Asking for pasta

[MummySparkle]

More of as ‘is this weird?’ Question really.

I got home on Sunday after a long day out with the kids and realised that we really didn’t have anything that could make a quick dinner for them. We live rurally, the closest place that would have been open is a 40min round trip & we were all too tired and hungry for that.

DS has just started school and I’ve made some really good friends with other mums and we all live within walking distance of each other which is lovely. Anyway, a trio of us have a group chat going and I asked the other mums if either of them had any pasta going spare. One Mum did, we whizzed over to collect it and I had 2 very happy DCs eating cheesy pasta for tea.

I relayed this to DH when he asked about the unfamiliar pasta in the cupboard and he told me that what I had done was really really weird, and I shouldn’t ask people if I could borrow pasta. Personally I don’t see the issue, but maybe I’m missing something?

My friend a few doors down and I are always swapping food items back and forth. It's like having a giant extra pantry!

When I met my now friend she told me about her bowel surgery and I gave her my bed we're still friends now

Not weird as long as you actually know them. It would be weird if you showed up on some stranger's doorstep asking for it though. I once lived in Manhattan (where no one knows or speaks to their neighbours) and had my random neighbour from like 3 floors down knock on my door to borrow sugar. I had no idea who he even was!

Ha, it's pasta, not their family heirlooms!

Your DH is overthinking it.

Just sounds sensible!

at unfamiliar pasta

OP you can never have enough dried pasta in the store cupboard as long as it's bronze die good quality stuff

I think it's weird. That you didn't have any pasta in anyway . I don't know what we would do in this house if we ran out of pasta! I wouldn't think anything of it if someone asked me if they could borrow something quick for their tea.

I sent DD to ask for gravy granuals today, I had used the last in the cottage pie and wanted some more to make gravy to pour over the veg.

I sent her out with 'You know who to ask', there are about 4 neighbours who are friends that also ask me for help when needed, food, money and child care.

Not weird at all. I've been asked to lend much stranger things.

It’s not weird at all! Just a week ago I asked my neighbour for a potato (I was making soup and realised I’d no spuds), she didn’t find it odd at all. Mind you I didn’t even blink the time her husband called over the wall wondering if I had a bag of quorn mince he could take and replace .

We don’t live in each others pockets but it’s nice that we know each other well enough to feel comfortable asking for the odd favour. There are plenty of people who barely know their neighbors names, I know which I’d prefer!

I've borrowed sorts, pasta beans eggs even 2 pieces of bread for ds packed lunch. They borrow back, we feel we can ask each other. Makes our busy lives a little easier

Totally normal, my neighbours will borrow an onion, I borrowed a lemon on xmas day!

Not weird and if it's on a group chat or email then it's a very polite way to ask a favour as it's easy to ignore or not respond.

Absolutely normal. Neighbours and I often borrow weird stuff from each other (pasta included)! I was in the middle of making a lasagne one day before realising I didn't have enough lasagne pasta sheets. NDN to the rescue! They've been round to borrow a can of coconut milk. Other NDN has actually borrowed a cup of sugar, and another time asked if I could finish their wash off (with added fabric conditioner) as her washing machine had broken down mid-cycle. Another time an elderly neighbour phoned to ask if I could go in to make her bed and plump up her pillows as she had broken her ankle and couldn't manage it.

Nothing unusual about that whatsoever. I love that we feel comfortable enough with each other to be able to do it. Makes for a happy community.

If she'd mentioned she was making lasagne and you'd said 'Ooh, I've just run out of pasta, can we come and eat with you?', then yes, that would be weird. Asking to borrow a spare bag of pasta? Fine.

I don't think borrowing food is weird, but I think allowing yourself to completely run out of food when you live so rurally is. What would you have done if nobody had responded by dinner time?

Are you new to rural life and therefore unused to having shops available 24/7?

Maybe get a chest freezer and chuck a load of fish fingers and frozen vegetable bags in there so you always have a back-up.

Is he funny about asking for directions too?

It’s not weird it’s fine.

But I’m intrigued. Have you really not got any shops locally? Not a little local shop, or a petrol station shop. Or a McDonalds?

Is there literally nowhere open to get food close by?

I'm from the north of England and see this kind of thing as completely normal, especially between women. BUT my ex, and several other men I've known, find it horrifying.

I've stopped bulk buying pasta or anything else as I've had 2 weevil (biscuit beetles) infestations and one family of mice.

Sorry but I can’t imagine a world where I don’t have a packet of pasta in the cupboard. I suppose I’d be the neighbour people would ask for pasta from.

Your DH is being weird.

It's fine take no notice of your DH he doesn't know how we mums all club together to help each other when in need

Night - is the idea of living away from shops really that shocking to you!?

Totally normal, especially given how far you all are from a shop.