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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

If you don't allow your DC to have chewing gum...why not?

93 replies

user1491572121 · 19/05/2017 11:09

I understand with young children but 9? My DD is 9 and sometimes, for a treat, I will let her have a pack of Juicy Fruit.

I know some people call it "Disgusting!"

No idea why...I personally find lollipops disgusting...all that slopping over a stick...pulling a spitty sweet in and out of mouths...but I'd never say so...because I get that it's just my weirdness.

Why don't you allow your child gum?

DD's friend is 9 too and she's not allowed gum but she is allowed really sticky toffees and other things I'd think twice about for teeth's sake.

Why?

OP posts:

RedSkyAtNight · 19/05/2017 11:13

I hate the noise that people make when they chew gum.

So actually I haven't banned the DC's from having gum, but from chewing it round me (DH is subject to a similar ban). As it's also banned from their schools maybe that's what they are doing when they go and sit in their rooms for hours ...

KingJoffreysRestingCuntface · 19/05/2017 11:16

Makes them look a bit gormless while they chomp away.

And what if someone asks them something? You can't talk properly with a gob full of gum.

habibihabibi · 19/05/2017 11:17

1)Because a pathologist told me he takes huge balls of gum out of cadavers regularly. All the little bits that you may swallow over time club together and stick to you inners.
2) It is another alwful American export.

GavelRavel · 19/05/2017 11:17

im the same as redsky. i hate the clacking noise and also the mess when they leave it stuck to bins and in the car. Ds1 started chewing it when he went to secondary school and I had to swiftly ban him when I got it stuck on my hand for the third time when empting the bin. He is now banned at school, in my car, and in the house. I assume he has a brief window to chew it on the way home from school.

shinyredbus · 19/05/2017 11:18

Because I never had it as a child.

Sillybillypoopoomummy · 19/05/2017 11:21

becuase it is disgusting (chomp chomp slobber), it is totally unnecessary, and should be banned from a littering perspective anyway. Why do people feel they need to chew all day??
Mine are too young, so the question has not yet arisen, but it will be a big no :-)

Starsandwishes · 19/05/2017 11:21

I don't want it stuck all over my house

massistar · 19/05/2017 11:23

I can't bear the incessant chewing. It makes me feel a bit ill.

madamginger · 19/05/2017 11:25

Because it's revolting, I hate the sound of people chewing, it makes me really anxious and shaky, It's bad enough at meal times.
Plus I don't want sticky gum on my furniture and in their clothes.

MyWhatICallNameChange · 19/05/2017 11:28

I chew gum occasionally but don't let my kids. This is mainly because I can put it in the bin properly but they don't seem able to manage that. And I've found it stuck to the floor etc.

So no, they don't get it.

kaitlinktm · 19/05/2017 11:51

If you had seen the revolting mess underneath secondary school tables - which stuck to the kids clothes, and sometimes to mine too - I am sure a lot of people would feel like having a total ban. It is absolutely nauseating.

I once completely roasted a child whom I caught parking his speg under the desk and he just didn't get it. (Usually I didn't catch them in the act). I asked him if he did the same at home and he said not - so why do it anywhere? And this was in a school where it was supposed to be banned. I genuinely could have spent my whole hour's lesson passing the bin to masticating kids, only for them to put another piece in on the way out. It was like teaching 30 cement mixers.

Apparently the gum on the carpet on my classroom was my fault (odd, don't remember dropping it there myself).

mummyrabbitpeppapig · 19/05/2017 11:56

Because my son got it stuck in his hair / car seat and school trousers ( he was 7 btw.) Ive never bought him chewing gum

DeanKoontz · 19/05/2017 12:05

Mine have sugarfree gum. After a meal when we're out and about etc.

But I won't give it to other kids as so many don't know how to dispose of it, or keep taking out of their mouths to play with it.

My dc know not to ask for it if we have other kids with us.

kaitlin gum isn't allowed at my dc's schools, probably for those reasons. Instant detention if found with it.

Heratnumber7 · 19/05/2017 12:07

a) because a class teacher who I loved once told me that people chewing gum look like cows chewing the cud.

b) because the flavour lasts about a minute, then it's like chewing a bit of rubber (which it practically is).

c) because DF (80+) was told by his elder brother when they were kids that if you accidentally swallow gum it sticks your heart to your ribs, and your heart can't beat and so you die. It terrified him, it terrified me when he told me, and it terrified his GCs when he told them.

ZeroFuchsGiven · 19/05/2017 12:08

Have you ever tried to remove chewing gum from soft furnishings or hair?

I have a complete ban of the stuff in my house, my youngest is 11 and my eldest 20.

kaitlinktm · 19/05/2017 12:10

Dean - it sounds like the management are onto it at your dc's school. We didn't have the support really and parents often refused to allow their children to attend detention for such "petty" reasons. Also it was overwhelming really - I would have had massive numbers of kids in detention.

Still, I don't work there now - phew!

TiredMumToTwo · 19/05/2017 12:10

Yes - they look like cows chewing. I would ban my son but his Dad has it so don't feel I can but he knows how much I hate it. Chewing for no reason - I just don't get it?

itchi · 19/05/2017 12:11

Because my daughter (8) always seem to end up doing stupid stuff with it like taking it in and out of her mouth, putting it places and getting it stuck in things. The worst was in her hair. So she's not supposed to have it, my mother would disregard this request and still give to her on occasion.
Just last week, though, DD decided to take it upon herself to take a packet from the cupboard (I guess our fault for having it somewhere she could access) and then consumed a whole packet in 20 minutes.

If she's just use it normally, then spit it out in a bin, that would be fine.

seagreengirl · 19/05/2017 12:14

It's never been allowed in our house, DH included because I don't like anything about it.

People chewing gum look awful, and sound disgusting. Kids have never been interested.

JennyOnAPlate · 19/05/2017 12:15

Because I don't see the point in it and hate the look and sound of people chomping away like cows chewing the cud.

Whiterabbitears · 19/05/2017 12:17

Mine have it sometimes but I do hate the incessant chewing noise and mine have a horrible habit of playing with it, they will twirl it around their fingers and it gets stuck, I always make them spit it out then. I would rather they suck on polos but they always wangle it out of DH or their GPs. I'm not going to ban it though, bigger battles and all that.

kaitlinktm · 19/05/2017 12:19

My sil once gave it to my niece when she was quite small - about four - and I remember being surprised and thinking she was a bit young. The little madam spat it out on my DM's carpet.

Fruitcocktail6 · 19/05/2017 12:21

What is the point of it?

Voice0fReason · 19/05/2017 12:59

1)Because a pathologist told me he takes huge balls of gum out of cadavers regularly. All the little bits that you may swallow over time club together and stick to you inners.
And you believed that?

My son used to have an occasional piece of sugar-free gum and I taught him to wrap it up and dispose of it properly.

2rebecca · 19/05/2017 13:03

I hate seeing people chewing gum. It looks common, also it's not good for your stomach as it keeps producing acid because it thinks it's getting food so you're more likely to get heartburn and stomach ulcers.
A bit now and again is fine but the chronic gum chewers just look like cows (and I know that makes me sound like a stuck up snob, I probably am!)

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