THE JOY OF SAYING NO

Natasha Harding, 48, made a decision to only do the things she wants to do

- NATASHA HARDING

It was when I agreed to a dinner at the local pub with some of the other women who lived in the village that I knew things had to change. I’d said  I’d go along to the meal, yet in my mind, I was already planning how I could get out of it. I was being disingenuous by constantly saying yes to things that I just didn’t want to do and it had to stop.

The group of women, although all perfectly nice, were not really ‘my people’ and I’d rather have done something else on a rare Friday night out, but yet again, I’d reluctantly agreed. ‘I really don’t want to go,’ I sighed to my husband, Paul, then 47, as I got ready to leave.

At that moment, in November 2017, I made a conscious decision that from that day on I would only say yes to social commitments if it worked for me.

Like many women, there are many, many things that I have no control over: the school run, the endless laundry, the weekly food shop, but surely my limited spare time should be my own?