Sister won’t commit to booking holiday because of “threat of war”

[Posypointshoes]

I’m an anxious person. I worry a LOT especially about the way things are in the world at the moment. I can see how it can feel like things are pressing in on all sides.

however we have a special family birthday coming up and we are all supposed to be booking a special holiday abroad for it. It’s been in the works for a while we’ve sorted all the arrangements and now when it’s time to actually book my sister is saying she won’t commit because we just don’t know what’s going to happen with the world.
she’s panicking about war breaking out if we were on holiday and then what would we do?

as I said I am an anxious person. I’ve had some dark and scary thoughts about possibilities and what we could be facing but this just seems mad to me? Our parents are upset as it’s their occasion and now she’s the only one not going.

its also making me alarmed that she’s struggling with her mental health maybe more so than she’s letting on, if that seems like a logical reason not to book a holiday? She’s also stopped making plans further than a few weeks ahead as well. I don’t really know what to do about it, if it’s my place to try and how to approach it.

I'm taking a long haul flight to SE Asia on Thurs. Flying over Iran and Afghanistan. Should I be worried? Haven't really been paying attention to news so no idea what's going on.

Finally H is unmasked on mumsnet

Hotel's address is 15 Yemen Road.

Conscription nowadays would be fucking hilarious. Imagine them even attempting it with Gen Z, they’d be offended at the mere word.

Anyway, go on holiday without your sister.

We're off to Greece in the summer. Yes the world situation is unsettling more now than ever, but what is the alternative to not going - sitting at home and worrying about something that may or may not happen?

😄

I seen some things, man. And some stuff. Those motherfuckers were coming out of the trees, man. We were fighting ghosts.

<long shuddering breath>
<eye twitch>

Oh bravo! 😄😁

I stopped watching the news years ago

Its just the same story over and over till they find something else then they have that story over and over

Nothing of note changes

Except when people think they have permission to be racist and then people show their true colours

Yes, I’m trying to compose a list of all the no-nos that it would constitute: definitely passive aggressive, probably patronising, certainly manipulative, gaslighting, narcissistic, sexist, ageist, … racist? There must be some more ist labels - and can we not squeeze misogynistic in somewhere?

I am welding the same about a planned, but not yet booked, holiday later I the year. I am not anxious generally, I’m not risk averse, but I have been paying attention. There’s a big storm brewing. Maybe it will be ok.
ill probably go on the basis that if all out war does break out, I’ll be with the people I love.
Both views are valid.

What war? I don't have social media and actively avoid the news 😳

The world is a scary place right now. That is a reality. I'm currently booking a holiday we may never take. I've commited to £472 non-refundable and c.£2k we can cancel. If you have a close relative who is scared. Don't push them. Their feelings are real. What do your parents want to achieve? It's probably closer to home. If it's family - make it something UK and special. If you weren't around in Kuwaiti war - they grounded all flights. And always know your ferry/ eurotunnel/ alternative routes home.

Just curious but the whole world flights were grounded because of the first gulf war? I was not born then but have never heard that.

The UK has helpful advice and travel warnings. This stuff can be researched and is updated all of the time. From a statistical standpoint, if a destination has no current serious threats, the likelihood of war being an issue is infinitessimal.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

It wasn’t the whole world that had flights grounded. Never been the case.
They weren’t grounded when Kuwait was invaded in 1990 at all. In fact a BA flight was allowed to fly from Heathrow to Kuwait and then all the passengers were held hostage for a month even though the U.K. government knew they were flying into a war.

During the first Gulf war, the airspace over Iraq was a no fly zone except for coalition military, but that isn’t grounding planes per se. There are always no fly zones during conflicts so passenger jets don’t get shot down.

The US grounded all flights on 9/11. The next time they did that was last year due to a compute glitch that crashed all the air traffic control systems.

Europe grounded all flights when that volcano erupted in Iceland, think it was 2008? Because the ash would clog the jet engines and the plane would crash.

It doesn't say where you are going. You can to a point check on gov and it will tell you under travel information if there is a concern of war in that country. It's under foreign travel. The fact is during lock downs yes people were flown back in but many struggled to return or were left without accommodation so it's understandable to be concerned. But this is one event, if things went wrong, you'd all be together so rather than dismiss her concerns, talk over what you'd do if it happened to reassure that if something did go wrong, it'd be OK.

Conscription would be for both sexes in the U.K. like it was for WWII.
So forget the sexism and mosogyny.
Keep the racism and classism though as we all know posh kids will have desk jobs in safety and while working class kids get put in the line of fire.

Thanks. Yeah that’s what I thought.

i was just wondering as the poster I quoted I said if you weren’t around during the Kuwaiti war they grounded all flights. Which confused me.

They were vague on that count so I get why you thought it. It would have been all flights where they were, certainly not all flights in the world!

Well you don’t need the convince me to forget any of them, as I don’t think any of them apply. Even classism- not with the way modern large-scale war fare would be waged.

Hmm really? No classism? Who do you think gets to be officers in a HQ sending others to die? Or stay in the U.K. to be cyber warfare experts? Hint: it’s not the bin men and bricklayers. They get to be infantry or seamen, going off to die.

And who is most likely to be working class? Anyone not white.

The next war won’t be boots on the ground, it will be drones and long range tactical strikes.

Still going to be especially dodgy for the #7, though.