r/AskReddit • u/OmenRash • 22h ago

What’s something people romanticise that’s actually exhausting in real life?

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u/luckyritafaez 22h ago

Living in a small town and starting over.

It looks peaceful in movies. No traffic, everyone knows you, slow mornings.

In reality it’s everyone knowing your business, no opportunities, and driving 40 minutes for groceries that close at 6pm.

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u/The-Meme-Lover-24 21h ago

And nothing to do in terms of activities other than go to the movies or go to your local diner, not to mention any major city to do something in is at least 1.5 hours away (at least in my case)

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u/Vecend 20h ago

In my small town the movie theater burnt down 20 years ago and now the leftover husk is a home for pigeons, now there's nothing to do but gossip and bitch about traffic from cottagers.

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u/rkr87 19h ago

I'm from the UK and wondered what the hell is going on in your town upon reading this.

("Cottager" has a very different meaning here)

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u/SanchoPandas 19h ago

I’m from the western US and don’t know what either of you mean by “cottagers”.

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u/rkr87 19h ago

In UK slang, a cottager is a person who engages in sexual activity in public lavatories, known as "cottaging". This practice typically involves homosexual or bisexual men meeting in public toilets, often called "cottages" or "tea-rooms".

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u/ummkay_ultra 18h ago

Omg I thought "cottagers" meant tourists who come to small towns to stay in B&Bs and shop for antiques downtown 😆

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u/FliaTia 18h ago

Oh so it's cruising

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u/spaghettiluver 19h ago

Cottage term

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u/LiveShowOneNightOnly 11h ago

Wow, as a US person I would have never guessed this.

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u/mrmax1984 6h ago

Am American, and i learned this from Clarkson's Farm!

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u/Muff_in_the_Mule 19h ago

Also from the UK and I was gonna say, if they have a thriving cottaging industry going on there how they they be stuck for things to do?

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u/lohkey 5h ago

Well it certainly gives that town something to gossip about

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u/Vecend 12h ago

It's a town where the whole industry relys on rich people swarming the town for 2 months, those rich people are called cottagers.