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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

How "brave" is your OH?

57 replies

Areyouhavingalaugh · 11/07/2018 23:23

My DH has form for this one.
Currently on holiday in a rented cottage where bathroom is downstairs.

Him: Umm... can you come and have a look at this?
Me: What...?
Him: Umm... I think there's a mouse in the bathroom... either that or it's a big moth
Me: Confused Well which is it? You know I don't do live mice...
Him: Not sure. So can you come and look?
(10yo DD appears from upstairs)
DD (ashen): What mouse?
Me: Dad thinks there's a mouse in the bathroom. Where exactly did you see it?
DH: Behind the bag of loo rolls.
Cue me, as per bloody usual, moving things and a small, brown furry torpedo shooting out of the bathroom and under the fridge.
DD: I don't like mice
Me: Go upstairs and close your door.
DD Off like a shot.
After much furniture shifting, broom rattling and torch waving about plus dog going demented, we finally decide that it's gone out of the door. Only time will tell, tomorrow morning could be interesting...

The last twice this happened we were at home and had our now sadly deceased cat. He caught them, played with them a little and then had presumably flattened them given the state they were in. He was found lying very proudly next to two rigor mortis mice by screaming DH . Guess who had the joy of removing the corpses...

My hero...

OP posts:
Singlenotsingle · 11/07/2018 23:27

What a wuss Shock

MyKingdomForBrie · 11/07/2018 23:30

What on Earth is scary about a mouse?!

LoopyLou1981 · 11/07/2018 23:31

Absolutely bloody useless! I deal with anything that has more than two legs in our house. I hate (as in truly terrified) spiders but, because I refuse to have our kids end up with my silly phobias, I end up faffing around with a smile on my face and the ‘cup/piece of paper’ method of removing them 🤢

Harrykanesrightsock · 11/07/2018 23:31

Mine will run in the opposite direction while pushing me towards danger.

However I’m ok with that. It is very stereotypical to think men are braver than women. My DDs Know who to come to in a crisis.

FASH84 · 11/07/2018 23:32

DH is pretty brave with stuff like that, mice, spiders, giant moths don't bother him. He's also intervened in an armed robbery and a serious street assault. Getting him to cook something without decimating it or to notice the house needs cleaning without being asked or having a schedule, different matter. We all have different strengths!

JaceLancs · 11/07/2018 23:33

Very brave
I was gob smacked years into relationship when I found out he had done something awesome in terms of risking his life to save someone else’s (full on bravery award - made national press etc) he doesn’t talk about it
He’s also good with birds (my phobia) rodents and amphibians
Not so good with anyone else’s blood or body products and hates hospitals though

scrivette · 11/07/2018 23:33

OH is very brave... until it comes to stag beetles!

I don't like mice, he deals with them and he doesn't like stag beetles, I rescue them, anything else we are happy to share!

SleightOfMind · 11/07/2018 23:36

Aw, how ‘brave’ is he in other areas?

If someone was being horrible to you in a social situation, would he stop them, or be scared of what people might think?

My DH would wrestle a bear to protect the ones he loves.
Show him a spider though...Grin

Neolara · 11/07/2018 23:39

My DH is very brave with mice. And spiders. And he delivered Dc3 without breaking sweat. I, on the other hand, am absolutely useless in any kind of animal emergency.

mogloveseggs · 11/07/2018 23:40

My dh is like sleights but with snakes

LuluJakey1 · 11/07/2018 23:42

I have just won his admiration by catching a small daddy long legs which had got caught on bedroom window our insect netting trying to escape. It got free and was fluttering round. DH was standing in a corner with a pillow to defend himself if it attacked him. I scooped it in my hand and put it outside. He is very impressed.
I deal with the mice and voles and bats the cats bring in. I catch the spiders. Neither of us can manage big moths that fly round in the house at night if they get in. Neither of us can deal with huge spiders or daddy long legs if they are on the move.

We were talking last week about The Titanic and I asked him if he would save me before himself if there was only one seat in the last life-boat. He said absolutely he would. He asked me if I would save him before myself and I said no, I would save myself Grin . I meant it .

SomeKnobend · 11/07/2018 23:44

My dh is brave with spiders but hates woodlice. I'm brave with woodlice but hate spiders. It's a good match.

Original poster
Areyouhavingalaugh · 11/07/2018 23:48

Grin Generally fabulously useful at negotiating contracts for a better price and that sort of stuff (I'm really crap at that!) or defender of his family(not sure how they're related) but nothing small, scrabbly, multi-legged, flighty and run quickly things. Apparently I'm better because I've had guinea pigs Confused

OP posts:
Ancientmummyofwooooos · 11/07/2018 23:49

Mine is the biggest wuss i know, he once got frightened by a hedgehog. I left it out some ham and water and went out to check if it was about- wuss followed and i could hear it snuffling up the walkway next to our house, coming up the path -wuss heard it too- grabbed hold of me and pulled me in front of him as a sheild between him and hedgehog- then shot in the front door as tiny hedgehog rounded the corner- and locked me out!! Git!

Gruffalina72 · 11/07/2018 23:52

DH was standing in a corner with a pillow to defend himself if it attacked him. Grin Was he also squealing about their deadly venom and short fangs by any chance?

Somerville · 11/07/2018 23:53

Frightened by a hedgehog?! Shock Grin

DH isn't frightenened of things, but he's a bit of a clean freak so he would hate to stumble across a mouse. It would definitely be me emptying mouse traps, if we were even invaded by them...

LuluJakey1 · 11/07/2018 23:54

He might be scared of moths but he is not scared of people and would put himself in danger to protect others. I once, when we first met and worked together for a year, saw him deal with a completely out of control, raging, violent teenage boy who had gone to his classroom to assault someone. I was called on the emergency code and arrived to this boy in the corridor attacking the door of the room with a chair to get in, swearing, threatening, screaming, kicking the door, and DH standing inside with his hand holding the handle in a lock, his weight against the door and his back against the glass panel so that the 30 students inside were not hurt. He stayed there for 20 minutes until the police arrived whilst another senior member of staff and I stood on either side of the boy - about 10 feet away each and tried to calm him down. The police had to restrain him and arrest him. DH just taught his next lesson. I was shaking. He came to my office at the end of the lesson to borrow some money for fish and chips from the canteen and check I was ok.

Kursk · 11/07/2018 23:56

He is not frightened by snakes, spiders or mice, he is also really calm....which I am not!

DiegoMadonna · 11/07/2018 23:59

Phobias are weird aren't they? I'm TERRIFIED of spiders. I don't even like looking at them. It's pretty irrational. But I just can't understand how people can be scared of mice. They're cute and furry!

ScreamingValenta · 12/07/2018 00:02

Neither of us have any fear of mice, spiders etc. We pick up spiders bare-handed and put them somewhere safe outside, before our cats have a chance to eat them (boak). Heights are what neither of us like - generally DH braves the ladder while I stand underneath it to break his fall, because he's ridiculously thin and would do me less damage than the other way round.

LurpakIsTheOnlyButter · 12/07/2018 00:07

DH sleeps with a bat next to his side of the bed in case we are attacked in the night.

If the house alarm goes off in the early hours he sends me to find the armed assailant, sans bat. I am 5ft 0 and under 8 stone. He is a rugby player.

I think I am the brave one Hmm

SleightOfMind · 12/07/2018 00:09

gruffalina, either that or they’re ‘huge mosquitoes’.

Poor buggers don’t stand a chance.

DH also left me, DS1 (in pushchair), and dear departed ancient DDog in a field of nosy, friendly cows, on his own family’s land.

He’d insisted we go through the fields. I agreed if he helped with the buggy.

The cows crowded round us and he bloody legged it!
I had to whoosh them all away while dragging the pushchair through the mud.

booniloo · 12/07/2018 00:10

My husband is a firefighter- he literally goes into fires for a living- and he has been known to sleep on the sofa rather than share a bedroom with a spider!

DramaAlpaca · 12/07/2018 00:13

My DH will bravely tackle anything, with the exception of bees. I have to deal with them as he's allergic to bee stings. He's totally unsqueamish and unflappable in a crisis.

Iwantaunicorn · 12/07/2018 00:13

My DH is the bravest man I know - did all my ivf injections like he did injections for a living even though he’s got a needle phobia, gets rid of all creepy crawlies and I know he’d take on anything to protect me and the kids. Unless it’s a giant spider, in which case he’s out, and I’m in.