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!

If my mother chose to prioritise her not getting to eat an apple over me being able to relieve pain, and was so frustrated she needed to ask strangers if she’s right for being annoyed if genuinely be concerned for her mental health.

You’re supposed to be on a break and enjoying time with your family, assuming you’re real and this post is true, have you grown up in some kind of poverty where something like every bit of food is never to wasted because it can’t be replaced? I say this with no judgement, I’ve been there and grew in an environment where every bit of good was budgeted for and couldn’t be replaced. I was very uptight about wastage when I became an adult.

This makes you sound like a blithering fool OP……

😂😂😂😂

Should have used a red apple

People on this forum are so weird (looking at responses trying to normalise this behaviour).

Of course you're right to be frustrated - it's food!

FFS 🤦‍♀️

Sorry - double post

This thread is absolutely pathetic.
You should have praised him for his initiative and then washed and eaten the apple instead of chucking it into landfill.

Just when I think I’ve read the most pointless thread about a complete non issue, another one pops up to steal its crown.

I was also wondering why the colour was specified and potentially important?!

Good lord OP, a massive overreaction! The apple wasn't wasted it was used to relive your son's pain, what's the difference between eating it for the vitamins or using it for pain relief?

An Apple a day keeps the doctor away

your 15yo has given a good example of that to your 11yo

It's no different from using a potato to make potato prints with a small child, or using rice/wheat grains to make a bean-bag or something. He used it. It served a purpose. Therefore it wasn't wasted.

That. It was used. Just not for its usual purpose.

It's not unusual for food waste to be an obsession for some people. I know a couple of people who'd freak out about something like this. There's clearly a primal instinct that some people haven't lost through evolution, yet.
But use your logic, @OneShyCritic and consider what waste actually means. This certainly isn't about money, because going and buying a tennis ball or some kind of medical intervention would be much more expensive. It's about your caveman instinct worrying about where your next meal will come from. But the vast majority of us don't have to worry about that these days.

"Not eaten and wasted aren't necessarily the same thing."

This.

That would have irritated me a bit too, OP. I don't think I have "food waste issues" but I'm aware of the effort and resources that will have gone into growing and transporting that apple, quite possibly from the other side of the world, and also that food waste is a big source of methane, a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So for these reasons, I would be a bit annoyed...yes, good problem solving by DS but perhaps he could roll his foot over a waterbottle or a sock ball next time!

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 are being absolutely ridiculous.
The apple wasnt wasted it helped with pain
How much did the apple cost, around 50p and you are whining over that. Seriously?

If I was in your shoes I would have suggested that idea to my son if he needed it, not cry over an apple.

Well nobody ate it as a snack on the hike did they, because he didn't use it as a foot roller until after you got back.

YANBU.

If he'd have just used the lemon you packed, you could have squeezed the juice out of it for your G&T later on!

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?

given the glut of apples this year it probably didn’t come far at all

and a water bottle (unless frozen) and a sock ball would do nothing

It must be a laugh a minute in your house. 😵‍💫

My (still living) dad was alive during WWII, and he would just shrug at this and wonder why the OP was making such a fuss. If this is all you have to fret about, OP, then I envy you. Let it go.

Is this thread for real? What would you rather he have done? It's an apple, they literally grow on trees, they cost pennies

Agree the world has gone mad
We need mumsnets to bring the laughing emoji back and super size it

Was there anything else he could have used?

I could understand your frustration if he chose it over a readily available tennis ball, but if he didn’t have access to anything, it was a good bit of lateral thinking and 11 is very much old enough to understand that.

I think this is one of my all time favourite Mumsnet threads. Congratulations op -maybe enjoy a celebratory foot massage snack 🍏