To think sending postcards is a massive chore?

[WhatsMyDream]

Whenever we go on holiday, family member says to my DC (in my hearing) "make sure to send me a postcard"
I have come to find that sending a postcard generally involves 4 steps, all of which are a chore

1. find the postcard
2. write it
3. find a stamp - usually never sold by the postcard shop
4. find the postbox

All of these tasks to be achieved whilst wrangling DC abroad in unfamiliar areas while they all want to do something different to each other and me. Family member is a single traveller for whom postcard sourcing is probably a nice way to spend an afternoon pottering. For me holidays are a combination of DC : complaining about the weather, wanting an ice cream, needing the toilet, wanting to buy X random cheap toy, being hungry, being thirsty, not wanting to visit whatever thing the country is famous for, wanting to go back to the pool etc

Throwing a postcard obstacle course into the mix is just a step too far

I don’t see the point really when I can WhatsApp them a picture of it instantly, if I think they’re interested.

Was more of a novelty prior to the internet.

I send postcards to young children in the family because they like to receive post. It’s no big deal to do it.

Everyone else gets an electronic picture.

It's so expensive now! Four postcards and stamps in France is about €10. I do it to make my children practise writing on holiday but is seems silly now when you can send a WhatsApp with photos.

All of these tasks to be achieved whilst wrangling DC abroad in unfamiliar areas while they all want to do something different to each other and me.

sounds like a happy family holiday!

say to relative…. “Look holidays are a bit shit for us. I don’t think we will have the time and I can’t cope with the stress”

Yes they think “bloomin heck OP is a drama llama” but I imagine it’ll shut then up!

I love sending postcards! But agree it is expensive, I only send them to my parents and small nieces and nephews now. They can be surprisingly hard to find these days too, especially on city breaks.

Just tell them that you are not doing postcards. Offer to pick up a few in the supermarket for them if they want them but tell them that you will not be writing or posting them.

I haven’t sent postcards for 30 years. Too much nonsense.

You could just buy a postcard when you're buying the children a drink and take it home to give to the family member. It saves the stamp buying and looking for a postbox. Alternatively, tell DH to say sorry, we can't be bothered with postcards!

They are pretty much obsolete nowadays - although they're prettier to look at than a text message!

Not exactly the same thing, but I remember a really old episode of Room 101, with Sanjeev Bhaskar as the guest.

He was complaining about when some of his elderly relatives gave him a pound note for a birthday present. He then had to pay for the bus fare into town, then buy a thank-you card and stamp, write it and post it, before paying for another bus fare to get home.

Aside from all of the time and effort, he calculated that thanking the relative for giving him a pound actually cost him more than £1!

I think the modern way to do postcards is to get one of the apps that lets you save your addresses in advance, then take a holiday picture from your camera roll and have that as the front of the card, type a short message on the back, and then have it printed and posted out from your home country (so kind of like Moonpig but for postcards).
Once you have it, the same app can be quite a useful way to send pictures of your children to distant relatives occasionally too.

I did that the last time.
I think the relative enjoys the performative aspect of receiving the postcard from abroad.
It was a good solution but still added to my mental load so this time I decided not to do postcard at all.
I did buy cheap souvenir which was also specifically requested but that only involved one step - buying the item

The last postcard we received was from the geography department at the local shool congratulating DS for doing well in his GCSE. He 26 now so it was a while back.

I certainly haven't sent one this century.

I often say "send me a postcard", but it's understood that I really don't mean it, and it's harking back to the olden days when I was younger, and generally you would send postcards (and it didn't feel like a faff, and was quite a pleasant way to wile away an afternoon in a caff 🙂)

It's also the putting an obligation on me that annoys me . I just want to have a week where I have no obligations other than keeping the DC fed and clothed

Oh I love writing and receiving a postcard!

Such miserable gits in this thread.

I don’t think I’ve sent or received a postcard in about two decades - do people really still do that? 🫣

My kids send them to their grandmothers - it's a way to get them practising their writing when away from school and they enjoy picking them out. The Grannies enjoy reading them too.

We love writing and sending postcards. Just come back from Italy, sent about 20 postcards and received lots of messages saying how much they were appreciated.
We receive quite a few too. They brighten up the humdrum post.
We just buy the cards and stamps, sit and have a drink and just write a short message on each. It's nice to let people know you're thinking of them.

I suppose it helps that we don't have to wrangle children anymore but my now adult children send them as well.

I love getting postcards - I don't mind if they are posted or brought back to me. I keep an album of all my postcards from my grandchildren.

Since my DM and DMIL died I haven't sent one. I have an elderly cousin I write to, I could send her one. I think she'd really appreciate that. Food for thought

Today I've taken quite a few ideas from MN for the future

One postcard = 4 jobs for me
I genuinely didn't sit down at all to have a drink in a cafe

Where do you buy stamps????!!!!

Older relatives tend to love this. We recently had to clear out my in laws house and we found a little pile of postcards in a drawer that my MIL had kept. There were loads from my DD when she spent the summer inter railing years ago.