Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

What is the dumbest family argument you’ve had?

107 replies

HeechulOppa · 29/09/2022 12:34

Lighthearted thread, but I was wondering what stupid arguments have you ever had with your family?

For me, it’s over a riddle. My parents thought the answer was one thing, I thought another. Both sets were adamant we were correct. It started off lighthearted then descended into full on arguments, diagrams and a bit of shouting! My parents (who are really lovely and supportive and we’re very close) started mocking my intellect somewhat and I got quite affronted and stormed out. It carried on to the next day. Even now, about 20 years later, we do not talk about The Riddle. I still bristle about it! I am absolutely not saying what the riddle is because I Am Not getting into that shit again, but I did just Google it and I was right!

Anyone else?

OP posts:
DanteThunderstone · 02/10/2022 13:31

Argument with a friend over whether it is possible to freeze to death at temperatures above freezing.

MissDollyMix · 02/10/2022 13:35

DH and I, otherwise pretty solid relationship but for some reason every time the subject of how you pronounce guacamole comes up we end up properly shouting at each other! It’s so bad that the kids now just called it mashed avocado…
incidentally, you do accentuate the ‘E’ on the end of guacamole don’t you??

GobbolinoTheWitchesCat · 02/10/2022 13:41

@MissDollyMix guac-a-mol-ee

midsomermurderess · 02/10/2022 13:46

Not me but a colleague. She told me that one Christmas she and her sister fell out over the pronunciation of the city Basel. They didn’t speak for months. Mind you, it was probably cover for some other issue they couldn’t openly address.

MissDollyMix · 02/10/2022 13:46

GobbolinoTheWitchesCat · 02/10/2022 13:41

@MissDollyMix guac-a-mol-ee

Agree. Exactly!

poorchurchmouse · 02/10/2022 13:52

I had an argument with a colleague about whether epidurals ought to be routinely available for all women in labour. He’s a bloke, at that stage I hadn’t had a baby, we don’t work in any field related to medicine. We argued about it all day and never dared revisit the question!

poorchurchmouse · 02/10/2022 13:53

(He’s a colleague but like family, we’ve known each other for 20 years and DD is named after him.)

isthismylifenow · 02/10/2022 13:56

I didn't speak to my brother (we were in our 30s so not even kids) because of Monopoly. I refuse to play with him now and I tell him it brings out the demon in him. And they way he laughs when someone lands on his fkn row of hotels. The argument was about if I was allowed to have a loan from the bank to pay him. He said I couldn't and I had to pay him by giving him my best property. I'm quite sure exceptions can be made to get your pass go fee sooner.

I talk with my hands so if I'm talking about a place I tend to point in the general direction of said place. The ex would pipe up, the isn't where the Spar is, and would point out the exact as the crow flies direction to said place. But he did it all the time, and I would say, but you know what I mean. But he wouldn't let it go and it happened so many times that it ended up bugging me so badly. I'm quite convinced this was one factor toward the end of our marriage. I am dyspraxic so am not great with directions anyway, but my point is that he knew what I meant but had to nitpick.

isthismylifenow · 02/10/2022 13:59

MissDollyMix · 02/10/2022 13:35

DH and I, otherwise pretty solid relationship but for some reason every time the subject of how you pronounce guacamole comes up we end up properly shouting at each other! It’s so bad that the kids now just called it mashed avocado…
incidentally, you do accentuate the ‘E’ on the end of guacamole don’t you??

I say it gwaak-a-moly.

Could be my accent.

It's definitely not gwaak-a-mole if that is how he says it.

In your team here 😊

BigSandyBalls2015 · 02/10/2022 14:01

Whether the M4 turn off from the m25 was before or after Heathrow (going clockwise) … it got very heated 🤣

MissDollyMix · 02/10/2022 14:08

isthismylifenow · 02/10/2022 13:59

I say it gwaak-a-moly.

Could be my accent.

It's definitely not gwaak-a-mole if that is how he says it.

In your team here 😊

Show quote history

Thank you! 🙌

continueorterminate · 02/10/2022 14:28

I wanted to buy some cheap door stops. He didn't want to buy any. They were only a fiver and I still use them every day

ScottishLavender · 02/10/2022 14:40

I've just remembered the last Christmas posting date row in 2012. I casually mentioned to DH that the last parcel date was xx which somehow got interpreted as he needs to buy me an expensive gift (🤦🏻‍♀️) - I had only told him because he had asked me to check because of possible eBay sales. That row was phenomenal. If he asks me to check anything now, I refuse.

Staggersaurus · 02/10/2022 14:49

There is an on going argument in my family about the year my cat was born. My mum thinks one year, my brother another and me - who knows the real answer - a different year. I’ve even dug out old photos of the cat as a kitten in a house I only lived in for that year. Apparently it’s a different cat. NO IT IS NOT!!! It gets “discussed” every f*cking Christmas - she is a very old cat!

SingingSands · 02/10/2022 14:51

My parents didn't tell my aunt and uncle that they were moving house, as aunt and uncle were coming over to visit and the "for sale" sign was up so thought it would be obvious and a bit of a talking point. Aunt and uncle didn't mention it all day. Two weeks later we were all at my grandmothers house and it was brought up that my parents had sold the house. Aunt went ballistic, saying nobody had even told her the house was for sale (although it was none of her business!), it turned into a shouting match on both sides, and we all went home.

This was in 1992. They haven't spoken since 🫢

Calandor · 02/10/2022 15:44

MissDollyMix · 02/10/2022 13:35

DH and I, otherwise pretty solid relationship but for some reason every time the subject of how you pronounce guacamole comes up we end up properly shouting at each other! It’s so bad that the kids now just called it mashed avocado…
incidentally, you do accentuate the ‘E’ on the end of guacamole don’t you??

I'd say guac-a-mole-ay.

In Mexico they said closer to whack-a-mol-ay, but he's emphasis at the end. It's def not guac-a-mole. I got in a similar row once about chipotle (it's NOT chip-ot-ull)

LovedFedAndNoonesDead · 02/10/2022 15:58

Current argument in our house between DH and I is about where you go to buy batteries - specifically the round ones for car key fobs!!

According to him, you buy them at the chemist and that’s the place you get them unless you buy online. I on the other hand maintain (and, seeing as I’m the driver so it’s my car key that needs a battery, think I’m better placed to know) that you get them from any supermarket, general shop like B&M or even some newsagents but the only batteries generally stocked in chemists are ones for hearing aids!!

To prove the point, I went into B&M today and bought exactly the battery I wanted!!

Shiningstarr · 02/10/2022 17:22

We were at the table eating dinner, and I mentioned the word 'bogey', as I was asking my mother a question about them.

She went ballistic and sent me straight to my room.

feckoffbrian · 02/10/2022 21:21

Oh another... DH and I had a MASSIVE row as newly weds about whether you could use tomato purée in a shepherds pie and why you did not in a cottage pie.

My final argument to him was 'because sheep aren't cows!!!!'

That line still gets trotted out (20 years later) when we need to close a discussion down before we go too far...

LuciaPopp · 02/10/2022 21:23

Please say the riddle, op.

Empra123 · 02/10/2022 21:52

@BronwenFrideswide it wasn't that exciting. But 2016 had been a fairly crappie year all round so we were hoping for a quiet Christmas. Sat down to lunch and first thing my SIL does is announce that the sprouts were overcooked. DM (who'd cooked lunch) understandably was rather hacked off at this and said so. SiL (who was probably the only sober person there) promptly went off on a great rant about how no-one in the family liked her and how she felt an outsider and ran off upstairs crying. And it went on from there really.

SiL is still a pain but I cook Christmas lunch nowadays and she knows I won't take any nonsense!

Daftasabroom · 09/10/2022 13:00

DanteThunderstone · 02/10/2022 13:31

Argument with a friend over whether it is possible to freeze to death at temperatures above freezing.

If by freezing to death you mean death by hypothermia, you absolutely can die at temperatures well above freezing. If you mean freeze to death Han Solo style (I know he didn't die) the colder the quicker I guess.

RunnyPaint · 09/10/2022 13:08

As adults, my cousin and I argued about which of us is older. He is 9 months older than me, always has been, and I was often teased for being the baby of the family when we were kids. However, while we happened to be on a family trip in our mid- to late-30s, he insisted I was older than him. It got quite heated for a while, but he apologised the following day. He's an intelligent man and I really don't know what happened to his brain that day 🤣

MargaretThursday · 09/10/2022 13:34

We had one day on holiday several years ago with one of my dc, who I will add is normally the most rational and sensible of the family ended up screaming: "I'd rather jump out of the car (moving 70mph on a motorway) than go to Dover."
She hadn't actually got anything against Dover. We hadn't been before and I have absolutely no idea why she suddenly got into a state about going.
I reminded her of this (about 10 years later) fairly recently when she was complaining that her younger siblings were irrational. She couldn't tell me what the issue was either.

Growing up my brother (aged about 16yo) had an argument with the rest of the family over the fire alarm at home. I'd woken to hear the fire alarm beeping. So I got up, sniffed, went and checked the house and decided it was a false alarm, and went back to bed.
At lunch I mentioned this and said I was surprised no one else heard it. My df said he'd woken to it too, but he heard me getting up and knew I would shout if there was anything to worry about.
My brother went ballistic. We were lying, dreamt it, ganging up on him to trick him...

DanteThunderstone · 09/10/2022 15:12

Daftasabroom · 09/10/2022 13:00

If by freezing to death you mean death by hypothermia, you absolutely can die at temperatures well above freezing. If you mean freeze to death Han Solo style (I know he didn't die) the colder the quicker I guess.

Show quote history

My friend was pedantically insisting that nobody can freeze unless they literally scientifically freeze. I was taking the view that freezing to death is a common synonym for dying from prolonged exposure to low temperatures regardless of what a thermometer might say about the air temperature. The context is many, many years of my friend being a smartarse who can't ever bear to let any statement, however broadly true, go unscrutinised and 'improved'. She's a pita tbh.