Everyone looks so glum.

[Glumbums]

Hear me out. I know we have a cost of living crisis and the weather is shit. However I went around my local village today and everyone I accidentally locked eyes with looked utterly glum and dead in the eyes. No joy whatsoever. I am just back from visiting another country so this is particularly obvious to me. Food is bloody expensive, people have little to enjoy themselves it's so sad as a country to see how we've regressed in the last 3 years.

We've been the victims of the tories for 12 years now, that's enough for any country to bear.

The pandemic lockdowns, rule of six, tiers and other absurd legislation have likely had a bigger effect on some people than might be immediately visible. There's a thread somewhere about the terrible aftermath for a good many people.

We've just lived through a major period of upheaval. People have lost loved ones and livelihoods. Even those of us who got off lightly are sometimes having difficulty readjusting, are still suffering burnout because they worked throughout and conditions made their jobs 10X harder. Now we're all expected to pick up and get on with it as though nothing ever happened. I've got off lightly compared with some, but still, things I jumped up and did without thinking before 2019 now seem to require three times the effort with a quarter of the inclination I used to have.

The cost of living crisis, war in Europe and precarity of many sectors of our economy are just the tail end of a very unsettled period in our history. There currently doesn't seem to be a great deal to shout about (and I don't include in that a weirdly misguided celebration of hereditary privilege when the economy is on its knees).

Until this point I've been a glass-half-full person, but really, is it any wonder that at present many people are pissed off?

Hahaha.

Maybe the people in your town are afraid to look happy, OP. In case they get told off for smiling because energy and food just got more expensive and it’s winter and the trains are on strike!

MarieIVanArkleStinks You nailed how I feel. Thank you.

I think maybe everyone in the village was replaced while OP was on holiday.

Me too! Also when I leave the house birds fly to me and perch on my hand to 'chat', and the local wildlife gathers around me just like Snow White.

Yeah, same as this round our way.

You do notice it when you return from abroad.

Wow, things must really have gone downhill here since you were last In Vietnam - i was there a few months ago and all I could think about was what a nice change it made from the UK to be around such cheerful people!

Actually I noticed this on a holiday in Italy a couple of weeks ago. Very unexpected, but most people we came into contact with seemed distracted and fed up. 😕

Try trilling Don't Worry, Be Happy!! on your next walk. I am sure people will soon be bopping along with ya.

The clocks changing makes everyone depressed for a week. Also it's raining. Also cost of living. Being ruled by a coop of chicken brains. Mortgage rates. NHS falling over. Covid aftershock. Mad bastard Putin and his nukes. Still being an international laughing stock because of Brexit. But probably mostly the dark and the rain..

🤣

Many people are feeling absolutely put through the ringer. However, try smiling if you wish and I think you'll find some people smile back gratefully despite the sad stressed eyes, glad of a kind soul to see them.

Me too @PumpkinSpiceLatay !! I was amazed at how depressed my resting face is☹️

Are you the same poster who posted about people in your local Lidl walking around "dead in the eyes"?
Where do you live, the village of the damned

Haha no that wasn't me.

😂

I do think the media and politicians have repeatedly gaslighted the UK population. Its very sad.
People look glum and hostile in my village. Perhaps its just where I live. Though I like in a relatively affluent place (I'm not) so people here may be more insulated than some.

As pps have said, when you go out of the country and come back, you notice it.

*live

Well I'm not in the UK so can't comment on that. but I have noticed a mood change on here. I've been on here for over twenty years and don't think I've ever seen so much aggression, a lot of people just seem to be waiting to pounce over the smallest things! I know there has always been an element of that on mumsnet, and I don't mind a bit of snark, but it does get tiresome when its on practically every thread!

YAB massivelyU.

One episode of walking round your village isn't "everyone".

Yabu. Try smiling at people.

Yesterday I had cheerful conversations with work colleagues, the man who serviced my car, another parent, my ds, my sister.

The dawn was lovely, all pinks and blues, and the trees are a riot of colour here. There was a flock of redwings stripping the berries off our yew tree I only have to look around and it makes me smile.

Everything is so expensive

rent/mortgage, gas, electric and food etc but wages have stagnanted.

I was out Christmas shopping the other day, I didn’t buy anything! Comparing the prices to last year - somethings have increased by 50-100%! :(

Food is very cheap here, even with recent price rises, compared to many other countries.

Where have you come back from?

Well a lot of us can't afford a decent living standard anymore without working ourselves to death, if only I could get that better job 🙄
I probably do look pretty miserable but nothing I can do about it, pasting a smile on for strangers won't change my circumstances.

I think it very much depends on where you go, and when.

The high street or supermarket, yes - everyone does seem a bit glum, but both places are stark reminders of the financial mess we're in and many people notice there and then just how much their limited finances have to stretch now.

Go to a park, pub or a hobby place and the picture is different, because people actually go there to enjoy themselves.

And weekends tend to be different to weekday mornings, as do times just before Christmas, where everyone is stressed and rushed off their feet (as a general rule, I don't enter a shop from about a week before Christmas to the 27th December, because everyone seems so on edge).