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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AITA for not helping a friend?

158 replies

RWat378 · 18/11/2025 17:47

I need to know if I’ve been unreasonable with my best friend…. 3 weeks ago, my she called me at 10pm. I don’t usually pick up at that time but her dad has been quite poorly so I was concerned something had happened. She asked if I was in bed and I said yes. She then said there was a big spider in her bathroom and asked if I would come and get it out of the house for her. We’ve been friends for 20 years and I’ve gone every time she’s asked me previously, however, my toddler had been poorly for a few days and me and my husband had barely slept. I get up at 5.30am for work, and she lives a 15 minute drive away, so it’s likely it would have been 45 minute round trip and I wouldn’t get back until around 11pm. I asked where her cats were (they’ve been handy at getting spiders for her the last couple of years) and she said “they’ve gone to bed for the night”. I asked her to get the cats out of bed to try and get the spider, if that didn’t work and she was still desperate, to call me back and I would go over. I didn’t hear anything else that night.

I messaged her the next day to ask how she got on but she sent a “fine” response. I messaged her again a few days later and she said she was really upset with me for “fucking her off” and also said “I’ve never felt so alone in that moment”. I apologised and explained to her why I was so tired that night, so asked her try something else before getting me out of be, but she didn’t want to hear it and stopped responding to my messages. 3 weeks later, she still hasn’t been in touch. I’ve tried to see things from her POV but I guess I just don’t understand how she’s fallen out with me over this! I hate the silent treatment and find it cruel and manipulative but now I’m wondering if I really have been unreasonable?

OP posts:
Challenger2A7 · 19/11/2025 00:11

Send her a Sydney Funnel Web. Then she'd have something to worry about.

HK04 · 18/11/2025 23:45

OP the ask was insane. Big girl pants are for us all to woman up and just deal with life and spiders. You are in no way being unreasonable. Let her huff and puff. Silent treatment at least means no more ‘who you gonna call’ 🔈 spider buster calls… far from being a bad friend you’re a great friend for entertaining it every other time. A real friend would never ask phobia or no.
Good lesson that the more you do, they more they expect.

crazeekat · 18/11/2025 22:47

she needs to grow up. Absolute child. Not for being scared of the spider but for her huff. So pathetic. Leave her to get on with it she knows what she is doing. She is not a friend.

Tillow4ever · 18/11/2025 22:45

RWat378 · 18/11/2025 20:01

@Tillow4ever Your dad did what?? That’s so awful 😭 No wonder you’re still terrified of them! I’m very sympathetic of her phobia - I’m so scared of the dentist that I cry in my car before I go in every time. However, I let out the emotion and then deal with it. The alternative of having my teeth fall out in my 40’s is much worse 😂

thats a bit like how I feel when I think back to it. Like dis it really happen? Sadly, yes it did. I didn’t want to go in to do the bottling up (restocking the bar) - I was probably 8 or 9, maybe even 10. There was a huge spider id seen right by the door. The room was full of cobwebs and spiders, I just hated it. I was getting my nerve together to run in and grab what was needed, but he shoved me in there, turned off the light and locked the door. I was screaming and sobbing but also frozen still too terrified to move. I definitely think my phobia was made worse by that reaction of his.

Yey despite all that, I do what you do with the dentist - I deal with it as best I can. If her fear is so debilitating she has to phone a friend she needs to either get therapy/hypnosis to help, find a service she can pay to be on call to deal with spiders, get a room mate or lodger that is also prepared to deal with the spiders or learn to do the basics needed within the constraints of her fear. I’m sure she knows that rationally there is nothing to be afraid of, but sadly phobias tend to be irrational a lot of the time!

Lastfroginthebox · 18/11/2025 22:42

I know people can have phobias about spiders but she's being ridiculous and selfish. Youvecperhaps not helped matters by always going when she's called, but she needs to grow up and think about others.

billybear · 18/11/2025 22:34

she is being selfish, my tip is hoover them up. her loss, she is not worth the stress,

ChachaIntheLongrun · 18/11/2025 22:30

I have what seems 5 spiders in each room. I hoover them once a week but more appear....<???>

ChachaIntheLongrun · 18/11/2025 22:29

😆

Bungle2168 · 18/11/2025 22:29

…and you are as bonkers as her for even considering entertaining her lunacy.

I, for one, would have told her to shove that spitter right up her ~.

JLou08 · 18/11/2025 22:25

YANBU, she is very self-centred.

Gettingbysomehow · 18/11/2025 22:24

I bloody well wouldn't be getting out of bed for that under your circumstances. I'd just tell her to hoover it up.
When you are an adult you have to deal with these things.
If it was a potential break in or a stalker yes but a spider? Ffs. She needs to grow up.

whynotwhatknot · 18/11/2025 22:20

so youre only a friend when useful to her?you need to rethin this relationship

Cadenza12 · 18/11/2025 22:12

Can't imagine asking anyone to do this, she's being more than ridiculous. Btw you can buy vaccum things from Amazon that allow for safe capture and release at a distance. Works for wasps too.

BuckChuckets · 18/11/2025 22:10

RWat378 · 18/11/2025 18:44

Over the years… many times. I once went over when I was 8 months pregnant just to scrape a dead spider off her floor because she thought it might still be alive after the cats had got it. Perhaps I’ve enabled it by always going when she’s asked.

You definitely have enabled this absolute ridiculousness, but hopefully you can stop it from now onwards!

gamerchick · 18/11/2025 22:07

Feel well sorry for all these spiders people think it's ok to kill. Poor little buggers.

join a spider page somewhere and learn a few things to sort it out or something.

lizzyBennet08 · 18/11/2025 22:05

Honestly i get being afraid burger behaviour is outrageous. You are well rid.

bluefluffytrees · 18/11/2025 21:52

So last year around midnight, I spotted a massive spider in the bathroom and I called my DP who had left mine on his E bike a few hours before - He rode over, a 40 minute journey to kill the spider and then went back home. I was so grateful in that moment. But I couldn’t believe he actually came. I just thanked him again of the back of this thread. You’re not her boyfriend And youve gotyour own family your own commitments and your own life.

Delphiniumandlupins · 18/11/2025 21:50

You have done your friend a massive favour, she has had to work out another strategy for getting rid of spiders.

Ooodelally · 18/11/2025 21:44

She’s an unhinged, entitled numpty and you are well rid! I can’t remember the last time I heard of anything so entirely pathetic… don’t rekindle this friendship she’s an absolute liberty taker and she’s making a mockery of your good nature.

Figsaregood · 18/11/2025 21:40

I wonder what she would have done if you were away on holiday ?

Ericeric · 18/11/2025 21:36

You’ve stopped dancing to her tune so she’s blanking you.

This is not a friendship.

Silverbirchleaf · 18/11/2025 21:31

Can’t believe what I’ve just read. She needs to get get big girl pants on and learn how to deal with them, or sleep in another room.

You don’t contact a mother of a recently poorly (or not poorly) toddler, who you know gets up at 5.30am, to remove a spider!

(and please don’t enable this batshit ( or spidershit) behaviour in the future).

Cosyblankets · 18/11/2025 21:25

What on earth did i just read?
No
No and more No

Pricelessadvice · 18/11/2025 21:24

Tell her to shove the spider up her arse!
What an awful ‘friend’ she is. Honestly, I’d be cutting her off.

Cardinalita90 · 18/11/2025 21:23

Could it be she's projecting her anger and fear over her dad's health onto you and spidergate? It's not right but it's such an overreaction there's probably something deeper going on.