DS15 Used a Green Apple to Roll His Foot After Hike – Am I Overreacting?

[OneShyCritic]

So, we just got back from a weekend in the Lake District with our two lads (15 and 11) and another family. We all did Scafell Pike together, and it was brilliant... but when we got back to the hotel, my DS15 said his feet were aching after the hike. To try and ease the pain, he decided to put a green apple on the floor and roll his bare foot back and forth over it. It’s something he does at home with a tennis ball after football training, and it really helps with muscle soreness.

Now, here’s the thing: we didn’t have a tennis ball, so he used an apple instead. I get that he was trying to relieve the pain, but when I saw him doing it, I was a bit miffed. The apple obviously had to go straight in the bin after – it ended up all soft and stinky! I just feel like if he thought he was going to need something like that, he should’ve remembered to bring a tennis ball.

Am I being unreasonable to be a bit frustrated about it, or am I overreacting? I know he was trying to help himself, but I just can’t help thinking it was a bit... well, a waste to use an apple!

I think it was a good bit of lateral thinking problem solving.

We're you so short of food that the loss of an apple made a difference to the weekend? Personally if the apple worked and helped my son's foot then I would have been pleased he used it. I cant believe anyone would get wound up at the loss of an apple!

Massively overreacting - you must be very lucky that this is the worst thing you have to post about on Mumsnet

Would you rather he was in pain? Strange reaction. It's an apple, not a Fabergé egg.

Unless it was the last thing anyone had to eat for the weekend, you're being very unreasonable

Huge overreaction!!!

Had it been a red apple, would it have made a difference?! Ha ha. I think you’re overreacting

Why is the colour of the apple relevant, would it have been ok if it was red one?

This seems like a huge amount of drama over an apple

Have just spat my lunch out. Funniest and possibly best comment ever read on MN. Well apart from Penis Beaker. But that’s a classic.

You are being ridiculous. Unless he wastes food frequently or you are desperately hard up it sounds like good lateral thinking to me. If a tennis ball wasn’t available, would you have preferred him to just suffer? Would you have cared if he’d eaten the apple?

Yes, sorry, sounds like he’d had an exhausting day and his foot hurt. Maybe it had been in his bag all day and it was bruised anyway. Regardless, an apple costs about 40p and I wouldn’t want to ruin the day with an argument about an apple

I think you’ve lost the plot. HTH.

I hate waste too but this wasn't waste, it was used for something useful

I had to read the OP twice to make sure I wasn't missing anything but no, just another day on MN.

I think you are being absolutely ludicrous. So much so that I am supposing that this is a reverse.

Parebts should encourage their children to think for themselves. He forgot the ball so solved the problem. Maybe you should have shot him like a race horse with a broken leg instead.

I want to know why it matters that it was green.

Good thinking of your son.

I expected you to say that he put it back in the fruit bowl straight afterwards 😆

YABU. I’m not sure why you would give this a second thought to be honest.

Sorry this made me laugh. This is a very creative solution to his foot problem and a very creative thing to be annoyed about even by MN standards.

Be grateful you can get teenagers going on a family hike! Yes of course he should have bought his tennis ball, I would have moaned at him and then forgotten about it.

Thanks for the replies! Just to clarify, my frustration isn’t about my son trying to relieve his foot pain – it’s that the apple got squashed and wasted. It was perfectly good fruit that could’ve been eaten later, and now it’s just gone. I know he was trying to help himself, but it just feels wasteful, especially when we could’ve used it for a snack on the hike.

I think he's 15, showing initiative.

I also think perhaps if his parent knows he might need something like that after a long hike, they might have reminded a 15 yo to pack it.

I don't know why it automatically needed binning though. It could be washed. I'd guess most apples have seen worse before they get to our fruit bowls.

It's not something I'd fall out with a 15yo whose willing participated in a family hiking trip over.

I also worry it’s not a great example for my younger son (11) to see him just waste food like that.

Should have made him eat it afterwards, peeled of course.