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Original poster

I don't want to clap

341 replies

OrlandoAlice · 02/04/2020 09:35

I do support the NHS, I'm massively grateful for everything NHS workers are doing at the moment and to everyone who still has to get up and go out to work and keep things going during this crisis. However the clapping just seems a bit pointless to me. As a one off it was fine but to make it a weekly thing feels forced and I resent feeling emotionally blackmailed into doing something so redundant. The Doctors and Nurses I know personally find it cringy and would rather people follow the advice, donate, or volunteer.

OP posts:
SudokuQueen · 02/04/2020 15:36

Well this poster doesn’t want you to clap OP

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3868941-I-dont-need-you-to-clap-for-us

Wish people would read that.

Maybe rather than clapping like seals looking to get praise for doing something good, they could actually try to achieve change, or just do something simple like stop abusing NHS or health care staff? And retail staff, people are complete assholes if you're abusing someone who is doing their job.

sleepingpup · 02/04/2020 15:42

@MouthBreathingRage

dear god what a load of clap trap.

Nope I'm going out for 5 mins. clapping. and yes it gives me a sense of community to hear it right down my street. A tiny little boost in this crushing time. Nothing more nothing less.

And if you don't want to . No problem. Crack on with whatever you doing. That's the beauty of it.

Rowgtfc72 · 02/04/2020 15:42

I clapped for the nhs last week. It was well deserved, not a job I would choose to do and they're undervalued and underpaid.
Dh and I work in food production. In our town its seen as a crappy job, minimum wage, crappy hours.
What I didn't sign up to is working in a space with 200 other people, give the factory their due they've put every possible thing in place to keep us safe, but the people clapping are the ones safely at home that looked down on us last week.

cardibach · 02/04/2020 15:44

@Spamellahamella while you may have been self isolating longer (I assume from your post) most haven’t as It was lovely and very emotional to hear everyone on the street who we haven't seen for so long would be a bit of an overstatement last Thursday. The lockdown was only announced Monday night, so at that point most people hadn’t seen their neighbours for 3 days...
it feels forced and insincere to me. Certainly if it’s every week.

MouthBreathingRage · 02/04/2020 15:45

dear god what a load of clap trap.

No it's not. Plenty of people, many healthcare workers, have said the same. Just because it makes you feel better to clap (and of course you're welcome to as long as you keep yourself and other safe), doesn't make a single thing I posted 'claptrap'.

You chose to ignore what others are saying because it makes you feel better, sadly it's this precise attitude that means we are in forced lockdown now.

sleepingpup · 02/04/2020 15:47

Maybe rather than clapping like seals looking to get praise for doing something good, they could actually try to achieve change, or just do something simple like stop abusing NHS or health care staff? And retail staff, people are complete assholes if you're abusing someone who is doing their job.

wTF?

I'm clapping tonight. Possibly like a seal.

cardibach · 02/04/2020 15:48

I also meant to say in the above post that it is being pushed hard by the BBC and feels like a smoke screen to hide the governments failure to actually do anything like provide testing or PPE.

sleepingpup · 02/04/2020 15:51

You chose to ignore what others are saying because it makes you feel better, sadly it's this precise attitude that means we are in forced lockdown now.

oh get a grip! I'm not ignoring anybody. The nhs people I know are all for it.

And 'my attitude' has got NOTHING to do with why we are in forced lock down now. you sound detracted.

sleepingpup · 02/04/2020 15:52

i mean 'deranged'.

MouthBreathingRage · 02/04/2020 15:59

@sleepingpup shouting people down to 'get a grip' because they've been told clapping doesn't do one single thing to help? As I said, you and other are more than welcome to carry on as you please, but at this stage no positive affirmations can or will help. It's only to make you feel better.

Just remember as you're clapping tonight, someone will be dying of this virus. That for every person that was going to die of CV no matter what, more will die because the NHS simply doesn't have the equipment to handle this pandemic. With every clap another untested medical professional may be passing it on to an uninfected person. But I'm sure your clapping will make them feel it's all worth while anyway.

MouthBreathingRage · 02/04/2020 16:01

@sleepingpup, deranged? Guess it's just the clapping bandwagon you choose to jump on rather than #bekind Smile

1066vegan · 02/04/2020 16:04

I won't be clapping.

I'm showing my support for NHS staff and other frontline workers by going into work myself (primary school teacher) and looking after their children so that they can go into work.

I'm showing my support for retail workers by being polite and friendly, not shopping more often than I really need to and trying to keep my distance from them when I'm in a shop.

I'm showing my support for shift workers by being quiet when they might be trying to sleep.

I'm showing my support for NHS staff by not going out other than work or essential shopping (exercise is walking or running to work so that doesn't need an extra trip), training my dh to wash his hands as soon as he comes into the house if he's had to go out, keeping my teenager inside the house (tbh that was pretty easy to do!) and doing my mum's shopping so that she doesn't need to go out.

I'm showing my support for NHS staff, care workers and other public sector employees by never ever voting Tory.

I think that's more useful than standing outside my house for a bit of virtue signalling.

sleepingpup · 02/04/2020 16:08

who's shouting?@MouthBreathingRage

Clearly you don't want to clap

But you have NO IDEA if it helps others or not. You don't sound like you are able to empathise with others at all. just your ideas .

So people who clap are partaking in 'something meaningless' and don't have 'the slightest idea' of how bad things have become.? Yes you sound deranged.

sleepingpup · 02/04/2020 16:09

@MouthBreathingRage

i haven't 'jumped' on any band bandwagons.

But you really need to take a look at the things you are saying.

sleepingpup · 02/04/2020 16:11

@1066vegan

i'm clapping and no, i'm not virtue signalling.

venusandmars · 02/04/2020 16:14

My neighbour (NHS consultant) took 4 weeks unpaid leave to avoid paying extra tax on his pension. Went skiing in Austria, came back to our small community with COVID-19. I don't feel much like applauding his effort Hmm

There are so many people who are doing their best to help. Local shopkeepers, volunteers, those who properly isolate their households if they have symptoms, people who get up day after day and do monotonous dirty jobs in cleansing...

...and also so many people who are struggling desperately with no income, no security. The clapping all seems too celebratory for them Sad

MouthBreathingRage · 02/04/2020 16:16

You don't sound like you are able to empathise with others at all.

How did you come to that conclusion? It's worrying you feel that anyone who says what I think cant empathise, as there a many MANY examples of HCPs saying the exact same things. The ones you say I have 'no idea's if it helps or not.

As for being 'deranged', you evidently have no idea what that word means and your being extremely derogatory to try and make a point. You really dont seem to have any idea of how bad things are in the NHS right now, or how bad things are going to get. This applauding will soon become more than meaningless, it will simply be bad taste - like clapping and cheering at a sombre funeral.

MumW · 02/04/2020 16:16

I'll be clapping as an act of solidarity. We're all in this together and anything that provides a connection across a community during such isolated times is to be welcomed.

MarginalGain · 02/04/2020 16:18

I agree, OP. I appreciate the NHS and key workers alike and show this in my own way, always have. I'm not going to be carried along in the mania that has inexplicably descended in the UK.

WaxOnFeckOff · 02/04/2020 16:18

venus the only one of my neighbours being a bit loose with the rules is an NHS consultant and family. he works in elderly care. He's a knob and wife not much better.

They've had visitors to their house, she is out at least 3 or 4 times a day, one of them shopping, one driving somewhere to exercise then out with the kids for exercise.

1066vegan · 02/04/2020 16:21

It's starting to remind me of the hysteria when Diana died. All the people who had to make a show of signing books of condolences or laying flowers.

GabsAlot · 02/04/2020 16:27

looks like its going ahead -itv 1 are pausing theyre programming at 8 for a clap

sleepingpup · 02/04/2020 16:29

'The ones you say I have 'no idea's if it helps or not.'
My 3 sisters are doctors. They are all for it. Though you seem to know better?Hmm

You really dont seem to have any idea of how bad things are in the NHS right now, or how bad things are going to get. Why wouldn't I?
What makes you say that? Because I'm 'for' clapping? Hmm

You chose to ignore what others are saying because it makes you feel better, sadly it's this precise attitude that means we are in forced lockdown now.
How could you possibly know that or suggest that about me?Hmm

So people who clap are partaking in 'something meaningless' and don't have 'the slightest idea' of how bad things have become.? Wow.
You clearly haven't jumped onto the 'be kind' bandwagon.

why wouldn't I know what deranged means? perhaps I should have said 'unhinged'?

Scarlettpixie · 02/04/2020 16:30

Solidarity. Yes 100%.

As for the comments about remembering when we clap that people are dying isn’t that the whole point. Last week my Facebook feed and the news was full of people who worked in the NHS who appreciated the gesture. I know it makes no practical difference but you know about of appreciation goes a long way.

As for standing too close to your neighbours - really? I would say that most front doors are at least 2 m apart if not there is always the upstairs window. We clapped from upstairs so we could see people up and down the street. We are the first house above a road and have a hedge one side a wall the other and shops opposite so no one to see.

No need for fireworks. None round us. I suppose as in all things there will be idiots.

sleepingpup · 02/04/2020 16:32

solidarity 100%

if you don't want to do it. don't.