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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask for the most bizarre advice you've been given after this gem from my mum (lighthearted)

343 replies

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 09/12/2016 19:22

I'm due baby no 2 in 5 weeks, I work in the hospital I'm giving birth in, and my mum also used to work there about 10 years ago.

I work closely with the chief executive in my job and am in the office next door. My mum has told me that when I go in to give birth, to get "star treatment" and a room of my own in postnatal, I should tell them that I work next door to the chief exec and they will give me what I want.

I actually giggled as I could imagine just how obnoxious I'd sound rolling in mid-contraction and saying "I work with the chief exec you know. What you gonna do with that information?" And then having midwives flocking round giving me pedicures and the like Grin

She is adamant she's right! I joked that he's universally disliked to they'd probably put me in the corridor if anything! Even if I did have the brass neck to say this, I really would rather a side room go to a woman who needs one, and although I'm a high-risk birth it probably wouldn't be me! I'd rather have one on the premise of actually needing one, not because of who I "know".

It inspired me to ask the members of MN for the most bizarre advice you've been given?

OP posts:
BowieFanMk2 · 10/12/2016 17:57

Oh forgot another one. When DC's grandparents visit, nobody is allowed to whistle at night because apparently that allows spirits into your home. Oh and red headed women aren't to be trusted.

They are absolutely lovely but are quite old and are very set in their ways when it comes to things they were taught in their country as kids.

We're not allowed to put hats on beds either, for some reason.

littlestlily · 10/12/2016 18:04

From MIL -to demand an enema whilst in labour with DD as 'women pooing while giving birth are the reason hospitals have MRSA'
Thanks but no thanks 😑

SignOnTheWindow · 10/12/2016 18:20

MIL when dd asked for milk after eating a satsuma 'No! It will curdle in your tummy and make you sick'.

Actually, this happens to both DDs - if they drink milk after eating oranges they puke! Took it happening a few times before we made the connection.

AlpacaLypse · 10/12/2016 18:20

My mum definitely got a bottle of stout every day with one of her meals when she was in hospital with me and my sister - mid 1960's. And my sister was born in one of the major teaching hospitals as she was very complicated.

woesinwonderland · 10/12/2016 18:49

When my DS was 4 he was horribly constipated and in awful pain. My dear nutty Nan advised me to do as she did with DF: sharpen a bar of soap and put it up DS bum, rotating clockwise etc to loosen it all up. Oddly enough I declined.

This is common in certain parts of the world and does actually work. The most common things are a sliver of olive oil soap or a parsley stalk. Modern day-ers just insert the tip of a cotton bud and give it a wiggle. Any object in the anus causes the body to try to expel it and moves the bowels rather quickly.

AdmiralCissyMary · 10/12/2016 18:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AdmiralCissyMary · 10/12/2016 18:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

alotlikeChristmas16 · 10/12/2016 19:34

I've had the advice about keeping babies up late so they'll sleep late, my mum did this, she tried to get me on a 9-9 routine with dd as it also meant that she felt she got a nice sit down 2-4, that is also not nuts if you're a SAHP who doesn't need to do a school run for a younger child. Not compatible with working though when they have to be at nursery for 8

blitheringbuzzards1234 · 10/12/2016 19:36

I've been told that if your hips are a bit 'clicky' you should put a couple of nutmegs in your pocket.

Rub Vick on your feet if you have a bad cold.
Don't swallow apple pips or an apple tree will grow inside you and you'll die.
Don't let a boy breathe in your ear or you'll go deaf.

RubbishMantra · 10/12/2016 19:39

I went to a convent boarding school, girls only. Sometimes the local boys from the village would bicycle up and talk to us through the fence. This led to a talk from the headmistress, (a nun) that talking to boys "would lead to rape and murder!" Grin

They were very anti hair washing when on periods too. In fact, they were pretty much against hair washing full stop, judging by their greasy locks if you were to run into one of them late at night without their habit on. They didn't approve of bathing/showering much either, judging their "aroma".

Oh, and when I was late teens/early 20s, a friend thought you could gain weight if the bloke ejaculated inside you, "Because the body would absorb the calories."

Toomuchhistory1 · 10/12/2016 19:48

I had one 'helpful' colleague tell me that I would solve the morning stress commute of a 1hour round trip to MIL to drop off my DS before starting my 45min commute to work often including stuck in traffic jams, train delayed let alone getting my 2 year old up dressed and ready plus myself before 7am...that the simple resolution was to 'get up earlier'! I almost punched her in the face having an alarm at 5.30am and sometimes having him wake through the night. Yeah, sure it's that easy!
Thankfully she is now expecting her first so I can't wait to provide her with the same suggestion when she is having a stressful morning Grin

FlappysMammyAndPopeInExile · 10/12/2016 20:33

She is also convinced that you can catch shingles from someone with chickenpox.
You can

smEGGnogg · 10/12/2016 20:53

She is also convinced that you can catch shingles from someone with chickenpox.
You can

You can't. It's not possible to catch shingles from chickenpox. But you can catch chickenpox from someone with shingles if you've never had it before.

RegTheMonkey1 · 10/12/2016 21:04
  1. I sat in front of our open fire (loooong time ago in the early 60s) on the rug to read my 'Bunty' comic. My mother says: 'Don't sit with your back to the fire! You'll melt the marrow in your spine!'
  1. Don't wash your hair when you have your period! (mother)
  1. Always judge a man by his shoes (my mother again)
RegTheMonkey1 · 10/12/2016 21:09

Not really advice, more of a rule. The nuns in my primary school told us never to wear patent leather shoes as men could see your underwear reflected in them. True story! Someone from another convent school told me they were advised never to wear a pearls with a low neck top, as the pearls would reflect the top of your bosom and men could see them in the pearls! Huh?

Topseyt · 10/12/2016 21:19

Smeg is right. You cannot catch shingles from someone with chickenpox. You can only develop shingles if you have previously had chickenpox. Shingles is, as I understand it, caused by the re-awakening of the chickenpox virus within the body. It apparently lies dormant within the spinal fluid after the original illness subsides. There it normally stays, but if it does reactivate in adult life then the usual result is shingles.

You CAN catch chickenpox from someone with shingles, especially if you have never had chickenpox.

RoboticSealpup · 10/12/2016 21:23

Drink out of the other side of the glass i.e. the side furthest from your mouth to make hiccups disappear

But that really works! It stops hiccups in a few seconds. You have to lean forward and drink 'upside down'.

NameChange10001 · 10/12/2016 21:24

1970s advice: my mother was told to drink lemon juice after she had me "so that she'd get her figure back". What actually happened was the lemon juice went into her milk and gave me terrible indigestion and colic.

All the girls at school in the 1980s knew that if you sat on the radiator you'd get piles.

SnowBallsAreHere · 10/12/2016 21:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

giraffesCantReachTheirToes · 10/12/2016 21:39

An apple will cure my chronic lung disease

adelicious · 10/12/2016 21:54

My grandma (the most amazing woman who I adored and still miss) used to put sugar in our glasses of coke when we were kids cos she told us it "took the fizz off it". We were fat kids.

TinselTwins · 10/12/2016 22:23

MIL when dd asked for milk after eating a satsuma 'No! It will curdle in your tummy and make you sick'.

that's true, I was told by one HCP to drink lots of OJ to help me absorb my iron tabs after having DD, when my HV heard she was really frustrated at the other HCP as that was the reason why my baby's tummy was so ill. I switched to other sources of vit c with my iron and DDs tummy settled down. She said that most babies and toddlers can't handle oranges in milk or during weaning.

zukiecat · 10/12/2016 22:24

I get horrendous leg cramps and am on medication for them which does seem to help,

I've also been told by some to put a banana in the bed

zukiecat · 10/12/2016 22:29

Also I was very ill in hospital last year after being diagnosed with Pernicious Anaemia

My mother said to ignore all the doctors and not to have the absolutely essential B12 injections and just to eat raw liver as that would sort me out apparently Hmm

Butterflies27 · 10/12/2016 22:34

When trying for a baby girl, the man needs to wear socks for the deed. Advise from fil, he swore by it. He was shocked when darling son number 2 came along ha ha