel vision. She doesn’t see what is going on around her. She only sees what she wants and if someone comes along with her then she can tick off spend time with X/Y/Z etc

Most people don’t do 7 months planning for Christmas.
I think most people though got to eat a Christmas Dinner, open presents and have a good day.

Just because I haven’t booked my 2020 holiday doesn’t mean I won’t be going on holiday.

It is perfectly possible to go through life without planning every detail.

I think how dull life would be if everything is scheduled down to the last minute.

Dd went to the local supermarket a few weeks ago and sat in the car laughing and making up different scenarios about a funny incident we saw just as we were parking.

We sat in the car laughing for about 45 minutes.

Guess what? We didn’t schedule that bit of fun

Elbeagle · 26/12/2019 10:22

We will go on probably one big holiday and a couple of smaller ones in 2020. Haven’t booked any of them (or even thought about them). We’re going to Center Parcs next week though, booked it last week!

chomalungma · 26/12/2019 10:33

OP - how organised are you for next year?

I hope you've got every day planned for the next year.
All times scheduled in.
To the minute.

There was a massive plan for D Day. All planned to the minute.

But remember:

No plan survives contact with the enemy.....whoever they are.

Oakenbeach · 26/12/2019 10:43

You must live in the only area in the country that paying by actual money with its extra expense of having to get someone to empty the machines is not only a different price but “cheaper”

It’s RingGo and you pay a premium...

OP posts:
Oakenbeach · 26/12/2019 10:49

I hope you've got every day planned for the next year. All times scheduled in.

No, that would be impossible.... but it’s the planning ahead that means I always make the most of my minutes!

Sometimes it’s the little things that count like leaving a theatre immediately at the end of a performance to get to my car first, or making sure I’m at the front of the queue at the airport gate so i don’t have to wait to get onto the plane. I always try to be one step ahead!

OP posts:
eveshopper · 26/12/2019 10:50

Sometimes it’s the little things that count like leaving a theatre immediately at the end of a performance to get to my car first, or making sure I’m at the front of the queue at the airport gate so i don’t have to wait to get onto the plane. I always try to be one step ahead!

You know the plane won't leave until the last person in the queue is in it anyway Confused

chomalungma · 26/12/2019 10:52

Sometimes it’s the little things that count like leaving a theatre immediately at the end of a performance to get to my car first

You should make sure you park the car in the right spot to get out quicker as well.

Elbeagle · 26/12/2019 10:55

making sure I’m at the front of the queue at the airport gate so i don’t have to wait to get onto the plane

We deliberately get on the plane last. Would rather be waiting in the spacious terminal than the cramped plane. The plane leaves at the same time regardless.

Oakenbeach · 26/12/2019 11:14

You should make sure you park the car in the right spot to get out quicker as well.

I do! I’m always arrive in plenty of time, but even so, every little helps! While you’re still clapping I’m already in the car park!

OP posts:
Oliversmumsarmy · 26/12/2019 11:15

It’s RingGo and you pay a premium

You mean the service charge?

In the end if I use pay by phone I know I can extend my stay if I need it.

Usually only put on an hour then extend if I need it.

Works out cheaper as if I have to pay upfront I might need 2 or 3 hours to be on the safe side so I end up saving money.

If you are living your life trying to save minutes here and there or pennies then you really are a sad person.

My mother used to focus on the pennies. If she hadn’t been so focussed on small change she would have seen the opportunity to make ££££s

ThatsMySantaHisBeardIsSoFluffy · 26/12/2019 11:17

While you’re still clapping I’m already in the car park!

Sod staying to show appreciation to the hard work of the actors.

Jeez, you're such a fun sponge!

Winterwoollies · 26/12/2019 11:19

You sound like a miserable bugger, who I could not be friends with. Ugh. Also you’re one of those people who goes to shopping centres on Boxing Day. Tacky. Did you not have enough shopping in the run up? The tradition of Christmas is 12 days, beginning with Christmas Eve. If you hate it, don’t celebrate it. Don’t relish in ruining it.

chomalungma · 26/12/2019 11:19

While you’re still clapping I’m already in the car park

Do you leave the cinema before the credits have finished?

If so - well, you don't know what you're missing if you watch Marvel films.

There was a sporting event recently when a lot of people left before the end because team was losing. Then there was a dramatic comeback and the team won.

Ginfordinner · 26/12/2019 11:20

What happens when things don't go to plan?

Oliversmumsarmy · 26/12/2019 11:21

I do! I’m always arrive in plenty of time, but even so, every little helps! While you’re still clapping I’m already in the car park

In that case aren’t you wasting more time arriving early and than you gain leaving a few minutes early.

I hate being hurried out of a theatre at the end, it is all part of the experience.

You seem to not really enjoy anything as you are constantly thinking about time and money and getting onto the next thing without enjoying the here and now fully.

Surely aren’t you wasting a lot more money going to the Boxing Day sales

ThatsMySantaHisBeardIsSoFluffy · 26/12/2019 11:23

I still want to know exactly how you research which Next stores have their changing rooms open for the sale before you go. With specifics, as it was stated that you could find this out 'with research'. @Oakenbeach, you need to share this info.

spingly · 26/12/2019 11:29

Sometimes it’s the little things that count like leaving a theatre immediately at the end of a performance to get to my car first, or making sure I’m at the front of the queue at the airport gate so i don’t have to wait to get onto the plane. I always try to be one step ahead!

We laugh and laugh at the "rushy" people, standing for ages in the queue and then getting a seat just like the people that stroll up when the queue has gone. We live people watching the rushys!

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 26/12/2019 11:30

I worked in a Next Boxing Day sale when I was 19. The sight of 200 angry women banging on the shops doors like zombies at 6am before two of them had a violent punch up over a really horrible jacket neither actually wanted was the first time I really knew humanity was doomed. twitter.com/TiernanDouieb/status/1210120574120398848?s=19

nanbread · 26/12/2019 11:33

Oh OP you are cracking me up. Very funny. Xmas Grin

RaininSummer · 26/12/2019 11:37

Havent read whole thread s bur bloody hell OP. Give it a few years and you may be wondering why your adult children don't want to spend Christmas with you especially if they have partners and kids . Your christmas sounds very perfunctory and dismal. If you like life that way then if course it's your choice but I just cant imagine inflicting that on others.

chomalungma · 26/12/2019 11:49

I hope you've got the whole holidays mapped out.

I wouldn't have thought MN was a useful thing to do though. Very timewasting is this.

Whiskers14 · 26/12/2019 11:51

Why exactly did you post today, OP? Where you driven by a genuine wish to express how glad you are Christmas is over or was it just to treat the rest of us to your insufferable smugness? I know which my money's on. Hmm

TheRealQueen · 26/12/2019 11:52

OP is obviously just a goady fuck. I don't believe any of what they're saying.

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