What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?

I agree, the ‘lol’ wound me up.

Had a friend sleep over we were about 10. Told her there was a dead baby in my mums wardrobe on the top shelf and sometimes at night the door would open by itself and the baby would fall out and slither round the house. She was hysterical and had to go home. No idea why I said that!

Thank you. Did it get better for you? X

Lots of people have mentioned wishing they'd had more moral guidance as children. This is interesting. I was brought up long ago in a very old-fashioned, church-going family in the countryside. Guilt was definitely instilled into me and my sister - not so much the explicitly religious guilt, as in 'Jesus wouldn't like that' - but just a sense of shame for bad behaviour. This has certainly had a life-long effect on me. It can be just as damaging as having very little moral guidance, of course - I've been at a disadvantage many times from people who have absolutely NO shame about anything - petty theft, fraud, deception etc.

So - the moral guidance has been beneficial, I guess, to other people, but not necessarily to me in navigating life and the various sharks you encounter! 😄

How did they know it was definitely you? You obviously didn’t name names or the company or where you were from and unless you posted under your name….where was the proof?? I don’t think you did anything wrong! I would have denied all
knowledge 😂🙈

I've realised I'm very dull, reading this thread.

I think I may be even more unadventurous than Theresa May, bless her. On a walk with a friend when I was about 12, we saw one of those milk containers with a dial to show how many pints they wanted that day and we switched it from 1 to 6. Dearie me.

I think I once killed a small animal by treading on it when I was about 4. I was very upset. It was a complete accident but that doesn't make it easier to bear!

Oh - and I threw my sister's treasured sapphire ring (from a cracker, when she was about 7) out of the upstairs bathroom window into the garden border when she'd annoyed me. It was never found, although we did try. It's weird but this bothers me as much as some of the more serious things people have mentioned on here.

I wouldn’t even think this was a bad thing to do! Were you cheating on any of them?

I’ve definitely felt like this before x

For various reasons, I got ignored a lot in my childhood. I would have loved my parents to show an interest, to be friendly and supportive. I could have done (and did do) anything and there never seemed to be any consequences or acknowledgement of what I'd done. It was lonely and I felt (I knew) that I didn't really matter to my family.

Agreeing to have kids. It is so far proving to be a disaster for all of us.

it will be very demoralising. They'll think "what chance have I got? I don't have a parent in a position to give me a promotion."

It wont make the other potential candidates feel any better though .

In my 20s I let my boyfriend drive my car at over 120mph on the motorway. Not sure what I was thinking.

Everybody will know she only got the job because of her mum.

Always thought nepotism was more about promoting family members (irrespective of their suitability)?

Networking is slightly different insofar as there still being a requirement to actually be qualified for the role but you get a head start in the recruitment process.

Out of all the posts I've read, this winds me up the most. Especially as you don't seem to feel bad about it.

I despise unfair work practices and have been victim to them myself. I hate it when crappy candidates get promoted to jobs they don't deserve.

I would never do this for my children. I would be up for getting them work experience at my place or swing a temp job for them, but nothing beyond that. Hopefully my children will be able to stand on their own two feet and get jobs they deserve and qualify for rather than be handed one by mummy.

Do you regularly bully your colleagues?

I read this thread just before going to sleep last night. I was treated to a replay of my less than stellar moments as I nodded off. I decided not to read any more this morning. I’m not vindictive but there were times I had lost my temper and said things I regret or been unnecessarily snippy, and a few very cringe moments too. Thanks.

I deeply regret not doing more to defend or stand up for a kid at school who was getting mercilessly bullied by 'the cool gang'. He was a nice lad, a bit quirky which I guess was enough to make him a target. I was friendly with a few of his tormentors so possibly in a position to influence them over their actions, but I stood idly by while convincing myself that I was still 'good' because I was not a direct participant in the bullying. He was a really creative type, amazing vision and imagination and his artwork was phenomenal and I always wondered where he ended up and I always wanted to apologise for being a bystander.

I had several affairs when I was married.

I honestly think it's on these friends not you. Unless you identified the friends or something.

So many people post like this in mumsnet don't they? "I want to do x,y,z but my friends think its crazy. What do you think?". It's a sanity check.

If this group dropped you over that, all of them, they're not real friends.

If it makes you feel better, I had a group of friends like you describe, about 13 years ago. I thought we were all fantastic friends and then one of them just stopped replying to me and putting me off when I asked to see her. She moved out of the area and had a big leaving party and didn't invite me and I don't know why to this day. I don't really see any of them anymore anyway as 2 moved away and we all went back to work.

Hugs to you, please don't blame yourself for this. You are not lacking in some way as a human being. This is definitely a "them" problem.

Yes, I too saw this in a public sector job, it was pretty sickening at times watching colleagues who worked hard for any promotions that came up, only to see the daughter of a senior member waltz into these positions and climb the greasy promotion pole in front of others when she'd been there just a few months.

The fall out with other colleagues was spectacular and caused massive upset.

Glad to be out of it thankfully and safely retired.

Nor trying to take over the thread, but does one ever get to a point where guilt from their past doesn't consume them anymore and does the development of our prefrontal lobe have alot to do with our decisions? ( please don't chew me, I know some young people made good decisions) but why can't I recognize the person I was.. Does one ever get there or it just becomes a part of you for the rest of your life. It's awful. I hate it here.

In my 20s I was in an abusive relationship where he would not leave my house, was an Alcoholic and drug abuser. I was scared and fairly helpless.
One day I got some expensive catfood and made it into a pie and gave it to him for tea.
I'm actually not ashamed of this. I got him out eventually and each time he was mean, I would think of CatPie 😂

I would also wipe his toothbrush in the toilet

Happens in all sectors. Friends and family, the faces that fit, the old boy network. Seen it everywhere.