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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this is really inconvenient ?

407 replies

darkcloudlooming · 04/12/2017 17:24

So national grid are replacing the gas pipes on my street and in my home.. ( why don't people just stick to the saying if it's not broken don't fix it!) so today is 'my appointment' for them to come and disconnect my gas to do this. So I had to allow them in at 8am this morning ( I told them to come back at 9 as I said I had breakfast and kids to get off at school) so they came and disconnected it and now I have to wait all evening between 4pm-8pm for them to restore my gas supply. So they could come at any point whilst I'm cooking and I will have to cook tea ( gas cupboard is in my kitchen next to my cooker in a cupboard!)
So now my kids will have to eat their tea whilst having strangers come in and out of the house. It's annoyed me! And we have had no hot water all day!
Am I being unreasonable to think this is inconvenient and unacceptable ?

OP posts:
Roussette · 04/12/2017 20:39

OP I hate hate hate having people in the house too. We had some decorating done and I find it invasive, but the decorator is a nice bloke, I made him constant cuppas and gave him biscuits and was just cheery around him because he has to do a job.

And because I am pleasant I got a damn good job done.

Just be nice to these people please OP. Their job is hard enough

Theresnonamesleft · 04/12/2017 20:39

I get unbelievably stressed about the unknown. When I was with the ex he would hang around. Just like your dh should have done.
Now my adult dc do it.

Original poster
darkcloudlooming · 04/12/2017 20:39

@BritInUS1 yes they are essential I understand that. On the card it says 'someone has to be in the property whilst we do this work..'

So
If I'm in the school run.. or someone's at work all week what do you suggest they do? I don't trust my neighbours enough to leave them in the house and won't trust any parent In my children's school to take them..they should be compromise with jobs like this.. they can't just expect everyone to drop their lives

OP posts:
QueenieMum · 04/12/2017 20:40

Who do you trust to help you?

Theresnonamesleft · 04/12/2017 20:41

But you have a dh who was off.

QueenOfAllISurvey · 04/12/2017 20:41

Jesus, I'm sure the kids will cope with beans on toast for one night.

Hmm
Roussette · 04/12/2017 20:43

Now you are being deliberately irritating OP! I'll ask again *what are they supposed to do?"

These jobs are necessary. What is the answer with people like you? Dedicate a whole team of workmen to wait until you are ready for them to come into your kitchen?

HaudYerWheeshtBawbag · 04/12/2017 20:43

They did compromise, they turned up at 8, you didn’t allow them in, so requested they come back at 9 in which they did, then you say they are BU, because they dont compromise... Confused

Wondering if OP has anything between her ears Hmm

SillyMoomin · 04/12/2017 20:44

Loving this, cheers op, really needed a giggle tonight.

For th record- YABU. But everyone else has told you that

HidingBehindTheWallpaper · 04/12/2017 20:44

HidingBehindTheWallpaper what exactly do you propose they do?

Oh I’m not going to suggest they do anything, I think the OP is being hugely over dramatic. I didn’t notice where they said that there could be an engineer there but it would be after 9.30 and the op can’t cope.

Depending on where you are op it really isn’t that cold. Could you get all the children and you in one room and camp out for the night. That way you only have one room to keep warm.

HaudYerWheeshtBawbag · 04/12/2017 20:45

Yes OP someone has to be in when they turn the gas on/off.... that does not mean someone has to be in 24/7 just when they carry out the internal works!!!

RunYouJuiceBitch · 04/12/2017 20:46

The house I lived in until recently had no central heating. You could see your breath in the bathroom at this time of year. I didn't die.

LuluJakey1 · 04/12/2017 20:47

Honestly OP, you are just digging yourself a big hole here. Step away from the thread and ask for it to be removed. You’ll be able to laugh about it tomorrow night when it is all sorted out.

GabsAlot · 04/12/2017 20:50

im honestly worrid now

my pipes locally have never been switched off for maintenance-id rather they do it before something happens

op i have anxiety i know its not nice but what can they do book u in a week on tues?

its not a hairdressers appt its essential work

Thishatisnotmine · 04/12/2017 20:51

They are doing it on our road. No heating or hob from 8am till ablut 1pm on day then a couple of days later off again from 8am till about 6pm to allow them to connect everything to the main pipe. It's annoying but has to be done. Just wrapped baby and toddler in lots of clothes and had sandwiches for lunch and chips for dinner.

They dropped round letters, someone camr to each house, plenty of notice. I expect it was people saying "no, please come back in an hour" that lead to the switch on being delayed the second day...

GetMeOutOfHerePlease · 04/12/2017 20:57

If I'm in the school run.. or someone's at work all week what do you suggest they do? I don't trust my neighbours enough to leave them in the house and won't trust any parent In my children's school to take them..they should be compromise with jobs like this.. they can't just expect everyone to drop their lives

You said your husband is off today, he stays at home while you do school run. Same for 4pm, he stays at home while you’re doing the errands. If you’d rather be at home to oversee workmen, then your husband does school run and errands. If they turn up at mealtime, or bath time, husband either sorts workmen out, or sorts his children out.

Why do you need a parent to take children to school if there’s two parents at home?

In what way do you want them to compromise? For them to fit massive jobs involving several households around every bodies individual household routines?

How can they carry this work out in a way that would make you happy?

Voice0fReason · 04/12/2017 21:04

Yes it's inconvenient, but that doesn't make it unreasonable.
I do sense that you are going to update tomorrow to say that it's not going to be done until the end of the week.

You're just going to have to pull up your big girl pants and get on with it.

gillybeanz · 04/12/2017 21:04

So it's the fault of the gas engineers you don't trust anyone with your kids Grin
I've heard it all now.
Maybe they should just not bother disturbing people like you and let you suffer the bloody consequences.
I've never heard of such a reaction from somebody making you safe.
There are a number of people who refuse meter companies to check the safety of their supply and have to have a Police escort to enforce it too.
Are you one of these OP?

Original poster
darkcloudlooming · 04/12/2017 21:05

Oh and to be posters who said I refused to let them in tonight, I didn't. She said she would call me half an hour before the work man arrives but I knew by the way she was saying it that there was no guarantee it will be tonight. I agreed to her phoning me half an hour before but she hasn't so I'm guessing it's not possible to reconnect tonight. My only problem is that they didn't stick toThe time scales given to us so we have to stop what we are doing for nothing because they didn't stick to it h

OP posts:
Roussette · 04/12/2017 21:07

There may be reasons???

I imagine the work is quite complex, are you not capable of making allowances?

babyturtles · 04/12/2017 21:10

We had this too, was a bit miffed at the inconvenience but we had our gas off for 2 days and both days it got late and nobody came back to switch the gas back on.

Neighbour had phoned them out to come and switch theirs back on so they did ours at the same time.

BrizzleDrizzle · 04/12/2017 21:12

YABU. When they did the pipes here they didn't give advance notice and came at 5pm on a Friday night one December and turned off the gas and then buggered off for the weekend so I had a sick (non-contagious) child at home in a house with no heating so we ended up in a hotel for the weekend as National Grid refused to turn the gas back on until Monday even though they had turned it off ready to start work on Monday!

Sickoffamilydrama · 04/12/2017 21:18

We've had them recently and whilst you needed to be around it wasn't essential, I told the engineers I needed to go on the school run and do a few errands they took my number and called me when they were getting close.

They found a problem & then we recently had them back & they found another problem which we had no idea about it's so important they do this most of the gas lines are ancient.

OP have you tried CBT you'll always going to have the unexpected happen maybe you need to learn to cope with it better CBT could help.

So for example you thought I hate strangers in the house: break it down why do you hate them? Tell yourself they are coming into do a job. Keep giving yourself kind rational answers until your anxiety subsides don't get I to an anxious spiral.

If it makes you feel better the workman doing our street worked from 7.30am-11pm most nights so I'm sure it will be sorted soon.

arethereanyleftatall · 04/12/2017 21:24

It's unusual to not trust any parents at all at school to take your dc to school.
In response to your 'what would your have done?' I would have asked any one of about 20 different parents to take my dc to school, so that I could be in for the gas men at the time they asked for. (I'm just ignoring your dh in this scenario as you are doing).

Munchyseeds · 04/12/2017 21:28

Really sorry this is stressing you out...but

  1. it's life
  2. the world won't stop if no one has a shower for one night
  3. what's wrong with a sandwich and fruit for tea?
  4. it's not cold tonight...no heating on here today I think you are really making this more difficult than it needs to be, hope it's all sorted tomorrow
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