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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To find people who tell blatant lies annoying?

53 replies

PenguinBear · 16/10/2012 07:41

There is a woman at work who really annoys me. She is always saying something or other which is so far from reality I don't know how anyone can believe it.

Her latest one is that she swims for 30mins a day and managed to loose half a stone while swimming one day as she is such a great swimmer and goes so fastHmm. I mean come ON, does she really expect people to believe that?! That's just the latest example in a long list, nothing I can do except walk away.

OP posts:
MrsKeithRichards · 16/10/2012 07:50

I work with someone like this who can't keep up with their own lies.

Smile and nod and don't engage. Although, once in a while it's quite amusing to press her further or bring up previous bull shit stories and watch her trying to make it all sound plausible.

mrsminerva · 16/10/2012 07:56

I find people like this acutely embarrassing, I had a step FIL like this and he was cringeworthy, a total arse.

UndeadPixie · 16/10/2012 07:59

Yanbu, she sounds like a compulsive liar? I went to school/college with one and it was very similar, especially lies about her exercise and eating habits. Like she ran around her horses yard each morning three times. She was a size 22 and just got bigger over time. There was also a very elaborate tale about how the police were looking down her lane for a criminal suspected of murdering somebody in a vicious famous and how they'd seen him running around their land so they'd got out their guns to scare him off with and there were helicopters, etc etc. it never phased her that we'd just ask her little sister who denied it all!
Sad thing was that when she went on about her boyfriend, then fiance, nobody believed her. It's only in the past year that the fiance has been met by any of our old school lot, five years after leaving college!

TraineeBabyCatcher · 16/10/2012 08:34

My best friend is a complusive lier. I love her but it does make me cringe.
She doesn't lie to be cruel or vindictive, or show off or any such thing as that. It generally appears to be when she doesn't know something during a convosation, she fills in the gaps and compensates for her inadequate knowledge.
Sometimes, mostly, its little things, things you might not notice she was lying about, but once you know her you can pick up on things, or if you know the facts you would know.
Other times it is smack you in the face obvious- like the time she said you could get pregnant from a blowjob, and then backed up her point by saying she was told so at an antenatal session.

duffybeatmetoit · 16/10/2012 13:49

My XH is like your friend TraineeBabyCatcher. It started out as just tall stories that amused everyone but has then developed into more and more ridiculous stories that he has the habit of telling people who are far more knowledgeable than him about the situation or subject.

His latest was an account of how he came by his new car. It did result in brightning up everyone at work's Monday morning when I relayed it as it was so ridiculous.

Sadly he is able to convince himself that he is telling the honest truth so you can't try to get him to revise the stories.

geegee888 · 16/10/2012 13:55

Yes, the natural tendency is to believe people are telling the truth, and its upsetting when you realise that someone is a compulsive liar. I can sort of see why they are lying, and its almost flattering to think they put that much effort in, but then they must also think you're stupid if you believe it. They seem to lose track of whats real and whats not.

cumfy · 16/10/2012 16:21

I think if you swam the channel you might lose that much.

I would feel somewhat sorry for her.

GhostShip · 16/10/2012 16:26

My cousin was brilliant for this

'Ive got a singing career contract'

'that lampshade cost me £1000' to which I replied we had the same one from Ikea

'The doctor says if I dont eat properly in the next week I'll die' followed by sucking in of ribs and looking faint

'I've got epilepsy' then proceeded to fake an epileptic fit in front of friends. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

'my ex is stalking me' she was sending herself nasty texts from her mums phone

'we're emigrating to australia'

etc etc

obviously she's got issues, so I felt sorry for her when I grew up and realised.

UndeadPixie · 16/10/2012 16:31

Ghost: Shock Faked a fit?!

Nancy66 · 16/10/2012 16:32

We had a builder working in our house for a while. He told us (among other things)

he invented the central locking system on cars

He invented contact lenses

he invented treadmills

he'd once run the 100 metres in under 10 seconds but just didn't fancy a career in athletics

He writes most of Elton John's songs but willingly forgoes a writing credit

.....was very entertaining!

BreeVanDerTramp · 16/10/2012 16:38

undead when working in mental health I saw many faked fits, pseudo seizures. Some so convincing it could take over a year for doctors to diagnose that there was no neurological cause!

GhostShip · 16/10/2012 16:56

Yeah undead it was absolutely ridiculous. After she 'revived' as she called it she began giving everyone completely shit and dangerous advice on what to do when someone has a fit, ie 'hold them down'.

I had to step in at that point because it was pissing me off.

Dogsmom · 16/10/2012 17:01

My best friends husband is a liar too, I find him such hard work, you never know if his stories are true or false and it does my head in spending the evening smiling & nodding.

It also pisses me off that he must think we're gullible/thick to believe his stories when in fact we're just too polite to tell him to shut up.

SoleSource · 16/10/2012 17:02

Lol Nancy

I haven't time to answer. HM Queen Elizabeth is waiting outside to take me to the palace for our tea. Sorry.

GhostShip · 16/10/2012 17:07

As a carer I have seen many people fake falls, and fits too! I've actually witness one lady carefully put herself on the floor, arrange her walking stick in a fitting position, and then shout for help. Honestly.

SoleSource · 16/10/2012 17:13

Watching too much Little Britain LOL!

memphis83 · 16/10/2012 17:15

My mil's h is the biggest bullshitter, this week he told me he went camping with a load of paras and he punched one for burning his breakfast, he is so scrawny which makes most of his tales laughable as they normally involve of fighting. He talks about his 20's to 40's like he is one of the Krays or Ronnie Biggs as he was inside for a short time for tax evasion or something along those lines.

GhostShip · 16/10/2012 17:16

Ano! Honestly I nearly wee'd. But obviously I had to go and help her up, ask her how it had happened etc....

I miss my old place :o

Mollydoggerson · 16/10/2012 17:20

I witnessed someone throw herself down a stairs once.

It's a cry for help/attention.

MissKeithLemon · 16/10/2012 17:20

OP - perhaps she swam for 30 mins and then did a mahoosive dump straight after Grin

Brodicea · 16/10/2012 17:32

this all reminds me of 'Nighty Night'

GossipWitch · 16/10/2012 17:37

My friends exp was a massive liar, I had the unfortunate situation where I had to work with him, he stunk to high heaven and was scrawny incredibly unattractive and later turns out he's a wife beater and cheat, any way, he used to try and brag that he was on a higher wage than me, and that he had been offered the position of second chef, and that he had slept with x amout of people behind his gf's back, and that he'd done this, that and the other, (had enough of listening to his crap by then) it turned out he'd slept with a 16 year old living in the hostel next door to the place he was living, he probably did get more wages than me but only because he was able to work more hours, I was still on 50p an hour more, and I had bonuses too (not sure if he did), he didn't get promoted to second chef, he had got a written warning about his personal hygiene on that particular day, and basically he was just full of it, I found it incredibly amusing when the head chef would pull him up on his crap, (as he had attended meetings and such), I pity people who feel the need to lie, they'll never actually be believed when it matters ... sadly :(

MrsKeithRichards · 16/10/2012 17:44

My husbands mate told me all about how he seen johnny Cash, supporting the foo fighters, 2 years after he died.

gallifrey · 16/10/2012 17:46

I love Nighty Night!

scentednappyhag · 16/10/2012 17:51

My ex was a compulsive liar. He told us that he'd broken his back and taught himself to walk again, he had an aneurism, told everyone in detail about my miscarriages/abortion (of which I'm fortunate to have had none) his step brother had died in a car accident, his ex girlfriend had killed herself, he attempted suicide at work... I was only young so felt I couldn't call him on it for a long time. Looking back on it, some of his lies make me feel sick.