To think that holidays are non essential?

[Silliantro]

The amount of whinging about missing out on holidays here and elsewhere has been shockingly irritating. Will missing out on a couple of trips to Megaluf/bland med cruises REALLY be the end of the world? It's such a shocking tone-deaf and privileged way to live your life.

Will staying at home and talking to your DC/learning a language/read a few books really be the end of the world? It's pretty grim absolutely NEED trips abroad or the seaside to to distract yourself from your own life.

To be honest I’d rather be like myself whinging cuz I can’t see my family or because my trip to Japan got cancelled than being like you. What a boring you must have to get annoyed with other people’s problems

emilyfrost

What's wrong with watching a documentary about the country?🤔

I like watching documentaries about Russia, China and North Korea. Doesn't mean I want to visit!

Yeah they're non essential. People will still feel sad at the loss of freedom though. People moaning about missing out are fine, the people who are selfish and go anyway are not.

I had 3 major 2020 trips cancelled myself, the most exciting one was a safari roadtrip through Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, just me, my husband and the open road! Now I'm pregnant with our first child so its not just a matter of rescheduling it for next year (I mean we could but now I'd rather wait until he/she is old enough to experience it with us). Also cancelled were Peru/Brazil/Mexico last August and a week in the Maldives. We had a trip to Mauritius cut short the beginning of March 2020 and had to fly home a week early, we were lucky to get the few days away though!

I hardly whine at all in real life unless I'm commiserating with someone else. I don't really talk about travelling much in general even though its a big passion of mine because I know I'm privileged to have travelled as much as I have and don't need to rub it in anyones faces.

I'm planning a week in the Maldives in January 2022, I'll have a 3 month baby in tow so it'll be different to our pre-pandemic trips!

If you need to holiday abroad to escape the brutal grind of your daily existence, you're really doing your life wrong. What's more grim than viewing your everyday life as something to endure with the desperate hope that a holiday will make you feel joy again?

Well considering the last year has been get up, go to work in the living room, work over my contracted hours, have dinner, go to bed then yes, it has been something to endure rather than feel joy about. Because my desk is in the living room I can't escape work. Are you really that self absorbed that you can't see that?

I don't have children to talk to, I don't want to learn another language, I want to see something different than the same fucking four walls.

I’ve given your op a fair bit of thought and come to a few conclusions.

1. If travel is up and running for the summer, then people will go and that will be perfectly legal, so there surely isn’t an issue.

1. If you are just thinking about the ‘whining’ on MN, well isn’t that what MN is all about? People are always whining here about schools; restrictions; work; partners; kids etc...because they can’t vent away in real life. So perhaps you are simply handing out in the wrong place?

1. If you are irritated that some people feel holidays are essential to their well-being, well, you don’t get to decide what’s essential. Personally I don’t think meeting a friend is essential for well-being but others would disagree.

I’ll refer you to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, where the basics to survive are food, water etc ....but actual well-being can include all sorts of things that are important to the ‘individual’.

1. If you are one of those busy bodies who thinks that regardless of whether travel is ‘allowed’ people shouldn’t ‘risk’ our ‘progress’, then you can fuck right off lol. I’ve worked all year and my 5 week vacation in the US is not something I want to right off for your appeasement. Am I selfish? I couldn’t give a shit if you thought I was.

1. One thing I think this world could do without is virtue signalling. Can I moan about all the virtue signalling of MN please?

4. If you are one of those busy bodies who thinks that regardless of whether travel is ‘allowed’ people shouldn’t ‘risk’ our ‘progress’, then you can fuck right off lol. I’ve worked all year and my 5 week vacation in the US is not something I want to right off for your appeasement. Am I selfish? I couldn’t give a shit if you thought I was.

Enjoy your trip to the US @Totallyfedup1979! We're planning on going back next year but sadly only for 2 weeks.

@BatleyTownswomensGuild

Serious lack of empathy here, OP.

Most people I know need a break for their mental health. Fair enough, going overseas is probably off-limits for most this year. But begrudging folks a day at the seaside is just bloody miserable.

Vaccines should reduce risks to manageable levels by the summer and, by that point, a low level of ongoing risk is just something we're all going to have to accept. For both social and economic reasons, we have to get e country back to some semblance of normality this year. I'm not spending another year cut off from my family.

Domestic breaks, yes.

I don't think it's unreasonable for most people to curb the jet setting for a year or two while we get through a pandemic (family/work reasons fair enough). Foreign holidays are a modern luxury.

Everyones different, and everyone has a different budget and/or preference of what makes a holiday.
Some people think self catering is not a holiday, or uk holidays are not a "proper holiday".My 2 favourite holidays were caravan holidays where we rarely ate out, but they were so relaxing (eith kids as well!) one in Cornwall, and one in Brittany. My worst holiday was AI in a hotel!

But the point is that it's a break from the norm and OP while you think (meanly, IMHO) that people are being virtuous or creating sob stories, the last year has been unbelievably difficult for lots of people and I think it shows a real lack of empathy and imagination that you cant see why peole will be massively disappointed that their luxury of escaping normality (be that a 2 night caravan stay on a farm, or a 2 week all inclusive hotel) has been cancelled , in some instances, multiple times.

Out of interest OP, do you work?

You seem very dismissive of ‘the daily grind’, which is a reality for many people (it goes without saying, especially this year).

@Totallyfedup1979

I’ve given your op a fair bit of thought and come to a few conclusions.

1. If travel is up and running for the summer, then people will go and that will be perfectly legal, so there surely isn’t an issue.

1. If you are just thinking about the ‘whining’ on MN, well isn’t that what MN is all about? People are always whining here about schools; restrictions; work; partners; kids etc...because they can’t vent away in real life. So perhaps you are simply handing out in the wrong place?

1. If you are irritated that some people feel holidays are essential to their well-being, well, you don’t get to decide what’s essential. Personally I don’t think meeting a friend is essential for well-being but others would disagree.

I’ll refer you to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, where the basics to survive are food, water etc ....but actual well-being can include all sorts of things that are important to the ‘individual’.

1. If you are one of those busy bodies who thinks that regardless of whether travel is ‘allowed’ people shouldn’t ‘risk’ our ‘progress’, then you can fuck right off lol. I’ve worked all year and my 5 week vacation in the US is not something I want to right off for your appeasement. Am I selfish? I couldn’t give a shit if you thought I was.

1. One thing I think this world could do without is virtue signalling. Can I moan about all the virtue signalling of MN please?

You sound like a valued, respected and generous member of your family and community. Enjoy your holiday!

@PinkSparklyPussyCat

4. If you are one of those busy bodies who thinks that regardless of whether travel is ‘allowed’ people shouldn’t ‘risk’ our ‘progress’, then you can fuck right off lol. I’ve worked all year and my 5 week vacation in the US is not something I want to right off for your appeasement. Am I selfish? I couldn’t give a shit if you thought I was.

Enjoy your trip to the US @Totallyfedup1979! We're planning on going back next year but sadly only for 2 weeks.

It’s a (rescheduled from last year) celebration trip this year DH and I both turned 40 and DS also has a big birthday.

Sometimes we go for two weeks and sometimes just one week.
We love EVERY vacation there! So you will have an amazing time when you get to go! Enjoy the planning!!

And op, you sound like you are leaning towards number 4 on my list

Not essential but bloody marvellous.

We managed to get to Lanzarote for week in November with my parents.

It meant I could spend quality indoor and outdoor time with them.

It was relaxing and rejuvenating

It was the best and most enjoyable week of the whole of 2020

So bore off OP.

@Silliantro

Um, I'm not saying never take holidays (I love holidays), but simply that they're not essential for your wellbeing. 1-2 years without a trip abroad from the pandemic shouldn't be a big deal and the whining about it has been off the charts. You know 80% of humanity manage fine without this extreme luxury?

If you need to holiday abroad to escape the brutal grind of your daily existence, you're really doing your life wrong. What's more grim than viewing your everyday life as something to endure with the desperate hope that a holiday will make you feel joy again?

It is a big deal to me. My family live abroad. I don't give a fuck for anyone else's generalisations. But again, thankfully, the government will allow us to go so off we jet. Loving it! We're planning already.

The whole 'jetting off' and this obsessive believe that everyone who goes abroad to get drunk is just GF nonsense.

I don't think holidays are essential but not being able to travel to the UK has seriously effected my mental health. We live in the EU and i haven't seen any of my family now for almost 2 years. I have never felt more alone. I have had to get antidepressants from the GP. If i could get in the car and go tomorrow I would do, even with a 12 hour drive.

There are a vast number of ultra virtuous posters here whose desperately need to get for family/other tear inducing reasons, but this obviously doesn't reflect 90% of holiday travel.

You sound like a profoundly unpleasant person so not sure why I'm replying to you, but here goes.

I don't have a 'tear inducing' reason for wanting to travel. I just love it. It's really important to me. Has been since I went Interrailing at the age of 19, if not before. I'll be 'jetting off' the moment it's possible for me, and I certainly won't be requesting the approval of random shit stirrers on MN.

Hope the 'DC' aren't bored stiff with learning languages for countries they will never visit if mum has her way.

I did a language degree and I didn't get a real grasp of any language until I left the country.

Who cares? Holidays are fun and I like fun in my life. You be a mumsnet misery if you like.

Is being on the internet whining about what other people find hard essential?

@Welikebeingcosy

Is being on the internet whining about what other people find hard essential?

I think it is for some people.

They're going to find it really hard when they no longer get to castigate "selfish" people for doing - or just wishing they could be doing - perfectly normal human activities. This summer is going to be traumatic for them.

@Toilenstripes

I grew up in America and no one I knew took holidays. We might go to a local lake or campground but there was no taking two weeks abroad. I think it’s a cultural thing in Britain, maybe because of the weather?

My road trips in America are among the most fun things I've ever done in my life. I'd travel a long way just to camp in New England and listen to loons wailing on the lake: magical!

OP, didn't you know? Being smug and sanctimonious is SO 2020

They're going to find it really hard when they no longer get to castigate "selfish" people for doing - or just wishing they could be doing - perfectly normal human activities. This summer is going to be traumatic for them.

I do think some of the COVID prefects have not felt this important since their glory days as Head Girl/Boy. The end of lockdown and possible eventual fizzling out of this pandemic must be hard, if it means no policing of other people's behaviour (along with the accompanying 'selfish bastard' epithets) and constant interpretation and reinterpretation of The Rules.

As for certain constabularies (here's looking at you, Dorset and Humberside), WTF will they do with their time when Nanny Britain gets shoved unceremoniously back off to the nursery? (If, indeed, that actually happens. Cf. the protests about protests).

We've always been holiday mad, and for the last few years have been spending two periods of 3 months out of the UK. We called it our alternative life. Obviously that means we have really missed our time away but it's not the be all and end all. Personally I hate the getting there bit unless we are in the car and touring so I won't be looking forward to all the extra hassle that's bound to be around airports and borders thanks to Covid and Brexit. We would like to get away in the autumn but if it doesn't happen because it's still not safe we'll just wait. We'll make the most of what we have here.
If we were still working I'm sure we'd find it much harder missing those precious weeks away from the office or wherever.