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 can understand feeling very mildly miffed, but I can't get my head around posting about it on MN.What is it that you need from us? A cross-section of representative attitudes to the use of apples for foot massage?

And such an elaborate anecdote. I know it is boring when replies accuse an OP of being AI generated, but this is one that it is hard to understand otherwise.

I think it's a great example to show his brother how to think out of the box.

The apple wasn't wasted. It was used for something very useful. Not eaten and wasted aren't necessarily the same thing.

I'd be impressed at his quick thinking. Much better than leaving himself in pain and having an impact on the trip for everyone.

This has to be a pisstake surely. Nobody (except maybe Snow White) is this precious about an apple.

Blimey OP are you ok? There are worse things he could be rolling, surely? You’d better buckle up for the bumpy ride ahead if something as mundane as this is upsetting you!

Does green apple mean Granny Smith or Golden Delicious? Both are a disgrace to the name of apple and far better used as a foot massager than to eat.

Hahaha well quite

I think yabu.
I might have been a bit disappointed if I had this burning urge for a green apple and I couldn't have it. Especially if I could see it in the bin - calling to me.
I wouldn't be miffed enough to start a thread on MN though.
It really doesn't seem like a big deal.

Right now, after one of the biggest fruit harvests for years, there are apples being wasted in their thousands.
If money is tight he can go and find a tree somewhere that’s not being picked and bring you home a replacement.

Valid point. It's not like it was a pink lady.

And should have kept it to use again in case he goes for anther hike later in the holiday.

A trip to the physio would be much more costly.

I think he showed good lateral thinking skills

especially when we could’ve used it for a snack on the hike.

But the hike had already happened and you were back at the hotel. Curiouser and curiouser.

God I wish my life was uneventful enough that a squished apple was enough of a reason to make a post about it on the internet. You must have a great life!

I think most posters got that was your irritation @OneShyCritic what we don’t get was how you expected your son to handle the foot pain in the moment when the usual tennis ball was at home.

You're being ridiculous. He adapted to the available resources.

No one starved for lack of an apple on your trip.

JFC

Get a grip.

It didn't go to waste - it was used in a different way - to relieve pain rather than to provide nutrition.

You know people use frozen peas as ice packs - as advised by the NHS - and then cannot eat those either? https://www.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk/services/a-and-e/applying-ice-packs

He came up with a resourceful way to manage his pain - would you have preferred he sat there suffering? What was the alternative?

I think you need to get a grip 😂

I think I like your kid.

He's a problem solver.

This post has reminded me how lucky my children are. Imagine being brought up with someone this tedious

But the apple was worth 30p, he was stopping further pain to himself, that's worth 30p.

Hopefully you can take him to one side and explain that using an apple for purposes other than eating is considerably more wicked and wasteful than using a tennis ball for purposes other than tennis.

Failing that, perhaps you could consider counselling to help him past the event.

But he has taught him to think out of the box.

You can take lessons from your children OP.

He used the apple, just not in the normal way. If you were all starving and it was the only food you had left to eat then I could understand your annoyance. If he had just mucked about with it, or just taken one mouthful from an apple then threw it away then I would be more annoyed in those scenarios.

My DD regularly spends £80 on a physio session. She’d be welcome to use the entire contents of the fruit bowl if only she was resourceful enough to think of it. Even the RED apples.