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Original poster

Worst advice you've seen on a thread?

144 replies

PrincessAnne5Eva · 11/03/2025 11:26

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).

OP posts:
PinkFrogss · 11/03/2025 17:04

Also at least half the posts in response to any sort of employment issue.

Particular favourite is if someone asks the poster if they have any protected characteristics. Everyone has protected characteristics, drives me mad

MrsSunshine2b · 11/03/2025 17:09

User746353 · 11/03/2025 13:31

A&E threads are always mental. It's usually someone describing something that could easily have been treated elsewhere but was delayed for whatever reason and they refuse to go private (dental pain, weird symptoms in child etc). I suspect a lot of the A&E replies are actually strangers keen on having a live drama thread to follow so they tend to urge OP to go to A&E regardless of what the situation it. They're just hungry for medical updates.

"Does my child eat too much" threads are also wild. The OP posts a meal plan for a 3 year old that contains more food than a fully grown adult. The replies are always unanimously positive that the child is definitely NOT eating too much and it's cruel to deprive growing kids of calories. Stuffing a child is absolutely acceptable even if the child is clearly overweight and cannot control their appetaite. Then at the same time, threads are exploding about weight loss injections, side effects, obesity etc.

To be fair that's on and off Mumsnet! My family were shocked and appalled when I refused to top up my 4 yos snack account because she's eating at least 2 carb heavy snacks every break time and refusing the free fruit on offer. 😂She doesn't need a crumpet, a slice of toast and a yoghurt 2 hours after eating her breakfast.

Topseyt123 · 11/03/2025 18:03

I absolutely remember the cheese in your tea/coffee thread during the early COVID lockdowns. Ridiculous, but that poster seemed to be serious about it, which made it even funnier.

Many of the COVID threads were batshit, to be fair.

Hedgeclutter · 11/03/2025 18:12

I think a regular one that gets my goat is that you can't be sacked if you have a disability. I don't know why people believe this. Nobody is going to keep paying me if I can't work.

RadFs · 16/04/2025 15:09

Baninarama · 11/03/2025 11:50

@Hoppinggreen You beat me to it with the house gifter thread - batshit!

@Baninarama @Hoppinggreen have you got a link would love to read that

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 16/04/2025 15:17

A few years ago there was a thread in living overseas where someone was playing with the idea of moving to Copenhagen for a year. Every single person on the thread who was a resident of Denmark was saying do not come here without the offer of a job. Other well meaning clueless posters were saying go for it! I'm sure you'll find something.

Hoppinggreen · 16/04/2025 17:18

Someone is advising an Op to get a septic tank on her land that doesn't belong to her and doesn't need emptying emptied herself ,and then demand the owner pays.
Then take him to court if he refuses.

x2boys · 16/04/2025 18:08

PrincessAnne5Eva · 11/03/2025 16:47

Wow some really batshit ones. Yes the legal ones where a well known lawyer will weigh in then some clueless poster goes "Ignore the armchair lawyers on here OP..." then proceeds to spout some total rubbish that isn't true. 🧐

Yeah i have seen this and then because the Op prefers,the rubbish spouted by the cluless poster rather than the actual correct answer becomes rude and agressive to the lawyer because they are not telling them what they want to hear.

Hoppinggreen · 16/04/2025 18:12

So many people, especially on Legal or Work or even AIBU confuse whats fair with whats legal.

CarrieOnComplaining · 16/04/2025 18:40

There was some spectacularly bad advice confidently dished out by people who have no clue how the ‘Equal Preference ‘ system works in schools admissions, what it means, and that it is law across England and Wales.

There were people who would have scuppered their chances of their achievable top preference had they followed some of the advice.

I wonder how many of the tales of woe on National Offer Day are caused by misunderstanding and myth around the equal preference system

CarrieOnComplaining · 16/04/2025 18:41

SemperIdem · 11/03/2025 15:40

@Learsfool what are the negative side effects?

It seems illogical to me to wear sunscreen throughout winter in the UK, so I don’t. But bar impact to one’s bank balance using it unnecessarily, there being a negative side effect is a surprise to me

Vitamin D shortage?

SwanOfThoseThings · 16/04/2025 18:48

On posts about infertility - someone always says "Have you considered adoption? - as if it were as easy as going to the supermarket and picking out a suitable child; and as if it would never have occurred to anyone in that position.

I'm CFBC but I feel vicariously annoyed! So insensitive.

x2boys · 16/04/2025 19:25

Constipation threads always have posters offering downright dangerous advice paticulatly when its clear someone is impacted ,and people come out with all sorts of nonsense ,instead of advising them to go to the Gp or pharmacist

TheIceBear · 16/04/2025 19:44

lovingtheworld · 11/03/2025 12:24

Not advice but i see it alot on here.
Older mums looking down on younger mums.
Saying they missed out and should have got the right man to have kids with. But most of these older mums come back after 2 year of having a baby asking for advice on divorce.
I had my son young and im still with my husband.
Having a baby under 30 seems to be to young for some on MN.

Edited

I’m 38 and pregnant and I’ve seen the opposite as well. Older women being told they are too old and they are selfish for having babies. I was even told by someone it’s selfish of me to have a baby because I’ll be too old to provide childcare for my grandchildren. I don’t even know if I’ll ever be a grandparent it’s ridiculous. Seems early 30s is the only acceptable time to have a baby on mumsnet.

honeylulu · 16/04/2025 19:45

"Find new friends" as if there is a selection of them under the gooseberry bush around the corner.

TheIceBear · 16/04/2025 19:51

BatchCookBabe · 11/03/2025 13:32

This in spades. I see older mum bashing, AND younger mum bashing on here. The younger mum bashing seems worse though. It comes from posters who claim the only women they know who had their first baby under 26, are lower class, badly educated, 'common as muck' Vicky-Pollard types. I see this quite a lot!

There are advantages and disadvantages to having a baby young-ish, (say, 18-25,) and for having one say, at 42 ... But it's a biological fact that there is a much lower risk to mother and baby if the mother is under 35 when she has a baby. And 29-31 is the average age for a woman to become a first time mother. Yes it really is, despite the average age on Mumsnet being 43-45 apparently!

So I do get a bit annoyed when some posters try to make out that 43-45, is a perfectly normal age to have a baby, so it's OK to leave it a few years if you're in your mid-late 30s! Because it's not true.

Edited
Show quote history

it Might seem worse to you but I’ve seen lots of lots of older mum bashing threads. Really nasty ones.
we all know it’s lower risk btw being younger but cheers for the reminder.

canthavethatonethen · 16/04/2025 20:18

AFLifeForLife · 11/03/2025 12:33

It was years ago now but I recall one where a poster was complaining about severe abdominal pain and shoulder pain and wondered if she should go to A&E. Cue posters saying she represented everything that was wrong with the Great british Public and would be wasting time and NHS resources.

She had an ectopic pregnancy and internal bleeding. Thankfully as i recall, someone on the thread recognised the symptoms and was vociferous about her getting help and she survived.

Crikey, I remember that thread too.

gerul · 23/04/2025 11:46

Rough as a badger's arse mum in the neighbourhood has kids of age 5 and 6 out all day roaming the streets and poster is worried for them.

Mumsnet: Stop being so judgmental and invite Mum in for a cup of tea.

Right, cos this is what they'd honestly do.

meganorks · 23/04/2025 13:05

Some absolute sacks getting recommended over on style and beauty at the mo. I can't imagine some of them looking good on anyone!

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