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Original poster

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

524 replies

OneShyCritic · 13/10/2025 14:07

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!

OP posts:
LadyRoughDiamond · 13/10/2025 17:11

Typical Mumsnet: Poster asks if they’re being unreasonable. Majority of responses state that poster is being unreasonable. Poster keeps coming up with reasons why they’re not unreasonable.

FFS OP, you have a happy, healthy 15 year old who not only is happy to take part in outdoor family activities, but is also proactive in finding a solution to his problem. Stop moaning on Mumsnet and go and give your boy a hug.

3luckystars · 13/10/2025 17:12

I think tightness is the worst trait after lying in a person.

How much did you spend on the holiday, did your family have to use tennis balls to squeeze the money out of you?

do you make up spreadsheets about your holidays and batch cooking too?

VeneziaJ · 13/10/2025 17:14

What a strange reaction to a small issue. Why post it on here too!

JudiRuliani · 13/10/2025 17:15

…. Just rolling an apple under my feet - they are soooo much cheaper than those little Pilates balls!

However, I have used a nice big cooking apple so I’ll make a lovely apple crumble with it after. Waste not want not.

Tomorrow I shall use a potato, and then ‘jacket’ it. Cooking should remove the germs and smell.

InMyShowgirlEra · 13/10/2025 17:21

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.

Was it a really special apple or something?

You know that they literally grow on trees and hundreds of them fall to the ground and rot or are eaten by insects every year?

Do you go on walks on early autumn and shield your 11 year old's eyes from the sight of the withered berries and fallen fruit?

Alwaysalert · 13/10/2025 17:22

FFS - it was an apple. When I was a child we were poor - both my parents worked and we had our own mortgaged property - 2 up and 2 down. Food was definitely not in abundance although in between her different jobs my Mother baked divine cakes, pies both savoury and sweet, made soups and casseroles etc. We never had bowls of fruit in the house but as I reached mid teen years tea on a Saturday night changed and meant not one meal we all shared but what the individual wanted. There may be dad if he wasn't working nightshift or hadn't finished his day shift or 2-10pm, Mam, my elder sister 15/16, myself 14/15 and younger sister 4/5. It was usually sandwiches, beans on toast for my elder sister, a cake/biscuits and a piece of fruit so I usually had an apple and cake. You never, ever just went into the larder and helped yourself - well the youngest did when she was about 14 but it was a decade later and we were much better off. If it had been in my house in the 60s with my Father, I could understand it, but it's 2025, you can't be on the breadline if you went to the Lake District and stayed in a Hotel, and the apple went to good use. Jesus I thought I'd had a hard life. There are people starving in the World which makes me very guilty when I don't eat my food, usually something as it's not nice and tastes rank, but first time trying so waste not meant, but to post on here - as another Poster said - Get a Life.

AngelinaFibres · 13/10/2025 17:25

You sound just like my SIL op. We were in a pub in Keswick eating giant pies. Her husband started to choke on a piece of chicken near the end of the meal. Funnily enough he didn't fancy eating the rest of it after my husband had to stand him up and belt him on the back to dislodge it. She insisted that he wasn't allowed a pudding because he hadn't eaten all his main course.
They have a line around their bath 2 inches from the bottom. They fill it to the line and then her husband goes in first ( because he likes hotter water) and she has the same water once he's finished. We stay in a hotel when we visit and we always eat out.

ShesNeverSeenAShadeOfGray · 13/10/2025 17:25

FFS, you've created a post actually agonising over a 40 pence apple. That was used for a valid reason.

Alwaysalert · 13/10/2025 17:27

@NewHat

You could have given address for tip as OP may have gone to see if any left to replace the one that got "wasted", or you could offer one of yours.

Hellohelga · 13/10/2025 17:28

Yes and no. It was wasteful but teenagers do the dumbest things and he probably thought it was funny.

ERthree · 13/10/2025 17:28

Good grief, one bloody apple, Get over yourself.

AngelinaFibres · 13/10/2025 17:28

Also, the apple wasn't wasted it was used . There is no difference between eating the apple and shitting it out tomorrow and rolling it under your foot and putting it in the bin. It was used to oblivion both times.

MagicMagpie · 13/10/2025 17:29

I call reverse. You are the apple, aren’t you?

OrangeAxolotyl · 13/10/2025 17:29

Hellohelga · 13/10/2025 17:28

Yes and no. It was wasteful but teenagers do the dumbest things and he probably thought it was funny.

Wasn't dumb. It was practical.

BadWoIf · 13/10/2025 17:31

godmum56 · 13/10/2025 15:41

are you one of those people who think that apples shouldn't be used for candle holders, potatoes for printing or removing broken light bulbs, olive oil for lubricating a lock?

Show quote history

Potatoes for removing a broken light bulb? Genuinely, how? I love a hack like this!

Ponderingwindow · 13/10/2025 17:34

an apple. Really. That is your problem.

I desperately needed a good laugh as respite from the things in my life that are too horrible to write about online, so thank you for this thread.

you have a smart son. Give him a hug and enjoy your day.

godmum56 · 13/10/2025 17:34

you need to make sure that the power is off at the main. shove the broken end of the bulb into the potato and then twist to remove. make sure the bulb socket is clean and dry before you replace the bulb and turn the power

godmum56 · 13/10/2025 17:35

MagicMagpie · 13/10/2025 17:29

I call reverse. You are the apple, aren’t you?

need need need the laugh emoji

Alwaysalert · 13/10/2025 17:37

@AngelinaFibres
I don't blame you. It's a wonder she didn't look for the dislodged chicken and make him eat that again. What a miserable existence. Growing up in poverty in not nice but really let go of those shackles. There is being mindful of waste and of those less fortunate and there is being tight. OP sounds tight. There are no pockets in shrouds.

kkloo · 13/10/2025 17:40

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.

It wasn't wasted, it was repurposed for medical purposes.

Nanny0gg · 13/10/2025 17:40

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.

Dear God

Are you so strapped for cash that one apple tips you into food poverty?

What else could he have used?

Just pretend he's eaten it

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 13/10/2025 17:43

TBH I’d have washed and eaten it - if I’d fancied an apple and there weren’t any others.

Maverickess · 13/10/2025 17:44

You sound like my mother used to be with me, any excuse to have a go and make a drama out of nothing with me as the bad guy.
I'm skint but if my child were uncomfortable and using an apple stopped it, then I'd forgo an apple to achieve that.
Had he been damaging it just for the sake of it or to create mischief then I'd be annoyed, but not at this, so yes, you're overreacting.

Alwaysalert · 13/10/2025 17:46

@godmum56

You should be on This Morning with all of your tips and hacks - really! I'll be listening/looking out for you.

Yesimmoaningaboutbenefits · 13/10/2025 17:48

TBF if it was a pink lady apple, I would be pissed too! The price of them! If it was braeburn, gala or similar cheaper variety I wouldn't care. But pink ladys are sacred in this house.