feeling guilty

It is strange but I have so many hang ups. I have been retired 15 years but I have only just "allowed" myself to watch tv during the day. Even so it rarely goes on before 4pm and never In the morning.

Also I don't feel guilty sitting and doing nothing in the garden, but can't really relax just sitting in the sitting room.

Hope to sit in the garden and read this afternoon

I did when I first retired and I think it lasted for more than two years but eventually it seems silly to worry. I also used to think that I should go out every day. I still do most days or I start feeling a bit stir crazy but retirement is for doing what you want when you want. No one will be judging you but yourself so just enjoy it.
I expected to catch up on a lot of reading after I retired but my eyes gets very sore very easily and so I find I only read a page or two and then usually just in the bath but I only really started to enjoy retiring once I stopped thinking about what I 'ought' to be doing.

Good on you barmy that's how I'd like it to be

No never. my oh and I just amble through the day, very rarely making plans for the next day, I am sitting on the settee with iPad, the vacuum cleaner stands in the middle of the room waiting for me or the oh to use it but he iis busy making a sandwich to eat after his road race later. Life is to short to be doing things you don't want to do. Love retirement.

I do feel guilty when I use up a beautiful afternoon on Wimbledon - we get so little lovely weather that it seems a big waste.

Not so much guilty as restless and bored - I have to be up and doing something productive every half hour or so. And it's 27 years since I retired from a fulltime job, having worked for 34 years.
I can't even sit and watch a whole film on TV - apart from the odd one. I sat and watched a Woody Allen film the other night but they're usually short.

No! ?

How are you wasting time if you are sitting reading, watching tv etc? You are relaxing and enjoying yourself - so that can't be a waste of time, can it?

lupatria that is my problem i think, i worry that i am wasting presious time, as none of us know how long we have left. Since retiring i feel like i want to fill every moment with something purposeful, plus it is drummed into us by the media that sitting around is so unhealthy and can cause no end of health issues. You are so lucky never having felt guilty about anything!!!

i have never felt guilty about sitting doing nothing - it's my time i'm wasting and although i haven't got as much left as i used to it's still my time to waste.
and, for the record, i've never felt guilty about anything in my entire life!

Guilt is pointless. It's a destructive emotion and I have rarely felt guilty about anything. My sister says I have no conscience!

I share this feeling. I was made redundant and given early retirement at 57. I have worked part time ever since often having two or three separate jobs.

At 67 I am fully retiring at the end of the month and I feel guilty already.

Having spent 17years getting up at 6.30am I felt really guilty about a lie in in the mornings. It very soon passed! Now find we are up later and go to bed later too. You adjust your life to suit you. Please dont feel guilty.

I have felt guilty about doing nothing ever since I was 11 years old and was walking crocodile file back to school from the swimming baths. We were told off for dawdling. She said every minute you waste you will never get back. It is lost. So every time I sit and do nothing that is always on my mind.

Absolutely not - we all need time and space to recharge ourselves. You will be healthier and happier for looking after yourself.

Enjoy it, I'm so jealous

Yes, I feel guilty - I feel as though its a day wasted if I don't achieve something.

No I feel deserving if I sit down, me time is important to all of us. I spend my life doing right by others and if I look after myself I'm better for everyone else. I have just discover the revamped Hawaii 50 and keep watching ones I tape!! I'm not upsetting anyone and I have to sit through enough sport when husband is in that when he's out me and the dog go to Hawaii! It's pretty crap but easy watching

Maggie your day sounds absolutely perfect to me.

My DH is one of those people who is always busy with a list of jobs on his To Do List. He doesn't ever criticise me but I do feel guilty at times. Reading a book is far more important to me than housework.

I didn't mention cleaning!

Not in the slightest. In fact, this morning I stayed in bed till 10 reading the latest GN Book Club book and eating my dippy egg (thank you, DH ), only getting up then because it was time for Pop Master. Ambled out for lunch with the girls, did a bit of shopping, read the weekend papers and surfed the internet till it was time to go out to our pub quiz and drink wine. I haven't done a scrap of work all day and couldn't care less.

MawB As intelligent adult women we are free to do what we like (as long as it doesn't frighten the horses)

Oh I do so agree!

I am a great follower of the credo that says it doesn't have to be sparkling to be clean!

After (x) years I have managed to not kill anyone with my cooking or cleaning habits, so I don't believe in worrying now I live alone. I'm obviously extra careful when DGS is in my care but at other times if I don't feel like being Wonderwoman then I'm not

Too much cleanliness kills protection from common germs. The healthiest kids when I was growing up were the ones with snotty noses and the arse hanging out of their trousers! Some of my neighbours are up before 6am sweeping, scrubbing and then twiddling their thumbs fr the rest of the day, condemning those like me who take life at a more leisurely pace.

In the beginning I had to work hard not to feel guilty aout not being busy 'doing'and have been so successful that I now revel in my total freedom. I had to get to grips with this as I retired early with ill health. I have since had to mentor DH in the art of 'guilt free retirement' and I am pleased to report that he has been a good pupil.

I never feel guilty. I even watch Jeremy Kyle...well OK that's a bit embarrassing but I still don't feel guilty