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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Either this isn't normal or I'm a shit mum!

77 replies

SartBimpson · 20/03/2019 13:31

Was chatting to a mum at the school this morning, she was asking if we got to keep all our dc's schoolbooks at the end of term. Told her I didn't think so, she said it's a shame as she keeps everything of her dd's. So much so, she has a storage unit Confused. She said she just moved a 'massive' box there from Jan '19. Surely this isn't normal? Our dc are year 1 btw Hmm

OP posts:
DontDribbleOnTheCarpet · 20/03/2019 13:59

I don't keep anything really, except for certificates and particularly good reports, plus small woodwork/metalwork projects. I have four children and an average sized house, so I'd be very quickly swamped if I hoarded every last bit of tat they bring home.
I'm not at all sentimental about this kind of thing and I know that my attitude to it can seem heartless to some people. Fair enough, but I don't judge their hoard of tat and think I am entitled to the same consideration.

Clarl · 20/03/2019 13:59

I don’t keep everything but I do have a box of drawings/paintings and any photos nursery/school sent home.

PhilomenaButterfly · 20/03/2019 14:00

PFB? 😂

cjt110 · 20/03/2019 14:00

Can't find the meme I wanted but this'll do...

Either this isn't normal or I'm a shit mum!
Badtasteflump · 20/03/2019 14:01

Renting a storage unit sounds nuts - just how many children/how much stuff does she have? Confused

I do keep random school work and the books they bring home at the end of term - but I have 3 DC, one of whom has left school and two teenagers, and so far I have only managed to fill one plastic storage box.

They will probably never want to see any of it again, but if they do its in the loft, gathering dust...

Ambi · 20/03/2019 14:01

I don't keep anything but my Mum & Grandma cannot throw anything out so I've passed them on to read, I imagine I'll be seeing the tat again upon a house clearance.
I certainly wouldn't be paying for a unit to store the tat.

abbey44 · 20/03/2019 14:03

They're only in Year 1 and she has a storage unit already?? It's going to be an aircraft hangar by the time the child leaves school...

DemelzaPoldarksshinerrefiner · 20/03/2019 14:05

Lighthearted response alert !
Immediately report her to the Minimalist Police 🚨
Stage an intervention, at the storage unit. Bring largest SD you can find to take a picture every article for her - before the MPD - impound the lot for emotion sparking forensic testing.

Fluffycloudland77 · 20/03/2019 14:06

What’s the kid supposed to do with it all though?

Heathcliff27 · 20/03/2019 14:10

I kept all my DS school stuff in a box up the loft apart from the xmas tree decs that get put on tree every year. When he moved out I gave him the box and he promptly chucked it all in recycling bucket 🙈

Thesnobbymiddleclassone · 20/03/2019 14:13

OMG no. I've kept a few things but most drawings and craft from school get passed on to other relatives who live far away under the premise of "oh look what DD made at school. Thiught you'd like it".

Works everytime.

Topseyt · 20/03/2019 14:13

She sounds batshit to me.

I've never kept much of the shit that mine produced at school. I doubt I would be able to get into my house myself by now if I had as there was so much of it. I have three DDs. The eldest started school in January 2000 and the youngest is 16 now, so in the lower sixth form. That would be a shit ton of stuff.

Renting a storage unit for it is taking things to extremes. If she is doing that then she obviously has more money than sense.

Or clearly I am also a totally shit parent. Grin

WinterHeatWave · 20/03/2019 14:13

I keep reports.
I've also got a folder where any certificates they get can be stored. They love looking through this.

I've got 4 years worth of (filtered) art, but we are moving in a couple of weeks. Want to look and see if I can get a mini photobook of all the art from this school. Otherwise that's getting binned too!

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 20/03/2019 14:14

The woman is a hoarder! She is just building a nice hoard which her DC will have to dispose of in due course.

Much better to keep the few outstanding bits of work, and maybe a file of photos of bygone masterpieces.

GraceMarks · 20/03/2019 14:14

My parents kept one or two things from when we were in primary school. Once we got to secondary school, I think they took the view that it was up to us to decide what we wanted to keep or not, assuming we could find anywhere to put it in our rooms. I hung onto some of the exercise books where my friends and I had written amusing things in the back, but that was about it. And when I dug them out years later and re-read these things, and realised that we weren't nearly as witty as we thought we were, they went in the shredder as well!

I must admit, it's lovely to occasionally come across and re-read an old essay or story and have a few moments of nostalgia, so if I were ever to have kids I would probably hang onto selected bits and pieces. Certainly not to the extent of having to hire out a storage unit for it all, though.

Topseyt · 20/03/2019 14:15

Oh, and in my experience exercise books and worksheets that are kept at all never get looked at again. That is what the recycling bin is for. So that is where I filed it.

thecatsarecrazy · 20/03/2019 14:15

I was given a huge pile of books the weekend we were moving house. I stuck them in a cupboard and they sat there for a year and a half. I didn't look at them and binned them all the weekend before last. There are more under my sons bed I will chuck when I sort his room out.

anniehm · 20/03/2019 14:16

No, another bad mum here. We've moved 3 times and each time I discarded everything that wasn't that year. I've now recently had dd1 discard all her school stuff (she's at university) and dd2 has recently sorted subjects she no longer does.

AnnaMagnani · 20/03/2019 14:18

Batshit.

My DM has some reports and the first thing I ever wrote. The whole lot fills one small box.

MIL has every school book her DCs ever had plus boxes and boxes of photos, endless other crap.

I have told DH it is not coming here when she dies, he can fillet it down to the size of DM's box.

Tigek · 20/03/2019 14:20

This reply has been deleted

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cantbearsed1 · 20/03/2019 14:20

I wonder what the kid will do with it all? I threw out most of what my mum had kept, and it was nowhere near enough to fill a storage unit.

Hushnownobodycares · 20/03/2019 14:21

Every so often down the years I have been presented with rediscovered mementos of my school years. I don't think I have once thanked DM for curating them mainly because I don't want them.

AlexaAmbidextra · 20/03/2019 14:27

What does it matter to you?

How tedious. Why do people respond like this? On every thread of this type you always get a poster who feels compelled to ask this. These are discussion boards. Not everything that we comment on needs to impact us directly. If that was the case then the boards would have only a proportion of the traffic they do.

Celticrose · 20/03/2019 14:29

My mum kept stuff and then when I got married would arrive at my house with a boot load of it. It usually went straight into the bin wished I had kept the Bunty Annuals

NetballHoop · 20/03/2019 14:29

Could it be that she rents storage space anyway for other items and also uses it to keep school work in? That would seem much more likely than an entire storage unit of school tat.

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