AIBU to ask what's the Strangest/cheekiest thing you've said NO to?

[Sister77]

First time poster, I like the collective wisdom of mumsnetters so I wanted to check if I was being unreasonable.
Several things have bugged me recently, I've noticed I'm a "yes" person even when I really DO NOT want to do something. I even annoy myself so I read a book called the power of no and put it into practice.
So the things I've said no to this week are:

1. Shift swap (even when the guilt trip was used).
2. Lending a dress to someone who returned the last one with dubious stains on it and when I commented she said she had to go commando to avoid VPL.
3. Lending money to someone who "needed" it to buy chicken to freeze for winter?!
4. Babysitting for someone who asks for an hour then returns the next morning and moans because her kids are wearing yesterday's clothes (I should have put my own kids clothes on them) my youngest is 4 years older than her oldest!

Either I'm getting more intolerant or people are getting cheesier and weirder (is that a word)?

at some of these requests.

I'm sure I've had a few but I can't for the life of me think

Upon telling a friend that I was trying for a baby (had to as she'd asked me to be her bridesmaid), I was told she'd always presumed I'd wait for her and we'd try at the same time. She asked me to wait to start trying until after her wedding 18 months hence as she didn't want me to have a baby or be pregnant at her wedding as I wouldn't enjoy it as much .

Sounded like a fantastic plan, no idea how that could go wrong and end up in jealousy and hurt feelings.

A woman I used to work with snd and once agreed to house sit for a weekend rang me up a couple of years after I left the company and asked me if I would do it again for her. Made worse by the fact that she cried down the phone 'im desperate and everyone else has said no!' . So did I.

No surprise really, since when I did it she had a go at me because I hadn't cleaned the house from top to bottom - I was there on my own for 2 days and at work for most of that time!

This is trivial in comparison to most of the above. A largish group of us were going to a party on the other side of town. Rather than us making our own way there individually and then dithering about sharing taxis at the end of the evening, it was decided it would be better to travel as a group, there and back. One person offered to check out mini-bus prices and another person would check out prices for three people carriers.

After they'd checked prices with various companies - and the mini bus cost worked out very reasonably - MiniBusMan phoned me and asked me, as I'd organised this sort of thing in the past, if I would check out prices of mini-buses too. He seemed totally shocked when I told him that I wasn't prepared to waste my time on it, particularly as they both had already done a splendid job.

I was walking along a pavement when a girl in her early 20s stopped me and said "Excuse me", so I replied "Yes?"

She then seriously asked me if I could do up the laces on her trainers . Before anyone asks, I could see no physical reason why she couldn't do up her own trainers.

My old next door neighbour was constantly asking me if I could look after her dd and pick her up from school practically every day as her newborn baby was always asleep at school pick up time, not and unreasonable request ordinarily but I had just come out of hospital with GBS and was confined to a wheelchair at the time...

I still did it!

Where do these people come from? Do you think they know they're being cheeky and are just chancing it or they are totally oblivious?

My Sil asked me to get the free lego toys with the paper for her son whilst she was on hols, sounds reasonable right? Until you factor in it was the first txt I'd had in a year, the nearest participating shop is MILES away and we don't drive. So a nice 4 mile round trip before work or £3.50 daily in bus fare to get them - when I said no she didnt even reply and not heard from for another 7months!

While I was with my abusive ex, who used to swan around in his company car, have 40k in the bank and expect me to take baby dc everywhere on the back of a rickety bicycle, my 'friend' asked me to lend her some money.

She wanted €500 to pay her car insurance. I did have it (my escape fund) but refused.

A few days later she turned up wearing a pair of €200 Dolce&Gabanna sunglasses.

She's the same one who got pregnant with another foreign (non- European) national, met her (European) partner soon afterwards and persuaded him to recognise her baby as his own. When they split up she then had the right to remain in the country and to stay in his flat free of charge until the baby reached adulthood. There was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

Shortly after putting an offer in on our (DP - now DH and I) first home together, MIL piped up that it was a good job we got a 3 bed house as it meant BIL (who was still living at MILs) could move in with us... and yes she was totally serious. Erm, no thanks!

My sister once told me I would be caring for DN the next day as the childminder wouldn't take her as DN had D&V. I was on sick leave with a knee injury that made bending to do nappies seriously painful, and DN was needing very frequent changes understandably. I also had a DD at home who I didn't want to get sick. I suggested she find someone else to look after DN as I couldn't do it due to pain. She told me I was evil for saying no.

Phone call from bil. He was ill, could I look after their ds (1yo) for the day. I had dc age 8,5 and 2 at this point. They live about 40 minutes away.

Okay I said, get sil to drop him off any time and let me know when he can pick him up again.
No, they wanted me to pick him up-but I couldnt stay there, I had to bring him back here ie 80 minutes driving with dc aged 2, who hated being in the car.

Okay I said: I'll be over about 9:40 when I've dropped dc1&2 off at school.
No. Can't come between 9:30 and 10:15 because that is nap time.

Okay I said: But I then won't be with you until 10:40 because ds had a class from 9-10, and if that was the case I didn't see why he should miss it.
No. Because they had a friend who could sit with him from 10:15 until 11:30.

Okay: I'll come at 11:30.
No because he has to eat at 12 and if I come at 11:30 he can't have lunch until 12:10 which will ruin his routine.

Okay: I'll pick him up at 12:30.
No because he has his afternoon nap at 1:00 to 2:00.

Well I'll pick him up at 3:30 because I have to meet dc from school at 2:40.
You could pick him up at 2:00, it doesn't matter if you're late to pick them up from school does it.

Yes it does matter. Okay I'll pick him up at 3:30 and bring him back at 6:30.
He has to be back by 6:00 because that's dinner time.

I can't get him back for 6:00 because dd2 has Rainbows and that doesn't finish until 5:45.
Can't she miss it?

No because I am helping and I take 3 dc home afterwards and I'm not letting them down.
Can't you tell the leader that you're not helping?

No this isn't going to work. I can't do it.

At the same time the next day the phone rang... I ignored it.

About 6 months later we were in conversation with them and they mentioned that they couldn't get babysitters-they wanted to organise swaps with us. We pointed out that we had no problems getting babysitters and didn't want a 40 minute drive to baby sit.
They then said that they couldn't get babysitters as "working class" people wouldn't baby sit for anyone other than family and they were surrounded by "working class people" .
Dh wouldn't let me point out it was probably their attitude rather than anyone else.

A friend/acquaintance asked if I could ask another friend of mine (they'd met each other once), if they'd want to house swap over Easter.

We live in a vibrant city, they (acquaintance) live in a backwater town - and they just wanted a free holiday.

I told her that my friends had houseguests over Easter so it couldn't happen! God knows why I bothered lying, I should have just laughed at her!

Years ago when I was first diagnosed with arthritis and in pain a group of us mothers arranged to meet up at a park with our children.

One of the mothers asked me to pick her and her child up and take them. She had a car and could drive and would have had to go past my house to get there. There was no reason that she couldn't drive herself other than apparently she 'didn't like driving'.

As her house was in the opposite direction to the park I said no and explained that I didn't want to do any extra driving. She was actually quite surprised that I said no.

I moved to my house a few weeks before dh (work and school issues he couldn't finish work in time for the new term). The guy across the road said hi a few times but we had never really spoken. One day he showed up at my door asking if he could use my cooker as his kids were there and he had run out of gas. I was a bit shocked, but said yes. We got to chatting and out of the blue he told me he wanks on his couch at a particular time of night and asked if I could go and watch him through the window a couple of times a week I booted him out (with his half cooked food and a pizza menu).

Upon speaking to other neighbours this seems to be a common request from this guy. Upon further mentioning of my street at school etc some women have said 'oh thats where XXX lives isn't it' and have told me that he has stolen underwear, been caught peering through their windows and general creepy behaviour.

I did report him to the police after finding out this is a pattern of general behaviour but, although sympathetic, they couldn't do anything as he hasn't broken the law yet.

Many moons ago I was asked by a colleague to "pop the cherry" of another co worker. My colleague was serious and told me that it would be a crap shag but surely I could do this as it was our co workers birthday coming up. My colleague was very surprised when I declined he spend the remainder of the shift trying to convince me to go through with it. In the end several of us chipped in and paid for him to visit a brothel.

Someone once asked if they could have my brand new clarinet. I said no.

DH and I bought our flat when we were 21, at a time when many of our friends were desperate to get their own place and move out of their parents. It is a tiny flat, we sleep on a sofa bed in the living room but we still had no shortage of people trying to move themselves in with us. No problem one said, I can live on an air bed by your feet

Op the dress one is just disgusting! I have one ex colleague who gets in touch once in a while to ask for a favour - usually to borrow money or ask me to babysit. She never contacts me unless she wants something so I have no problem saying no but she has thicker skin than a rhino and keeps asking! I used to give her a lift home from work as she doesn't live far from me but I had to put a stop to it as she started asking for lifts to friends houses saying they were right near my house when they were actually a good 30 minutes out of my way. I gave her a lift to work twice and she was really late both mornings meaning our boss was pissed off with both of us. She never offered any petrol money either and when I stopped giving her lifts she bitched about me to anyone who would listen!

megsmouse that reminds me my oh auntie who he actually can't stand rang him up to congratulate us in the arrival of dd and said since he was off could he nip round and fix her boiler- this was the day I got out of hospital with baby. He said no
Still think how cheeky!

I was sitting outside a cafe once when a man stopped me and asked if he could have my earrings as he liked them. (Wtf?!)

Another time a friend who'd just has a new baby invited me over to see him, but requested that my own child who was 2 at the time, be kept at home as she would disturb her newborn. I actually went along with this request as I was so shocked but quickly told her to eff off when she tried it again.

My ex husband's father asked if he would donate a sperm sample so he could knock up his mistress...

My ex asked me if he should.

Tosser - ha ha!

A few years ago whilst on a long car journey I got caught up in a major traffic jam, which was to last for several hours.....it was a nightmare!

Anyway, whilst sat in my baking hot car there was a tap on the passenger side window. On looking I saw a chap in his car trying to grab my attention. Thinking there may be a problem I let the window down, only for him to ask -
'Would you like a ham sandwich?'
Being caught on the hop I replied 'Has it got Branston pickle on it ?' as you do

'Err, no' said he.
'In that case no thank you' I replied, before letting the window back up, and sitting there staring resolutely ahead, before the snail pace traffic finally parted us!!!

I had a friend who often asked me to drive her around as her foreign driving licence was no longer valid in this country as she hadn't got around to getting a British one.

I declined to drive her and her child (and my daughter by default) to another city to the passport office, a round trip of 120 miles, the day after I'd driven 400 miles home from visiting family. It's one train for her to go by public transport.

I also declined to go on 'holiday' with her to her home country to help look after her toddler. I subsequently found out that she was staying with friends and that I'd not have had any privacy or proper bed while over there. So glad I said no. I'm not as young as I was and have arthritis and need a comfortable bed and a door I can close at night. It would also have put my husband out a lot as he would have had to reorganise his work to look after our child.

She was the queen of cheeky requests and that is partly why we are no longer friends.

I'm ashamed to say I didn't say no to this, but... We had just moved in to our new flat and had met the neighbours once. Our last flat had burnt down so we lost everything so had just bought a new hoover and had it delivered. We hadn't even used it ourselves when the neighbours knocked and asked if they could use it. Trying to be nice and ensure we had a good relationship with them, I said yes. It came back completely full to the brim. When I emptied it out, the stench of dirty dogs was over powering. Used it for myself for the first time and it made our whole flat stink of dog :( ended up taking it apart and cleaning all accessible parts with detol wipes... Even still it gave off this strange whiff of detol and dog for months no matter what I did. :(