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?

I see what I would call bad advice fairly often, I assume that various posters may think my advice is bad if it doesn't agree with their pov. I would be interested to know if anyone has taken advice on here that has turned out to be a wrong thing for them to do.

@minou123

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.

I watched the “ just give them your home” thread with an 😮 face. I could not believe the amount of posters chiming in with support for that idea.

I always love the “ just see a lawyer for your free thirty minutes”.

@Thegreencup

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.

😂

Can someone link to the "give them the house" thread? I remember it vaguely but can't find it.

Loads of stupid advice! Just the other day I saw someone suggesting that as OP was unhappy with the state of disrepair in her rented property, which she had been living in for 8 years, rather than asking her LL to make reasonable repairs - that she should "vote with her feet" and move out. Utterly ridiculous.

The ones that always get me are the clearly well off posters trying to give advice to posters who are struggling financially, when their advice boils down to be rich in the first place. "To earn a bit of extra money why not rent out your second home?"

It’s a massive site with many users so it does have weaknesses. IMO it’s excellent on relationships and parenting. Not so good on legal and workplace issues.

Oh yes, such helpful advice! Don't be poor, earn a shed load of money like me and buy and island and send your 5 children to private school.

If you think the advice is wrong, the solution is at your fingertips - PST advice that is better

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
Absolutely agree with this.
I challenged this once and got absolutely shot down and asked what do I know about anything ' being a man and all that' I tried arguing back that actually I'm not a man and I may not know everything about DV but I do know a fair bit due to my work with a local authority supporting families. I then got accused of mansplaining!
I gave up at the point!🙄

The ones that bang on about your kids not being able to live in ' the real world' or how to budget if you dont take 'rent' from them. They forget there is more than one way to learn and dont realise people have different ways of parenting, different expierences and different circumstances.
I'm getting jaded with MN I think. I'm at the point where I roll my eyes loudly at most posts, especially in the AIBU.

So many armchair soap writers urging horrible passive aggressive retaliations, sabotaging Christmas rather than adapt and absorb, urging people to ignore or duck out of actually communicating to solve a difference of opinion, approach or understanding. Some threads are like an army of Kat Slaters lined up hissing threats and hurling insults. And then making sarcastic digs about the OP for being a ‘doormat’ if she doesn’t immediately join the ranks.

‘Get married’ is often terrible advice in come text if the OP. It gets trotted out even when the OP has nothing to gain and much to lose.

If your car doesnt have an MoT then your insurance will be invalid

On the other hand I've never seen the advice of 'dont eat yellow snow' which after bitter experience I agree with

I'm a paramedic and the amount of medical threads with posters advising totally inappropriately to call 999 (as if the ambulance services nationwide aren't screwed enough at the moment) or the other extreme of giving detail advice, on a complex condition without anywhere near the full details, based on limited personal experience (case study of one!!). It drives me mad.

If you need to ask someone how to manage a medical condition ring 111 or your own GP (in office hours). They will both have an initial pre recorded message explaining when to put the phone down and dial 999. It's almost as if the professionals have spent a lot of time thinking about this.

Burns advice. Actually seen put lavender oil etc on burns. WTAF?!

@Darkpheonix

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.

I came here to mention this one! It was the first reply to the OP as well! Imagine quitting your job because your dog was bouncy in the evening. Sounds a little impractical.

I remember the ‘give the tenants the house’ thread. LOL.

Some threads are like an army of Kat Slaters lined up hissing threats and hurling insults. And then making sarcastic digs about the OP for being a ‘doormat’ if she doesn’t immediately join the ranks
Absolutely!
👏👏

@Returnoftheowl yes, it was the very first. Which entirely derailed the thread. No questions, no context or commentary on why that would help or be worth it.

Just that.... 'can you quit your job to spend more time with the dog'

It was the oddest thing I have seen on here for ages

I see a lot of LTB. When in reality, very few women do. Which makes me think people are very happy to advise on a "do as I say, not as I do"

There was a poster a while back with 3 young DC, and essentially the husband was a lazy sod. She was unhappy, but no DV or anything extreme, basically he was like having a 4th child. He covered all the bills, mortgage, had a decent job. She was SAHM, no real option to work around 3 children of that age, even if she did the childcare would be extortionate, so if she left she'd have to cover all that, plus her own house, would barely see the DC because she'd have to work so many hours to cover the childcare, and then some. And it was all "life's too short, LTB, you'll be so much happier"

In reality, what most would do, is stick it out until they were at least all in primary. Yes it's not ideal for the tale of "happily ever after", but many women are in the situation where the inability to work (at that time) would mean their finances, housing and childcare options would be far worse if they were on their own. For both her and the DC.

Yet the posts are all LTB. "If my DH ever behaved like that, I'd be off." I just think, yeah, easy to type. Just give up the family home, have to rely on a tiny income or benefits, get run ragged as the primary carer of all the children with a break (if you're lucky) every other weekend. That's what all these posters would of course do, without a second thought

I have seen both good and bad. I occasionally cringe at the legal advice. If I had a medical background I might cringe at some of the health advice.

Relationship wise, I found the first two or three posts set the tone for the other replies, which has at times worrying results!

Couple of people on another thread right now are talking about using "magick" to deal with all the enemies they keep acquiring.

Have a spa day!! Your dh is a cheat,a lazy sod,swans off on lads weekends/football/golf/cyclingApparently he will see the error of his ways if you piss of to a spa for a few hours!!
Ps I hate spa's

Sexual harassment at work thread absolutely filled with idiots advising “cheeky” comebacks: give him a taste of his own medicine, criticise his willy, type advice.

Couple of people on another thread right now are talking about using "magick" to deal with all the enemies they keep acquiring.
Oh, I secretly love the posters who think they’re witches. They’re so sincere.

Boy strangles girl she was asking for it because she wasn't "kind enough" to him

Paedophile apologists "just because he is a Paedophile doesn't mean he is a risk to his own children" (no but if he is anything like my friends husband he uses his child as bait to get to her friends remember rolf Harris?)

The advice on those threads is enlightening