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Original poster

Does anyone else feel sorry for inanimate objects

98 replies

Inthebluemountains · 07/09/2018 16:34

My phone is knackered and today I decided to upgrade. All done and I was very excited about my shiny new phone. Until I picked the old one up and felt a bit sad.

Its been a good phone, delivered some lovely messages, some sad ones, some unpleasant ones, some plain boring ones. I just feel a bit sorry for it that a better one is going to come along and take its place on my whim. Its done nothing wrong (if you don't count the microphone no longer working and the camera lens being a little scratched but we all get old right).

Obviously it's a sodding phone, it has no feelings, I'll recycle it and all will be well. And yet I still feel a little sorry for it. (lighthearted obviously but also true :))

OP posts:

AlexaAmbidextra · 07/09/2018 22:54

I feel sad every time I trade in a car. I walk away from it and always look back and think, ‘aww, I feel mean for replacing you with a shiny new model.’

hestia2018 · 07/09/2018 23:01

My DD says age feels like this so now I can tell her she’s not alone! She gets very upset about anything being thrown out or lost. She says she feels sorry for objects. I worry she’ll be a hoarder. I’m not like this at all - the only thing that bothers me is the toys strapped on the front of bin lorries getting all dirty!

MsJuniper · 07/09/2018 23:11

When I park my car at the train station I pick a space facing the tracks so it has something to look at.

Sparklingbrook · 07/09/2018 23:13

I borrowed DH's car for work last week. I was worried it would be wondering why it was in a different car park to usual.

IamPickleRick · 07/09/2018 23:14

The clothes I bought for my massive middle child, who was born too big to wear them! They were washed and ironed and ready for him to come home in, and every single thing was too small for him

blueyacht · 07/09/2018 23:17

The Christmas tree after Christmas, cold naked and lonely, out in the street waiting to be collected. Can’t look him in the eye.

FuckKnuckle · 07/09/2018 23:28

I used to have a VW Beetle (one of the proper old models). He was a heap, he really was, but I loved that car. If you went over a bump he would open the glove box and offer you a sweet, and his ignition was so worn you could start him with any narrow blade that would fit. He went for an MOT, and we got a phone call saying, "I think you need to come and have a look at this..."

Basically he was too eaten away with rust to be saved. I reacted in a typically mature and adult fashion - I burst into tears, and had a big, hairy, oil-stained mechanic patting me on the shoulder and telling me how he was going to hate having to get rid of his own car!

I bought another car from the same garage a few days later, and I remember being so glad that they had parked him facing away from the entrance so he couldn't see me driving away in his replacement...

Pamdoo · 08/09/2018 07:54

For me, the thing that upsets me most is the craze for book folding. Those poor books do not get to fulfil their destiny of being read, having someone immersed in their pages, then passed on to someone else, for them to do the same. They get folded into 'LOVE' or 'PEACE' and just sit on a mantle piece, gather dust and not being read

THIS. Thought they always looked so undignified, sitting there all creased up and open, and nothing to hide their shame of what's happened to them

Pamdoo · 08/09/2018 07:58

We've just sold ours, it was such a sad day in the house, but he needed so much love and we didn't have the time or money for him anymore. I would look out the window and see him sat there, and felt guilty every time. Ours wouldn't give you sweets though, as he'd jam his glove box nice and tight so you couldn't take anything back you put in there...

Rockbird · 08/09/2018 08:05

Yes!

I have sold my phone but haven't sent it off yet. I feel awful that here I am, using as normal and it has no idea that it's going on a journey away from me next week. I feel two faced.

And I hate changing cars and never talk about it while I'm in the car. If we have to have the conversation we talk about changing the potato.

madvixen · 08/09/2018 08:08

I went to a garden centre recently and they had some stone garden ornaments on a display. The display was about 6m long. At one end of the display was a group of four litttle baby dragons. They looked happy together. At the other end of the display was a little baby dragon all on his own. It played on my mind that he was lonely so as we were leaving, I moved him down so he could be with his friends. I'm also one who rearranged teddies in shops if they look lonely and I have a couple of teddies in the house that I have deliberately purchased because they looked sad. Hubby thinks I'm bonkers so it's nice to see I'm not the only one who does this.

Coloursthatweremyjoy · 08/09/2018 08:17

If I see a teddy with fur that covers his eyes I have to smooth it away so he can see. I also lift them by the waist so I don't hurt them by lifting them by an arm.

NooNooHead · 08/09/2018 08:39

I recently got a new toaster to replace my cheapy old one from Tesco that I had from 10’years ago from my first flat. I felt really sorry for it as it was quite a nice brushed metal one, and it still worked fine. I actually wanted to tell my FIL not to take it down the dump as I would be thinking about its welfare and be upset... it’s a sodding toaster, for crying out loud! 🙄😂😂😂

IWouldBeSuperb · 08/09/2018 08:51

I feel like this Simon Rich short story might traumatise some of you....

I love it though!

www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/simon-richs-unprotected

Isleepinahedgefund · 08/09/2018 08:56

I’m glad I’m not the only one who has feelings about soft toys. I bought one for my DD yesterday and apologised to it when I put it in my handbag, because it couldn’t see out.

Don’t even get me started about wrapping up soft toys as presents (they won’t be able to see) or putting them in plastic bags (what if they can’t breathe?!)

My therapist has never come across this before and finds the whole thing to be harmless but utterly hilarious. I suppose that’s reassuring.....

DontGoIntoTheLongGrass · 08/09/2018 12:50

Got another. I stupidly washed dd's lion toy on a hot wash after she was sick on it. I've totally destroyed it DH found another online but I can't replace it! It'd feel huge betrayal if I brought in a handsome replacement. So dd now knows lion had an accident and needs extra cuddles. She still loves it. See roughly before and definite after pics.

Does anyone else feel sorry for inanimate objects

Etihad · 08/09/2018 13:02

My DD had a special pram from wheelchair services. I hated the bastard thing with a passion and regularly cursed it when we couldn’t get up even the smallest kerb and it showed its utter contempt for us by going rusty and dropping bits of paint everywhere.

She got a really cute tiny wheelchair the other day. I got upset when they said they were going to scrap the pram!!

GoodHeavensNoImAChicken · 08/09/2018 13:04

I am in my twenties and although a keen bean when it comes to clearing things out, I have never given a soft toy away in my life. I can’t do it. It’s pathetic and it needs to be done but I just feel so sorry for them. I know I need to get w grip but I’m so soft I can’t

ClemClemFandango · 08/09/2018 13:13

I've always been like this, I thought my toys could think and feel. New toys still have to go and sit with the others so they aren't lonely on their own.

I also feel sorry for things if I leave them in the garden/on the washing line overnight, even worse if it was on it's own!

I can't take the car to the garage when we change cars either, I say goodbye from outside the house as I get too emotional.

If we throw tatty clothes or broken toys away I have to say it's going in 'the big black vessel' so it doesn't know it's going in the bin.

I also do the bean/sweetcorn/pea thing.

FadedRed · 08/09/2018 13:58

DontGoIntoTheLongGrass your special lion brought a tear to my eye. Bless.
I once bought back a toy i had donated to the school fete. He looked so lost and abandoned on the stall.
Even my DC's looked at me , but i couldn't leave him there.

TheSassyAssassin · 08/09/2018 14:22

@DontGoIntoTheLongGrass that 'after' pic made me really giggle . Mr Lion needs some detangler conditioner in his mane, a good comb-through, and then a very bouncy blow-dry to restore him to his former flouff glory!!!!

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 08/09/2018 14:25

Yeah, that lion is tragic looking!

birdling · 08/09/2018 16:51

When I put the cutlery in the dishwasher, I can't put just one fork in with the knives in case they pick on it. So then I'll move it in with the other forks. But then I worry that the other forks will pick on it as well, because it wasn't wanted by the knives. Twice rejected! I can't win really.

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