Admitting you're OK without the kids at Christmas (now they've grown...)

Pollycat

DFlights
Well done for breaking with tradition. :T

Enjoy your Christmas.

Justwe03

Both my children are under 10 and I'm fine with them not being at home over Christmas. I don't suppose I'll be the slightest bit fussed when they are adults. They are with their father and his family for a week this year so I've flown out to Hungary to do some solo travel. Which I think I will make my own tradition on the alternate years I don't have them at home from now on.

I don't think I've ever been as excited about a Christmas as I have been about this one!

alwaysskint96

Well my daughters have both grown up and left home and my son with his dad this year so I am now in Mexico having gound bargain glights earlier this year.Not missing any of them.

BarryBlue

duchy wrote: »

Yet you are horrified at the thought of the shops not opening for Boxing Day, that to me is far more commercialised and cynical

No, you misunderstood my meaning entirely. We don't do Xmas through choice, and will certainly not be out shopping on Boxing Day. I absolutely hate shopping and certainly think that Christmas is a complete waste of time and money.

What I was advocating is precisely that - choice. I advocate shops being able to open (or close) on Boxing Day, or any other day, if they so wish. And for people to go shopping if they wish to without being told what they should or should not do, especially by any interfering religious lobby.

Nothing cynical about wanting people to be able to exercise freedom of choice. Nobody is forcing me, or anyone else, to join in the madness, but neither would they be stopping me.

duchy

It's a bit like the clothes from China issue. If you buy them you are promoting businesses ordering more from sweatshops that use child labour , just as Boxing Day shopping means many retail staff have to work for standard pay on a tradionally non standard day.

If you boycott them there is no benefit to the businesses using them and working conditions tend to improve. It's a matter for your social conscience (and I appreciate not everyone has one)

maman

BarryBlue wrote: »

No, you misunderstood my meaning entirely. We don't do Xmas through choice, and will certainly not be out shopping on Boxing Day. I absolutely hate shopping and certainly think that Christmas is a complete waste of time and money.

What I was advocating is precisely that - choice. I advocate shops being able to open (or close) on Boxing Day, or any other day, if they so wish. And for people to go shopping if they wish to without being told what they should or should not do, especially by any interfering religious lobby.

Nothing cynical about wanting people to be able to exercise freedom of choice. Nobody is forcing me, or anyone else, to join in the madness, but neither would they be stopping me.

Surely Christmas is exactly what you choose to make of it. I think you're saying that, in your opinion, many people waste a massive amount of money buying 'stuff' that they probably neither need or want. So it's about choice exactly as you've said. What is disturbing/disappointing is those that get caught up in the spending spree but go into debt to pay for it.


I tend to agree with you about the waste of money but it's not for me to criticise the people with trolleys full of (what I consider) junk.


I enjoy these few days of eating and drinking a few treats and having the time to reflect on what my plans might be for the coming year.

Lily-Rose_3

duchy wrote: »

It's a bit like the clothes from China issue. If you buy them you are promoting businesses ordering more from sweatshops that use child labour , just as Boxing Day shopping means many retail staff have to work for standard pay on a tradionally non standard day.

If you boycott them there is no benefit to the businesses using them and working conditions tend to improve. It's a matter for your social conscience (and I appreciate not everyone has one)

This ^ :T

Haven't personally been out since the Friday the 23rd, (apart for a few walks,) and don't intend to go out until this Thursday the 29th.

Bliss.

Wouldn't hurt people to spend 4-5 days in the house.

Funny thing is, most people who go on about how they should have the choice to go out shopping on Boxing day, would probably NEVER work it themselves. Some people are self-important and selfish, and think the world should revolve around them. They don't care who has to work as long as it's not them.

maman wrote: »

Surely Christmas is exactly what you choose to make of it. I think you're saying that, in your opinion, many people waste a massive amount of money buying 'stuff' that they probably neither need or want. So it's about choice exactly as you've said. What is disturbing/disappointing is those that get caught up in the spending spree but go into debt to pay for it.


I tend to agree with you about the waste of money but it's not for me to criticise the people with trolleys full of (what I consider) junk.


I enjoy these few days of eating and drinking a few treats and having the time to reflect on what my plans might be for the coming year.

This too ^ :T

I despair when I hear people saying they hate Christmas because it's so gluttonous and commercialised. Says who? Ours isn't, and never has been.

Knightsuntold

Everyone is different. I'd love to spend Christmas away and just the two of us. We were lucky enough to get away on a last minute holiday, earlier in the month, and I could have easily stayed there over Christmas. My partner loves the whole Christmas vibe, and we always have a house-full. They started arriving on Friday, and the last of them left this evening. Don't get me wrong - they're great people, but I love getting our house back to ourselves, and the quiet that comes with it. My stepson spent a big chunk of Christmas Day driving between houses, and even though I'd told him that it was ok if he didn't get to see us, (and I meant it) he still made it here for lunch, and came back in the evening. He says that he loves the Christmas traditions, and it wouldn't be the same if we didn't do it.