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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to find one-issue personalities rather tedious to be around?

141 replies

Dovesono · 05/09/2026 21:16

AIBU to think the people who make one aspect of themselves their entire personality are extremely tedious?

(Feeling irritated by someone in my life who does this and wondering whether others have had a similar experience.)

I don't think it really matters what the particular aspect is - whether it's a hobby, one's gender or sexual identity, a sporting ability, being a parent, having had an unusual experience - people who only want to talk about one thing (i.e. themselves) and who bring it up at every available opportunity are invariably very tiresome in my experience.

As an example, I was once queuing for an event with a friend and we got chatting to the people in front of us in the queue. This friend brought up his particular "thing" no fewer than three times, despite the other queuers not knowing him from Adam and clearly being completely uninterested in the occasion when he fell off a horse in 1998.

Or maybe I'm just an misanthropic GOW...

OP posts:
demantoid · Yesterday 20:22

CruCru · Yesterday 19:53

I used to go out with someone who was tall (maybe 6ft 4). He would shoehorn how tall he was into conversations where it didn’t belong.

Yes, am "I'm Tall!" person leapt immediately to mind when I saw this thread.

He has grown a beard and he is tall. These two things seem to completely define him. He mentions Being Tall and Having a Long Beard all the bloody time. As if we haven't noticed it.

On his social media stuff, I've lost count of the tall/beard references. Who cares!? I don't look anymore, it irritates me Grin

ClaredeBear · Yesterday 20:27

Is it CrossFit?

JoanOgden · Yesterday 20:42

I once worked with a Professional Yorkshireman.

I also have a friend who is a passionate Remainer and turns any subject to how terrible Brexit is. I was annoyed by the result of the Brexit referendum at the time too, but somehow over the intervening 10 years I've managed to move on.

BeachTimeIsBliss · Yesterday 21:05

AquamarinePearlGold · Yesterday 07:46

Well, one day you’ll all be perimenopausal, if you’re female. Let’s see you not mention it then 😊

PS: you don’t need to read those threads it’s not compulsory.

I'm 46 and I'm.not even sure what peri is supposed to mean? Surely you're either going through the menopause or you aren't?

Sugarnspicenallthingsnaice · Yesterday 21:12

Platypusdiver · Yesterday 19:30

Oh bugger! This has made me realise that I insert the dog into most conversations.

Doing it now... (I promise to be more aware and less irritating in the future.)

Oh dogs are fine! Keep talking about your dog!

Slugtamer · Yesterday 21:20

Yes, I worked with someone who in every single meeting or conversation or lecture would mention she had ADHD… it was her entire personality and it never seemed to occur to her she might not be the only neurodivergent person in the room…

MorrisseysMisery · Yesterday 21:56

Teenage DS, cyber security. He has Aspergers and is highly intelligent, excellent at soaking up information.
His Great Grandma, when faced with this jargon-filled chuntering simply looks blank.
She likens it to being spoken to in Russian.

itsallaboutmememee · Yesterday 22:06

Ds got a job,years ago at costa

Didn't we know it?

We couldn't go anywhere else for a coffee (no branch matched up to his standards) his personal best was 9 costas in one day (ive never stepped foot in one since) and if I heard about his job one more time,I would have strangled him

Then he changed jobs and joined the NHS (as a security guard in a large hospital)

I told him straight that i was proud of him,I was dead chuffed he'd got his dream job and couldn't be happier for him but if he came out with the words 'I work for the NHS' just once,I would cut him out of my will

He didn't and loves his job (he did jokingly mention it about 500 times during covid just to wind me up and hes still in my will)

(I know his wife had a word at about the same time which probably had a stronger effect than I ever would)

AzureCats · Yesterday 22:17

Maybe we should all take a leaf out of Inbetweeners Jay's book and beep beep beep anyone who's a broken record.

https://youtube.com/shorts/r6l-QTjjReo?is=-lPebjrEOwjFiY_i

I'll admit in the Eras era I could not go one day without mentioning Taylor Swift but I definitely wasn't the only one 😂 thankfully my enthusiasm has waned since.

Before you continue to YouTube

https://youtube.com/shorts/r6l-QTjjReo?is=-lPebjrEOwjFiY_i

blythet · Yesterday 22:20

Vegans are the worst for this!!!

MeetMeOnTheCorner · Yesterday 22:27

@Slugtamer Well it wouldn’t would it. ND is code for self absorbed I find.

Waitingfordoggo · Yesterday 22:34

I know a pole fitness woman. It’s her entire personality.

Waitingfordoggo · Yesterday 22:41

BeachTimeIsBliss · Yesterday 21:05

I'm 46 and I'm.not even sure what peri is supposed to mean? Surely you're either going through the menopause or you aren't?

‘Peri’ comes from Greek and it means ‘around’ (perimeter, pericardium…)

At some point in the past decade or so, someone started using it with menopause, which does make sense really because menopause, strictly speaking, means the moment your periods stop. Many women obviously experience health changes for quite some time before they have their final period, so that’s what perimenopause is referring to.

In the 90s, my Mum and her friends talked about ‘going through the menopause’ when they were discussing their health issues and mood changes. Obviously they weren’t all referring specifically to how they felt when they had their final period; they were referring to a much longer period of time leading up to it, and probably just after it too. So it’s just a change in the terminology over the years. I’ve noticed it irritates some people but I’m not sure why really. I think what people really find irritating is hearing about it too much, or someone making it their personality.

MeetMeOnTheCorner · Yesterday 22:48

@Waitingfordoggo It just used to be called “the change”. Talking about it doesn’t change it.

Sugarnspicenallthingsnaice · Yesterday 23:23

MeetMeOnTheCorner · Yesterday 22:48

@Waitingfordoggo It just used to be called “the change”. Talking about it doesn’t change it.

The oversharing is also irritating (to me, anyway, but I acknowledge I am easily irritated).

I don't think for one second that women should suck up their medical issues - they should be able to talk freely to their doctor, partner, family and friends, and seek out the advice and support of like-minded women. All for that.

It's when they feel the need to drop it (their peri status in general, or the fact their fanny has dried up or whatever) into absolutely ANY topic for all the random strangers on the internet who really don't care.

Waitingfordoggo · Today 00:00

MeetMeOnTheCorner · Yesterday 22:48

@Waitingfordoggo It just used to be called “the change”. Talking about it doesn’t change it.

No, but why does it bother people? I find ‘the change’ rather twee, like ‘women’s problems’ or ‘down below’. Greek terms are used all the time in science so it seems appropriate to use one when referring to a biological process.

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