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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Who feels anxious and low about Spring coming?

171 replies

crochetmonkey74 · 04/02/2021 08:12

Since a child, I have always had a dread in my stomach when the nights get lighter, like a creeping feeling of more hours to fill, worry that I'll not have enough to do, or the people to do it with. A sense of ennui that ANOTHER year has passed. It's really strange and no one IRL that I know has it. My life is full of people excited and happy about Spring. I do get that this year particularly we need hope and happiness. I was just curious if anyone else had this Spring dread?

OP posts:
Ginfordinner · 04/02/2021 10:33

Yes to hanging washing out. On a cold, windy day it smells do wonderful when I bring it back into the house.

Ginfordinner · 04/02/2021 10:33

so wonderful

Spidey66 · 04/02/2021 10:33

I love the spring, it's my favourite time of the year. The days getting longer, daffs and snowdrops coming out, weather gradually improving. Love, love, love it. I think I'm particularly excited now because this winter has been so miserable with lockdown. It means I have more time in the evening to take the dog to the park in the evening. I do walk her in the park in the winter but it's before 6, and it's a lap of the park rather than actually playing with her. Even if lockdown continues, I can sit in the yard in the spring, can't do that in the cold and dark.

I'm counting the weeks now until the clocks go forward. Bring it on!

alltheadrenalin · 04/02/2021 10:35

Spring/autumn are my favourite seasons. Can't stand summer it's too hot

Original poster
crochetmonkey74 · 04/02/2021 10:36

The weird thing is , I have struggled with January lockdown but still the stirring of spring does make me melancholy - and I totally relate to the first day of the summer holiday thing too- it's the long stretch ahead

OP posts:
Blondiney · 04/02/2021 10:36

I hate it too, OP. There's something very exposing about the lighter evenings and the prospect of a summer filled with enforced 'fun'.

Spidey66 · 04/02/2021 10:37

@Atrixie

I’m the opposite. I struggle hugely in December January and February with the darkness and lack do daylight. I am just starting to see the days get a bit longer and feel my mood lifting accordingly. From mid summer I start to dread the days getting shorter
Are you me? I start getting miserable around about August that the days are getting shorter.
Ginfordinner · 04/02/2021 10:38

Where does everyone on mumsnet live where summers are always too hot? London and the south east?

We do get hot days, but they are more of a rarity where I live, and not all summer long.

Bluntness100 · 04/02/2021 10:38

I’m also the opposite, the thought of the garden budding, sun shining, and summer on its way, I love. I am already walking round the garden seeing the camellias starting to bud, snow drops coming through, daffodils starting to appear.

And this year it’s so much more as it signals likely lockdown ending and life starting to return to normal, being able to see our friends, our families and spend time together.

Ginfordinner · 04/02/2021 10:39

TBH I don't understand the "enforced fun" comments. If you don't want to do something then don't.

Teentitansonloop · 04/02/2021 10:39

I get this but thought it was just because I have a March birthday and spring for me is always about taking stock and hoping for better things in the coming year. It's not a fun time but a reflective time that sets me up for the rest of the year. At work it's also a 'heads down' time, it's about getting things done before summer kicks in.

Macronisanarse · 04/02/2021 10:44

Isn't melancholy a strange, sad feeling.

Original poster
crochetmonkey74 · 04/02/2021 10:46

I think by 'enforced fun' I mean more the exposure of more hours to fill, it doesn't make sense as I have friends and things to do, and even when I have been in relationships I have felt the same- just lots of time and what if I can't find anything to do to fill it, and I am lonely - strange as I never feel worried about feeling lonely when at home on a dark winters night- even though I am probably home alone for longer then.

OP posts:
80sMum · 04/02/2021 10:46

It seems that the summer holidays, especially, are the main problem for some. I do feel that parents nowadays are under a lot more pressure than I was, to provide wall to wall entertainment for their children. Is it really necessary? Previous generations of parents just left the kids to get on with it themselves.

Why do parents feel that they have to organise their children's leisure time so much these days? When I was a child, in the 1960s, I absolutely loved the school holidays and, apart from the annual week at a caravan site on the coast in August, my parents hardly ever took me or my siblings anywhere. We had to make our own entertainment.

My own children, in the 1980s, had a similar experience to mine. We very rarely went out anywhere during the week except to the local playground (liberally scattered with dog poo and broken glass in those days!) or to the DCs' friends' houses. At weekends, we went for a walk and if it was fine weather we might from time to time take a packed lunch.

Original poster
crochetmonkey74 · 04/02/2021 10:49

I don't mind the Summer holidays as such- and it's not as 'solid' as filling the time with activities- it's more an inner sense of melancholy- I've had it since a teenager

OP posts:
Blondiney · 04/02/2021 10:53

@Ginfordinner

TBH I don't understand the "enforced fun" comments. If you don't want to do something then don't.
Oh I don't, trust me. There's a pervading feeling though that one ought to be out there making the most of it, "living your best life", "making memories" etc etc. The implication being that you are somehow lacking as a person if you don't.

I've felt like that since being a teen so I can't even blame it on social media pressure or any of that gubbins. Must just be the way I'm wired. Smile

Original poster
crochetmonkey74 · 04/02/2021 10:55

Blondiney

We are the same!

OP posts:
Blondiney · 04/02/2021 10:59

@crochetmonkey74

Blondiney

We are the same!

In more ways than one if the number in your username relates to your DOB. Grin

It's actually quite heartening knowing there a few other springphobes out there, makes me feel slightly less of a freak

Original poster
crochetmonkey74 · 04/02/2021 11:06

It does- And I am blonde!

OP posts:
Blondiney · 04/02/2021 11:11

MN twins! Shock Grin

Pimlicojo · 04/02/2021 11:14

I'm the complete opposite. The coming of Spring this year is the one glimmer of light I'm holding on to at the moment. I'm sorry OP that it's stressful for you.

tillyandmilly · 04/02/2021 11:22

I dread summer as we are in top floor flat stifling hot - I think if I had a garden and lovely areas to walk I would like summer!

Marinaloves · 04/02/2021 11:24

All you people that don’t like spring need to take up gardening!

felineflutter · 04/02/2021 11:30

Yes I understand OP. I remember thinking last Spring that if I see another 30(Springs) I will be lucky. 30! Only 30 more times to see blossom and birds and bees...

I do love Spring but Summer is dripping with nostalgia and I find that sometimes unnerving Smile

HerselfIndoors · 04/02/2021 11:31

I can't wait for spring but that's mostly about clothes - I just want to wear dresses and sandals and not have to put on/take off big boots, scarf, gloves, coat etc every time I leave and enter the house.

I also look forward to planting up my balcony for summer.

I do get the feeling you describe about the school summer holidays, but that's more to do with having kids off school and them getting bored - I don't mind summer in itself.