Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

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:
ZBFan · 13/10/2025 14:46

That apple could have fed a teeny tiny mumsnetters family for a week.

Pebblepoppy · 13/10/2025 14:47

Blackcountryexile · 13/10/2025 14:42

If your focus is on waste then surely you've wasted resources travelling to the Lake District when you could have climbed the closest mountain to your home?

Surely for the population of England, at least, the LD is the nearest mountains to home 🤣

Tangerinenets · 13/10/2025 14:47

I’m so confused by this post! Poor kid. It’s a spoke for god’s sake not a fillet steak . Poor kid !

Moonlightfrog · 13/10/2025 14:47

Apples are literally rotting away in the pavements here and you’re worried about one apple going in the bin? It kind of served its purpose, it’s biodegradable and apples are not expensive (free in most places at the moment). I am confused as to what the problem is.

zingally · 13/10/2025 14:47

It's a bit odd, but I wouldn't have let one apple blight an otherwise-lovely weekend away.

Just note to self, next time bring a tennis ball.

AutumnDayswhen · 13/10/2025 14:48

ZBFan · 13/10/2025 14:46

That apple could have fed a teeny tiny mumsnetters family for a week.

Grin
alexdgr8 · 13/10/2025 14:48

Good attempt.
Well no. Not really. Rather feeble.
Not even funny.
Must try harder to entertain OP.

SheilaFentiman · 13/10/2025 14:48

An apple is probably cheaper than a couple of branded painkillers, if that helps?

ThePoshUns · 13/10/2025 14:48

ZBFan · 13/10/2025 14:46

That apple could have fed a teeny tiny mumsnetters family for a week.

Yes thank goodness he didn’t use a chicken.

Meandmyguy · 13/10/2025 14:49

Behave will ya.

maudelovesharold · 13/10/2025 14:49

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.

You might have been justified in being a bit cross, if he had decided he wanted a kickabout and used an apple because there was no ball, but he was in pain and used his initiative to help himself. Would you have preferred him to suffer in silence, or moan and groan through the rest of the day?

ARichtGoodDram · 13/10/2025 14:49

LoveWine123 · 13/10/2025 14:41

I might have a different perspective to some other posters, but I would also have a problem with food waste in this way. Having grown up in a place where food was not always available, I would find it difficult to watch fresh fruit be wasted like this. I try and teach my kids to respect and appreciate the fact they have food and clothes available. Yes in the grand scheme of things, it's just an apple (costing what? 20p, 30p?), however it's still food and it shows they are lucky enough to have never gone without food before. I would want my kids to show more appreciation. I also have a thing about kids throwing clothes on the floor...it's disrespectful and it shows they don't value their possessions because the bank of mum and dad will just buy them more.

I wouldn't use this example to berate him but I would definitely have a discussion about it. You're not wrong to be thinking what you are thinking.

He didn't waste the apple though. He used it for a good purpose, that just happened to be something other than eating it.

If he'd bounced it off the wall like a ball or wasted it for no reason you'd have a point.

And I come from that as someone whose parents literally starved them as a child. The apple wasn't wasted just because it was used for a non eating purpose.

dullgreysky · 13/10/2025 14:49

Far less wasteful than driving to the nearest shop that sells tennis balls.

BeeCucumber · 13/10/2025 14:49

OP - unclench - it’s just an apple. Well done to your son for coming up with a solution to help his pain. What else is going on in your life to prompt this overreaction?

scalt · 13/10/2025 14:49

Did he take the apple from the tree from which God commanded him not to?
Or for another legendary apple, was it the green cheek or the red cheek of the apple?

Figgygal · 13/10/2025 14:50

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.

He didn't waste it
He used it for a different purpose

HiCandles · 13/10/2025 14:51

Brilliant idea IMO. Presumably if he'd eaten it you wouldn't have minded at all? However he used it, it was gone for anyone else to use.

Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 13/10/2025 14:51

For the sake of 60p? You are being ridiculous 🙄. Well done to your lad for his innovation 💡

AutumnDayswhen · 13/10/2025 14:51

LoveWine123 · 13/10/2025 14:41

I might have a different perspective to some other posters, but I would also have a problem with food waste in this way. Having grown up in a place where food was not always available, I would find it difficult to watch fresh fruit be wasted like this. I try and teach my kids to respect and appreciate the fact they have food and clothes available. Yes in the grand scheme of things, it's just an apple (costing what? 20p, 30p?), however it's still food and it shows they are lucky enough to have never gone without food before. I would want my kids to show more appreciation. I also have a thing about kids throwing clothes on the floor...it's disrespectful and it shows they don't value their possessions because the bank of mum and dad will just buy them more.

I wouldn't use this example to berate him but I would definitely have a discussion about it. You're not wrong to be thinking what you are thinking.

I've gone through a period of life when I skipped meals due to lack of money. I still think op is being ridiculous. Furthermore, I think taking this kind of over the top approach to minor things children do harms our relationship with them. They are people too and they are allowed to not be held up to some ridiculous standard.

"Not sweating the small stuff" , I am sure, is the reason my children still love to hang out with me as teens

Edenmum2 · 13/10/2025 14:51

You are so massively overreacting. Surely your sons pain is worth foresaking an apple?

Imagine if you were in pain and it could be easily sorted but your loved one was annoyed because you wasted maybe 50p…not great right?

Devilsmommy · 13/10/2025 14:51

Blimey it's hardly the end of the world is it. I think you need to chill a bit. Getting so het up over an apple is pretty pointless isn't it really

Franpie · 13/10/2025 14:54

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.

But he didn’t waste it, he used it. In an unconventional way, admittedly.

Apples are pence. Would you have been this cross if he had eaten the apple as opposed to use it to relieve his pain?

What a weird thread.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 13/10/2025 14:54

Congratulations @OneShyCritic on having teens who will still climb mountains with you. Mine have not been biddable for some tears. Also, congratulations on having a teen in possession on enough common sense to know to roll his achey foot and improvise something to do it with before his injury got worse. I hate food waste, but to be honest, it was a good sub for a tennis ball, and if it had been in his rucsac all day, it would have been a bit knackered anyway.

LoveWine123 · 13/10/2025 14:54

ARichtGoodDram · 13/10/2025 14:49

He didn't waste the apple though. He used it for a good purpose, that just happened to be something other than eating it.

If he'd bounced it off the wall like a ball or wasted it for no reason you'd have a point.

And I come from that as someone whose parents literally starved them as a child. The apple wasn't wasted just because it was used for a non eating purpose.

Show quote history

We definitely have different views on food waste in that case.

Edenmum2 · 13/10/2025 14:55

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.

But was there anything else he could have used? If not, you value the apple more than relieving your son’s pain, which is batshit.

Swipe left for the next trending thread