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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What just happened here? Was I unreasonable in some way?

73 replies

Trills · 07/12/2014 18:13

I walk into the kitchen - kettle is full and nearly boiled. Mug is next to kettle with teabag in.

Me: "I'm going to have some of your water if that's OK - shall I fill up your mug?"

Other person: "It's OK I'll do it"

I take some of the water (leaving more than half a full kettle)

Other person: "It wasn't done yet"

Me: "Yes it was it had just clicked off"
(kettle is still in my hand)
"Do you want me to put it on your tea?"

Other person: "No I'll sort myself out"

Other person fills up kettle and puts it on to boil again.

Me: "Sorry did you need the whole kettle? I thought you were just making tea"

(note that this person always fills the kettle up all the way immediately after using it - not just before using it - so I should not have assumed that full kettle = more than just a cup of tea planned as you might with someone who only filled up kettles as much as they needed)

Other person: "It's alright"

I hang around in the kitchen a bit more doing a couple of other things.

Other person waits for kettle to boil again, makes cup of tea.

Cup of tea that could easily have been made with the over-half-a-kettle of just-boiled water that was already there before they filled it up again.

I busy myself in the kitchen for a few more minutes to just check that I saw what I thought I saw, and that nothing else was needed from the kettle.

What happened here exactly?

OP posts:
wowfudge · 07/12/2014 18:15

The other person is an energy wasting tit. Or possibly demonstrating some OCD tendencies. You should have just made the tea and handed it to them.

VivaLeBeaver · 07/12/2014 18:16

Mmmm. I don't think ywbu but personally I wouldn't have given it a minutes thought.

Well actually maybe I would do if dh always did this because its a waste of electricity. Grin

emmaray90 · 07/12/2014 18:16

What a waste of water and electricity, I'd be just as confused as you, how strange

Trills · 07/12/2014 18:17

I was told NOT to make the tea.

Maybe there is some kind of top-half-of-the-kettle fetish going on?

OP posts:
CaulkheadUpNorth · 07/12/2014 18:17

You live with my housemate, right?! --or you are my alter ego That always happens here and I always walk away wondering what just happened.

Trills · 07/12/2014 18:20

Do you think this person is annoyed with me, and wanted to make me feel bad for "stealing" their water, even though they only needed well under half a kettle so I had not actually inconvenienced them in any way?

OP posts:
simbacatlivesagain · 07/12/2014 18:21

Gosh- I think that you need to get out more?

calmexterior · 07/12/2014 18:21

Sounds like OCD to me

wowfudge · 07/12/2014 18:21

But I wouldn't have asked if the kettle had boiled as I was standing beside it and the teabag was in the mug ready.

Anyway, whoever the over filling and boiling eejit is doesn't know that tea should only be made with freshly drawn and boiled water Wink

Trills · 07/12/2014 18:22

I get out as much as I can, trust me, but I can't be blamed for noticing when inconsequential-yet-extremely-odd things happen during the times when I am "in".

OP posts:
Trills · 07/12/2014 18:24

This person did not ask if the kettle had boiled. They stated that it was not done yet. Which was untrue.

(they were not standing right by the kettle but sitting down looking at a computer, in the same room but not right by it)

OP posts:
LineRunner · 07/12/2014 18:25

That's an odd one.

highkickindandy · 07/12/2014 18:25

ooooh I love threads like this with really perplexing behaviour ! I would be annoyed if I'd put the kettle on for a cup of tea and someone used all the hot water so I had to start again. But that's not what happened as you said you left enough for their tea and they weren't doing anything else with the water. Have they gone all passive aggressive on you ? Little huffy sighs and martyred "it doesn't matter" remarks ?

grumpyoldgitagain · 07/12/2014 18:26

Other person was definitely a tit

You need a Quooker then you can bin the kettle and not have the problem again

TiggerLillies · 07/12/2014 18:26

Do you have limescale in kettle? Sometimes I put extra water in to avoid floating bits, would never fill it to top for 1 drink though!

Blu · 07/12/2014 18:28

They were wasting water, and being silly, prickly, obsessive - or perhaps resenting your intrusion into the kitchen and tea making process
You were not minding your own business and hovering about in a PA / judgmental fashion - it's only a kettle of water.

listed · 07/12/2014 18:30

The other person doesn't like limescale.

Seems fair enough to me.

TheFairyCaravan · 07/12/2014 18:30

I think you've moved in with my DH and I've not noticed you, because that (the re-filling kettle thing) is just the sort of thing he would do!

TsukuruTazaki · 07/12/2014 18:32

Other person is silly

Trills · 07/12/2014 18:33

I was making a snack - judging was only an additional benefit Wink

OP posts:
Trills · 07/12/2014 18:34

Limescale is a sensible answer, but I haven't noticed it being a problem, and if it is then the person who is bothered by it can de-scale the kettle...

OP posts:
TimeWarp · 07/12/2014 18:36

There's definitely something a bit compulsive going on there I think. So, not so much that they were unreasonable, but that their tea wouldn't have been 'right' for some reason. If that's the only thing that they are odd about then I would just let it go, it's not great for the environment but then we all have things that we know we could be more environmentally conscious about. Come to that we probably all have things that we are a bit compulsive about, if they're not damaging then it's not worth fighting the compulsion.

BlackeyedSusan · 07/12/2014 18:37

waste of energy. I mean that is an easy one to avoid isn't it? not like having to wear and extra jumper or faffabout putting thelight out whilst carrying a pile of stuff or anything?

does this person also moan about more extremes of weather?

LadyLuck10 · 07/12/2014 18:38

She probably didn't trust that it clicked off as in finishing boiling.

lem73 · 07/12/2014 18:40

Yes I think they were irritated because you came in and interrupted their tea making ritual so they had to start all over again!