AIBU to think there is often really terrible advice on here?

[Ahmadame]

I mean, people suggest completely random shit and then get quite indignant if an OP says they won’t be taking it.

I don’t know if it’s just me but I regularly see weird suggestions on here, or suggestions that are clearly unworkable (like ‘home school your kids’) and I sometimes don’t know if they are serious or not.

What’s the worst bit of MN advice you’ve seen?

Well home educating your kids can be a solution but I agree it's niche.

There is a great deal of terrible advice. Do you really feel surprised? There are enough people in the world to vote for Brexit and play the lottery.

When people say 'No is a complete sentence' if the OP is asking how to get out of doing something. It is not a complete sentence and just saying No, without any explanation will just make you look rude and weird.

Nor the worst I've seen, but earlier today a charmer told an unmarried SAHM, who is not on the deeds or mortgage for her partner's home despite putting her £25k divorce settlement into it, that anyone who said this was a cause for concern and her relationship could fail was just "bitter".

User has a clear agenda, but OP might not have been familiar with that person's other pearls of wisdom.

When someone has made a thread about their partner being a dick and the advice is to show her partner the thread so he knows what everyone thinks of him. What good is that going to do?!

I’m not so sure about the advice - I see just as much ridiculousness from OPs - wanting advice but refusing to accept they’ve done anything to cause the situation.

Oh, and "show them this thread". No. Don't.

On an old account I once got told I shouldn't have kids if I wasn't prepared to do homework with them. My DC were 6 and 4 at the time. It was a bit late to send them back TBH.

I saw someone tell a poster they should quit their wfh job to spend more time with their dog. Because their dog misbehaved on an evening.

"Go out for a spa day" and "just get therapy". All very good ideas but much harder to come by in real life. These are normally people with low incomes. And therapy involves long waiting lists or being able to pay (although it's often what the op needs).

LTB is often accurate though. The relationship stories shock me.

People with no legal training giving wrong legal advice, based on what they think should be the case in an ideal world, rather than based on actual law.

Actually I’d like to add to my comment - I think a forum with so many users has simply opened my eyes to other people’s outrageous behaviour, bonkers thought processes and naivety amongst other things.

“Could you take in some ironing?”

A recent one where someone was upset about a date not texting them back and the advice was to text them saying "you snooze you lose"!!!

Also posters who don't understand the complexity of leaving a DV situation and post things like "leave. Freedom programme. Now" etc. Or 'call the police immediately' without considering that that's the most dangerous time in a woman's relationship with her abuser...

I know on rare occasions medical advice turns out to be bad or incorrect but have seen a few posts encouraging people to ignore health professionals purely on the basis of "mama bear knows best".

There have been 2 best "worst" advice I remember.

1. Op inherited house, but it had sitting tenants and wanted advice on how to ask them to leave, because she wanted to sell.

Poster told the Op to give the house to the tenants for free. The Op clearly had too much money and should stop being selfish.

1. I think the Op was about someone being incredibly hurtful and mean to them.

A poster suggested the Op should give the horrible person a creme egg. The horrible person was having a bad day and this would cheer rhem up.

@CheesusWept

“Could you take in some ironing?”

Or a lodger

It’s the extremes for me. Some poor sods partner has asked on a thread about him getting wankered once a month with his mates and some folks are saying it means he is an alkie and to leave him.

As soon as alcohol is mentioned then there is a small gang of posters who come out clutching their pearls and claiming anyone who gets drunk, even if just once a month is clearly an alkie who loves booze more than any thing else and they need to be dumped immediately.

It’s unbelievable.

This is true of course, but in defence of MN, I often see clear-sighted & well-put advice, especially regarding relationships.
(And yeah, far too much LTB too!)

In the early days of using MN I used to be a bit 😳 at the direct & unequivocal advice but I realised how unaware I was about what constituted abuse (and realised the truth of my own situation, although I was separated by then, I was still so clueless about how awful he was). So often, early posters telling OP what to expect from their fuckwit STBEXH were spot on.

For me, the daft advice is so often linked to work. Far too many people advising posters to just leave or find a new job with little understanding of the reality of workplaces or how so often the OP is creating a lot of the problem themselves.

It's a great place for negative reinforcements of terrible behaviour. People seem to be incredibly selective in their reading back of comments "I see not everyone disagrees with me" when the overwhelming balance of answers hasn't said that

So many people use the site, and sock puppeting is encouraged by the fact you can have multiple log ons, so it's never going to be impossible to find people to agree with you

The worst advice I often see is:
"Give him the benefit of the doubt"

9 out of 10 times a man being a dickhead is doing so deliberately. It's even better when the evidence of his fuckery is front and center for all to see, but there could still be "some explanation".

@CheesusWept

“Could you take in some ironing?”

I know this is often mentioned as go-to advice here but I've never seen it so far

How about "if you don't like where you are, move". Okay the OP can just pack up a Wendy House and start again tomorrow.

Fuck off.

God, all the projection (especially in relationships).
So many bitter people giving terrible advice, solely based on their own bad experiences.

It is a mixed bag, the good advice mostly outweighs the mad stuff.

Relationships are the worst ones for me - I can’t read them they horrify me.

So many women with awful men, so many people putting up with terrible behaviour from others (not necessarily partners either).