Page 10 | DS15 Used a Green Apple to Roll His Foot After Hike – Am I Overreacting?

OneShyCritic · 2025-10-13T13:07:25+00:00

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!

IsItSnowing · 13/10/2025 16:31

I would commend your son for his problem solving skills. He was in pain, he found an effective and let's face it, cheap solution. And you are going on about the waste of an apple. Seems extreme to me.
And it's not even a waste. It was used as a remedy, it worked. Great.

Thanksforyourlackofthought · 13/10/2025 16:36

Good grief. Your son was in pain. and used an apple to relieve that pain.

He didn't ask to use your head for goodness sake.
Do you want us to have a whip round for the 30p to cover the apple? Maybe he could work off the apple debt?
You've said you had a brilliant day. You want to ruin it over an apple? They literally do grow on trees.

Noshadelamp · 13/10/2025 16:39

You're frustrated and miffed because of an apple?

Btw it wasn't wasted, it was used as a physical health aid. It's not like he just picked up an apple and threw it in the bin.

Also, he's only 15.
Why wouldn't you want to help him, no matter the cost? (Of 50p)
And knowing your son has this problem with his feet, why don't you keep a tennis ball in the car.

Noshadelamp · 13/10/2025 16:41

OneShyCritic · 13/10/2025 14:25

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.

If money is so tight you can't afford to spend 50p to alleviate your son's pain, then perhaps start selling things on vinted or see where you can curb your spending.

Bedroomdilemmas113 · 13/10/2025 16:41

You are 100% the most batshit person I’ve ever ‘met’.

Martha70 · 13/10/2025 16:44

Some problems on Mumsnet never fail to amuse me🤷‍♂️

yonem · 13/10/2025 16:44

Did you get ChatGPT to come up with this? Your posts have the AI tone to them

Idontpostmuch · 13/10/2025 16:45

That would have annoyed me too. He should at least have asked first.

Onmytod24 · 13/10/2025 16:49

You’ve got a 15 year-old who loves coming on a walk with you. Your Apple crazy opinion will probably mean you won’t wanna come next time.

scalt · 13/10/2025 16:52

Dontcallmescarface · 13/10/2025 15:45

Don't ever attend a Christingle service if chucking 1 apple away makes you feel frustrated, you'll never recover.

Show quote history

That’s a brilliant comment. Won’t anyone think of the oranges, and the carbon cost of transporting them from their native land?

For the uninformed, at a Christingle service, each child is given an orange with a candle and sweets stuck in it. And yes, many of them end up in landfill.

And worse than that - the orange represents the world, so these people are chucking the world into landfill, many times over. What are they playing at? There is no Planet B! (And according to many on MN, the Xmas story is a fairy tale with which to brainwash and indoctrinate children anyway.)

scalt · 13/10/2025 16:55

This is going down in the annals of Mumsnet.

“And all was for an apple,
An apple that he took,
As clerkes finden,
written in their book.”
”Nay, had the apple taken been…”

Grammarnut · 13/10/2025 16:55

What a clever lad. Good thinking. I suppose the apple was inedible but it had not been wasted.

Switzerland1122 · 13/10/2025 16:57

I think this is a wind up! Surely?

Of all the examples of bad behaviour a 15 year old could get up to, this isn’t one of them!

As for setting a bad example to his brother, I feel like you have lived a rather cloistered life . . .

Using an apple to ease pain, following a wholesome hike, yep call the Police!!

Toofficeornot · 13/10/2025 16:57

Its just an apple. If you were just about to eat that apple then maybe get annoyed. But if my child were in pain then i would probably have found an apple for them if we didnt have a tennis ball to hand.

JuvenileBigfoot · 13/10/2025 16:58

OneShyCritic · 13/10/2025 14:25

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

It's not a waste, he still used it- just not to eat.
I sometimes put cucumber on my eyes to relieve puffiness as i have a lot of airborne allergies. Would that also piss you off??

AngelinaFibres · 13/10/2025 17:00

We have apple trees all down our drive. Some of the apples are beautiful but taste awful some are lovely and also delicious. We have so many that we pick lots and lots fall on the ground and are left. The world still turns.
Are you always this obsessive about food .

Grammarnut · 13/10/2025 17:05

scalt · 13/10/2025 16:52

That’s a brilliant comment. Won’t anyone think of the oranges, and the carbon cost of transporting them from their native land?

For the uninformed, at a Christingle service, each child is given an orange with a candle and sweets stuck in it. And yes, many of them end up in landfill.

And worse than that - the orange represents the world, so these people are chucking the world into landfill, many times over. What are they playing at? There is no Planet B! (And according to many on MN, the Xmas story is a fairy tale with which to brainwash and indoctrinate children anyway.)

Show quote history

Oh, get off your ecological whatnot, do. It's not an English custom but it is a nice one. You could eat the orange, you don't have to chuck it, I threw away a cucumber and half a packet of green beans last week, was that an eco-crime - God knows why I bought the cucumber I never eat it, must have been on a recipe I haven't cooked (yet).

andthat · 13/10/2025 17:07

OneShyCritic · 13/10/2025 14:25

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.

@OneShyCritic So… your son was in pain.

And he didn’t have a tennis ball to relieve the pain.

So he used an apple.

What would you rather he had done? Eat the apple and stay in pain?

The apple wasn’t wasted. It was just used ina different way to what you expected.

What a bizarre thing to be annoyed about…

Bumcake · 13/10/2025 17:07

You are indeed over-reacting. And using Weird Capitalisation.

Does the colour of the apple have some relevance?

2dogsandabudgie · 13/10/2025 17:08

An apple fine, but if it had been a Terry's chocolate orange that would have been unforgiveable.

RafaFan · 13/10/2025 17:08

I thought this was about some weird sexual practice which I'm only hearing about for the first time on Mumsnet.
The reality is almost weirder, in that the OP thought this was significant enough to make a post about.

OrangeAxolotyl · 13/10/2025 17:08

Toofficeornot · 13/10/2025 16:57

Its just an apple. If you were just about to eat that apple then maybe get annoyed. But if my child were in pain then i would probably have found an apple for them if we didnt have a tennis ball to hand.

"it could have been a snack for the hike!" According to OP.
I think there are some problems here, and they're not to do with fruit.....

Mischance · 13/10/2025 17:09

This post takes the biscuit! Well done your lad for his lateral thinking!

OrangeAxolotyl · 13/10/2025 17:11

I'm wondering if it was a special MN apple which would have fed them for a week?
(we've lost sight of healthy portions)

RafaFan · 13/10/2025 17:11

scalt · 13/10/2025 16:52

That’s a brilliant comment. Won’t anyone think of the oranges, and the carbon cost of transporting them from their native land?

For the uninformed, at a Christingle service, each child is given an orange with a candle and sweets stuck in it. And yes, many of them end up in landfill.

And worse than that - the orange represents the world, so these people are chucking the world into landfill, many times over. What are they playing at? There is no Planet B! (And according to many on MN, the Xmas story is a fairy tale with which to brainwash and indoctrinate children anyway.)

Show quote history

Never mind all the pumpkins that end up in landfill after Halloween, and all the land that was used to grow them, that could have been used to grow food that people eat...