Are you / someone you know a 'filler upper'??

[FusionChefGeoff]

I had no idea how to phrase that but I've had a sudden realisation that lots of things DH does that reallllllly annoy me / are just plain wrong are because he is a hopeless 'filler upper'

If a receptacle is there, he will fill up up - regardless of how much liquid / stuff is actually required....

Does that make sense??

So - we have MASSIVE cereal bowls, insanely big. No matter, he fills the bowl every morning like the adverts.

He is cooking veggies - fills pan to the top with water no matter what veg / how much is in there.

Gorgeous, classy red wine goblets - full even though that's 2 normal size glasses in one

Cup of water for a toddler - full to the top

My Damascus moment came when watching him heat up shitty hot dog sausages. Obvs they are quite long so he decided he needed the HUGE saucepan (you know, for casseroles / spaghetti) and (you can guess where this is going) he filled it with approx 2 litres of water!!!!

I'm desperately hoping there's a psychiatrist or other learned mumsnetter who can tell me more about this crazy phenomenon which takes him over every time he's presented with a vessel. All rational thought leaves his head and the only thing he can do is mindlessly fill the damn thing up!!!!!

It's so wasteful and takes so much more energy / time (in the hot water example) it drives me fucking mad.

[Defenbaker]

I sympathise with you, OP. My DH likes to fill up the kettle, even when he is only making 1 cup of tea for himself. The kettle is designed to operate with 1 cupful of water, and has the minimal fill line marked on the side, but DH insists on filling it to the brim, despite the fact it takes longer to boil and wastes electricity.

He also fills a cereal bowl to the brim... I've no idea how he can eat so much in one go. Strangely enough though, when he leaves it on the side, he only puts a small amount of cold water in the bottom... which results in bits of cereal, sugar and dried milk setting rock hard on the upper sides of the bowl, so it needs a bit of scrubbing when I wash it up. Men can be maddening at times.

[justanotherneighinparadise]

[JerichosPenisInADeadChickHat]

Meh, at least you get a double wine 🍷

[Horsemad]

My DH does everything to excess.
Sneeze? The loudest bloody sneeze on the planet. Washing up by hand? Uses half a bottle of washing up liquid. Develops a cough? The most loudest/irritating cough I've heard.

Makes food? Piles the plate so high, I don't know whether to eat or climb it.

Continually tops up the cat food even when she hasn't eaten what is there & only just had fresh put down...

Annoying. 🤨

[Defenbaker]

@Horsemad I feel your pain! My DH has a sneeze loud enough to make the walls shake! He also has a mega loud yawn, which sounds a bit forced, like he needs people to know how extremely tired he is! He eats quite noisily too... loves crunching crisps and sometimes drowns out the telly with his chomping noises - aaghhhhh! We've spent much more time together since Covid took hold, so that's probably why these things irritate more these days.

Back on topic, he has also been known to overfill the sugar cannister, so that when the lid is removed a shower of sugar grains goes everywhere. He has been banned from this task now. (Typical man... they do something badly then they don't get asked to do it again!)

[Happymum12345]

I have the opposite problem with my dh. Only fills the kettle for one cup of tea-not two. Half fills my drink, leaves half of food everywhere to go off and be thrown away when off. Drives me bananas.

[TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]

I suggest you open an ISA and deposit £100 then mention to DH that the account should really be filled to the £20,000 annual limit... might work!

[FusionChefGeoff]

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles yes!!! I should think about how else this odd behaviour can be used to my advantage.

Bizarrely, he's also a huge and loud sneezer and, particularly during a global pandemic I have asked him to work on his sneeze technique to reduce 'spray'. However, I think he was shocked into action when he was cuddling DD and sneezed all over her face

She was quite rightly disgusted and was also worried that he'd given her the coronavirus (she's 6 so the fact you have to be infected first has passed her by but she's very hot on the transmission )

I'm just intrigued to know what it is in his psyche that means rational though / critical thinking is replaced by a blind need to fill something up!!

[ThorFull]

Not quite the same by DH’s specialty is always making me warm glasses of water or squash. Even when it’s -3 outside. Even when I’ve asked him a million times to run the cold tap for a few seconds.

[NaughtipussMaximus]

DH is the other way around (as is his family). If he gets me a drink, he only ever fills the glass only halfway up.

[TheNationsFavourite]

My DH does everything to excess.
Sneeze? The loudest bloody sneeze on the planet. Makes food? Piles the plate so high, I don't know whether to eat or climb it

There's only two of us but there's always enough food for 6. I ask 'what time's the coach party coming?'

He says it will save cooking the following day but then he's bored with the same thing two days running so it all starts again.

Glad it's not just here!

[Poppins2016]

My father has done this his whole lifetime, drives my mother bananas. No sign of changing (late 70s)!

His speciality is filling saucepans to the brim with veg and water, then leaving then to boil over. This happens almost every time he cooks and yet he still looks bemused...

[Sarahandduck18]

I thought with pasta you are supposed to fill the pan with water to give it plenty of room- I’m sure this was in one of Jamie Oliver’s books.

[Valkadin]

DH used to overfill the kettle, I bought a glass one and went on about how it wasted power which cost money and murders polar bears and that if he couldn’t add the required amount when it was clearly marked he must be a bit thick. He is a reformed character.

Sneezing is still loud, DS is now an adult and appears to have inherited the same insanely loud sneeze. Probably something to do with hunter gatherer ancestors and really primitive, maybe it was used to show prowess when wrestling bears or something.

[orchidsonabudget]

Oh shit
I am a filler upper

[aceyace]

Mine fills a frying pan with oil to fry onions sausage etc and then burns it so kitchen is filled with acrid greasy smoke,
and then he will boil veg for hours, at Christmas he put veg on to boil before cooking the turkey!
Bizarre! Luckily he doesn't cook often
And yes to the very loud sneezing and farting

[FusionChefGeoff]

Ooooh welcome @orchidsonabudget

Please can you give us a valuable insight into the process!!?

Do you think the carrots need x amount of water but I'm just going to ignore that and fill
It up?

Do you simply miss out the step of 'how much water do I need?'

Is it laziness - can't be arsed to think about how much they need illl just fill it up?

Do you care about the wasted time / energy / money or just don't think it warrants enough to change??

[orchidsonabudget]

I don't fart or sneeze loudly btw

[orchidsonabudget]

I think in answer to your question is a bit of all of them
👀