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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why we couldn't borrow PILs laptop

116 replies

Pinkpanthershow · 01/06/2015 22:34

Our laptop has stopped working and DH needed to send a job application so he asked to borrow his parents laptop. They were going on holiday and wouldn't need it for a week so thought it would be ok. However they ended up saying no as there may be personal stuff on it and we shouldn't see their dirty washing!
I am slightly at a loss as to what would be on it. They are both retired and it's not work stuff. Our laptop has nothing on it we would need to hide from them (although I would log out of mumsnet first!). It just seems odd, although it is up to them to not let us borrow it.

I am wondering if other people would not let their family use their laptop? They have a key to our house, and we have never worried about them prying into anything private. We are also not particularly good at IT and we wouldn't have looked for anything private on their laptop anyway.

We will buy a new one anyway, it was just a temporary fix.

OP posts:
weeblueberry · 01/06/2015 22:36

They're clearly into bdsm...

poshfrock · 01/06/2015 22:37

Maybe they use it to store intimate films or photos?

ChantenayCarrot · 01/06/2015 22:37

I would assume it's financial stuff - spreadsheets, their Will....?? dunno.

BuildYourOwnSnowman · 01/06/2015 22:37

I really wouldn't give this anymore headspace as you are just going to have to buy a bucketload of mind bleach

DextersMistress · 01/06/2015 22:38

Swingers.

travailtotravel · 01/06/2015 22:38

I absolutely would not leave anyone alone with my laptop. I do finances on it, and also have it set up for my web browsing preferences and passwords.

Go to the library in the mean time?

HookedOnHooking · 01/06/2015 22:38

Swinging.

SycamoreMum · 01/06/2015 22:38

LOve Honey was probably their homepage {sniggers}

Original poster
Pinkpanthershow · 01/06/2015 22:38

It makes me wonder!

OP posts:
steff13 · 01/06/2015 22:38

Well, they obviously have something on there they don't want you to see. The most obvious thing is some kind of porn, but who knows?

Cassie258 · 01/06/2015 22:39

Porn. They've got a shit load of it. Perhaps they are the stars.

Or personal finances/diaries/present lists/guides to something illegal they do/incriminating internet history.

Nospringflower · 01/06/2015 22:39

I'm going for the more boring option of them having financial affairs, wills, letters etc on it that they wouldn't want others seeing Grin

morethanpotatoprints · 01/06/2015 22:40

Porn sites, dirty photo's, financial stuff.
All their personal documents.
Or could be something simple like they don't want their settings changed.
Sometimes wit cookies etc and other people using your lap top there is always shit coming up you don't want. It never ceases.

SilverBirch2015 · 01/06/2015 22:40

If they really have something to hide, they wouldn't have said that surely?

Maybe they just did not want to lend it to you and that's the first excuse thay could think of.

Either that or photos/videos of them DTD Shock.

LineRunner · 01/06/2015 22:41

No, I wouldn't let anyone use my PC/laptop. It has some very personal correspondence on it, for a start. And I couldn't be arsed hiding it behind security settings just before going away on holiday.

You can send a job application from a mobile phone these days.

usualsuspect333 · 01/06/2015 22:41

I wouldn't lend anyone my laptop for a week.

I don't blame them.

LineRunner · 01/06/2015 22:42

Or maybe they think that you want it for porn yourselves.

usualsuspect333 · 01/06/2015 22:43

I wouldn't assume it had porn on it. Just private stuff they don't want you to see.

And that's fair enough.

magimedi · 01/06/2015 22:44

I am a PIl & there is no way I'd lend anyone my (theoretical, as I don't have one) laptop or let them have access to my computer. Far too much personal stuff, finances, emails & MumsNet!

JeanneDeMontbaston · 01/06/2015 22:45

I'm anti porn, and no way would I lend someone my laptop for a week. I'm not even wild keen on passing it over to someone for them to check their email. It makes it look as if I am a goldfish-brained lazy person who spends hours on MN, and I'm only ok with you lot knowing that! Grin

If it's not porn, it could be they're in the process of sorting out a divorce and haven't told you, or they're having financial rows with another family member - those occurred to me before porn TBH, as I like to think they'd lie better about that!

SilverBirch2015 · 01/06/2015 22:45

You've broken one laptop, why risk your own!

Have you form for borrowing things and not returning?

Original poster
Pinkpanthershow · 01/06/2015 22:48

I will accept the boring version but will now always wonder. Not helped by the fact I just saw the Cameron Diaz film Sex Tape.

OP posts:
TheRoseAndTheFire · 01/06/2015 22:48

Could be anything really. Finances, their wills, porn. Or it could be none of these and that they just don't want to lend it to you. I'm funny about my laptop & iPad. There's nothing dodgy on them it's just that they feel very personal and I wouldn't lend them out -even to family.

whatever22 · 01/06/2015 22:48

I would never let anyone use my netbook without me being there. It has personal stuff on (Banking, legal and medical letters, personal emails and photos, calendars, to do lists). My dp thinks I am mean and unreasonable not to share, but for me its not 'just another computer' its where I keep a lot of personal, emotional, private things.

If someone wants to check an email while I am there to see they aren't nosying through my bookmarks\files, that's fine, but I'd never just hand it over.

EthethethethChrisWaddle · 01/06/2015 22:51

Because they use MN and know that "No is a complete sentence."