to 'feel sorry' for inanimate objects

[ollieplimsoles]

Maybe its the pg hormones making me all unreasonable!

But we have an old.sofa in our living room, its very old, dh had it in his bedroom when we first met, and it belonged to a family friend before that.its also quite tatty.

We have ordered a lovely new sofa and this old one is going to the tip. But I suddenly started feeling sad for it, thinking about how it wont be around when our baby arrives and other nonsense!

I used to feel sorry for toys that were sent to charity when I was little too.

Its just me isn't it...

I'm very much like this and have kept all sorts of nonsense because I've suddenly started to feel guilty while in the process of putting it in the trash.

I've scrapped two cars and felt like a complete murderer both times. The worst one was driving away in my new car and seeing my old one behind a chain link fence in a compound with all the other old bangers, watching me drive away, knowing it was the car knackers yard and what was going to happen to it. I felt awful.

DP has one mug he uses for everything. I have to circulate all our other mugs and make sure they all get used so they don't feel jealous and left out.

Sorry Mitzy! I first heard it on th radio when I was about 8 and now I literally cannot get rid of a single cuddly toy unless I know they're going straight to a good home.

Every time someone buys one of my DC a soft toy my heart sinks because I know I'm going to be stuck with it til I die.

The trouble is, Viper, that for the completely demented truly concerned, this potentially goes much wider than supermarket shopping.

What about storage in the house, for example? Do you mix kidney beans and cotton wool in a sort of General Population way or do you have a separate segregation unit for potentially homicidal legumes? And what order do you eat things in? How do you explain to even a cotton wool roll that you've bought a new one because its days are numbered. Etc Etc Etc.

I think I'd best leave this thread.

Thank you for starting this thread OP, I have long suspected I'm not the only one as DH joins in with my behaviour, but on the rare occasion I have mentioned anything in public people look at me like I'm nuts.

I have refused to sell cars to people I didn't like and didn't think would look after them, and would never discuss selling a car when said car could hear me!

I also talk to stuffed toys and sit them up if they look uncomfortable....

I will always thank a rented holiday home as we drive away, I would feel rude otherwise.

And don't get me started on the Velveteen Rabbit!

dreaming how could you? It's like hearing Jessie sing all over again

I think maybe all of us on this thread subconsciously remember the horrible feeling of being lonely and left out probably for all of five minutes while our parents attended to another child and so will spend the rest of our lives over-empathising with....stuff.

cotton wool would never bully, but I bet kidney beans could be right bastards

Proper laughed out loud at that one.

My children are grown up, but there are still quite a few stuffed toys in the house. I won't stuff them in drawers and cupboards, that doesn't seem very fair or nice. Instead I give them 'guarding' and 'looking after' jobs to do. They can be seen all over the house, sitting on things, doing their 'guarding job'.

Obviously stuffed toys are even easier to imbue with feelings. I felt awful for DS's mousie when he switched allegiance to something else and didn't take mousie up to bed. I had to get some friends for mousie and tuck them in together under a blanket on the sofa downstairs.

Was very sad to have to let my first car go many years ago - pregnant with first child and car was sporty type and too small.

Lovely young man turned up to buy it as a surprise for his girlfriend's birthday.

I felt so pleased it was going to someone who would do such a nice thing. Made it so much easier to give it up.

I always want soft toys to be sitting comfortably, can't bear that they might be unhappy. When I was a child, my mother would always take my teddy bear out of my bed once I'd fallen asleep and it used to really upset me as he must have been cold and uncomfortable. I think that she was worried I'd suffocate on him - she was a bit of a worrier - and I'm pretty certain my wanting the toys to be happy stems from that.

Glad others are like this - my DD is the same and I really don't understand it. Was shopping the weekend and she picked up a tin and put in trolley. It was dented so I asked her to change it but she wouldn't because it would hurt its feelings!

I can appraise a potential bullying situation in seconds. Tinned sweetcorn = no chance, chicken chargrills = definite possibility.

I can't agree. Sweetcorn in a tin would be right chippy. I don't think chicken ever would. All beans have a nasty edge, lurking.

Honestly, this makes perfect sense to me.

Cozie I'm right with you on this. This is why kidney beans are kept next to the lasagne, which I believe is only marginally less bitchy than they are. Custard is right over the other side of the cupboard because I don't think it could hack it near those two. My cupboards, fridge and freezer are arranged on a sliding scale of possible bullying instigators. I just hope to god I've got it right.

Cotton wool lives upstairs, so it's right out of the mix. I don't explain to the cotton wool what's happening, but I do take out the exact quantity I need so it's got company right to the last moment. For example, I will need four pads for eye make-up remover, micellar water and toner, so four come out of the roll together and I use them as quickly as possible so as not to prolong their agony, and each one is used out of sight of the others so they won't know what's going on.

I'm following you off the thread right this minute

I never allow a stuffed toy to sit alone they would get lonely

Ds likes carrying around his favourite soft toy and he has come on holiday with us, to the cinema often sits with us at dinner. On a recent shopping trip I said it might be better if toy stayed at home as we do not want to loose it ds replied thats ok mummy if we loose him we can just buy another one where have I gone wrong that he could be so dismissive of his favourite toys feelings

Cheese by that rationale, would you say that corn on the cob would be less of a git than tinned sweetcorn? I just think that sweetcorn would be, well, sweet? It's in the name innit?

I can't agree with you about beans. Kidney beans, yes, I've already made my feelings quite clear. But broad beans, with their chubbiness and "smiles" (the split at the end)? Surely they could never be anything but lovely?

It's the little mars rovers that get me. All alone, so far away. Seriously. I defy you not to cry.

Its when the landers run out of battery or loose the ability to communicate with earth that kills me.

Up there all alone.

whimpers

Ooh I do this all the time. I sobbed when our toaster broke and we had to get a new one

I also wrote a short story as part of my uni work (I did creative writing) about cars in a scrapyard all telling their stories. I got a 1st for it, and my tutor said I had a 'unique take on the world'

I always feel sorry for my trainers. They are like a faithful little dog waiting to go for a walk. When I choose my smart shoes I always feel like they'll be at tge window wwith a sad expression (disclaimer: I'm weird )

When shopping, if someone asks me I if I like a certain item of clothing and I don't I always say yes because I don't want to hurt that garments feelings!

Good Grief - it's contagious!

I have to throw toothbrushes away at the same time so they can stay together on the journey to the rubbish site, they must have built quite a bond in the months they've been together in the toothbrush holder!

Hahaha this thread is hilarious!!!

Glances round at menagerie of unloved pillows, toys, sofa, cat

milliemoon

You do realize that you're thereby depriving them of the next possible stage of their life journey ? (Cleaning toilets.)

I have found my people.

When shopping if I pick up an item to look at, um and ah over it, put it back but then decide I do want it, I have to, HAVE to pick the same one up in case I've hurt its feelings by rejecting it. I do this with all items from cuddly toys to packets of cheese.

Sometimes when trying to break the habit -and curb the craziness- I will pick up a different one but I always go back. Then I have the issue of the one I put back. It's a minefield I tell you.

Do not get me started on cuddly toys and their groupings.