To want my step mother to put a bit of effort into a small favour I'm doing her...?

[CarolineTheChemist]

Hello Mumsnetters!
I need your honest and brutal opinions...

A few months ago I moved into a beautiful old house and decided to make a new name sign for the front gate as the existing one was horrible. I paint as a hobby so I'm good with a paintbrush, and the old owners had kindly left some old bits of wood and a pot of black wood paint in the garage.

I spent ages looking for a font that I felt reflected the character of the house and it's quirky name. Once DH and I had chosen our favourite font, I painted an old plank black, stencilled the house name on the wood and filled it with white acrylic. Naturally as a painted I enjoyed this and got a lot of satisfaction when I hung it on the gate.

This weekend we had a house warming party and I got a lot of compliments on my new sign. My step mother asked me to make her one as she doesn't like their current one. One of my nearby neighbours drove past recently and later text me asking where I got it from, so I offered to make her one too.

I spent some time looking up fonts for both of them - they both have different style houses so I spent some time thinking about what might suit them, and gave them about 30/40 examples to choose their faves from. My step mother hasn't looked at the options I sent her, and instead has just replied saying she wants hers to be the same font as mine.

I don't feel okay about that. They live about 15 miles away so I guess it's not really a big deal, but I spent so much time choosing a font to reflect the character of our house that I don't like it that she's not putting in that effort for hers.

I glibly replied to her earlier saying she could only have that font if she could pick it out of the selection I sent her. Now I regret that as it could be seen as a bit childish.... When I agreed to make her one I didn't expect her to want the exact same thing as ours.

The question is am I being unreasonable in feeling irritated by this?

tell us what font you chose for your house

Or do it Comic Sans.

@Baguetteaboutit 🤣🤣🤣

@CarolineTheChemist please just make the sign with the same font as yours for your SM, do you really want to blow this out of proportion and in the future be known as the crazy font woman?

Take this as a huge compliment!

Just show your disdain towards her and her font-stealing idea by making hers in comic-sans .

Goose a similar font and do the sign.

Jesus. You resent her for... admiring your sign?! Just make the damn thing. The font doesn't matter in the slightest!

@AutumnCrow Cross post .

I do see your point of view but can also understand why some people thinks it's petty. Could you make her a sign and pick a font that is similar to yours but not exactly the same?

I have my work email signature in Blackadder, but I'm only allowed to use it internally with my direct line manager.

Totally irrelevant to the thread, I know......

Come on, it's just a font. It can't really reflect everything there is about you and your house. You're being a bit 'I'm not even pregnant yet but my sister stole my babyname' about it. She's given you a massive compliment so either make it how you've done it which is what she wants or say you've run out of decent wood or something and don't.
Think about how you'd feel in her shoes. Honestly...

You’re being unreasonable! Sorry ! She may not even know what a font is . My 70 year old mother wouldn’t have a notion . I’d take it as a compliment , it sounds lovely 😊

I do understand where you're coming from but unfortunately I still think you're being unreasonable!

Lesson learned though I guess.

Honestly?

This has to be the most boring thread I have ever read.

And mind numbingly petty.

This reminds me of people who think they own a baby name, in your case you think you own the font. . I really wouldn't make a big thing out of a font. Life is too short.

I'm really puzzled as to why this is bothering you so much.

She liked your sign so much she asked you to make one for her... surely you should be taking that as a compliment?

Also assuming her house has a different name, it will be different to your sign anyway. If you don't want her to have one, you shouldn't have agreed to make one.

YABU but if this is something that will steal the joy from the sign for you then I'd opt for a font that's close enough that no-one will really notice the difference but you'll know that you've managed to keep your font just for you. I'm imagining you huddling the sign like Gollum in LOTR

Choose a font that is like yours, but not yours. She won't be able to tell the difference. Most people can't.
I'm in a Century Schoolbook house.

X-post with Lillith !

YABVVU and childish. Just make her the sign she wants.

Yabu and totally ridiculous.

If I had to look through 30-40 different fonts and choose one I think I'd go insane from sheer boredom.

Just pick one that is similar to yours but not the same. She will almost definitely not be able to tell the difference and will still be happy with the end result. She is none the wiser and you wont get irrationally angry every time you see the sign.

Just use a very similar but not quite the same font.

I am not artistic. I can barely tell Times New Roman from Comic Sans. And I don’t really care. If I think something is nice I like it as it is. I don’t have a “mind’s eye” where I can imagine it similar but with a detail changed. My brain doesn’t do that.

Saying “choose one of these fonts” to me is probably like me asking you to choose your favourite prime number - you neither know nor care! (Incidentally mine is 37.)

I have my work email signature in Blackadder, but I'm only allowed to use it internally with my direct line manager

I've just had a little play around with Blackadder now that is a weird sentence

It's no Calibri is it?

OP, yes you are BU.

Do your SM the sign she wants.

My golly, 30 fonts is extreme! If you'd prefer for her to have something different to yours (which I don't think is unreasonable) maybe send 3 alternatives and say "Option 4 is our sign, but I've found 1, 2 and 3 which match the style of your house, what do you reckon?"