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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think I ought to be able to find a pen?

34 replies

StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 09/06/2011 11:36

Considering the squillions of pens I have bought over the years, am I being unreasonable to assume that there should be at least one pen left on my desk? Just one, so that I don't have to go searching round the whole house, just so I can write a cheque or sign a letter?

I think the dses eat the damned things!

OP posts:
StellaSays · 09/06/2011 13:31

I stick them to the fridge :o

molemesseskilledIpom · 09/06/2011 13:42

Can I add something?

I have no trouble finding pens or pencils, the trouble I have is finding one that works or doesnt need sharpening or hasnt leaked all over the rest of the pens.

Original poster
StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 09/06/2011 15:03

"I stick them to the fridge."

The dc or the pens, Stella?? Grin

OP posts:
YankNCock · 09/06/2011 15:05

what mole said, there are a billion pens here, they just don't work. I bought a pencil sharpener with my last tesco order, and DH has put it someplace stupid so I'll never find it now.

LindyHemming · 09/06/2011 15:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 09/06/2011 22:45

Yes, Euphemia - but I bet you are up to your elbows in scissors when you don't need one - right?? I did track down a pen in the end, but I think I am going to have to hide it somewhere fiendishly clever that the dses won't find. Under the cleaning products, maybe, or behind the spare loo rolls (because apparently being under the age of 20 renders you utterly incapable of putting a new fecking loo roll on when you use the last sheets off the old one - but that's a whole different rant - and don't get me started on leaving half a sheet clinging on, and thinking that means you don't need to put on a new roll).

Aaaand breeeathe! Grin

OP posts:
DogsBestFriend · 09/06/2011 22:50

Quote dad, speaking of my OCD tidying sister when he tried to find a pen and his chequebook to pay the milkman,

"She tidied up and put the fucking chequebook in the microwave... the microwave, darling! What the bleedin' hell has a chequebook got to do with a microwave? And a pen? A PEN??? As for a pen darling, she's sent them back to the bloody manufacturer!" :o

Personally I swear my kids eat pens because I can neve find one in this house either.

You are not alone.

DogsBestFriend · 09/06/2011 22:53

"(because apparently being under the age of 20 renders you utterly incapable of putting a new fecking loo roll on when you use the last sheets off the old one - but that's a whole different rant - and don't get me started on leaving half a sheet clinging on, and thinking that means you don't need to put on a new roll)."

Jesus! How did you get into my house? That's my kids, that is!

Original poster
StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 09/06/2011 22:56

We should set up a support group, DogsBestFriend!

OP posts:
betterwhenthesunshines · 09/06/2011 22:59

Never can find any rubbers in our house. Doesn't matter how many I buy and how many times I say, "well if you don't put them back in the desk drawer".... makes homework time a nightmare.

DogsBestFriend · 09/06/2011 23:06

SDTG, your very own support thread. :o

cmt1375 · 09/06/2011 23:08

I had the pen problem recently, and then discoverd that my sons had decided that pens (particually clicky ones) made good sonic screwdrivers and were off saving the universe with them..

blackeyedsusan · 09/06/2011 23:10

scissors... what happens to scissors?

... and rubbers

microserf · 09/06/2011 23:11

YABU, you have children.

All our pens are hidden from our budding Leonardo da Vincis. Can never bloody find them. Which is how the vendors of our new house ended up with a cheque written in orange felt tip recently. Small amount, so didn't care Grin

microserf · 09/06/2011 23:12

Erm small additional amount, the price of the house was outrageous, but thankfully mr building society mortgage took care of that piece.

LordOfTheFlies · 09/06/2011 23:13

I must be keeping WHSmiths in business single handed with the number of pencils I buy for DS.( buy the propelling pencils so that he doesn't have all the rigmarole of finding the sharpener) Sigh.

I'm sure he sells them at some kind of 0ff-the-back-of-a-lorry Junior School car boot sale.!

Original poster
StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 09/06/2011 23:36

He might be the original pencil pusher, LOTF!! Grin

OP posts:
poppyknot · 09/06/2011 23:41

Is this related to socks losing their partner I wonder.

In the pen pot by the PC today I found an eye liner pencil.......

Original poster
StayingDavidTennantsGirl · 10/06/2011 11:33

I have solved the socks thing, poppy. Dh and the dses all like their socks not to match, so I buy the socks with the coloured heels/toes, and mismatch them on purpose. Plus they all wear the same size socks as dh now, so we have one huge population of socks that gets divided amongst the four of them. These two together mean that it's easier to find a mate for a sock that has lost its partner, because a) it doesn't need to match and b) there are billions of the things sloshing round the ironing basket.

I hope that made sense.

OP posts:
BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 10/06/2011 11:36

They probably go to the same place as socks......where the hell do they go?? And safety pins...............and bloody blue-tac!!!!

notso · 10/06/2011 11:44

They all magic themselves to the bottom of my handbag and decide to leak everywhere.

Just spend a minute trying to work out if LOTF was a new LOL, laugh on the floor perhaps the realised you were addressing LordOfTheFlies!

emptyshell · 10/06/2011 12:13

microserf I used to mark kids' work in whatever writing implement I could find to hand - so orange felt pen was probably used at some point. Then I started surveying the kids' opinions and we decided on purple sparkly as a way forward... bollocks to the "red pen is evil, green pen only" attitude - the kids wanted purple sparkly!

I'm the kid of a journalist - I was always brought up with a mum who had hundreds of pens in her handbag and I've picked up the habit. Plus hubby's forever wandering home from work with ones in his pocket too... all your pens - are clogging up my fucking house!

nickelbabe · 10/06/2011 12:47

my serious response is that I have pen pots, or places where pens live.
Pens must not be removed from those pots, and if they are (ie to be used) they must be returned to the exact same place once they are finished with.
this means immediately you finish with them.

in practice, this only works because we have no DCs yet.
I also have a pen in my coat pocket, in my bag (actually, I have one in the front pocket of my babg, and one in a pencil case inside my bag - it only has one pen in it), in my Choir Bag, in my Cassock pocket, at least one in every room in the house, one on my computer keyboard at work, along with one in the top drawer of the till, one on top of the till, several in a pen pot behind the till, and several pencils (sharpened and ready to go)

SueTheSlut11 · 10/06/2011 12:49

StayingDavidTennantsGirl

YANBU

nickelbabe · 10/06/2011 12:49

My obsession with Having Plenty of Pens comes from Never Being Able to Find a Pen whilst growing up.

yes, scissors were the same - millions of the pairs and you couldn't find any (well, you could always find mum's sewing scissors, but you were only allowed to cut fabric with those, which meant they were Out Of Bounds (which is probably why you could always find them)