What time of the year do you find most difficult?

[OliveCrab]

Christmas is always a stress.

January. The dark days and rubbish weather doesn’t seem cosy anymore, just depressing. It’s fine though because by the time February comes around you can see the very very early stirrings of spring and then everything feels okay again.

Christmas.

August. Everything is busy and expensive and booked up. Traffic down here is shit because everyone north of Salisbury is driving to and from Cornwall. Half of work is off so I have 3 X the work to do while having my own kid off school, juggling childcare. And it always, always rains. Summer wasn't a washout here - just August.

New Year. I hate it and always have, but I’m not sure why. I’d love to just ignore it and stay in without seeing anyone, but DP always wants to go out and I end up tired and meh on 1st Jan. I like a quiet NYE followed by a walk/run/swim on New Year’s day to get the year off to a good start.

I usually hate November! Once the clocks go back, until December. Christmas is still too far away but it’s dark, wet and cold all the time. I don’t mind January (although that’ll be my second worst) as much, and I quite like February as we have lots of family birthdays and spring is on its way.

I find winter hard because of the darkness, and summer hard because of the fear of another really serious heatwave, so spring and autumn are the good time. I have to really concentrate on enjoying them, otherwise I can blink and they're gone.

Winter, but it depends on the weather. I hate snow and ice because they make surfaces slippery. and as I have balance and co-ordination disabilities, it becomes unsafe for me to get out. Fortunately, we don't get too much of the white stuff in southern England.

I also loathe my birthday; won't even say when it is. Fortunately. if no one reminds me, I can often forget it until it's over.

May to October. I truly hate the heat and the brightness. My migraines finally start declining in November. The fog, mist and rain are so beautiful. You can sit on the sofa, drink tea and read without all the summer people fomo

I like all the seasons. As we approach the end of one season I am totally ready for the next one.

end Sept/Oct/Nov - because I hate the end of summer and the approaching cold and dark. By the time we get to Jan/Feb, it may be cold, but at least the days are getting longer so you can be optimistic (still don't like them much though)

Cold rainy months. So most of the year in Scotland....

Christmas
The massive expectation on me to produce food, presents, joy and goodwill, deal with family politics, who is going where when, who is sleeping where when, including pets. Both DC are muscians in umpteen bands between them, so add in a load of concerts, Carol services, Christmas lights switch ons.... and I work full time, and on an OOH rota which is busiest in winter. Underlying all this, DDad died at Christmas 30 years ago, and DMum got her cancer diagnosis at Christmas.

I find January and February are the toughest months. All the excitement of Christmas is over. Everyone is broke and depressed. Summer seems a long way off.

Christmas. Every year I say I’m going to have a low key one, then FOMO kicks in and I end up doing something daft like throwing a big expensive party, spending a fortune on making a massive bower, buying far too much food, spending too much on presents, making loads of cakes and then end up feeling disappointed when everyone doesn’t morph into Elf and it turns out to be just another day.

Phew. It feels good to get that off my chest.

From the start of December to NYD. I really dislike Christmas but love NYD onwards. I like January and February for the crazy weather and the snowdrops / Daffodils beginning to creep out of the soil. Adore the Spring and Summer - love heat.

Summer

Too hot for me in SE England, not enough shade and tree cover in my area. It’s a struggle for the kids because they don’t like being out of school and routine. Having to seek and plan activities so they have some semblance of a schedule to make it easier for them which is a bit difficult when one of them is SEN so can’t put them in the same activities. The sun not setting til after 9 confuses them and makes bedtime more difficult. Can’t open the windows because autistic DS1 tries to climb out of them or hang out from them. I’ll take the usual rainy winter with a handful of days of snow over the summer.

Summer. Can’t stand it. Love the colder weather. Quite like Spring.

February because it's really cold, dark and it's Valentines. Most years in my adult life I haven't had a DP in February, and during the 8 years that I did have DP, he never once did anything nice for me.

It would be lovely to have a nice man to cuddle up to, and feel loved wholeheartedly.

I hate August and September but mostly September , so I’m just coming out of my low part of the year and I’m counting down the hours until October. I have absolutely no idea why, I have just always sort of mourned the loss of summer despite loving the winter!

I can cope with the short days and dark nights in November and December because I like the run up to Christmas. The parties, the lights, the using, church, shopping, cards, etc. I detest Jan and the first three weeks of February when I leave the house in the dark and get home in the dark. I really struggle to get up during the dark morning time.

I have done my best to brighten the garden. The little bed alongside the drive is lined with Hellebores and cyclamen fkr some winter joy.

Oh I do have it set up now so it is entirely forgotten. Nobody mentions it, DC don't know exactly when it is. It's far better than the decades I had before I got my confidence to insist to everyone who was interested that I wanted it ignored. Still have a bit of tenseness leading up to it though in case someone sneakily decides to acknowledge it.

The longest day of the year is a high point of summer for me. Means my birthday has just passed without incident and the days are getting shorter. It's still weeks till it starts getting dark at a reasonable hour but things have turned in the right direction which is a relief.

There’s stuff to complain about in all of the seasons (except maybe spring) so I try and enjoy all of them.

I get a bit anxious during the changing of the seasons though (so the last few weeks of each season) as it really makes me aware of the passage of time, but when they arrive I like to enjoy them for what they are and what they bring.

Mid September till about March is bad. But I'd say October or November is usually the worst for me

I hate October-November. I love spring and summer and long days. October represents the end of this - clocks change which means darker evenings (I'm not a morrning person!). I also find it depressing as trees lose their leaves, it seems like a time of decay. November is a non-month, feels like a slog to get through. Then December starts to improve. It has Christmnas (which I like), and the shortest day, then it's all uphill to longer days again! I don't even mind if January and February are cold and snowy, because we start to see spring flowers, and it feels like a time of growth.