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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate it when people sing?

219 replies

Ilovemybrick2 · 13/07/2019 09:24

I don't mean choirs or humming a happy tune as you do your dishes. I mean randomly breaking out into song.

This might just be my mad family but I'll try and explain

So my mum and her immediate family members do have very nice singing voices and are known in their local area for this.

However they do this thing where they basically start singing and everyone has to stop and listen.

So for example, everyone is at one of their houses for auntie's 60th. Someone will say something that inadvertently reminds someone else of a song (say uncle Pete says the chicken in thyme is lovely, aunt Sally will break out into Wild Mountain Thyme)

And then she'll do this haunting a capella rendition and everyone is expected to stop what they're doing and listen to her, marvelling at her talent or whatever the fuck. Or in my case, wishing she'd be quiet.

Another example - the other day I was giving my mum a lift somewhere with my baby and older child in the back. Baby started fussing. Mum launched into haunting rendition of some fucking song she sings in her choir. Baby fussed more. I had a conversation with older DC regarding baby's rattle, where it was and if DC could reach it. All the time mum is warbling away soulfully. I asked her if she could stop singing a minute so I could hear DC. She then got really ratty with me and snapped "I'm allowed to sing if I want!". But I know that she was pissed off because the car didn't fall silent at the power of her voice, instead we went on a verbal hunt for the fucking rattling dragonfly toy.

Seriously, they do this all the fucking time and it makes me cringe to the point where I want to claw out my eardrums. I feel like a mortified teenager.

AIBU? Am I being petty or is this genuinely annoying as fuck?

I'm not even sure what annoys me about it, I think it's the soulful attitude

OP posts:
shumway · 13/07/2019 12:24

YANBU.

drizzleinbrizzle · 13/07/2019 12:24

And not like you might all have a sing song and take the piss, it's full on Glee type performances without the shit choreography.

Oh no I am imagining the Kids from Fame type situation now!

LloydColeandtheCoconuts · 13/07/2019 12:25

Ha ha! Sorry OP but I'd annoy the hell out of you! I burst into song whenever I can! My DS (4) hates it. My DD (1) loves it. Smile DP is also very musical so gets the guitar out and we'll have a sing - harmonies and all!
Yes, you'd really hate me OP! Grin

yumscrumfatbum · 13/07/2019 12:27

Ha ha this reminds me of my family! Whenever we had visitors my Dad would whip the guitar out and they'd all start singing. As a child I found it super cringy. My sister however joined in and even assembled the family group to sing at her wedding. My Dad now regularly posts videos on facebook of my Mum singing while he accompanies on guitar. My Mum has a terrible voice but I'm the only family member who can hear this!!!

IfItIsntYerManRobert · 13/07/2019 12:30

Lloyd - never mind the OP - are you not getting a massive insight into how everyone else sees you?! Grin

Thegracefuloctopus · 13/07/2019 12:36

Well this gave me a giggle! The way this and your replys are written, op, really tickled me! YANBU

mintich · 13/07/2019 12:36

My husband's family do this! It's so cringe!!!

MrsAJCrowley · 13/07/2019 12:50

My bloody mother does this and it’s incredibly irritating. We are quite a musical family and will sing along to stuff on the radio with no issues. However, she will also randomly break out into song. 9 times out of 10 it’ll be in tune but it will NEVER be the right tempo. She will always slow everything down so it becomes a dirge. She gets properly annoyed when I ask her to speed up or shut up as well. It’s unbelievably grating

TroysMammy · 13/07/2019 12:55

You must feel like you are living in a musical.

My 9 yo niece does this one minute she's talking, the next she bursts into a song which has nothing to do with the conversation.

DrFoxtrot · 13/07/2019 12:59

Brilliant thread Grin I've no anecdotes, I'm just here to hear all yours!

LippyChick · 13/07/2019 13:01

Now I have the good fortune to come from a family of inveterate piss takers. Behaviour like this would be rewarded with a full- bore, eyeball-rolling, clasped-hands opera rendition of ‘frigging in the rigging’
‘Freegeeng een tha reegeeng, caws there’s fu-HUCK all e-HELSE to DOOOO!’ Ending with hands uplifted and eyes raised to heaven.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right?

Bignicetree · 13/07/2019 13:07

Oh dear.
You wouldn't like my house

littlepaddypaws · 13/07/2019 13:17

when dc were younger we used to watch 'horrible histories' and they used to sing with the songs on there. my turn came one day when i was hanging out the washing and i was humming 'george III' song then really got into it, with the words and finally with arm waving and dramatics of bellowing 'as true king my reign began though i was now older than your nan as the ruler of our nation i banned my wife from my coronation, after all the pies that i got through, i died ten years later !only to be to yelled at by a dc 'you missed some words out' and an applause from my neighbour peering over the fence Blush. ever since i've used a tumble drier and dh does most of the gardening. Smile

Youngandfree · 13/07/2019 13:21

YES!!! Yanbu I’m Irish and nothing bugs me more than being at a party having a great laugh and all of a sudden we are being told to sshh sshh because Mary has decided to launch (without warning) into a rendition of “the fields of athenry” cracks me up every time!!

lljkk · 13/07/2019 13:25

Oh dear, many of you all would hate me. Not only do I sing a bit but I sing super badly. People have ridiculed me my whole life for it.

That's ok. We don't need to hang out. I'm happy without your company.

EleanorReally · 13/07/2019 13:35

hilarious @littlepaddypaws Grin

Uselessname · 13/07/2019 13:39

Those saying oh you'd hate me/my family then are missing the point I think - we're not talking about singing to yourself for pleasure, or singing along to things in a fun way, clearly the issue is the 'performance ' and the expectation that everyone must stop and listen, rather than the singing itself

Chovihano · 13/07/2019 13:40

I think YABU but that's because we are a musical family who do similar. it isn't always just singing though, it's various instruments too.
Family member will just pick one up and join in.
It's normal to us, but I can se why it may be weird to others.

vampirethriller · 13/07/2019 14:01

It's not the singing that's the problem. It's the "look at me I'm SINGING" that's the problem.

exWifebeginsat40 · 13/07/2019 14:09

DP has a friend who usually has a guitar lying around. no biggie.

except for the night, about a year ago, when DP popped in to see him and his friend had just broken up with yet another hilariously unsuitable girlfriend. i’ve written a song, says the friend. have a listen to this.

and he proceeded to play an extended version of some off-key 12 bar blues riff and sang soulfully about pain, misery and Devil Women, almost in tears, and nowhere near the key he was torturing the guitar in. this was delivered with full Eye Contact. it went on for about ten minutes, with full eye contact manintained throughout.

DP counts it as the most toe-curling, throw-myself-off-the-balcony-to-escape-it, hideously embarrassing ten minutes of his life.

i mean, what do you DO? eye contact is excruciating at the best of times, but when delivered at maximum intensity whilst wailing and weeping and doing dreadful things to a guitar it must have been horrific.

it still makes me laugh just thinking about it. the HORROR.

Whisky2014 · 13/07/2019 14:19

Those saying oh you'd hate me/my family then are missing the point I think - we're not talking about singing to yourself for pleasure, or singing along to things in a fun way, clearly the issue is the 'performance ' and the expectation that everyone must stop and listen, rather than the singing itself

It's not the singing that's the problem. It's the "look at me I'm SINGING" that's the problem.

Yep exactly. And the people on the thread saying that...Well it's not surprising they don't "get" it. It's all about them! :D

dontbesostupid · 13/07/2019 14:22

How embarrassing and narcissistic.
“Do be quiet mum. It’s not an appropriate time to warble on.” should be enough to shut her up next time.

Knittedjimmychoos · 13/07/2019 14:26

Peeps these people add colour to life leave them alone to express GrinI'd much rather this than the absolute silence, talk of nothing other than money or dirt I get at my in laws.

Give me some drama and colour any day Grin let them sing...

Fluffyscamp · 13/07/2019 14:30

I once went on a “date” when I was about 16 with a guy who I didn’t particularly fancy but everyone kept telling me he was the loveliest guy and he really liked me so I thought why not give the guy a chance. Anyhow the date turned out to be babysitting his sisters kids and meeting his sister and her friend first so that they could interrogate me.

I was actually having a pretty good giggle with them all when he asked me to sit in the garden with him for 5 minutes before his sister set off for her night out and he ever so earnestly burst into ‘flying without wings’ complete with intense eye contact and very serious trying to be romantic face. Poor guy looked gutted when I panicked and remembered I had to be home immediately and ran home.

I saw him the other day on the school run and had to try really really hard not to burst out laughing at the memory.

WineGummyBear · 13/07/2019 14:31

Badcat666

Please please tell me you have done this with the kazoo?

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