To keep framing foreign travel as a holiday?

[stopgap]

I haven’t seen my parents in 14 months, as they’re in the UK and I’m in the US. I know it’s only semantics but I’m truly tired of UK politicians referring to foreign travel only in the context of a jolly. There must be thousands upon thousands of people in my position, desperate to see family, desperate for grandparents to see their grandchildren, and I resent the situation being presented from one perspective only.

Zig4zag your joke was an underhand one made to undermine the point, pretty goady in context and therefore unfunny.

[quote changingnames786]@SchrodingersImmigrant

Mainly though. The moan was about difference between going for a week on a beech and week to visit family.

And this is what I'm saying, what's the difference? The former is more justified? You will struggle to visit family if the lesser latter scenario is banned for too long, just look at Australia, how difficult it is to get there atm because of the number flights. The sanctimonious attitude is what I've highlighted, you think your reasons are more justified, but you will rely on the less justified reasons of others to get travelling again.[/quote]
I still don't know what's going on here. It sounds like you think we are saying holidays should be banned longer so we can travel. That's not what anyone is saying so it literally makes no difference whether we like or don't like family visits being considered holidays like a holiday. The distinction has literally no bearing on aviation industry.

Oh good grief I don't know how else I can say it. It really isn't difficult to understand, and actually at least one poster has said family travel should start up before leisure although that wasn't even my point.

We have a grandson who’s seven months old now. We’ve seen him once. He’s our first grandchild and lives 2 hrs away.

We’re all suffering.

@changingnames786

Oh good grief I don't know how else I can say it. It really isn't difficult to understand, and actually at least one poster has said family travel should start up before leisure although that wasn't even my point.

Yeah but that doesn't mean leisure travel should be postponed further

I'm in uk as are my parents and we haven't seen them either. They could have been anywhere

I’m with you, OP, but it’s a losing battle on here. As you’ve seen, you have those who think it’s “your fault” for having the audacity to move overseas, then you gave the lockdown martyrs who’ll proudly tell you they haven’t seen their mother who lives 10 miles away or 6 new babies that have been born into the family since March 2020, and then there are those who just love to quote “the rooolz” every time someone dares mention they are not happy with a situation, misses something or someone, because we all have to be miserable just because those people are miserable.

Has your mother considered the 14-day Mexico option to get into the US? My mum is considering it now that it’s gone on so long. I haven’t seen her since 2018. And it’s obviously my fault for falling in love with my husband.

The lack of empathy on this thread, if indicative of the general population, is really sad. I know we are all having it tough but do people really need to be so tone deaf to other people's circumstances?

Most people in the UK (in England at least) have, at various points in the past year, been legally allowed to go and visit their close friends and family, indoors, with little to no social distancing. A lot of them were legally allowed, even if it was not advised, to visit them for one day at Christmas. Whether or not people did this when they were allowed depends on individual circumstances and risk assessments. I feel awful for people, ie in Leicester, who have effectively never come out of lockdown.

My mum and several close family members have lived abroad for twenty years now. Are you saying it's their "fault" for not predicting a global pandemic two decades before the fact, for not factoring that in when she met the man she married? I've heard it all now.

I'll be legally allowed to go and stay with my in-laws in two months time, if the roadmap goes to plan. I can see them in my garden from next week. Right now I have no fucking idea when I'll be able to see my mum. The not knowing is awful, and I miss her so much it hurts.

Seeing your family is not a holiday. It is one of the basic building blocks of human society. Stop framing it as a bloody frivolity!

I think that if there is a way they can let some people travel then people with family abroad should get priority over people wanting to go abroad with no family/work connections. It might be that numbers have to be limited.

I can’t believe that anyone would think something this unfair and divisive would be a good idea.

There are people who have no family who’s trips abroad in groups or with friends still mean a huge amount to them. People need to recognise how lucky they are to have living family in the first place, even if they do live abroad, and not try to use that luck as some sort of special privilege that entitles them to travel before anyone else.

There are people who have no family who’s trips abroad in groups or with friends still mean a huge amount to them.

Is it about the abroad or about the friends? Because if the latter, then abroad shouldn't actually matter.

And I see we arrived to "at least you have a family"

I understand OP.

The big difference is that once UK relaxes the rules everyone can go and visit their family. Most can do it on a weekend and not worry about school holidays.

We have to wait for 2 different countries to relax their rules and preferably not impose quarantine on arrival in either country.

We also have to wait for school holidays.

We live in Europe and managed to go to the UK for 2 weeks last summer in the travel corridor (all totally legal).

Im gutted we may not be able to go again this summer despite all 4 members of my family being vaccinated.

This has been an eyeopening thread on what people think of immigrants and their apparently poor life choices.

I get what you're saying, but its still a holiday. It's a leisure trip.

YANBU.

We have no idea when my PIL will be able to meet DS for the first time. I’ve seen my family once in a year, and have had no support with a newborn.

Another relative won’t be able to see his mum once last time before she dies of cancer in the next few weeks.

Neither of those situations are a jolly, or non essential. I want my child to know his grandparents, I want to personally get support like most new mums would normally get & I want my relative to be able to say goodbye to his mum.

To be “told” that those situations are non essential is insulting.

I understand your feelings OP, but I tend to think that as a society we really need to get to grips with the idea that moving far away has real trade offs.

It's really very recent, and dependent on cheap travel, this idea that when you make a move like this you will still be able to see family yearly, attend weddings and funerals, and so forth.

My family in the older generation was spread across the UK and Canada. Decisions to move were understood to mean a real separation, quite likely for many years. Even phone calls were infrequent.

Of course these things were taken into consideration when making the decision to move, which isn't the situation now. But the situation now, as we see, isn't realistic or really sustainable.

Thank you @BritWifeinUSA couldn’t have put it better myself. My entire family live in the USA. My father, my siblings, my stepmother. They’ve missed out on more than a year of my daughter's life, their only grandchild and niece. She’s 2.5 now. It’s heartbreaking. It’s awful. It’s a grief I live with every day.

Anyone in the UK will be able to see their family very soon, even if it is outside, or not for very long, and lots of people in most areas legally had the opportunity to do this over this past summer.

Seeing my family is not the same as going on holiday.

I hope the posters on this thread who would never move away from their families because of the " trade offs" are never in such a situation that they are forced to. But given the global economy, I wouldn't rely on it.

Who chose to move away? It their fault not politicians.

This is the most ridiculous comment in the context of the global world we live in.

OP, we will be visiting the UK this summer from abroad. Won't have seen most of our extended family for nearly 2 years at that point. It would be next summer before we could go again due to work. I can't wait that long, I am at a very low ebb.

I don't actually personally know anyone in the UK who has not seen some family in some context over the course of the past year. It's not the same for most people (though of course there are some).

This worries me too, OP. We do need to get the travel economy up and running again because other parts of the economy depend on it. I live in London and have many friends from all over the world who live and work here and spend lots of money and pay lots of taxes which was all fine and brilliant with their family only a plane ride away but with restrictions they will slowly ‘go home’ and not return.

I also love to travel and feel very sorry for those who’s livelihoods depend on tourism. Fingers crossed we’re back to normal soon.

I haven't seen my family elsewhere in England since July. It's breaking my heart.

@Shopliftersoftheworldunite

This worries me too, OP. We do need to get the travel economy up and running again because other parts of the economy depend on it. I live in London and have many friends from all over the world who live and work here and spend lots of money and pay lots of taxes which was all fine and brilliant with their family only a plane ride away but with restrictions they will slowly ‘go home’ and not return.

I also love to travel and feel very sorry for those who’s livelihoods depend on tourism. Fingers crossed we’re back to normal soon.

I am one of these people. I pay high taxes and contribute to the economy. But apparently I should have predicted a pandemic.

@Frequentflier

I hope the posters on this thread who would never move away from their families because of the " trade offs" are never in such a situation that they are forced to. But given the global economy, I wouldn't rely on it.

Why would you think people aren't aware of this, or that they might have to make difficult choices?

My husband worked in a job for years where he was away six months a year from us. It's fairly common in my region where many people fish, are in the navy, or have fly out jobs in the oil industry. In the past many worked in the lumber industry, spending a good part f the year in lumber camps.

In some cases there was is choice but to be away from wife and kids, in others you might take them but then you will all be away from your support system and family. No one imagines these are decisions without consequence or easy answers.

OTOH maybe if we recognised that decisions to move away - even to other regions of the same country - have significant effects on families, eldercare, how well mothers can cope, etc, we would also have to address regional sustainability and community integrity in a way that political leaders have been pretty content to ignore.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

There are people who have no family who’s trips abroad in groups or with friends still mean a huge amount to them.

Is it about the abroad or about the friends? Because if the latter, then abroad shouldn't actually matter.

I was thinking of hobby type holidays that have to happen in other countries, like snowboarding or something.

People are aware of trade offs. We all missed something. A lot usually. That's how it is. But this is a different level all together which no one could have preficted. Normally I would have at least 4 different types of transport to choose from. Some faster, some slower.
It doesn't matter now because none of it is allowed anyway.

We all wxpect consequently for our decisions, but no one could have expect this.