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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What tiny things make you irrationally annoyed?

357 replies

Bikergran · 07/01/2026 06:28

Just that, really. I'll start with a few.

The way discount pop-ups scream at you on a shopping page as soon as you click on it. Excuse me, I haven't had a chance to look at the product yet, I don't KNOW if I want a 15% discount!!

Daytime TV adverts. Either they are for funeral plans, featuring perky older couples chatting gaily about "lovely send-offs" or overpriced tat that requires them to repeat the same information repeatedly for several minutes in the hope you'll be hypnotised into ordering it.

Supermarket layouts. Always moving stuff about, completely random grouping of items. For instance, my local Morrisons has just moved half its meat products on an aisle away from the butchery department.

I have dozens more, nothing major, but niggling.

OP posts:
Bleachedjeans · 08/01/2026 13:03

Nibblerscribbler · 07/01/2026 12:03

When people buy you a ‘gift’ that requires you to do something. Like my aunt buying me a picture that needs me to buy a frame (still sat under the stairs 5 years later) or when people buy you something that needs to be planted in the garden. I have no free time whatsoever. You think I want extra jobs???

Or vouchers for pissy amounts which force to spend another £20-30. I’d rather just get a £10 note in my birthday card.

GreyCarpet · 08/01/2026 12:44

People who use 'intimacy' when they mean 'sex'.

Eg "We haven't had intimacy for a while now..." or "Whenever we have intimacy..."

I only ever see it on here.

NimbleHiker · 08/01/2026 12:42

People who expect me to do a job as soon as they ask. They are incapable of waiting for 2 minutes. People who constantly sniff. People who yawn rally loudly. People who talk in their back garden in a booming voice.

NimbleHiker · 08/01/2026 12:09

I have thought of another one. People who bleet on about football are so annoying. My mum also blames the referee every time that her team drops points. She is incapable of accepting that her team were rubbish on the day. Friends who spend the entire time scrolling on their phone when we go out.

Politicians247UnderwearExtinguishingService · 08/01/2026 08:51

pasanda · 08/01/2026 08:38

Shopkeepers giving your change back with the coins on top of the notes! Pisses me off sooo much. Inevitably the coins just roll around and fall off. 😡

It also makes no sense with the 'traditional' method of counting up your change back to the full amount of the note handed over, to show that your change is correct - in which the assistant would hand the coins and notes back in ascending order, so obviously they'd have given all the coins first before any notes.

SchnizelVonKrumm · 08/01/2026 08:49

People that talk about "the back end of last year". Just say the end FFS!

pasanda · 08/01/2026 08:38

Shopkeepers giving your change back with the coins on top of the notes! Pisses me off sooo much. Inevitably the coins just roll around and fall off. 😡

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 08/01/2026 08:17

Anyone saying ‘early doors’. Surely the most stupid expression ever.

Brits saying ‘math’, and ‘ass’ when they mean arse.

Byeretail · 08/01/2026 06:51

One thing I’m glad to see the back of in working in retail. Groups of 4-8 mums each with a pushchair and another 2-3 older kids, guessing aged 3. They come in together even though just 2-3 of them buying 3 items max. They clog up aisles and the self scan area. Only the mums that are buying stuff should go in the self scan area.

During the school holidays, there are another 3-6 more DC joining the group. There are 3 groups of mums that do this.

Why can’t the ones that need to buy something just go in themselves?

Byeretail · 08/01/2026 06:44

Ogonek · 07/01/2026 22:05

People standing still on escalators and blocking me from walking (you did say irrational)

On a closely-related theme, people who decide that RIGHT IN THE ENTRANCE of shops and supermarkets is a great place to have that lovely long catch-up with their friends, as you try to squeeze you and your laden trolley round them.

Also, the sodding awful taps in motorway service stations that you push, only for the feeble spray of lukewarm water to stop the instant you put your soapy hands underneath them, meaning you have to hold the tap down with each soapy hand in turn in order to get them rinsed.

And then usually the driers don’t work either.

The supermarket that I just left the automatic doors were about 3m from the kiosk. Customers stopped there to dig out their shopping list or had a chin wag with someone. They stood where the doors didn’t close. In cold days, it made the kiosk and nearby areas cold.

I was tempted to go to these people’s homes and stand in front of their opened front door to see how they liked their home getting cold

Blarghism · 08/01/2026 06:06

People taking too long at the supermarket checkout. Did you not realise they were going to ask you to pay? And if you want to rearrange things, move away first so I can be served. See also staff who scan my things too slowly or make me wait while they chat with their friends.

Lincslady53 · 08/01/2026 06:06

Nevermind17 · 07/01/2026 07:33

It makes me irrationally angry that people think that retired people should be forced to shop during the week and never at weekends.

Sometimes I’m too busy during the week. Sometimes I’ll run out of something on a Saturday. If I’m making a nice Sunday lunch I want nice fresh ingredients so I’ll go on Saturday.

Sick to the back teeth of this ageist claptrap.

As a retired person, I get pissed off with amateur shoppers at busy times taking all their family with them to the supermarket, blocking up aisles, standing in front of displays looking at every pack to find the 'best' one, talking to friends. Faffing about on the self checkouts. Give me a pensioner anyway.

Lincslady53 · 08/01/2026 06:00

OhFeyreDarling · 07/01/2026 07:20

Toilets that don't the their one job and flush! We've got one at work that flushes with force of a tsunami, splashes water everywhere and there's stil paper when it's done. Most people avoid using it

The sealed packets of food that say 'peel here' and never bloody peel anywhere and you end up cutting it open

And ladies insisting on taking their husband shopping with them and they just follow her around obviously not wanting to be there and just getting in everybodys way. Please just leave him in the car

My DH worked in retail all his life. He tidies up displays in shops, removes the empty trays from yoghurt etc. I caught him in M and S tucking a shirt into a mannequin as it was only tucked in on one side. I think he is doing it so I leave him in the cafe. 😂

LivingTheDreamish · 08/01/2026 02:12

I live in a concierged building. One of the services the concierge provides is pressing a button (located under their desk) which opens the front door as you approach. Except they rarely time it quite right so you have to stop and wait for it to open. I have fully functioning arms so don't require this non-service for which I am paying. I realize this is a first world problem.

Also people eating apples.

Pinepeak2434 · 08/01/2026 01:49

Boots and Sainsburys who block the signal but want customers to use their app.

Cold callers like Sky call who instantly ask “how are you?” when I pick up - with zero regard for whether it’s a convenient time. I really don’t need a random stranger calling me and acting as if we’re mates. 😂

Pinepeak2434 · 08/01/2026 01:35

Byeretail · 07/01/2026 20:32

When children aged about 4-7 go around and make tongue clicking noises.

😂😂

Pinepeak2434 · 08/01/2026 01:33

The large Sainsbury’s near me has recently been refurbished. The alcohol section is now very spread out, while the food aisles have been made extremely narrow. The fridges also now have doors, which makes it almost impossible for more than one person to browse and pick up items at the same time. It annoys me every time I shop there and I walk around muttering to myself.

Didnotsignupforthis81 · 08/01/2026 01:17

Honda Jazz drivers.

I’m fairly sure I could stop taking my blood pressure meds if they all just got off the fucking road.

KeyboardCat · 08/01/2026 00:13

ThatNaiceMember · 07/01/2026 15:32

With the sneezing, I will bless DH three times then tell him he will receive no more blessings from me 🤣

I always say 'alright, I heard you the first time!' 😄

Ogonek · 07/01/2026 22:05

People standing still on escalators and blocking me from walking (you did say irrational)

On a closely-related theme, people who decide that RIGHT IN THE ENTRANCE of shops and supermarkets is a great place to have that lovely long catch-up with their friends, as you try to squeeze you and your laden trolley round them.

Also, the sodding awful taps in motorway service stations that you push, only for the feeble spray of lukewarm water to stop the instant you put your soapy hands underneath them, meaning you have to hold the tap down with each soapy hand in turn in order to get them rinsed.

And then usually the driers don’t work either.

Missj25 · 07/01/2026 21:58

My teenage daughters never standing on bathmat after a shower & putting a towel down instead to stand on !
Coming down the stairs EVERY morning & leaving all the lights on everywhere upstairs !

Bleachedjeans · 07/01/2026 21:53

TheJustJoker · 07/01/2026 21:45

Or “holibobs” 🙄

‘holibobs’ is the worst. How can someone expect to be taken seriously as a human being when using such a ridiculous expression?

WalkDontWalk · 07/01/2026 21:49

‘Performative’.

I’m not sure the word existed before last Thursday, but now it does people use it to mean ‘doing anything I disapprove of although I don’t really have much justification for my disapproval’.

”Have you noticed how Maureen says ‘did you have a nice day?’ to her kid when he comes out of school? Just so performative.”

TheJustJoker · 07/01/2026 21:45

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 07/01/2026 21:25

Grown women talking about their ‘bestie’. Makes them sound about 7.

Also anyone saying ‘peeps’ or ‘baby steps’.

Or “holibobs” 🙄

Bleachedjeans · 07/01/2026 21:32

People who stand in fucking doorways!!! DH even does it in our small bungalow. He’s constantly blocking the living room exit or the doorways to the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Fucking MOVE!!!!