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.

‘What consequences are there when s/he does this?’

Which is a way of implying you haven’t given any consequences so you are a terrible parent.

’Maybe’, when it is used to be a smug arse.

’My children always sat at the table, but maybe family time at mealtimes was just important to me.’

So PA.

"Naice" - what does that even mean?

Not to have a go at you, because I can totally see how "naice" would be annoying ... but it's one I actually find quite useful, as a shorthand for "pleasant and attractive in a bland, unthreatening way as sanctified by fearful bourgeois middle-class Hyacinth Bucket types", rather than simply "nice".

F

Bad grammar and spelling

calling them draw/draw instead of drawers.

The posters, quite a few, who use MN to act superior. And when they disagree will say Nonsense, as if they're right and you must be wrong.

I would definitely hate working with them.
And God I feel sorry for their families.

Ludicrous, passive aggressive suggested responses, particularly if accompanied with “a tinkly laugh and head tilt”.

ah yes. they just want a nice bit of friendly chit chat. I suppose offering virtual drinks and snacks is as good a way to initiate that as any!

As someone whose work involved a good deal of proof-reading and editing, poor spelling and grammar or not checking posts for erroneous autocorrects also irks me but I do try to be tolerant of this, especially as there is no edit function on MN for either the text of a post or subject lines.

Was does amuse me is posters who pick another poster up for a misspelling or grammar error but have failed to spot the typos in their own comment.

Responses they’d never dream of saying themselves as well.

It’s always “LTB” but I’d be willing to put the value of my house on the fact I could guarantee that none of them would actually leave their husbands over a lot of what is posted on here. Obviously I’m excluding abusive situations when I say this.

Similarly, when the OP is discussing issues with staff in her workplace, some of the responses are just bizarre. You get the sensible ones (usually from posters who have worked in a similar sector for years or those who have HR experience), and then there’s the absolutely insane ones. I can only presume that these come from posters who haven’t worked in a long time or work in a totally different field.

I get so frustrated with posters who mis quote others just to help give themselves a chance to get on their soap boxes about something ,no one said in the 1st place, then they badger everyone on the thread with the same drivel. Infuriating.

"and yet here you are"

Haven't RTFT but my pet hate is when I'm following a thread, go back to it a day later and it's turned into an argument between about 3 or 4 posters, just quoting each other and answering back and there's now 4 pages of arguing, usually over something entirely irrelevant to the original post!

I was just about to post the affectation of writing a sentence then using strike through on part of it. Since there is still no edit function on MN, the strike through will have been added at the point of initial posting.

i think the point is that it is something you might think but don't actually say out loud? Say it's a MIL thread and the MIL is being a cow, and the DIL needs an answer so a poster might write:

just give her the cup of tea and a biscuit and stab her in the face with a toasting fork ask her what her day has been like

I actually find it quite amusing at times.
What this site might really need is a MumsNetiquette guide to explain the quirks and things that have been developed over time. Like the "naice" thing. It explains a whole concept in one bonkers word.

"Modelling" good behavior.

Setting an example then.

The ' aye right/aye that happened' comment because heaven forbid someone might have different life experiences to you. It doesn't sound clever and makes you look like a right knob.

The idea that step mums should do more for their step kids than their own kids (bigger bedroom, you chose this, they're only there half the time so you can't do a nice thing for your own kid when they're not there) but as a a step mum you're not allowed to do any parenting or enforce boundaries because that's on the parents. But you should do the childcare if mum and dad don't have the time. Even though it's actually the kids right to contact time with their parent, not using step mum as a babysitter.

I actively chose NOT to be a step mum because of this shit.

Iv. Iv been, Iv seen, Iv already got. It's I'VE!! We are turning into a country of illiterate people.

Indeed.
I'd certainly ask you to rewrite your own appallingly poorly written sentence.

Strikethrough isn't an affectation, it's a writing tool and it's usually used for humorous effect. It's a way of making a certain type of joke.

Really long threads. Just drives me crazy and I don't bother reading them. I open a thread, scroll down to see how long it is and decide if I will read it based on that.

people putting 'toms' and 'pots' instead of tomatoes and potatoes.

no idea why it niggles me so.

Diligently reading an entire thread of, say, 30+ pages in order to not ask questions or make a point that has been raised multiple times, only to find the thread is closed.

It's infuriating on two counts. First, the time I've 'wasted' getting an idea of what I could say to inform/support, and second the fact my 'pearls of wisdom' will never see the light of internet day. 😉

F

Posting F instead of watching or bookmarking, or even actually joining in.

Can't bare - well it's probably best to keep your clothes on in most of those situations when something is unBEARable.

"Naice" came from some decades old thread about "naice ham" ...no one cares, but sometimes its a handy shorthand for someone or something with pretentions of poshness.

though the thread may be getting too old for folks to remember or to have come across, so it is turning into one of those "old girls network" things.