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Original poster

So all the 'non essential moaners' what do you class as non essential

477 replies

HoppingOnSteppingStones · 13/01/2021 09:42

Because I've just been to tesco and brought a kettle. I've just had a bloke when I was stood in front to pay. Mumble about an 'essential kettle'

Did he know why I had to buy it. Did he plums!
It's not so I can go home and have a relaxing cuppa. Its so I can make formula for my baby. Because last night our kettle went bang!
We had to get hot water off the neighbour for this mornings bottle so I could then run to grab one.

What's essential to some isn't to others.

Yes I think there's prob a fine line but I wish people wouldn't judge

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
Aroundtheworldin80moves · 13/01/2021 15:38

The other pandemic joy.. the competitive Stay at Homers. Who blindly ignore all the people who go to work outside the home to enable them to stay at home.

FKATondelayo · 13/01/2021 15:39

@verticality

I wouldn't class a kettle as essential personally. Anything you can buy in a supermarket, you can get delivered from an online store the next day.You can boil water in a saucepan until a kettle arrives the next day.

The only thing I can think that's essential is stuff that you'd need to fix things going majorly wrong in the house - like a big water leak or something like that.

I haven't been inside any building that isn't my house since March. It hasn't been difficult to do that. I donate £40/month to the local foodbank via direct debit.

Surely you could melt down the broken kettle and weld it to the leaking pipe?
marshmallowfluffy · 13/01/2021 15:40

I haven't been inside any building that isn't my house since March. It hasn't been difficult to do that. I donate £40/month to the local foodbank via direct debit.

Your kids don't go to school? You've not needed a medical appointment? You've not even been to a hairdresser when they were open?
Only 50% of uk jobs can be done from home and you only managed to stay at home because other workers took the risk to deliver stuff to you.

YogaLite · 13/01/2021 15:41

Couldn't get the kettle in 1st lockdown so had to do without. Same with a stick blender.

I don't get why off licences, garden centres or even takeaways are essential...

verticality · 13/01/2021 15:43

"Your kids don't go to school? You've not needed a medical appointment? You've not even been to a hairdresser when they were open?"

No kids.
No medical appointment.
No haircuts.

I absolutely agree with you that my being at home is only enabled by people who have to work. You're quite right. That's part of the reason I want to protect those people as much as possible by not marching into stores unnecessarily, though.

marshmallowfluffy · 13/01/2021 15:44

Some shocking stories on here of judge mental people. I remember someone arguing that going into a shop to only buy sanpro was akin to murder. I thought we left that kind of thinking in lockdown 1.0

ChairinSage · 13/01/2021 15:44

A kettle is definitely an essentia!

I reckon lockdown life would be a lot nicer if people made sure they were doing the right thing themselves and kept their thoughts on other people to themselves - you have no idea what's going on in a stranger's life and it's none of your business.

I've been to Lidl today with my 16 year old daughter. She's not spoken face to face with another adult outside the house in ages so she fancied a trip out. We looked in the aisle of dreams and bought a cat bed (for the cat).

verticality · 13/01/2021 15:44

And no, no-one in my household has picked up food. Everything is delivered.

mommybunny · 13/01/2021 15:49

I’m amazed at the number of people berating the op for getting hot water from a neighbour. In the clear light of morning it might seem a little ott but I well remember that sleep-deprived desperation when the baby is screaming and you can’t think straight and the first solution to your problem that pops into your head becomes WHAT MUST BE DONE NOW AND DON’T GET IN MY F*CKING WAY.

I can tell op that your sanity has returned because you did not take said kettle and bash the asshole’s head in. 😜

Staffy1 · 13/01/2021 15:50

I would count a kettle as essential, or at least pretty important. Anyway, if a shop is deemed important enough to stay open there shouldn't be a problem with buying anything it that shop.

ClaudiaWankleman · 13/01/2021 15:50

And no, no-one in my household has picked up food. Everything is delivered.

And how is the £40 to the foodbank relevant please @verticality ?

verticality · 13/01/2021 15:53

If you think £40 is some kind of boast, then you're not a very charitable person. I am not a high earner. In fact, my own income since the pandemic started has been below the tax threshold.

"You have no idea what's going on in a stranger's life and it's none of your business."

The same is true the other way. People who have lost loved ones to COVID - as I have - may well feel very differently about a "casual" trip to the shops than those who haven't. And you want to know what is really, REALLY hard? Going through grief/bereavement in a pandemic when you are shielded and entirely cut off from your usual support networks (other than virtually). That makes dilemmas over sanpro and kettles seem inconsequential and silly, to be honest. I am honestly sick of hearing people whining about minor inconveniences and minor deprivations through this. As a couple, we have lost not one but two family members, one on each side, within 4 weeks of each other. It puts not being able to go to Lidl in some kind of perspective.

GirlCrush · 13/01/2021 15:57

i would want to donate the items myself, not throw money at the food bank

Orlania · 13/01/2021 16:02

If you think £40 is some kind of boast, then you're not a very charitable person. I am not a high earner. In fact, my own income since the pandemic started has been below the tax threshold.

If I didn't think it sounded like a boast before, it certainly sounds like a virtue signalling boast now. And people have risked themselves to deliver to your home for you. So you're not really any better than anyone else are you. Some people have had to go out for food. You've had people take the same risks to deliver it to you.

Orlania · 13/01/2021 16:05

As a couple, we have lost not one but two family members, one on each side

You're not the only people have have lost someone. Stop with the whataboutery. Everyone has their own problems to deal with.

verticality · 13/01/2021 16:06

This reply has been deleted

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crumpet · 13/01/2021 16:09

Buying the kettle itself is fine. Making a special journey to do so instead of waiting until the next food shop is a bit more questionable. As was going to the neighbour rather than boiling a saucepan of water.

farandfew · 13/01/2021 16:09

@verticality

The sanctimoniousness in both your posts is outstanding, and you have the nerve to call others 'not very charitable' for thinking £40 per month is a lot? How dare you.

For what it's worth, I have been bereaved and had a baby in this pandemic, and I still think you're bang out of order. You carry on sitting in your house thinking you're better than everyone else because you happen to have a job that can be done from home and are lucky enough to not have had any medical problems.

Not much on this site makes me angry but bloody hell.

BarbaraofSeville · 13/01/2021 16:11

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

The other pandemic joy.. the competitive Stay at Homers. Who blindly ignore all the people who go to work outside the home to enable them to stay at home.
This, in spades.

Of course we can all 'not enter any building except our own homes' while an army of supermarket, warehouse and delivery workers all run around after us.

Not to mention the refuse collectors to take all our waste away and process it.

Plus all the people who produce all the things we buy, the people who generate the electricity, purify the water, run the communications systems, make the packaging.

Lets not forget the emergency services and medical staff either, who pick up the pieces when things go wrong.

Or the scientists working night and day to develop a vaccine in record time to hopefully get past all this mess, before it kills us all.

What if all of them had decided to take the easy route and just sit at home while people run round after them?

Haffiana · 13/01/2021 17:02

@verticality

And no, no-one in my household has picked up food. Everything is delivered.
So how many people are out risking their lives to get your deliveries to you?

I cannot believe how utterly ENTITLED and fucked up some people's thinking is.

herecomesthsun · 13/01/2021 17:12

Are supermarket deliveries not safer? And my understanding is that delivery drivers are being employed and probably want the deliveries?

TonMoulin · 13/01/2021 17:26

Except that not everyone can AFFORD to have food delivered.
If you rely on LIdl for your shopping, and can’t afford Tesco prices... you go shopping

farandfew · 13/01/2021 17:29

Except that not everyone can AFFORD to have food delivered. If you rely on LIdl for your shopping, and can’t afford Tesco prices... you go shopping

Exactly this... And there is a minimum spend and a delivery fee.

trappedsincesundaymorn · 13/01/2021 17:35

@verticality

If you think £40 is some kind of boast, then you're not a very charitable person. I am not a high earner. In fact, my own income since the pandemic started has been below the tax threshold.

"You have no idea what's going on in a stranger's life and it's none of your business."

The same is true the other way. People who have lost loved ones to COVID - as I have - may well feel very differently about a "casual" trip to the shops than those who haven't. And you want to know what is really, REALLY hard? Going through grief/bereavement in a pandemic when you are shielded and entirely cut off from your usual support networks (other than virtually). That makes dilemmas over sanpro and kettles seem inconsequential and silly, to be honest. I am honestly sick of hearing people whining about minor inconveniences and minor deprivations through this. As a couple, we have lost not one but two family members, one on each side, within 4 weeks of each other. It puts not being able to go to Lidl in some kind of perspective.

I lost both parents last year in the space of 7 months, 1 in lock down 1 and the other in lockdown 2. If my kettle had gone bang during those times you can bet your mortgage that I would have hot footed it to Tesco to get a new 1. Coffee was about the only thing that was getting me through the day sometimes.
Fizbosshoes · 13/01/2021 17:36

I tried to get a tesco delivery slot the other day. There weren't any for the next 3 weeks.I suppose I should have just drank tap water or become a breatharian until there was a delivery slot available. I hope the cats and Dcare ok with that as well.
I can see PPs point that by staying in and being able to wfh they are potentially making shops/public transport and other places safer for those that have no choice....
But should acknowledge that is a luxury that not everyone has. As is the ability to shop online for everything since the 2 cheapest supermarkets don't do deliveries, and you have to do a minimum spend to even qualify for a delivery.