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

Stay at home. Your holidays sound shite 😅 why are you “wrangling kids” etc and not sitting in a cafe once? If sending Granny a postcard is too much that it’s weighing on your “mental load” what is the point?

I have a daughter and sometimes we buy postcards. It is really not that difficult, maybe the stamp can be sometimes if not sold at the same shop (but they normally are!)

How is it difficult to find postcards when you are visiting a city as a tourist? The places you would be going will be full of shops selling them, you will literally find them in every corner, you don't even need to look for them. Also, also as a tourist the normal thing is to do a fair bit of walking and there are a lot of letterboxes around, you can even check on google maps.

If you don't want to send them, fair enough, but it is not difficult at all

I’m with you OP. Mental load you don’t need on holiday for the sake of a couple of faintly pleasurable moments for someone else. Sack it off.

Glad to hear that😀Nothing worse than having hundreds of photos inflicted on you. There are a few relatives who I won't ask how the holiday went as it's a prompt to whip out the phone.

I remember when people used to make you watch holiday home movies!! 😱

I’m with @Judiezones on buying the post cards but sending them when you get home. They’ll probably arrive sooner, depending on where your holiday is.

I went to Turkey a few times. People would say “Ooh, bring me back some Turkish delight.” They lived just as close to our local Turkish supermarket as I did, but🙄. I travel light and didn’t want to make room for several boxes of stuff they could get 10 minutes from their home. So, once I got home I would just go buy it for them here. They felt like I’d been thinking of them and gone to some effort for them while I was on holiday (again 🙄) and I didn’t have to do that or carry their sweets in my case.

Oh god yeah. They were terrible.

The same people that whip out the phone now used to carry the envelopes of photos around with them for weeks in case anyone asked about the holiday. At least though they were fewer in number than the phone. Although one in-law always had hundreds. It must have cost her a fortune to get them developed. The worst bit was having her explain each photo in tedious detail.

MIL asks for a postcard every time, and likes it posted from the country in question so she sees the postmark ( and to be awkward imo)
After last years absolute waste of time and energy and money in Egypt on the postcard mission the bloomin thing never arrived anyway. So I've told DH I'm not doing it anymore, its up to him. Last holiday's postcode is still sat on the microwave, unwritten, unstamped and unsent because I'm not doing it anymore!!
Anyway, Im glad Im not the only one it infuriates!

I don't think I have sent a postcard to anyone (from a holiday) since the 1980s!

Do people still do this?

I’m going to sound like a #Ad but we use the touchnote app to send one of our photos as a real postcard using our phone. Dc love choosing the photo and typing the message. They post from the uk so deliver in 2-3 days.

I like to send postcards to my DGC when I go away. I use the TouchNote app. It’s all online (adding your own photo, message and address), but then a real postcard gets sent to arrive through the post. Genius.

I do send about 3 postcards when I go on holiday but I am old and it is really a joke amongst friends. If we suspect we are in a place where the postcard may take a while to get back we sometimes send a ‘control’ one to ourselves. The record being 11 months!

I have writing sooo many post cards that never got sent from all over the world 😆
But still think YABU!

You really don’t seem to enjoy parenting op, and certainly not on holiday!

this doesn’t sound like a holiday… it sounds like one long drawn out tense unhappy family day out

I usually use TouchNote and send grandparents a picture from our holiday on that

I actually laughed out loud at this

OP…. Seriously, this is a bit weird!

Are you a single parent op?

i’ve always encouraged DD to send postcards to her grandparents (all technophobes so a text pic won’t work). They always enjoy telling us how long it took to reach them and how they’ve shown neighbours or co-care home residents.

She also sends to her adult cousin who lives alone and who proudly displays all of her postcards on her fridge. She tells me that she loves to get cheery mail.

DD writes thank you cards for birthday and Christmas gifts.

and she puts an Easter card through an elderly neighbour’s door. This neighbour sits beside her front door in the summer, watching the world go by. She has few visitors and her eyesight is too poor for tv to be entertaining. She tells us that she delights in getting an Easter card because she struggles to make it to church for the Easter service.

admittedly, I only have 1 DC so it’s not such an awful task as OP has to endure.

but the tiny and momentary joy that postcards, thank you letters and greeting cards give seems worth it to me.

The difference is I can pick up Christmas/birthday cards in the weekly shop. I know where the post office is and pop in when I'm going past. The post box is 50ft from my door. None of this is applicable to post cards

Kick back op, have a glass of wine / fruit tea and research nice things to do whilst on holiday.

Put all this stressy silliness to back of your mind.

Hmmmm. I re-read my posts and don't know where you got this idea. Surely this is genuinely what holidays are like with small children:

"Mum I'm hot, can I have an ice cream"
"Oooh look, a teddy"
"I need to do a wee"
"I'm so thirsty."
"What time is lunch?"
"Can we go to the pool?"
"I neeeeeed an ice cream"

That's just how it goes?! To meet all those needs/requests AND add in the 4 step postcard process.. that's the No from me

And when I said obligation to feed and clothe the DC I didn't mean it's an onerous obligation, I meant that would be the only thing on my to do list (we did buffet breakfast, ice cream and room service so meal times were fine)

I'm not a single parent but I did have a few days alone with DC while abroad as DP was working

Op, it drips off every post.

You find holidays horribly stressful, doing things you don’t want to do.

I remember many years ago buying about 10 postcards to send. Omg what a faff that was . Also having to remember to take the addresses of the 10 chosen ones 😀. I think the last one I sent was to my grandson when I went to Disney, when he was about 4 . He’s now an adult so I’m happy to say I haven’t felt the need to send any since.

To meet all those needs/requests AND add in the 4 step postcard process..

sweet Jesus, this is very odd op

Remembering the day I hoiked up my big girl pants and resolved not to send postcards or buy ‘holiday presents’ reciprocating for stuff ( ie well meant tat) from older relatives still gives me pleasure. How about buying a card, get the kids to write it on the plane and hand it over when you get back?