Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that filling the kettle isn't "a thing"?

114 replies

user1491572121 · 17/05/2017 13:18

At least one person agrees with me so I thought I'd see if more did!

DH keeps complaining "Only I fill the kettle up!"

Hmm

He says "I fill it up and then later, I go to use it and it's all empty again!"

I'd not really reacted to these complaints though I had thought "Wtf?"

Then a mate of his heard him and said, "what are you talling about? People just fill it and boil it as they use it! You put in the amount you need and boil it!"

DH seemed to be under the impression that the kettle should be consistently full!

AIBU to think DH is wrong and his friend and I are right?

OP posts:
puddingpen · 17/05/2017 13:22

DH is wrong. You should fill the kettle with the amount you need and boil it. Otherwise you would be boiling a whole kettle for one cup of tea!

CointreauVersial · 17/05/2017 13:23

Depends.

In our office, DH would be right. When you've made your tea (or your round of tea) you fill the kettle up and boil it ready for the next person. Otherwise there is much unproductive "standing around waiting for the kettle to boil".

At home, maybe not.

thetreesarealive · 17/05/2017 13:26

Certainly at home, you shouldn't be boiling more than you're going to use. Boiling a whole kettle is just a waste of energy. Add to that the people who empty the water out and fill it fresh and you're wasting tons of water too!

Ask him if he wants a drink while you're filling up/boiling it for yourself. If he doesn't, then he can jolly well put in the amount required for his cuppa when he's ready for one.

RedheadLover · 17/05/2017 13:26

YANBU - I'd rather fill up the kettle myself as and when I need some boiling water. Otherwise you don't know when it was last filled and the water could have been in there for a while.

DadDadDad · 17/05/2017 13:27

At home, I even pour away any "stale" (ie previously boiled) water sitting in the kettle and pour in fresh water (from a filter jug) to boil. And I try hard to only boil enough for what I need.

BorpBorpBorp · 17/05/2017 13:29

I fill the kettle up at night ready for the morning, but apart from that, no.

KoalaDownUnder · 17/05/2017 13:30

When you've made your tea (or your round of tea) you fill the kettle up and boil it ready for the next person. Otherwise there is much unproductive "standing around waiting for the kettle to boil".

Eh? Confused It's not going to be still at boiling temp when the next person gets to it, though.

YANBU. Your DP is wrong. Waste of energy boiling a full kettle every time.

Figaro2017 · 17/05/2017 13:31

DadDadDad

That little bit left over when you boil the kettle..... pour it on weeds whilst still boiling. You've paid for the energy to heat so might as well get some benefit. You'd be surprised how quickly you get a weed free path!

2rebecca · 17/05/2017 13:31

At home the kettle just gets filled with enough water needed at the time so is usually near empty. It sits next to the sink so filling it is quick and easy. At work there's no sink in the office so the kettle gets filled to the top and filling the kettle is more of a thing.

dudsville · 17/05/2017 13:34

We just fill it up whenever, when we need it, when we're going to bed, we don't notice if it's been filled up by the other or not. So I'd say the fact that it's a thing for your oh is unhelpful to marital relations.

whifflesqueak · 17/05/2017 13:35

round here that's a recipe for limescale.

MyFavouriteName · 17/05/2017 13:36

Urgh, that must mean he reboils the water over and over. Thus making the tea undrinkable. Yuck.

CointreauVersial · 17/05/2017 13:36

Koala - true, but it won't be far off boiling when the next person gets to it, so won't take long to bring back to the boil.

We don't like to wait for our tea here! We did have one of those wall-kettles, for instant boiling water, but it broke from over-use.

MrsKoala · 17/05/2017 13:37

My dad says this and i argue it's a waste and you should fill as your need.

I worked in an office once and someone thoughtful put up a note saying they were the milk gnome and if people put a few pence in the pot they'd keep the milk stocked. Then my twat of a boss (who hated not being the centre of attention for her great ideas) put a really passive aggressive note 'from the kettle fairy' saying how inconvenient it was to find an empty kettle and could people keep filling it and boiling it when they had finished in case someone else wanted some tea. Hilariously a lot of printed information about waste and the environment got sellotape to it with a note saying this was a terrible idea. The kettle fairy note mysteriously disappeared and my boss sulked round the office snapping at people for days. I really miss petty office twattery.

amusedbush · 17/05/2017 13:38

At home I'm the only one who has hot drinks so I fill and use as I need it.

At work, however, it drives me up the fucking wall when people don't fill the kettle. People don't want to wait for a full kettle to boil so they will fill it with a cup and a half's worth of water, make their drink and then leave the dregs. Then muggins has to refill and wait all over again Angry

DadDadDad · 17/05/2017 13:41

amusedbush - is it really that big a deal? If you are boiling just a cupful it doesn't take that long. Are you really that impatient?

Hidingtonothing · 17/05/2017 13:42

My stepdad was fanatical about this when I was growing up so I've found it a hard habit to break, he would go ballistic if he came home (he had a job where he could pop home at intervals through the day) and the kettle was empty so I had it drilled into me to fill it after me. His reasoning was that he sometimes only had a few minutes between jobs so it could be the difference between him getting a coffee and not but, unless it had been recently boiled, I don't see how waiting for a full kettle of water to boil was quicker than him just filling and boiling the cupful he needed. Your DH is wrong and you and his friend are right OP.

SpuriouserAndSpuriouser · 17/05/2017 13:42

What?! That's madness. Surely you just boil the amount you need at the time? Plus water that's been boiled over and over tastes weird.

whifflesqueak · 17/05/2017 13:43

I think that people who find themselves wound up by such utterly inane bollocks ought to get out more.

MrsKoala · 17/05/2017 13:44

Grin at being 'muggins' because you have to fill your own amount of water in the kettle and wait for it to make your own tea. It's hardly being taken advantage of is it? it's just making your own tea Grin

finnmcool · 17/05/2017 13:44

I read somewhere that tea doesn't taste so good if you re-boil the water.
Also, for energy costs, just use what you need.

Redcrayons · 17/05/2017 13:44

Our office etiquette is to refill and boil when you've finished.

At home, though I just put a mug full in and boil that. Counting 'Filling the kettle' as a household task is a bit wierd.

AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 17/05/2017 13:47

We have a Britain water filter kettle and if you really fancy a cuppa, it seems to take ages for the water to filter through so you can put it on to boil (even though it boils quite swiftly). So we always full the kettle.after use ready for the next person. The kettle's capacity is also smaller due to the filter system.

We do drink a lot of tea though so there is rarely much time between boils for the water to go stale.

GrumpyMcGrumpFace · 17/05/2017 13:47

no it's not a thing, unless your water source is miles away from your kettle. Which seems unlikely!

AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 17/05/2017 13:47

Brita not Britain!

Swipe left for the next trending thread