to think we should be grateful for flushing toilets...

[evergreener]

honestly, there is so much trauma and anxiety on these threads, and I don't really understand it. Spending much of time in a part of the world with no sanitation or drinking water, I think that we are incredibly privileged and fortunate in the UK. I'm thankful for access to flushing toilets every day!

yet these threads are so full of misery, inspite of our luxurious life style, abundance of clean water, cheap food, clothes, education, medical care, etc.

People are upset about not wanting a CAT scan, wanting a change or HRT medication, teens being anxious about going to school, wanting a better car, not liking the homework a teacher has set, wanting their partner to get up early with the baby, wanting someone else to unload the dishwasher, worried about what brand of moisturiser to use, and so on and so on

I hope I am not offending too many people by saying this, but we are so rich here, we have so many luxuries, we had such an easy pandemic, we have got everything that most of the worlds population cant even dream of, why is everyone so sad?

I hope you’ve got your tin hat on, OP!

I understand your general point that we should take time to be grateful for what we have in the 21st century compared with our ancestors and people today in other parts of the world today. Having access to clean water and flushing toilets is amazing when you think that many of our grandparents/great-grandparents grew up with outside privies.

But that doesn’t mean that people’s are easy, does it? We all have worries and stressors in our lives, sometimes they’re major and life-changing.

But yes. I’m grateful that I’ve just used my indoor loo instead of a chamber pot. As I live in a city, I’m sure pedestrians are too, as I didn’t have to empty it out of the window as used to happen.

This attitude, telling other people they 'have it good', I find patronising, dismissive and offensive.

Do you tell your kids to eat all their dinner because there are starving children in Africa? That always ends well.
We are paying through the nose for that flushing toilet and the house its in! As for the cheap food etc. People in this country are really struggling to make ends meet and the number of food banks has sky rocketed.
I find your minimising of people's problems pretty stupid. Kids being anxious about going to school? You've no idea about the massive outbreak of self harm amongst teenagers. Our local children's ward is full of them.
Nothing is gained from diminishing our countries problems, because at least we are better off than some.

But a great many UK children don't have food, clothing, medical care, play opportunities, safe outdoor spaces. Granted almost all have education - but many don't have the support they need there either.

You live in a fantasy land.

The NSPCC and Childline can just shut up shop according to you! Presumably they're just moaning too.

This is bang on. Ya most definitely nbu op.

The shit on here beggars belief when you put it into context of how people in other countries live.

You post just reads like some MN and adult version of telling kids to not leave left overs because there are kids starving in Africa.

You can't complain because other people have it worse? Sure they do. But living your life with that attitude will do shit things to your mental health.

I never understand people who whack this argument out as some sort of smoking gun. Obviously perspective is key, and we are very fortunate to live in a time in history/part of the world with distinct advantages compared to others - we don’t die due to diarrhoea for example, most of us have a roof over our heads and modern comforts.

But does that mean people can never feel discomfort/sadness/frustration because someone always has/had it worse? ‘Oh you can’t moan about NHS wait times…at least you’ve GOT medical care!’ ‘Oh you’re struggling at work? We’ll be grateful you have a job at all’ etc etc.

Multiple things can be true at the same time. You can have a bad day at work or a fight with your partner and that can still be upsetting even if you’re fortunate enough not to be living in a war zone, or you aren’t walking 5 miles for water. There will always be someone worse off, but it doesn’t mean your feelings are any less valid. Yes some people are natural whingers - there always has been and always will be - and yes perspective can help us count our blessings and see our privileges - but I don’t subscribe to the idea that people should shut up and lump it because of their issue in contrast to the world’s problems.

This is exactly the op's point. People in the UK really think they had a hard lock down and feel so hard done by.

I spent the pandemic in Europe where we couldn't leave our houses, at all.

If you had a garden, you weren't even allowed out to walk your dog. If you were in a flat and had a dog, you could only go 100 yards from your street door.

You were only allowed to go to the supermarket once a week and had to go to the one nearest your house.

There were armed police patrolling and spot checking.

We were on actual house arrest. The police used drones to check no one was out walking.

We were on rations because you could only buy so much in the supermarket, for a week.

There was none of this walking to the shop every day, then walking the dog, then your hour of exercise.

WE WERE ON 24HR 7DAYS A WEEK HOUSE ARREST. And one person from the household could go to the shop once a week.

But the UK had it hard, yeah? 😂

We should not be mindlessly grateful.

We should sit down and think about the circumstances which brought it into being. We should take care not to change those circumstances

It was all obscene.

Our rights were disgustingly abused.

That your rights were abused worse does not make it better.

And why does your Govt treat you worse? What are you doing to change that next time?

The stuff you mentioned was probably tolerable if you lived with other people.

I lived alone and was not allowed to see my own mum or any of my support network. It had such an awful effect on my mental health, I am lucky to be here today to post about it. For me, it was a very hard lockdown, and that has no baring or relevance to how hard or easy other countries had it. I will not have my struggles with it invalidated because the rules were stricter elsewhere.

Again.

One person’s misery having been worse than another’s isn’t the point.

Nobody should have been abused at all.

Thinking about how bearable abuse can be will just bring you more abuse.

All abuse is wrong.

You need to join together and refuse to see Anyone abused At All.

@AlwaysPrettyOnTheInside Yes, we have relatives living in an Asian country and we’re surprised that they survived the pandemic with their mental health intact, tbh. The restrictions were draconian for over two years, it was frightening.

Are they doing anything to make sure that Govt can never do that again?

Above was a Q for you on Asian relatives.

Are they doing anything to make sure it can’t happen again?

Voted YABU because our system of flushing toilets is an incredibly wasteful, stupid, ill-thought-out and ecologically damaging way of dealing with our shit.

Flushing toilets take obscene amounts of very clean, drinking-quality water (a lot of energy goes into making this water potable) and add a small amount of shit, making this water into a dangerous waste product that then needs lots of energy/carbon/treatment to make it safe...

And in many places our drainage/ sewage system can't cope with the sheer quantity of water moving through it. Coupled with an ongoing lack of investment from the private water companies who make huge profits, this is what has led to the pollution of our beaches and rivers.

I wish there was the (popular and political) will to make a huge change - for composting toilets to be adopted on a mass scale and for other alternatives to be properly explored - for urine as well.

If you'd titled the thread "we should be grateful for clean drinking water" I would've voted differently.

They also have EU citizenship so their long term plan is to move! Where they live isn’t going to change, unfortunately.

Oh, I agree. I don't think many places handled the pandemic well at all.. but that could be a whole different (and interesting) thread.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

How do people do that though, when protesting is now outlawed? Look at the truckers in Canada, bank accounts shut down when they realised they weren't going to give up, also painted as cranks/nazis/conspiracy theorists. Tbh a lot of people will paint anyone criticising the lockdowns in exactly the same way, even now.

The way governments treated people was straight out of the abusers handbook, gaslighting and rewriting, paternalism (we know better than you so just do as you are told) nonsensical obedience tests, illogical punishments, isolation, insults. I realise that it wasn't as strict here as in some places, pretty shit though.

WORLD TOILET DAY, is on Sunday November 19th.
a few years back I watched a documentary on the topic which overwhelmingly affects women.

I get where you’re coming from OP but this is a dangerous line. People in the UK are entitled to feel aggrieved when our living standards deteriorate, as in the last 13 years they have. It was not necessary.