Shopping at Christmas time - uuurrrggghhhhh!!!

Your post made me smile and chuckle! Thanks, I needed the stress relief 

Like someone said, it sounds like you vented out your frustration: lol. 

My sister does do Christmas shopping months in advance. Maybe to avoid a similar situation you could consider doing the same (I couldn't, but maybe you should consider it if you cannot handle crowds, and buy online for special items)

By the way: people always drive recklessly in the UK that's nothing new. In my country, English citizens are renowned as excellent, respectful, safe drivers. I made my assessment on that one! *laugh

You say funny things :)

Poor man lol xD I wonder if it was my dad lol.

Nightmare ain't it lol lol :P I've been shopping with my family nearly every week end for the last 3 weeks and I'm just like oh kill me now lol.

Nothing fun in going to busy shops with loads of noise in the BG where I can't here yourself think. I've got my pods and listen to music and that helps.

I managed not to kill someone who was very close to me the whole time I was trying to shop for individual Christmas cards today in a card shop.

Never ever give me a gun.

However, the upside is that I am not the poor clearly long-suffering husband who was with her, so I didn't have to go home with her.

Because she loudly talked through her card purchases, constantly moaning, at everything and especially her silent husband ('well, you're not helping are you - I'm leaving you at home next year' - which I'm sure he'd be delighted by) I had to take my possible options down to the far end of the shop so that I could actually THINK.

i can imagine sainsburys would be more packed and crazy than any other supermarket at christmas due to the fact it owns argos and everyone will be doing argos shopping for christmas.

id say maybe try asda or tesco at christmas time then, it might be quieter than sainsburys.

Poor you. I don't envy having to go in to town or a shop at this time of year. If I do I always feel like I'll need a riot shield to get safely through the turmoil haha.

Since my breakdown I do most of my shopping online. It's a lot better for me and causes a lot less stress which is good as I don't need anymore of that

Having worked in supermarket retailing for 30 years, I can relate - and the strange thing is that on Christmas Eve, it’s bedlam from 6am until Midday, then it goes quiet until 2pm when the madness starts again, only then people realise the store is closing at 5pm and they go nuts again from 3pm - during Covid in 2020, the lockdowns were having an impact as we had mobile phone, landline and broadband problems, living here in the U.K. at the time, trying to get any contact with family in Rural Ireland was a major challenge as all the lines were down, texts and emails constantly had to be resent, Zoom calls kept dropping, landline and mobile calls kept dropping, emails had to be resent, etc 

I’m really picking up on the Irish sounding user name here Catriona, but having worked 30 years in supermarket retailing at age 53 now and 21 years living in the U.K. I totally agree with what you say - I grew up in Catholic Rural Ireland in the 1970’s and 1980’s and by comparison to now, it was way better back then, even though those times had their problems too, but I really started to notice a change in the 1990’s and this was a (very) gradual process - in particular, the last 23 years of the 21st century has been horrible in many respects and as an older gay man who is also a traditional (pre Vatican II) SSPX Catholic, I really noticed the change after I returned to my faith 18 years ago, despite being born into Vatican II - Christmas is so far removed from what it is supposed to be about, the time of Christ’s Birth and an example of this is how, in many retail outlets, it is almost impossible to find a Christmas Crib (Nativity Scene) and when you do, it is massively overpriced, even online - I was lucky to be able to get mine a few years ago from a Catholic store, but even that was a very difficult process 

Well done on getting through that hostile experience. It is bonkers that's for sure, November and December are a crazy time and I never go shopping during these months. It's no place for autistic people to be.

I do online shopping, normally Iceland and this works for me. They leave my shopping in my garden shed lol. That way I don't have to go and answer the door  

I hope you're feeling OK after this ordeal.

Is there any smaller shops that you could go to instead? or do a deliverdoo ? 

I don't like it when it is busy in shops like that. 

I avoid them

Never a good idea to do shopping even in December, lol. Me and my family always do a big shop at the week that will set us up for about two weeks, 

Roy said:

I’ve been processing my autistic life for over two years, the more I slowly unravel my life, it just makes me realise how many of my family are autistic.

Yes, that's very interesting.

I am doing similar and in fact my great nephew is presently being assessed (at around 6 years) for autism ...

The fact is, meltdowns affect us all differently, once we can’t control ourselves then that’s a meltdown. We all trigger differently and respond differently. My late father’s meltdowns were off the Richter scale, he would often have no memory of them afterwards. I’ve been processing my autistic life for over two years, the more I slowly unravel my life, it just makes me realise how many of my family are autistic.

It was a normal childhood to me, “ your mums been ‘sectioned’ again and your dads ’gone into one’. I thought all families were like mine. I would be sent to live with aunts who were blood relatives, guess what condition they had?

Roy said:

My wife and I had ‘words’ recently, it ended with her going upstairs, my last remark was, “ don’t forget to slam the bedroom door!” I did unfortunately live to regret that remark.

You've just triggered a memory.

I lived for a while with my autistic friend, when we were partners.

One day we had a row and he went out.

I locked myself in the house with bolts so he couldn't get in and he was worried I'd done something 'silly' so he had to smash his own kitchen window to get in.

I felt very guilty after.

Luckily, it's many years since I got that emotional but I if I'm angry, I don't know what I'm doing - I just completely lose it.

Actually, my friend loses his temper really badly too and when we lived together in another house he ripped a shower rail and shower off the wall.

I hope your bedroom door is still intact ....

I remember watching the cartoon, Taz the Tasmanian Devil. It could go from calm to warp 10 in a second. It would spin like a tornado and destroy all around it. It’s what I thought of when you mentioned a spinning top.

My wife and I had ‘words’ recently, it ended with her going upstairs, my last remark was, “ don’t forget to slam the bedroom door!” I did unfortunately live to regret that remark.

Roy said:

I have this vision of your husband hiding under the kitchen table with a large upturned saucepan held tightly on his head

LOL.

That's not far from the truth.

I transform into a monster when stressed (or angry).

I have this vision of your husband hiding under the kitchen table with a large upturned saucepan held tightly on his head. 

The term “muggles” always makes me feel slightly smug, Is “mud bloods” too strong? Our nearest town had a Victorian  Christmas evening on the 18th Nov, is the middle of November Christmas? The masses walk around with these permanent grins, some try to make eye contact, “good try, that’s never going to happen, I won’t be brainwashed.”

Ive observed how the Italians deal with busy car parks, they simply drop off Nonna first, she will go and stand in the next available space, no one messes with a Nonna, they are formidable, just one stare from them is worse than Medusa. The fact they are normally under 5ft tall means nothing.