To be irritated by the phrase ‘only x more sleeps until....’

[Lansonmaid]

I really cringe when I hear / read a grown person say it’s only ‘x more sleeps until I (go on holiday, do whatever). It’s something a toddler / young child would say IMHO ....

I kind of get it with Christmas, if you have an advent calendar...but the first time in noticed adults doing this was with weddings. The constant up date on social media of how many sleeps till the big day is just weird and infantile. As an adult who has the mental capacity to enter into a marriage you should be able to comprehend how long three months or so is.

It’s godawful. People who count sleeps also ‘pop’ to the shops, ‘pop’ things in the oven, ‘pop’ round to a friend. If they have any friends.

It's ok if you're explaining when something is happening to a child. However, I'd expect an adult to understand when a calendar date is. Do adults really use that phrase when talking to other adults? No one has to me but I expect they know I'd think they were bonkers.

We count down in ‘get ups’ at work. How many more get ups until the weekend because, once you’re out of bed, the hardest part is over.

@WinterAndRoughWeather - You’d hate my house. Disney and Harry Potter everywhere.

I have caught myself using it to adults but un my defence that's a hold over from the DC, kinda like Subconsciously muttering the words to every cbeebies theme tune ever if someone starts humming it (a relatively common occurrence when I worked with others who had young families....exdh entire room of Male gruff colleagues ended up distracted by singing the theme tune to fireman Sam because in if them started humming it)

I'm generally the least cutesy person ever but I can't get worked up denying other people the enthusiasm, who does it hurt really?

YABU. The closer it was to my first post-lockdown leg wax last week the more impatient I got and was telling DM every day how many more sleeps I had until my appointment She was the same with her haircut 😂

@Lindy2

Okay but... children understand the concept of dates and time. The sleeps thing is an unnecessary, cutesy affectation. Bit unfair on the kids to blame them for it.

Oh god YANBU. Makes my toes curl. Have noticed direct correlation between that and adults obsessed with Disney and going on ‘holibobs’. Breathlessly counting down the sleeps to their holibobs at Disneyland. (controversial, I’ll just ‘pop’ my flame retardant vest on for the ensuing flaming).

It's so cringey and twee.

I don’t like that either. I also don’t like ‘amazeballs’ but my personal worst is ‘hubby’ which makes me cringe and sounds so dated - I used to see it a lot in my mum’s Woman’s Own and Chat back when I read them as a kid in the 90s

Never heard ‘famalam’ though’

Don't be miserable. Not harming anyone else. I regularly count down sleeps with my 65 year old mother. Only if it is fewer than 5 though....
Strangely not something my children seem to have picked up on yet.

I hate it too OP! Glad there is a few of us!

*there are

I can’t get at all irritated by ‘sleeps’, holibobs or ‘popping’. Now ‘uni’, ‘I was sat’, ‘I should have went’, ‘could of’ and suchlike, and I don’t bother reading further.

It’s a phrase designed to get a 2yo to have some concept of timeframe. Cringe worthy when an adult says it.

@randomchap

As an insomniac, it's only 12 more sleeps 'til Christmas for me.

Snap!

@MyPersona I went to "uni" in 1999, my parents went in 1961 and called it the same. It's hardly a new phenomenon.

"Could of" and the like, however... awful.

137 sleeps til Christmas. 😉😂

Fair enough if people speak how they want.

Personally, I try to avoid spending much time with people who say this kind of thing.
It gets on my nerves.

They probably say "picky bits" too.

Countdowns to Christmas need banning too (unless in discussion with kids, obviously; I'm not a total monster. Yet.)

@Watdafark I didn’t say it was a new phenomenon. Having said that, I never heard it prior to the Australian soaps of the 80s. My cohort definitely didn’t say it in the late 70s. Actually my children’s didn’t either so maybe it’s ‘regional’.

@Lansonmaid

I really cringe when I hear / read a grown person say it’s only ‘x more sleeps until I (go on holiday, do whatever). It’s something a toddler / young child would say IMHO ....

If you're reading it it means you potentially follow someone on social media.

Which means you're sitting there judging someone that's supposed to be a friend.

I'm not wild about the phrase either, but I'm less wild about someone who sits there picking off people's style or expression.

YABVU

@JuniperFather is it judging? How is saying you dislike a phrase judging?

I'm so over people saying that if you dislike something it means you are judging someone.

YANBU.

I thought I hated it but really thinking about it I don’t ! I think its clarity (Rather than ‘days’ or ‘parts of days’) useful.
I never say it out loud or write it but think for Christmas/holidays I do think it to myself.
One huge problem with it is that often those who say it tend often to use awful childish/cutesy phrases/words
Bit of guilt by association I think.