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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think we should bring back the clapping

439 replies

NYEPOPPER1 · 30/12/2020 23:50

We seem to be in a similar position to March and the NHS is coming under serious strain. Aibu to think now is the time to bring back the clapping?

OP posts:
joystir59 · 31/12/2020 06:04

No more clapping

AuntieMarys · 31/12/2020 06:05

Never did it the first time.

Lex345 · 31/12/2020 06:06

I'm a nurse, the first clap was quite emotional but when it became every week it did lose any meaning and tbh I would rather it didn't restart. Many staff will be in work/travelling at that time anyway and it felt a bit embarassing walking past all the neighbours if I did finish to be home at that time. I think most nurses, HCAs and doctors know how grateful the public are, not just now, but always. If you need to use the NHS, social care or health services and want to do something to show how grateful you are for good care, ask how you can give formal feedback to CQC/patient experience. It is so lovely to receive feedback formally and feedback counts towards revalidation for nurses too.

maddiemookins16mum · 31/12/2020 06:11

No. Our hands would be better used by turning the handle on our doors shut and STAYING AT HOME.

JamSarnie · 31/12/2020 06:17

Didn't clap the first time and won't if it comes back.

I did work for the NHS a long time back and don't understand the need to clap for people doing their jobs.

Rafflesway · 31/12/2020 06:22

Two brilliant posts by @Leannethom85 which mirror my thoughts exactly!

TheFairyCaravan · 31/12/2020 06:27

No because it encourages people to go out.

The hospital DS2 works at videoed the clapping outside A&E one Thursday night and it captured him leaving his shift. He walked across the car park, head down looking despondent and pissed off while there was a crowd of people, the police, fire fighters and the RAC all there, no social distancing instead of staying in. He’d had to phone a relative that day and tell them their loved one was going to die but they couldn’t come in. He said it was the hardest thing he’d ever done. That night he phoned me in tears and said “why won’t people stay in mum? We don’t want clapping, we just want people to stay in.”

PhilCornwall1 · 31/12/2020 06:29

Surely Johnson and Hancock have written this into the Coronavirus Legislation?

  1. You will be on your doorstep every Thursday on the stroke of 2000hrs, clap until 2001hrs and then stop. You will be back inside your property 5 seconds after clapping ceases, with your door shut.
  1. During the mandatory period of clapping, you will not leave the boundary of your property or converse with your neighbours under any circumstances.
  1. Anything other than clapping will incur a £10,000 fine. You are encouraged to report your neighbours if they don't clap or partake in an activity other than clapping.
lyinginthegutterstaringatstars · 31/12/2020 06:31

No. It was annoying and even if well intentioned a lot of nhs staff found it insulting and patronising

lyinginthegutterstaringatstars · 31/12/2020 06:37

@NYEPOPPER1
'It was started by an individual'

Yes it was started by an individual. Even that individual regretted it . Please no. Don't start that clapping crap again. Majority of nhs workers hated it too.

NoPointInWednesdays · 31/12/2020 06:41

Good morning Boris! You banging on about “ oh we don’t have the money, can’t you understand that? “ they can and should find the money! Maybe if MP’s cut back on their own expenses, sold chequers because NO ONE NEEDS A FUCKING COUNTRY HOME! Stopped spending the £56bn, YES £56 BILLION ON A FUCKING TRAIN LINE!!!! The NHS staff could be paid like they should. My point is they seem to find the money from somewhere for absolute pointless shit they NEED to find it from somewhere for the NHS staff!

midnightstar66 · 31/12/2020 06:44

The people that started this stepped in and ended it for a reason. Every nurse/dr I know was massively eye rolly about it too after the first one - which was nice. It grew arms and legs here and people started banging pans then playing bag pipes in the street, then the fireworks started and it was just wholly disruptive- esprit the nhs staff trying to sleep after a long shift!

lyinginthegutterstaringatstars · 31/12/2020 06:47

@NYEPOPPER1 if you lfeel this strongly about it theres nothing stopping you from clapping each Thursday at 8pm?
You'd be a bit of a Lone Ranger but give the neighbours something to certain twitch about.

midnightstar66 · 31/12/2020 06:47

But the money simply isn’t there unfortunately as there is massive national debt and the economy is trashed

They still found the money for the MP pay rises though didn't they.... of course they found find the money if they did things differently/more efficiently. They choose not to!

Burnthurst187 · 31/12/2020 06:51

OP this is the most embarrassing thread I've seen on MN. Get a bloody life. NHS workers ended up calling for it to stop because it too was embarrassing

TheShapeJaper · 31/12/2020 06:51

The clapping was absolutely ridiculous. I cringed every time listening to it.

ChristmasUserName2020 · 31/12/2020 06:52

@LouiseTrees

I don’t think the clapping actually helped the doctors and nurses at all. It also seems a bit ingenuous given the number of people not still sticking to the rules.
I agree with this.
lyinginthegutterstaringatstars · 31/12/2020 06:54

[quote lyinginthegutterstaringatstars]@NYEPOPPER1 if you lfeel this strongly about it theres nothing stopping you from clapping each Thursday at 8pm?
You'd be a bit of a Lone Ranger but give the neighbours something to certain twitch about.[/quote]
Curtain not certain

Brumplescruff · 31/12/2020 06:54

No.

The way it was last time if you didn’t fucking clap was appalling.

And that was over the summer and better weather.

Just no. Thanks but no.

FourDecades · 31/12/2020 06:58

NHS nurse here...and it's another NO from me.

Clapping did absolutely nothing.

Show your appreciation by actually helping a key worker.

My neighbours religiously clapped every week. I personally would have been more appreciative if one had offered to mow my front lawn when doing theirs, or put my wheely bins away once emptied...

CardoMondo · 31/12/2020 06:59

No no no! Please no! It was cringey as fuck after the first one. People videoing themselves on Facebook clapping etc ... it really did lose its meaning after the first one

peachcherries · 31/12/2020 07:01

Please no!

GuiEtVin · 31/12/2020 07:02

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the request of the OP.

RizzleDrizzle · 31/12/2020 07:03

Clapping achieves nothing! It certainly doesn’t achieve a sense of community

It creates the very oppisite of that, it creates a load of judgemental knobs who think they can shame those that don’t clap,

My neighbour was in the garden of our flats shouting how if we didn’t clap we were all Cs how she’d push us down the stairs, this an extereme example but I heard of parents with children in hospital being “named and shamed” for not clapping, I saw NHS workers shunned because they didn’t clap after coming home from a shift and falling asleep.

No, no more clapping. Let’s show our application by working from home, staying at home except for exercise and essential reasons, wearing a mask and getting the vaccination

20viona · 31/12/2020 07:04

I work for the nhs and I loved the clapping! It brought a smile and often a tear to my eye during a dark time. Not saying it helps or solves anything though.