Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To lie about his age for free admission?

592 replies

WaitForCake · 16/07/2020 10:29

It's DS's 3rd birthday in a couple of weeks. I'm taking him to an attraction.

It's free for under 3s, but adult price at 3 upwards. Money is tight, but after a tough few months between lockdown and his DF moving out after our split, I want to do something nice for him.
As there is no inherent difference in what he'll get from the experience the day before his birthday and on the day of his birthday, WIBU to just buy him a 2 year old ticket?

I can't take him the day earlier due to work (I did consider this already).

YANBU - get the 2 year old ticket
YABU - pay the adult price for him

OP posts:
excuseforfights · 16/07/2020 16:03

@Iamthewombat

What’s comical about some posters on this thread is that anybody who actually understands revenue and pricing and has a view other than ‘Theme parks are greedy and should just charge less and let my kids in for free’ is ‘patronising’ or a ‘a sanctimonious perfect Peter’(??? Is that the best you can do?), but anybody planning to dishonestly obtain services is fully justified and should be encouraged.

Anyone can tell you Chessington 'has a huge investment in plant and machinery, salaries to pay etc. needs to bring in £Xm per year just to break even'.

We didn't need a chartered accountant to tell us this! It's worrying that you don't get that and it isn't clever to patronise.

Attacking people who are cleverer and more knowledgeable than you makes you look silly and bitter.

Come on, you're a man aren't you? Grin that would explain the mansplaining.

WilliamTheToad · 16/07/2020 16:08

@ThePlantsitter

OP you have had some really rude - and really fucking patronising- replies on here, I agree.
Yup.
JaniceWebster · 16/07/2020 16:11

Come on, you're a man aren't you? grin that would explain the mansplaining. Hmm

of course, no woman has enough brain to be a chartered accountant and to express a solid opinion - we belong in the kitchen and are barely able to deal with gossips. Anyone a bit more articulate or who disagrees with you must be a man.

You tell us as it is excuseforfights why don't you.

Iamthewombat · 16/07/2020 16:14

Anyone can tell you Chessington 'has a huge investment in plant and machinery, salaries to pay etc. needs to bring in £Xm per year just to break even'.

Can they? Even the posters who think that Chessington, and other theme parks, should reduce children’s admission fees by 50% and not increase adults’ admission fees accordingly? They don’t seem capable of joining the dots.

WilliamTheToad · 16/07/2020 16:15

People who don't lie, fraud or cheat as a matter of principle because they can get away with it?

I do not beleive, for one second, that those so vocally opposing the OP never do any of these things in their own lives (for their own gain).

They'd come up with loads of excuses why, in their case, it's different but they'd do it all the same.

Some of those people will have lied to smooth over a conversation so they didn't have to deal with awkwardness, or cheated on their partners, or not been totally honest on a CV, or up-played their own input into a work project, or slowed down just before speed camera to make it look like they were always doing the right speed, or said they were busy when receiving an invite for an event they didn't want to go to, or called in sick then they weren't, or said they were almost finished with a work project that they had barely started, downplayed spending on a mortgage application, up-played value of goods when insuring them. On and on - each for the gain of the liar.

They just don't so this specific lie.

PlatoAteMySnozcumber · 16/07/2020 16:17

Whilst technically correct that it is fraud (not theft), I do find the strength of some of these responses comical. I say this as one of the few posters on quite a long thread that viewed taking a discarded plant cutting from a shop floor as theft.

JaniceWebster · 16/07/2020 16:21

I do not beleive, for one second, that those so vocally opposing the OP never do any of these things in their own lives (for their own gain).

just because many people
do smuggle food in cinemas when they are not allowed to
do smuggle drinks on cruise ships, in festivals parties or weddings
do smuggle food in soft plays
do take cash in hands and forget to put it on their tax return...
and try to save a penny by blatantly disregarding the rules doesn't mean everyone does it...

JaniceWebster · 16/07/2020 16:22

I do find the strength of some of these responses comical.

Do you? I find the length to justify and defend what is only a simple lie a lot more comical

AryaStarkWolf · 16/07/2020 16:24

do smuggle food in cinemas when they are not allowed to

You mean people genuinely don't do this??? Grin

Disclaimer - I only smuggle in a drink, I buy the Popcorn there :p Only half a criminal

Fromthebirdsnest · 16/07/2020 16:25

I'd say he's 2 for sure, my husband is the worst for this 😂 x

Iamthewombat · 16/07/2020 16:25

Some of those people will have lied to smooth over a conversation so they didn't have to deal with awkwardness, or cheated on their partners, or not been totally honest on a CV, or up-played their own input into a work project, or slowed down just before speed camera to make it look like they were always doing the right speed, or said they were busy when receiving an invite for an event they didn't want to go to, or called in sick then they weren't, or said they were almost finished with a work project that they had barely started, downplayed spending on a mortgage application, up-played value of goods when insuring them. On and on - each for the gain of the liar.

It’s interesting that you’re sure that anybody disapproving of the OP’s actions has done all some of all of those things.

Which of the above transgressions have led to direct financial loss by another party, and how?

Do you think that you can justify anything with ‘let he who is without sin cast the first stone’? So, to use one of your examples above, anyone who kindly tells their friend that they look nice at an event when they really don’t, is as bad a somebody who commits fraud or steals?

excuseforfights · 16/07/2020 16:27

@JaniceWebster

of course, no woman has enough brain to be a chartered accountant and to express a solid opinion - we belong in the kitchen and are barely able to deal with gossips. Anyone a bit more articulate or who disagrees with you must be a man.

Oh wow, you don't even want to know what I do for living! Financial modelling is part of my job.

I think Wombat is a man because of all the mansplaining!

Damnloginpopup · 16/07/2020 16:28

He's two.

I'm his carer.

Put that in the microwave until it goes ping Grin

WilliamTheToad · 16/07/2020 16:34

Which of the above transgressions have led to direct financial loss by another party, and how?

Ah. I see. It's only when money is involved that it becomes wrong?

So, to use one of your examples above, anyone who kindly tells their friend that they look nice at an event when they really don’t, is as bad a somebody who commits fraud or steals?

Aside from the fact that you didn't use one of my examples, you made up a new one...

No. I think life is complex and these things are often somewhere on a scale. As in, I don't think getting a ticket in this example anywhere near bad enough to warrant the shit dealt to the OP on this thread.

And yes. I get consider it wrong to give an OP such a harsh judgement for an act, all the time knowing you (the general you, not you specifically) also do things that would attract similar judgement from others. But that you keep quiet about.

Porcupineinwaiting · 16/07/2020 16:36

Well I totally lie over all sorts of things. It's a valuable social skill, only weirdos and the ultra-rude think it is, of necessity, a bad thing.

PlatoAteMySnozcumber · 16/07/2020 16:37

Do you? I find the length to justify and defend what is only a simple lie a lot more comical

I don’t believe I went to any attempts to defend or justify it. I do not however agree that this is akin to continual fraud. Sentencing guidelines would agree with me on that one. This is pretty much the lowest level fraud there is. Illegal, yes, but not the same in terms of culpability as some posters have suggested.

Suggesting her husband left her as she is a liar and her son will grow up to be a criminal as some people have done is a bit of a stretch.

A google search tells me in a survey that 1/3 people have admitted to lying about the age of their children to receive a discount.

PlatoAteMySnozcumber · 16/07/2020 16:38

Which of the above transgressions have led to direct financial loss by another party, and how?

Erm, loads of things on that list are fraud.

Fanthorpe · 16/07/2020 16:41

Lying is a valuable social skill? No it’s not. It’s a way of making yourself acceptable to others through deception. I’d have a bit of a think if I were you about why you’re so ashamed of yourself and what you do that you have to tell lies.

Porcupineinwaiting · 16/07/2020 16:46

@Fanthorpe that's hilarious! Grin What on earth makes you think I'm lying about myself? Teen fashion choices and MiL's taste in decor mostly. Although I did tell my mum that I was doing better than I was when I was scarily sick in April. Maybe I should have been honest with her?

Fanthorpe · 16/07/2020 16:52

You said ‘all sorts of things’ inferring it’s habitual. Up to you though, if it makes your life easier.

excuseforfights · 16/07/2020 16:55

I'm finding it really comical how hard @JaniceWebster is working to convince us she finds all this comical Wink

xolotltezcatlopoca · 16/07/2020 16:57

Actually I was thinking, why would you want to taint the memory of child's birthday with cheating?

JaniceWebster · 16/07/2020 16:58

excuseforfights
we could go on all day, I am not sure I can be bothered!

Toilenstripes · 16/07/2020 16:59

This thread is a shit show.

Surviving1 · 16/07/2020 17:03

It is very tempting.