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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to want to electrocute the freshers slightly?

149 replies

SuperFox · 14/09/2014 13:32

Just that really, as I am rudely awoken at 330am by yet another hysterically funny game of trapdoor run I can't help but wonder what the response would be if I rigged up the door knocker with a short sharp shock; only a small one for educational purposes you understand, cause and effect is such an important lesson in life...

One of my neighbours has the joy of working at the university, his years of experience have taught him that "undergrads are all idiots, utterly clueless" (to be muttered wearily).

Anyone else love the start of the academic year and the ensuing pranks as much as I do?

OP posts:

pickledparsnip · 16/09/2014 17:12

YANBU! I live in a little town that has been taken over by students due to the insane rapid growth of the uni. I went there myself 10 years ago & to be honest most of them drove me crazy then. I had already moved out by the time I was 16, so the novelty had fully worn off by the time I went to uni.

pickledparsnip · 16/09/2014 17:15

The lane I live on is used by students to get into town. Every year they run down screaming and knocking on the doors. It is not unusual to have vomit outside my door & they also like to use the lane as a loo. Mind you, my town is also very touristy in the Summer, and they are nearly as bad.

pickledparsnip · 16/09/2014 17:18

I remember going to uni with a lad who didn't know how to make toast. Seriously. I cannot understand for the life of me how they get that far without knowing how to do some basic cooking. How can they not know how to look after themselves?

petalsandstars · 16/09/2014 17:48

I know someone who decided to cook supernoodles in the kettle to save washing up

UptheChimney · 16/09/2014 22:18

How can they not know how to look after themselves?

I blame the parents

TheOpaqueAndJelliedTruth · 16/09/2014 22:22

Ah, you can't blame the parents. I have a memory of my poor mum patiently explaining to me how I needed to eat properly, or at least, you know, at all. I ate straight carbs and salad for a month, and turned white and dizzy.

The supernoodles in the kettle reminds me of my brother's student friend, who put a plastic electric kettle on my mum's brand new gas hob.

pickledparsnip · 16/09/2014 22:34

Supernoodles in the kettle is hilarious! I just don't get it. My mum had me cooking from a young age. No way my son is getting away with not cooking!

StitchWitch · 16/09/2014 22:55

YANBU! I'd be ready to kill them, I was grumpy enough about that stuff when I was at uni myself.

I was chatting this morning to a friend whose daughter just started at uni. Mum was describing how she'd printed out maps of the uni town so her daughter wouldn't get lost and texted her daughter to remember to make a packed lunch for the next day before going out for a big night out. On the one hand I was snickering gently at the PFB mentality, but on the other hand counting down how long til my baby (12 year old!) goes off to uni and quaking in horror. She can already cook, mind, and do her own laundry, and she knows the reaction she'd get if I caught wind of any antisocial behaviour...

I remember my friend's brother suffering malnutrition after the best part of an academic year eating nothing but Fray Bentos pies!

KittiesInsane · 16/09/2014 23:20

Supernoodles in the kettle probably less messy than trying to boil an egg in it.

Don't.

UptheChimney · 17/09/2014 07:48

Mum was describing how she'd printed out maps of the uni town so her daughter wouldn't get lost and texted her daughter to remember to make a packed lunch for the next day before going out for a big night out

OMG, no wonder some of the are like they are when I teach them.

Hakluyt · 17/09/2014 09:07

"How can they not know how to look after themselves?

Just read a few threads on here- there are parents who don't let their children do anything!

MistressDeeCee · 17/09/2014 09:11

Your'e only young once..if you can't be a silly bloody nuisance then, when can you be

TheOpaqueAndJelliedTruth · 17/09/2014 09:25

upthe, I have to admit, when I started my PhD, my supervisor wrote me out a verbal description of the route to her office (because she knew I struggle to read maps).

It was very sweet of her, but, er, doesn't speak well for her perception of my ability to cope.

MehsMum · 17/09/2014 09:35

Reading this thread has made me glad I started sending my DC to the shop for me from the time they could walk cross the road safely.

I have also cruelly forced them to cook and learn to use a bank account, but realise I have totally failed on the launderette/washing machine front.

And I really hope I have educated them not to behave like morons in the streets late at night. Possibly my habit of leaning out of the window at midnight and bawling at the yoof to shut up might have given them a few guidelines...

AndHarry · 17/09/2014 09:36

Your'e only young once..if you can't be a silly bloody nuisance then, when can you be

Being serious for just a second, students are only freshers once but there's a new group every year. Why should people living in university towns have to put up with crap behaviour - knocking on doors, really - every time a new batch want to get their thrills?

MaidOfStars · 17/09/2014 09:46

Because people in university towns benefit from being a seat of learning, having an educated population, having a guaranteed turnover of new customers in shops, (mostly) have a vibrant nightlife, probably more frequent than average pub/restaurant offers/quizzes/activities, can access student-led courses e.g. languages, can access cheap legal advice from student lawyers, can learn shit from public engagement events, can thoroughly engage their children in higher education.

MaidOfStars · 17/09/2014 09:48

Also, I bet your house prices are pretty good (albeit inflated by the BTL market).

Stupidhead · 17/09/2014 09:50

You're only young once??!

Yep and when you're living next door to a borderline psychopath (me) coping with 3 children under 5 who don't sleep due to music blasting through walls until 5am you'd better be prepared for consequences!

A group of female students moved in after the student doctors. Parties every night. I had no sleep for days and saw them in front of me on the bus one day, they walked towards the house while I followed with a pram and my toddler. I told toddler to go up our path...said 'excuse me' to the girls who turned around 'are you the stupid fucking cnuts having a party every fucking night etc etc 'mad lady rant' etc' Didn't hear a peep after that and when the music did go up it would go down straight after. Win for me.

TheOpaqueAndJelliedTruth · 17/09/2014 09:51

Mmm. I don't think that's an excuse for students doing things like that!

It's slightly patronizing, surely, to assume people like line and super are benefitting from proximity to 'an educated population'. I'm fairly sure they are that educated population!

And honestly, no-one benefits from cheap legal advice from student lawyers.

I love living in university towns, don't get me wrong. I've lived all but one year of my adult life in one or another of them. Yes, they're generally prosperous, but it galls me a bit to think 18 year olds are feeling they're personally responsible for bringing education and prosperity to people's lives, so those people should put up with their antisocial behaviour. I know some undergraduates do seem to believe this (I have had a good share of patronizing comments from them .... they never stop to consider that there is a whole life to a university that continues when the undergraduates aren't there ...). But it shouldn't be reinforced by anyone else, IMO.

TheOpaqueAndJelliedTruth · 17/09/2014 09:52

Cross post.

Oh, yes, the joys of house prices/rents in university towns.

Sorry, I'm bitter - I'm moving from Oxford to Cambridge. AFAIK they are the two most expensive towns outside London. It's not fun.

AndHarry · 17/09/2014 09:55

Of course there are benefits to living in a university town (although not as many as some students may like to think :o) but they do not excuse students being antisocial neighbours.

MaidOfStars · 17/09/2014 09:59

Sorry, no intention to patronise! Apologies if it came across as such.

TortoiseUpATreeAgain · 17/09/2014 10:01

Our student paper had a regular column on Stuff You Can Cook With Just A Kettle And A Sandwich Toaster. Pasta cooked in the kettle was a staple (in general you opened up the sandwich toaster and used it as an electric griddle, IIRC).

MrsBasterd · 17/09/2014 10:01

Ah yes the joy of living in a university town. The price of our house is not affected by the student market as its a 2 bed so not big enough for a landlord to cram students into. There are houses on our street that are big enough and every time one of them comes on the market we're left wondering if it'll be turned into a student house. Luckily only 1 house on our street is a student house - the new intake were having a BBQ last night, they must have been freezing!

Night time is definitely noisier this time of year, you really notice the difference, and the extra cars on the street as every student seems to bring their own car. But we just get on with it, as long as they don't affect me I'm not fussy. The problem with a lot of students is the 'if we can't do it now when can we' mentality that they're so special everyone else should put up with it. Then they wonder why non-students don't like them!

Living in a student area is great if you're a student or in the 'party' phase of life, not so much so if you're a normal working person with a family and a 9-to-5.

TheOpaqueAndJelliedTruth · 17/09/2014 10:02

Oh, sure! I did understand that you weren't intending it that way.

It's just, that is so much how (some) freshers seem to see it (and they do see it as being entirely their contribution). It's understandable - they're 18/19, they think the world revolves around them - but it's really bloody annoying at times!

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