Petty things that annoy you on Mumsnet.

[PettyAndIKnowIt]

What little things on MN annoy you more than they should?

People responding to others on a thread but not quoting them so I have to scroll back pages and hunt for the comment that they were responding to.

People referring to 3 and 4 year olds as toddlers.

If someone's posts annoy me and their name involves something that I love, then that bothers me even more.

The one poster who always responds to a "What's your favourite episode of a show? or What's your favourite dish from the Chinese takeaway?or similar threads by informing us how much they hate takeaways or wouldn't watch said show if they had a gun held to their head.

The phrase "Give your head a wobble." It's utterly infuriating.

"Do you really mean girl, or are you talking about a woman?"
"It could be Alzheimers "
"Was it a meltdown or just a tantrum?"
"Why don't you drive?"

How about helping.

When someone posts about an argument or a member of the public winding them up and someone always says 'What did they say when you confronted them?' when it's obvious the OP felt unable to or it was inappropriate.

False naivety

"You could just use your savings"

"LTB" (over one off issues)

"You should have thought about that before you had a baby" (aye right, I'll just send it back shall I?)

Anyone who whinges about 'Americanisms'. This is the internet...not everyone here is from England. Also, what is wrong with doing American things? The majority of our culture and traditions stem from another culture. Why is it fine to do those but not modern American things?

People who claim that EVERYTHING a man does is a 'red flag'. Examples I've seen recently include:

• He served himself food first
• He didn't buy the OP a packet of crisps when she wanted one
• He wanted to surprise his fiance
• He went to his work Christmas party

"I have never understood" and "I find it baffling". Stop pretending to be thick. Or are you not pretending?

A year or two ago, someone was expressing her disapproval of Christmas Eve boxes and declared that she had "never understood the concept of Christmas pyjamas". Another poster responded with, "What are you struggling with?"

I've since stolen that response a few times because it's so perfect.

Those who ask "and what did he say when you confronted him about it", or something similar.

Very much that. Yes, had the OP confronted a certain person the time it may have been better, but they didn't; probably because they were taken aback, caught unawares or didn't know how to express themselves, so they are asking for advice on what to do NOW.

Also, the do you suffer from anxiety/ you need help for your anxiety twats.

And the "Do you generally struggle with comprehension?" bullies.

People who use any of the above probably think they're being funny or clever, but these things are nasty and so unoriginal, so they just look like snide, witless cunts.

Mumsnet phrases!

ODFOD
Did you mean to be so rude?
So many more that I can't think of off the top of my head.

Things that posters use to make them feel part of the clique when really they sound ridiculous. The first person to say it might have been funny. Now they are worn out and tired.

AIBUs where the consensus is that, yes, the OP is indeed being U

And OP comes back saying 'No I'm not!'

Why did you ask then? Your mind was clearly made up already

Total overuse and usually misuse of Gaslighting, Narcissism and misogyny.

Disregarding the op. I.e. I'm having a finger buffet party any good nibble ideas

Personally I'd do a sit down beef en croute with nine sides

Dramatic hyperbole. Shall I leave my child in the car when I pay for petrol.

Are you insane. Don't you know cars burst into flames/thieves/rogue meteors. I'd report you.

Narcissism posts have decreased thankfully... since there was a news item on NPD traits being inheritable.

When people come on a thread about a specific subject and declare how they can’t imagine anyone would care about said subject.

When you’re engaging in a debate and give an actual fleshed out answer and ask another poster questions and they post something g like “Wow. just wow” or “I think you need to get a hobby”. This is almost always to evade questions they clearly don’t want to answer.

When people are extremely rude and personally insulting and the person they’re being rude to is perfectly pleasant back to them except they say ‘ODFOD’ or ‘oh just piss off. And the rude person makes a massive drama out of being sworn at and shouts about bullying. Like it’s ok to be completely awful to someone and call them a bad mum for example as long as you aren’t swearing

People who act superior and belittle the original poster. There's just no need.

Using less common acronyms and abbreviations. It can make a post completely inaccessible. I used to make the effort to look them up but lately I found myself just skipping past such posts. It's a shame as the poster might have had something interesting to say, but I'll never know.

People who post a sentence ending in "no?".

😂

Yeah, that's annoying...every family member you don't like isn't just mean, or angry, or selfish, or an arsehole. They've got an actual personality disorder, this one in particular, and the relative they pissed off is in a position to diagnose it.

Any behaviour will look narcissistic and selfish when you wanted them to do something else!

Anyone who seems like they might actually like their husband and doesn't mind him doing fun things sometimes being called a 'cool wife'

Yes, that's really passive aggressive.

When people are extremely rude and personally insulting and the person they’re being rude to is perfectly pleasant back to them except they say ‘ODFOD’ or ‘oh just piss off.

Well I can see why a rude person might get a rude response, but saying "ODFOD" and "oh just piss off" isn't being perfectly pleasant!

When people post advice about whether they were being unreasonable to do ‘x/y/z’. Posters overwhelmingly tell them they are, and OP proceeds to argue their case until they’re blue was in the face, and not even bother considering another perspective, or advice on the situation. Why ask then?!

Another one (inspired by an earlier thread) about asking for some advice about their DH wanting to go to a Christmas party, when she was home all day with unwell kids. One response included telling the OP her DH was a w*nker! A lot of the responses are usually hurling insults rather than actually giving proper advice. Happens often on those kind of threads.

Yep people who fixate on a petty detail and derail the thread!

I find it really annoying when people tell a story with Person A, B, C and so on. I wish they'd just give everyone a name. You can start the post by saying you've changed the names.

Judgmental threads about people you don’t know e.g. Katie price, the royal family, where people get nasty and personal.

Ok, you don’t like the person in question or what they do/have done, but why does that give you the right to be so bloody rude about them online? You know nothing about them apart from what you’ve read in the media which is hardly going to be unbiased.

Ah, really? I didn't know that. It's true the proclamations of "MIL is a narc" have decreased though, which is good.
Used to infuriate me when OP described someone, and there'd be posters saying "Sounds like classic narc behaviour to me" with lots of agreement. None of them being psychiatrists or psychologists; nor indeed having the first idea what they were talking about.

Oh loads 😂

Ill thought out thread titles that give the wrong impression or are ridiculously non specific (‘Secondary Education’ on the Secondary Education board)
Posting serious legal Qs in AIBU ‘for traffic’
Not giving info which is obviously vital to any useful advice (age of child / marital status or whatever)
Posters who quote the entire OP using the quote function all the way through the thread
People not reading the OP properly, or seemingly at all
The ‘cancel the cheque’ merchants who wash up on a massive long thread with some gormless comment having not RTFT.
Reviving pointless zombie threads.

IMO it all adds up to what is essentially cyber litter and clutter, and stood MN being sharp edged and relevant

And makes me think people are on the whole a bit thick, and then I hate myself for being grumpy and judgmental.

When a thread is split and those against OP get angry when OP hadn’t changed their mind.

”Why did you even bother posting if you still think you’re right”. People can seek others opinions but they are under no obligation to change their minds if they don’t want to.

When posters don’t properly read and add in or remove details that are/aren’t there. Recent one - no mention of DH. Posters; “why didn’t your DH help”.

People who post something riddled with errors. Then immediately follow it with a post going “Whoops, I meant correction and error.” Then yet another post going “FFS autocorrect, I meant error.” Then another and another, like a pigeon using MSN. And the first post wasn’t even that interesting. Makes me want to shout “FFS, stop posting!”

The influx of posters enjoying the ease of the new font tools so they can randomly bold words.

The face when something makes perfect sense, they just don’t like it/agree with it.

The death of "etc".

For some reason it has become "ect".

Very long posts with no paragraphs - WTF is wrong with people? Just CBA, though at least that’s less time wasted - for me.

And being ordered to "think" something.

"My DH's job is quite high powered. Think multi million pound budgets, important lunches, sharp suits, long hours."

Yeah we get it. He's a prick.