Worst advice you've seen on a thread?

[PrincessAnne5Eva]

Lighthearted!

Ok so I've seen some corkers in the years I've been posting/lurking on MN. What's the worst advice you've ever seen on a thread? Here are a few (in no particular order):

Years ago, someone telling the OP to do all the housework and not give her four teenage children any simple chores to do because she was a single parent and they "needed to have a childhood" so couldn't possibly do the dishwasher or similar.

Someone on a pension thread telling the OP that her house was her pension, except she was renting and they hadn't read the OP properly.

Someone telling an OP without a car that going on holiday to the arse end of the Highlands to a tiny village was completely doable by public transport and encouraging her to go up there somehow and effectively get stranded in a village with no bus service or taxi companies.

Luckily on these sort of threads I also see a lot of people calling bullshit on the bad advice but it still makes me laugh and hope to God that the OP is sensible enough to listen to the majority (they usually are).

Something was stuck in toddler ear.
The advice was to use a vacuum cleaner head to suck it out!

Someone had a burn.
... lather it with butter!

Baby was getting wind and not burping after feeds.
... tie a tight, bandage around the babies stomach till the air comes out! 🙄

Any woman who experiences any form of abuse being pretty much told that if she doesn't report it she is now responsible for the man's future actions if he does it again .

A woman who cheated on her violent abusive husband being told she had to confess it to him.

People constantly being told to grass their own kids up to the police for minor offences.

Your ex will need to pay the mortgage till your kids are 18

That's one where it really goes both ways (saying this as a young mum) - some older mums on MN judge younger mums, some younger mums judge older mums. Twas ever thus.

People giving completely wrong advice about legal or tax issues. Dishing out incorrect advice about inheritance tax is common one. Also that if a partner moves into your home and pays nominal rent then they’ll be entitled to a share of your house if the relationship breaks down. I wonder why these people give ‘advice’ as if they’re experts.

Oh, and telling people they must immediately go to A & E/ take their child to A & E for every twinge.

"My auntie once had a mild tummy ache just like that and 2 hours later she exploded on Slough High Street. Bits of her body everywhere."

Your child with a light fever and a mild headache is going to be delighted to have been dragged off their nice cosy spot on the sofa with Netflix and placed on a plastic chair in a draughty, noisy waiting room for the next 14 hours.

No middle ground for having dcs on MN. You're either a "young Mum, or an "old Mum." News flash, you can actually be inbetween!

"I've just found £5 down the back of the sofa. What shall I do with it?"

"You should see an IFA."

There is a very thin window of tolerance when it comes to the age of the mother on MN.

Under 30 - missed out, should have been travelling, partying and building your career, ideally in London, Paris or Tokyo.

32-37 - acceptable.

37 + (and especially over 40) you will die, your child will hide in shame from your wizened face on the school run, your child will have special needs.

And In the spirit of the thread, for me it’s reins for toddlers. They can be a very handy hack but some posters seem to think they should be used in situations where they aren’t appropriate at all. I once saw someone recommend tying a toddler to a seat with reins!

Change the locks.
Every single time there’s a thread about a relationship going wrong for whatever reason, some genius (or often several) will chirp up with righteous indignation, encouraging the OP to illegally lock their partner out of his/her own home.

I see this often! Unmarried women who moved into their boyfriends property and seem to think the owner will have to move out and pay for her to live in his house 😄
Where did the myth come from about the 'right' to live in someone else's property until kids are adults even come from?

The worst one I saw was maybe 10+ years ago, but I'll never forget it.

Poster was in a supermarket, a mum had a very newborn baby in a carseat on the trolley, baby was crying, the op went up to the woman and offered to carry her baby around the supermarket as she believed she had a c section, the woman declined, then woman's mum came over and they carried on with the shopping, baby was still crying on and off but being settled each time by the mum is granny.

The op followed her around the supermarket, gossiped to numerous members of staff and customers because this woman had declined ops offer and the baby was still fussing and op was apparently distraught.

The thread went mad, this poor mum was diagnosed with PND and by the end of the thread posters had encouraged op to call the supermarket, somehow access the CCTV from the car park (although Im sure she wouldnt have been allowed, but still), get the reg number, call SS and tell them this mum had untreated PND and that there were massive concerns - because she didn't want a stranger carrying her newborn around the supermarket.

It was absolutely wild and the advice was all from people winding each other up and trying to outdo each other with the next most unhinged idea to track the poor woman down.

Probably less annoying than ringing the doorbell though

I’d love to read that @NotTheDebtDoctorWithTheHungryScalpel !

"Don't waste A and E time with this" when there are clear red flag signs for something that could be life threatening.

@MrsSunshine2b "My auntie once had a mild tummy ache just like that and 2 hours later she exploded on Slough High Street. Bits of her body everywhere."
Brilliant!😂

It was in chat back when chat threads had a 90 day limit I'm pretty sure, I remember reading it about 20 times to make sure I hadn't missed anything out that made op so concerned, but no, it was just because the ops kind offer was declined and so the Mum clearly had PND.

To be honest a lot of the parenting advice I see on here is (imo) horrible. Either coddling them to the extreme (like your example of no chores) or just being mean. How you raise your kids is very personal obviously, but I sometimes read something and think “yep, your kids will definitely be estranged in ten years and you’ll be posting wondering why” or “I am so glad I’m not that kids poor teacher because they’re gonna be an entitled brat”.

There are other options that don’t involve adapting your fence to your inconsiderate neighbour’s children, risking them damaging it and your plants.

Whatever age you have a child is wrong on here! It’s amazing there are enough mums to warrant this site with judgement like that!

Most of the advice on here is bat shit! It’s nothing more than populist opinions that are neither legal or moral.

I once tired to help a vulnerable person on a thread because I had industry knowledge that would help her but the ‘keep her hysterical’ crowd came out in force to tell me I was wrong!

Decided to leave them to their bun fight. I do hope the OP was ok in the end.

"as his common law wife"

Yeah- I think legal and tax are areas where people "know enough to be dangerous" in that they have knowledge of a similar situation but haven't understood why this situation is different or the reasons why a certain principle applied.

There's one thread going on right now where a woman is concerned about her pre-teen daughter's weight, where a poster advised her to put locks on the cupboards.

I've just read a thread about a poor mum struggling to manage her DDs weight and a corker of a suggestion was to a) consider putting locks on the cupboard and fridge, or b) have a daily food delivery so you only ever have food in for that day, and therefore there is no food for the child to eat! Absolute bonkers suggestion!