Sick of wasting my life because of the rain

[GoodnightAdeline]

I don’t care how many people say ‘it was always like this..’ yes it rained a lot when I was a kid but now it does nothing BUT rain.

I swear to God out of the last 30 days we have had 1 or maybe 2 where it wasn’t fucking raining. And they’re always midweek.

I feel like all we do is sit inside going stir crazy waiting for the rain to stop. I have 2 small children and while they’re desperate to go to the park/beach, even they’re not keen in a torrential downpour with everything covered in mud.

I’m sick of all my plans being cancelled, staring out of the window at depressing grey skies and trying to figure out how to pass the weekend without spending a ton of cash on expensive (and brief) indoor activities.

It’s driving me fucking crazy and not an exaggeration to say it’s sending me into some kind of low level depression. 🍷

#@GoodnightAdeline

Why not watch youtube internet videos of cosy comforting scenes of idyllic lsnow covered log fires 🔥 burning crackling amongst a cosy log hut ,

Flames are hypnotic to watch and listen

Like cosy comforting hibernating secure feeling videos to see

The vast majority of people can go for a walk or get out even in the garden - honestly there is no magic here - scientific studies show the massive benefits of just a 10 min walk or 15 minutes outside. Today it is raining - I’m on holiday. I went out for 30 minutes and redid the bark on the drive in between showers - I felt amazing after and then in another 10 minute stop in the rain I went and picked up dog poo.

I work underground in a kind of bunker and I have light boxes all around my room and without medication and these and daily liquid vitamin D my levels are low. I don’t see natural light normally Monday to Friday and normally I’m there from 8 am to 5 pm so from November / December until March I leave in the dark and come home in dark - it seriously affects my mental health. Recently I’ve started rain or shine leaving my work for 15-30 minutes every day in the middle and sitting on a park bench near it or even in my work place just on a bench. Two weeks of doing this I feel so much already.

if the hate the rain that much you have two real choices - move somewhere where there is less rain - Stay indoors and moan.

Some of the replies to this thread are insane. Of course we expect wet weather in the U.K. but the rainfall stats show in many places that rainfall has been 200% higher than average. That’s not a bit more rain is it?
Not to mention whether it’s raining or not, it’s been grey and overcast. The Met office summary for feb has all the graphs which show we are well down on sunshine hours.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/summaries/mwr_2024_02_for_print.pdf

if people want to go bigger picture on this then it has impacts. I imagine most of us are starved of vitamin D, we’ve got reports about child poverty in the news yet people are talking about buying costly outdoor wear as though that’s achievable for everyone. And then the ableist ‘just go out and jump in puddles’ brigade who can’t imagine how difficult it is for any one with mobility issues or mobility aids. A recent government report shows 6m adults don’t even do 10 mins brisk walk a month. Of course weather is likely to have an impact! If it was dry, sunny and pleasant people would go outside! And no we can’t all emigrate but maybe there needs to be a societal shift of having more indoor places to do cheap or free activities for all ages to be active and get out the house.

I'm in North Wales - it rains a lot at the best of times and it has definitely been wet recently. The important thing is to have good waterproofs and to pick your window. It rarely rains all day. It was raining when I took the dog out at 8 this morning but at 10 it is now just overcast. It will likely rain again later but if I wanted a dry walk I'd run out now.
It's true that you can't go sit on a picnic blanket in your shorts and at the moment but that isn't odd for Jan / Feb / March. It was lovely on Sunday, we spent a couple of hours doing garden jobs in the intermittent sun.

Council tax is generally higher in the north. I think, IIRC, Liverpool has some of the highest and Kensington & Chelsea has one of the lowest.

I agree with the poster up thread - even the dog is fed up of the rain. He does know that after a walk he goes to his bed rather than his preferred sofa spot so the regularity of rain has instilled that discipline at least.

Really, with public services stretched to breaking point, I don't think the government has got the cash to start setting up free soft play for the nation. Unless there is some sort of backstory about disability, "not doing 10 minutes brisk walking a month" is not about the bloody weather.

I agree with you OP. All of these people saying dress appropriately and go out in the cold and rain, why ? What’s the point if you don’t enjoy it?

You might end up like the Vicar of Dibley 😁

I’ve been saying almost everyday for what seems like months now, ‘bloody raining again!’ There’s been a few days here and there though when I’ve said ‘oh good no rain today’. So rain has definitely been in my thoughts.

I’m in Scotland and our modest 3 bed semi didn’t qualify for the cost of living payment a couple of years back as our council tax was band E whereas I know of people in the Home Counties in massive ££££ houses who were getting it as they had a lower band. So I think that’s definitely accurate

Agree. It’s definitely wetter than normal and it is a pain planning for, being out and cleaning up after outside when it’s like this.
son has had numerous rugby matches and practises cancelled because the pitches are in such a state
dog needs a bath after every walk and towelling down after every garden visit
shoes and coats need cleaning drying every day…

I don’t want to wrap up in expensive kit every time I leave the house and then wash and dry it when I come back. I just want to chuck on a jumper and trainers, go, come back and continue with my day

i hate hot chocolate.

@GoodnightAdeline I agree and some very annoying “peak mumsnet” posts on here 🙄. The list of middle class parenting perfection featuring woodcraft (and probably a homemade quinoa lunch) has made me howl. “We do woodcraft” 🤣🤣🤣

It’s fucking depressing and the minute I can move somewhere warmer and drier I will.

OP, you are not unreasonable to think there's been a lot more rain than normal, and be fed up of it. I haven't particularly noticed it, but perhaps that's where I live (West Midlands), or I just got lucky with my timing of walking the dog etc. Yesterday afternoon was actually lovely, and I sat out in the garden in the sun for quite a while.

But you are being unreasonable to let it stop you going out. As others have suggested, waterproofs, wellies, and a good attitude will mean that you can get outdoors and do plenty of things. Pick walks that are mainly on pavements rather than muddy paths, feed the ducks, car picnics, play parks in the rain are ok, as long as it's not absolutely hammering down, which it certainly hasn't been doing for 100% of the time. Sometimes you just have to get on with it and hope for the best, and often it won't be as bad as you are picturing it.

Last weekend, as a cub leader, I took 40 kids on a residential weekend. It rained a lot, and there was a lot of mud! But we got outside anyway, and did archery and climbing in the pouring rain. The kids still loved it, and had a great time.

Or switch to indoor things - free museums, libraries, some cinemas do films for £1 on a Saturday morning etc. The occasional trip to soft play, swimming etc. There's usually quite a bit to do indoors if you get creative.

I'm going to try and offer some actual helpful advice that has nothing to do with splashing in puddles or kangaroos.

The forecast here for the next fortnight has two "dry" days. I say "dry" because one is forecast to actually be dry all day (away next week!) and the other is just dry spells. This week every single day is rain. All day. 24 hours. I am really fed up and this is the first year I've felt it genuinely affecting my mood. I'm struggling.

The best I can do is:

•Absolutely neck the vitamin D tablets
•Check the forecast and get outside for every single scrap of dry weather that there is.
•Focus on some projects that are needing done at home to feel productive
•Plan our next holiday
•Go swimming a lot
•Remember how shit this was and appreciate the fuck out of spring and summer when it finally comes 🙏🏻

My cat refuses to go out in it. He's a bigger weather wimp than I am.

You've had a rough ride on this thread, OP but this post☝🏻is it in a nutshell. The lack of clear days this winter has been genuinely unbelievable where we are, and everyone I know is feeling it. Of course we don't expect wall-to-wall spring conditions in Jan/Feb/early March, but you'd normally get a break of a few days every so often where it might be cold and windy but you can see the sun. This year has been off the scale for that flat, grey light and it's soul-destroying. Better days ahead, hang in there!

Very rarely does it rain all day. Why don't you go out when the rain eases off?

I track my walking/steps on my phone. I do a lot of walking, i.e. to/from work (I take the car when it rains), have a walk at lunchtime, always walk a couple of times Saturday and Sunday, and often an evening walk. I don't go walking when it's raining! I have quite a lot of flexibility with working hours, so I can set off earlier/later in either direction if I want to dodge a shower!

Just looking at the app, over the past three months, there have only been 3 days when I did less than 3,000 steps, which basically means days where it was wall to wall rain as 3,000 steps is a typical "stay in" day where I just walk around the home or office, walk to car to drive to/from work, etc. Most days I achieved my goal of 10,000 steps which usually means a morning walk, a lunchtime walk, and an afternoon walk, or if I miss one of those, a substitute evening walk. 5 or 6 days I got between 5,000 and 10,000 steps which means just 1 or 2 walks in the day instead of 3/4, which means it was either raining in the morning OR the afternoon.

I think the OP needs to be more flexible with their plans, maybe check the forecast to see when it's likely to rain, and go out earlier or later when it's not likely to rain. If someone is fixed focussed that they're only going to go out around 11am in the morning or 3pm in the afternoon, then it's obviously going to be more likely that bad weather will scupper their plans. If they're more flexible and are able to go out at 9.30, or 12 or 2 or 4, they're more likely to find a window of opportunity to get out and stay dry!

I agree OP. All of the "put on some wellies and get out" brigade clearly don't live in an area that is so saturated that those wellies get stuck in the mud, Or they all own tumble dryers and have the £££ to run them everyday in order to get those wet, muddy clothes dry. I can't wait until summer when the usual "oh it's so hot" threads start....maybe we should just tell them..."no such thing as the wrong weather, just the wrong clothes"

This is simply untrue. It has rained all day for most days here on the west coast of Scotland. The forecast for this entire week is rain 24/7. This is not an exaggeration.

So many posts on this thread from people who can't imagine weather in other parts of the uk.

I agree with you OP. All of these people saying dress appropriately and go out in the cold and rain, why ? What’s the point if you don’t enjoy it?

Because of this

I feel like all we do is sit inside going stir crazy waiting for the rain to stop. I have 2 small children and while they’re desperate to go to the park/beach, even they’re not keen in a torrential downpour with everything covered in mud

It might not be the OP's preferred option, but if everyone is sitting inside going stir crazy, then surely it's better to give going out a go? It might work out better than she expected, and they may even have fun. Ok, the OP might have to be prepared to pick a window of drier/drizzly weather at short notice, but sitting round the house feeling fed up doesn't really help anyone.

@Thefutureisourownpath I couldn’t imagine anything worse on a day like today than going in my garden as ‘something to do’. It’s wet, it’s windy and the garden is mushy. Even when my kids were young the garden wouldn’t have been an option as I’d have just ended up with a pile of muddy laundry and mud caked footwear to clean.

Luckily for me my kids didn’t much like the rain either so staying in on wet days was fine for us, we’d just do indoors things.

If i didnt have horses, this weather wouldnt bother me too much at all. I have coats and wellies.

I've competed a lot this winter and done a lot with the cars outside. it's irritating but it's just rain. i've had just as much fun as normal even if my horses are paddling around a muddy swamp and take longer than normal to get ready.

Why are you sitting all day ?

Wear appropriate clothes and crack on with your day

I’m with you op. It’s very depressing

It rained all through December. It rained all through January. It rained all through February. And now March. It’s fucking depressing

Wait for July, OP - there'll probably be a hosepipe ban because the water companies spent all the "repair" money they gouged out of us on the shareholders