Things I am saying No to forever more

From fruit in main courses to bending round other people's tricky personalities I have some thoughts to share on saying No forcefully.

Christi Love posted this much shared picture on Insta. We’re here for it.

I love this meme: it popped up all over my social media after Michelle Obama was unexpectedly absent from Trump’s inauguration ceremony. We don’t know why she wasn’t there - she didn’t care to explain when asked - though we can guess. What’s so good about this picture is it captures an attitude we’d all no doubt like to embody as 2025 lurches slowly forward. And it perfectly sums up the new frame of mind which envelops most of us in our fifties, when we run out of f**ks to give and are no longer duty bound to do stuff we’d have done as younger women.

I’m there now. I’ve just spent a weekend under a blanket with an irritating cough which headlines promise me will last 150 days but reader I used that time wisely. Apart from watching Netflix, ignoring the kids, dog, husband, laundry, I also curated a list of things I won’t do anymore on my phone: my “2025 No List”.

I am sharing it incase you are younger than me and would like to give yourself permission to say No more often earlier in life, or if you’re a people pleaser (I luckily do not suffer with this), or if you just over think the word No and haven’t yet realised it is a complete sentence.

So this year I will be saying No to the following: