Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that holidays are non essential?

479 replies

Silliantro · 02/04/2021 12:27

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.

OP posts:
ImInStealthMode · 02/04/2021 13:44

Obviously they're not essential, but the same can be said for most things, including having DC (the world isn't exactly short of people) and I doubt someone talking about being sad they can't have them receiving the same response.

Travel for any reason is one of my favourite things to do. In normal times I'd be away for either work or personally 8 or 10 times a year. My family and many friends live in different countries so require 'non-essential' travel to visit. Thus by the time I might be able to see them it'll have been 2 years. Travel is a lot more to a lot of people than 'a week in Magaluf'. It's enriching, educating, provides time to think and escape the monotony of every day life.

Could I live a life without travelling ever again? Yes I could, but I'd be bloody miserable and I'd deeply consider it it were a life I actually wanted to live.

diwrnachoflleyn · 02/04/2021 13:45

@poppycat10

A staycation is NOT a holiday in the UK. That is a holiday and people talk about them like they're some kind of booby prize

I agree. Holidays are essential but going overseas is not, there are so many lovely places in the UK (and Ireland, which isn't part of the travel ban, although they've got to let in leisure travellers from the UK first). And no, the weather is not always sh*t or even most of the time.

To you. Going overseas is not essential to you. But it is to plenty of people and has been done for thousands of years even with numerous nasty diseases about. In the science museum in Edinburgh, there's a priceless necklace of Whitby jet. It was found in the kist in a burial mound between 3 and 5,0000 years old in the extreme Western part of Scotland - people were trading, travelling through with goods even then. There are also beakers with feet in there from that same region and the same age that came straight out of what is now Germany. Those silly people were somehow travelling! Incredible. So selfish.
NotJustAnyOldDog · 02/04/2021 13:46

I bet you’re fun at a party.

Rukaya · 02/04/2021 13:46

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

Condescending and patronising, what a prize pillock you must be! YOU might go to Magaluf and hate it, so don't see the point, some of us have much better holidays than that. Which I see as an essential.

I assume your rant comes from jealously that you can't afford a nice holiday and want people to stay home and be as miserable as you are. Tough luck!

TownTalkJewels · 02/04/2021 13:48

Most things in life are non-essential. Do you like going for walks with your family, or sending your kids to school? Shocked. Why don’t you stay home and learn a new language instead?

You sound a bit jealous. Perhaps you’ve just never had a good holiday? (Feels likely if your idea of going abroad involves Magaluf.)

diwrnachoflleyn · 02/04/2021 13:49

And a staycation used to mean you actually stayed in your physical home at night and went out on day trips; not a holiday in the UK.

saltinesandcoffeecups · 02/04/2021 13:49

[quote Kokosrieksts]@saltinesandcoffeecups

Your comment made me laugh, thank you![/quote]
Sorry you’ll never make it into the synchronized sourpuss finals with that attitude

Grin Glad you got a laugh out of it, we all need to remember to do that from time to time!

RedGoldAndGreene · 02/04/2021 13:50

There are people who make their living from people going on holiday. I hope that they can go back to work by this summer.

What about people who have family overseas? Not all travel is about sitting on the beach.

TheJerkStore · 02/04/2021 13:51

@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.

Well obviously holidays aren't essential but they can make life pleasurable.

Why did you choose Magaluf and cruises as an example?

Do people who go on holiday not talk to their DC, learn languages or read books??

I've really missed going on city breaks with my DH and having a family beach holiday with guaranteed nice weather to look forward to.

Werkwerkwerkwerkwerk · 02/04/2021 13:52

@dontdisturbmenow I'm not sure we're talking about the same thing here.
The person I referred to hasn't been on holiday, in fact has been isolating, and certainly hasn't caught Covid on a holiday and spread it (in fact, they are the opposite of 'me, me, me').
The original question was 'are holidays essential'. And whilst to me, no they are not, I changed my 'perspective', not my personal views, by taking on board others thoughts and feelings.

moochingtothepub · 02/04/2021 13:53

No they aren't essential but we like them. My dc are grown, for 20 years I did the child rearing thing, now it's my time for carefree. We will be going when permitted, Canada is looking promising!

CirqueDeMorgue · 02/04/2021 13:54

I don't give a fuck, I'm going to the seaside for a few days with the kids and we totally deserve it. 🙃

m0therofdragons · 02/04/2021 13:55

They’re essential for many countries, like Spain and Greece where tourists are significant for their economy. And I love the irony that it’s okay for you to moan about them but not for them to moan in the first place!

I love travel so I don’t need to be judged for feeling down about not going away last summer or the fact I’ve no idea of it’ll happen this summer. I’m allowed to feel disappointed. Yes people have it worse than me but that is line saying you can only complain once you reach the official level of misery required.

m0therofdragons · 02/04/2021 13:56

@moochingtothepub Canada is stunning! Have a fab time where you get there.

Fairyliz · 02/04/2021 13:58

Well having WiFi and posting on the internet is not essential. But we all seem to want to do it including you op.

RaginSpice · 02/04/2021 14:01

Our entire society is built around people working and then being rewarded.

Currently we’re just working. No reward just work.

It’s entirely reasonable for people to miss the reward part.

gallbladderpain · 02/04/2021 14:02

@pointythings

You have an amazingly joyless outlook on life, OP. No, holidays and trips aren't essential. But they make life more fun. They broaden our horizons. They give us that mental break from the daily grind. It's particularly shocking that you seem to begrudge people trips to the seaside - that's just sad. Learning a language or reading a book at home is not the same experience as feeling the sea on your skin, making sandcastles, collecting shells - all those little joys. So very sad. I hope you don't actually live like this with any children you may have.
You can have joy without a holiday, many people do. We haven't been abroad in 7 years because for me my choice was to sacrifice the holidays in order to be able to work less and be more present in the DC life. I have never once considered that my life isn't joyful because we don't have a holiday. If anything I look at my friends who constantly put themselves under pressure to work overtime to pay for various holidays and think its a pity how much of their young children's lives they are missing out on cramming in overtime just to be able to afford to go abroad a few weeks a year. I can't fathom where the joy is in that at all!
saltinesandcoffeecups · 02/04/2021 14:02

Oh and OP, I’ll be packing later tonight for my trip to Jamaica. Funny if you think about it , it would seem that my travel is essential to the people who house, clothe, and feed themselves (and their families) off of my tourism dollars either directly or indirectly.

So, yes I’m going to agree that it is essential and you just don’t care about the well-being of people who make a living from tourism... why do you hate these people and want them to suffer @Silliantro?

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 02/04/2021 14:03

Are you this miserable generally OP or just when other people might enjoy themselves?

Of course holidays aren't essential but I can't bloody wait to get out of these four walls again! I've got UK holidays booked this year and, fingers crossed, Florida for next year. I need something to look forward to in life!

misskatamari · 02/04/2021 14:04

I don't think foreign holidays are in any way essential (although obviously they can be lovely). It is great to get away though. We pretty much only holiday in the UK, and it isn't something we do often at all (funds haven't really permitted it much, so maybe once every few years), but even just a couple of nights somewhere else, gosh it makes you feel so much better.

So no, of course they aren't essential, in the way food/shelter etc are, but for people's mental health and well being, I do think having a chance to get away from your day to day life, is massively important. Even if it's a couple of nights away, an hour from home etx

gallbladderpain · 02/04/2021 14:04

I can also assure you my children much prefer the life and experiences we have together than going on an all inclusive holiday where they end up in the kids club so mum and dad can spend the day sipping cocktails Hmm

AlexaShutUp · 02/04/2021 14:05

YANBU at all. I love holidays, they're usually the highlight of my year, but in the middle of a pandemic, I can accept that they aren't a good idea.

diwrnachoflleyn · 02/04/2021 14:07

@gallbladderpain

I can also assure you my children much prefer the life and experiences we have together than going on an all inclusive holiday where they end up in the kids club so mum and dad can spend the day sipping cocktails Hmm
Mine love the kids club (on cruises, we cruise). They have much preferred that to move togetherness. DH is teetotal and hot weather puts me off alcohol so neither of us spent the day sipping cocktails Hmm.
gallbladderpain · 02/04/2021 14:09

@diwrnachoflleyn each to their own, mine much prefer to have their mum picking them up and finding out about their day at school every day rather than getting 2 weeks in a kids club on an expensive cruise. There's many ways to enjoy life and holidays are not essential to life enjoyment!

UrAWizHarry · 02/04/2021 14:10

As someone who works in a stressful, full on job time off to recharge is essential to me, and I find I do that better away from home.

So I can fucking moan about not having had one since 2019 as much as I like, thanks all the same.