We all need one occasionally. A nice quiet day to ourselves where we can just veg out and do whatever. Such days can help you relax, rejuvenate and generally make you feel really good which is why they are such a good idea. What’s not a good idea is telling anyone you are planning to have one because they just won’t let you!
Now I’m not sure why it is, but the moment you say something like “I’m going to stay home by myself and have a ‘Me’ day” you can more or less guarantee that you won’t be having it by yourself. I don’t know, it seems to jinx it or something because nice and quiet it really isn’t because friends and aquaintances never really believe that’s all you’re doing and will insist on having it with you!
There are several totally over-the-top explanations for this. It could be because a) they think you may be having a breakdown or something that you haven’t shared every single detail about and therefore should not be left alone, b) have possibly formed a relationship you haven’t told them about with someone who is totally wrong for you and you’re planning to invite them over for you-know-what and so should definitely Not Be Left Alone! c) Are secretly up to something else or d) all of the above.
And that’s the problem. No one really believes you just want to have a lazy day to yourself to flop around in your trackies, read a good book, watch a good flick or just lie around the house doing absolutely nothing at all! Why don’t they get this? Don’t they ever have such days themselves? Whatever, they will either call you or turn up on your doorstep and that’ll be that and your “you” day will just crash from there. That’s why you don’t tell anyone.
It’s how the world seems to work these days. No one is allowed to have time out to themselves and if they say they want to then there must be something wrong with them and must be prevented at all costs from spending some time in their own company incase they Do Something! What sort of Something will depend largely on the type of people you tend to hang with so take your pick from the a), b), c) or d) options in paragraph three because you can be darned sure they will if you don’t.
Or you could be really creative with what you claim you do in your downtime and the less appealing it sounds, the better because everyone will probably opt to give you and your weird-A stuff a wide berth, leaving you free to spend your day doing what you really had in mind all along; to do absolutely nothing! A note of cautin though; choose your version of “weird-A” carefully or you could have your mother pounding on your door and begging you tearfully to explain to her where she went wrong followed by your father demanding to know how could you upset your mother like that and if you have siblings… well, they’ll never let you live it down. I mean, there’s weird-A and then there’s downright scary so don’t go overboard.
So you see, that’s why it’s better not to share your plans if they involve just spending the day on the couch doing nothing at all because it saves everyone from overthinking it and spares you from their undivided attention on a day when you’d rather be on your own.
And you won’t upset your mother.