Things you thought were normal/harmless until joining mumsnet

[Antsinyourpanta]

(Lighthearted )
lots of things that I thought were quite normal /fine/harmless before I joined MM seem to be quite abhorrent to a large percentage of posters. I often find myself wondering about whether my perceived normal is actually the minority. Some examples

Home made food or cakes - I bloody love home made cakes and think they are always nicer than shop bought - my first thoughts when offered one is usually yum, a cake! I've never given a moments thought to whether the person owns cats or dogs or has a hygeine certificate.

Ensuite bathrooms - I've got an ensuite bathroom. It's used for any instance where you may need a toilet. Apparently this is very very wrong.

Eating carbs

Bayliss and Harding toiletries - I would not be offended by this as a gift unless it was from my husband

(I'm with you on Thorntons though - they are nasty)

Answering the door to someone - if I see ex criminals selling stuff door to door, I dont answer, otherwise I dont have a problem with answering the door, and i get on with all of my neighbours.

Speaking to and socialising with work colleagues - i speak to, socialise (outside of work) and am friends with most of my work colleagues. I'd count many of them as friends. We buy each other birthday cards and presents and sometimes bring in cakes. (See point 1)

What are the things you've been educated on since joining MN?

Hanging out washing to dry
Using my washing machine at night
My loo brush
Not having a penis beaker on nightstand
Carbs
My Radley bag (the horror)

@Itsanewdah

Treating my trans woman friend as woman. including being in the same changing room. why on earth not?

Treating my 2 trans sons the way they wish to be treated. I don't want to be responsible for destroying their mental health.

Toilet brush

Leaving your washing out overnight

Making a chicken last only one meal and not pairing the leftovers with a MASSIVE SALAD

Loud sex

Having an opinion (lighthearted)

I forgot not feeding lentils to guests

@TheLovelinessOfDemons yes yes yes and YES!!!

I have a trans daughter. I stay away from those boards as I always end up down a rabbit hole of arguments and it depresses me to see how utterly intolerant other people can be.

I hope your sons lives are filled with happiness!

I am mildly inconvenienced by my neighbour parking slightly over my driveway. It adds approx 10 seconds to my day to manoeuvre round her car when I go out, but it means she can park 3 cars outside her house so on balance it doesn't bother me - but according to MN I should probably install penguin bollards, leave passive aggressive notes and contact the council to get her towed 🤷‍♀️

Lots of offspring and animals? How many is lots? As long as you can afford them and look after them, why would it bother anyone else? Apart from the environmental toll, obviously.

How are you supposed to clean the toilet properly without a loo brush?
If I had an en-suite it would also be used as a regular toilet, not just a decoration.
Also have no issue with letting tradesmen use the toilet.

A lot of people don't seem to get on with their MIL's. I get on with mine quite well. She was even at the birth of my son with my DP (my DM died before I was pregnant) so she's been kind of like a second mum to me

The loo brush one tickles me. I don't own one, but it doesn't bother me that others do. Not really something I can get worked up about either way tbh

Love strangers dogs, and will happily welcome and give them a clap if they come over to say hello

I like Christmas Eve boxes. But it's usually just relatively inexpensive things, like pj's sweets/chocolates, colouring book, bubbles etc

I don't answer the door if I'm not expecting someone or creep quietly to look through peep hole mainly due to social anxiety and a bad experience from the past doing this

I don't desperate towels, underwear, socks etc with other clothing. It all goes in the same time on a high setting. I don't have time to faff about separating those things. Plus a terrible waste of water

Ive learned that all financial problems, no matter how dire, can be solved by selling things on eBay.

@Lavendersquare

Washing bath towels with other laundry, ditto underwear. I always accepted that the washing process and laundry detergent cleaned things, but apparently towels and underwear must be washed separately preferably in a separate machine!

🤣🤣🤣🤣

My personal experiences are false because it didn't happen to other posters .

@Byronic
Could you provide a diagram?

@Byronic

I am mildly inconvenienced by my neighbour parking slightly over my driveway. It adds approx 10 seconds to my day to manoeuvre round her car when I go out, but it means she can park 3 cars outside her house so on balance it doesn't bother me - but according to MN I should probably install penguin bollards, leave passive aggressive notes and contact the council to get her towed 🤷‍♀️

And keep inventing even more wickedness to ensure you get a 3-threader and a classics nomination!

Dogs barking.

@LittleMysSister

Omg loads of stuff!!

But the main thing that I'd say is often seen as unacceptable/unnecessary on here would be being considerate of anyone that isn't just you and your children. Not even extending to your partner in many cases.

I see so many comments on here where there's a very 'pull the ladder up Jack' attitude, which I would say isn't generally reflected in real life. Particularly towards in-laws and neighbours.

Perfect description! Well said.

• I was not aware that I should have started my pension before I was born and be paying most of my wages into it.

• I was not aware that I should have a fuck off fund.

• I was not aware that matched betting was a thing (I still think a lot of those posters saying they've made 17k in a few months are plants from betting companies)

• Cycle trailers with kids in are akin to lobbing your child into a volcano from a trebuchet.

• I've been here many years in various forms and credit MN singlehandedly making gin as fashionable as it is today.

• Fruit = Satan

I'm sure there are more...

@AmDillDandin

I've been on many hen dos.

And enjoyed them

Post graphic accounts!

Helium balloons.
Treating a dog like a dog. I didn’t realise they were hairy humans!
Scented sanitary wear. I just grab whatever’s cheap. Sometimes I had a fragrance and I couldn’t care less. It has zero impact on my life.

Bayliss and Harding toiletries - I would not be offended by this as a giftunless it was from my husband
(I'm with you on Thorntons though - they are nasty)

I don't have the MN aversion to Baylis and Harding but they don't suit my skin, so I'm meh about those.

I'm also old enough to remember when Thorntons Chocolates were quality....

I open the door when the bell rings. My bed and towels are not changed daily but when they need it.

And shock horror we just have one toilet so everything has to be done in there. I have even let workmen use it...(and they have left it perfect clean)

Cash bars at weddings. I have never in my life been at a wedding with a free bar. Clearly I have to make some new friends.

Plus I give money as a wedding present. I would never just turn up with 'a bottle of fizz and a card'.

I love weddings.

Oh god yes, the washing! Washing lots of stuff separately incase of germ transfer. I honestly thought that was the point of detergent and water. That whatever I put in there would come out clean!!

Things I thought were normal before Mumsnet...

Having a glass of wine with an evening meal maybe 5/7 nights. Mumsnet has informed me that I'm actually a raging alcoholic.

Having a dinner plate full of food, including some carbs, and maybe even some bread too! (We've lost sight of what a normal amount of food is, dontcha know.)

Doing nice things in the garden. Barbecue, fire, music, drinks, pool/hot tub, kids playing... Sometimes my neighbours even chat to me over the fence and I don't immediately plant some fast growing bamboo!

Sharing things with DH. We share towels, sheets, jumpers, hats, scarves, socks, facecloths, loofahs...

Eating the occasional McDonald's. I like it but apparently I'm feeding the corporate demon and eating sawdust to boot.

Enjoying Christmas. (100 days to go!!)

- I was not aware that I should have a fuck off fund.

Yes, but if your DH/DP does then it's called a secret bank account and means he's being financially abusive.

Discovering that innocently calling my evening meal "supper" over my entire life makes me a pretentious twat still doing it though; why would I stop because some randoms on the internet don't approve

Also: I've been on MN since about 2012 and I didn't get the memo about ensuites - what's wrong with them?