Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what is the pettiest thing you’ve done?

470 replies

LadyCampanulaTottington · 03/09/2022 08:51

My petty crown that I wear with pride is when confronted (or rear fronted?) by a car driving up my arse, I slow down and if they don’t back off I continue to drive as slow as legally possible just to make a point.

Even if you haven’t acted on it, what’s the pettiest thing you’ve considered doing?

OP posts:
purpleypinkwitch · 03/09/2022 22:05

When we moved into our house the previous owner left cupboards full of crap like old bedding and towels and an outhouse full of broken furniture and broken glass and old broken plant pots and loads of crap in the attic. I booked a skip to get rid of it all and emailed her to ask for half of the cost but she ignored my email. I thought it was a reasonable request as the onus should have been on her to leave the house empty.

Also she'd been really rude to the young lad estate agent as he was two minutes late for my viewing and she really told him off (although he tried to explain the previous viewing he'd been at had overrun) and he was shaking when he showed me round.

Anyway it turned out she owed quite a few people money so whenever a bailiff called at the house I took pleasure in sharing her new address with them (a neighbour told me where she'd gone). I also felt pissed off with her for putting us through the ordeal of having bailiffs turning up as I had young children at the time and the bailiffs often were quite intimidating as they thought I was her and took some convincing that I wasn't.

Another thing I did was put a dividend cheque that arrived in the post for her straight on the fire (rather than give it to her friend who called for her post once every couple of weeks which I realised was because she didn't want me to have her new address because of debts).

If she'd been decent with me I wouldn't have done any of the above but she was horrid. Also she had patronised me when I said we were struggling to get a mortgage because my husband was self employed and she said "oh I wouldn't know about that as we've never had a mortgage".

Chasingclouds100 · 03/09/2022 22:10

VeronicaBeccabunga - Love it! your Mom sounds like a wonderful person

MultiplicationBell · 03/09/2022 22:19

RicherThanYew · 03/09/2022 09:43

My former colleague was a rude, nasty and entitled individual who would ask people to make them tea by literally emailing us with the word "tea", or better yet, clicking their fingers and saying "tea". When I was making a round, I'd always add a shit tonne of milk to the dry teabag and extra sugar.
The biggest petty thing I ever did was when my sister died, she was 35. Her biological father destroyed the flowers that were put there, even the ones left by her 3 children, he owned the grave so h3 could do this and he said he would never give permission for anyone to leave anything there. It has been years and the plot has nothing on it, no cross or headstone, it's blank. I bought the plot next to her and paid for a headstone aswell, he went fucking batshit, but her kids have somewhere beautiful to lay flowers now.

That's not petty. You did a wonderful thing for your sister and her kids.

NoDairyNoProblem · 03/09/2022 22:21

When I finally kicked out my abusive ex he insisted on taking the washing machine, tumble dryer, tv, sofa… you name it, if it came from the joint account he took it. His spiteful mother was doing runs in his car as he finished packing the last of his things. She said it needs fuel, and I helpfully replied ‘petrol is cheapest at X, not Y’ as the two stations were nearest. His car used diesel. I feigned innocence as I clearly meant fuel in general 😇.

ofwarren · 03/09/2022 22:28

My boyfriend cheated on me so when he went to work I logged onto his Internet banking and donated his whole monthly pay to the Cats Protection League.

MintyGreenDreams · 03/09/2022 22:31

@ofwarren brilliant 👏

Sunbun19 · 03/09/2022 22:33

Notaderrysgirl · 03/09/2022 09:12

A work colleague of mine (who I didn’t like very much) had a plastic barbie plate that she was oddly attached to. She would use it all the time. One day she dropped it and it broke and she was very upset. She then found the same plate on eBay and placed a bid for it. I decided to bid against her to drive the price up. This stupid plastic plate went up to £35 before i stopped and let her win the auction. She still talks about the “mystery bidder” who was also so desperate to buy the plate. Yes I am sad and incredibly petty.

I love this 😂

byebyelove · 03/09/2022 23:17

I once had a friend who was more like a frenemie. She would make snide comments about my appearance, always say things like “oh it’s alright someone will come along who fancies you one day” when I was single.

Anyways, one night I realised the friendship was over and she was staying at mine, it had been an awful night. before she woke up I put a couple of cooking oil drops in her very expensive foundation and mixed it in! Sort of ghosted her out but she’d moan on Instagram about her spots 😈😈😈😈

mrtumblescrackdealer · 03/09/2022 23:40

Was working in an office when a new person transferred from a different office. We were told that this particular person was an office genius, knew everything about the project, could do it with his eyes closed.Turns out new bloke knew next to nothing and was as arrogant as they come. He used to prance around the office with his car keys in his hand because he drove a Porsche amongst other things. Most of us thought he had been transferred because he had made an arse of himself in the other office. We were almost certainly right.

So one night I made up a load of business cards advertising new blokes services as a telephone gay male prostitute with a particular penchant for BDSM and liking it hard. With his office phone number as the contact number. The cards went up in every single phone box I could find on my way home that night. Childish, yes but new bloke was such a git he deserved it. The next day was just epic. He received so many phonecalls (there were a lot of cards and a lot of phoneboxes) he spent most of his day dealing with said calls. When he wasn't dealing with said calls he was going around the office trying to find out who was responsible.

Not long after the phone incident, he never turned up for work one day and that was the last we ever heard about him. I never fessed up either that I was behind it either.

ChiefWiggumsBoy · 04/09/2022 00:18

Some of you are brilliant evil geniuses!

I genuinely can't remember anything like this that I've ever done, but maybe I've just suppressed the memories Wink

mackthepony · 04/09/2022 00:23

I've started doing my own laundry, mixed in with the kids. Completely sick of doing DH's

DH then does laundry and says there's not much of your stuff here.... Oh yeah? That's cos I'm not fucking doing yours anymore, asshole

QueSyrahSyrah · 04/09/2022 00:42

The best I've ever heard was a Woman who's cheating Husband was a collector of expensive designer suits to wear to his Big Job. When his cheating came out and he left (planning to return for his stuff) she had every single damn one of them tailored down to fit her 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I can't think of anything especially petty that I've done, only things that have crossed my mind but I've not had the balls to go through with.

QueSyrahSyrah · 04/09/2022 00:48

Oh another one is a house near us, the owner apparently applied for planning for a (reasonable) extension but it was objected to by neighbours so didn't get passed.

He painted his house the most sickening Parma Violet lavender colour with deep purple highlights (window frames etc). It's fucking awful but he can't see it from the inside Grin

Pillowbed · 04/09/2022 00:51

If my other half pisses me off, I make myself a lovely fried egg sandwich for lunch. He hates the smell of fried eggs...

HVC164 · 04/09/2022 01:05

Used to work in coffee shops. The rudest customers were ‘decaffed’ - it’s not uncommon practice. Always be nice to your barista!

Moonshine5 · 04/09/2022 01:07

Crayfishforyou · 03/09/2022 17:46

My boss used to refuse anyone to use (her) the office stapler. If you had to use it she would make you do it at her desk and she would frown at you if you dared to crack it too hard.

When I left I stole it.

My favourite

squashandrun · 04/09/2022 01:15

I had a boss who called me into his office the day after I'd handed in my resignation and told me he'd be letting me go at the end of the day without paying me my notice period and then went into a huge rant about how he'd done me a huge favour even employing me, I had no imagination and would never have a real career. I walked out at lunchtime and he ended up having to work over Christmas to do both my job and his. Still got paid and that was even without telling him I'd recorded the whole conversation :)

Eeksteek · 04/09/2022 02:43

Late DH was a bit pathetic about the whole mental load thing, and I got so fed up making all the running with it, I would ask him what he wanted for dinner and then if we didn’t have stuff in, he’d have to at least shop for it. (If we did it was one less decision to make) only he ALWAYS chose the same two things. So I would purposefully cook them two days together, then ask him what he wanted on day three. The look on his face was priceless.

CrazyJoPavlova · 04/09/2022 05:47

Just last night DH and I (blended family) rearranged our schedules with our children to facilitate party planning for DHs cousin’s “sweet sixteenth”…putting up tarps/tents/etc (despite official weather warnings), as well as personally erecting a balloon garland whilst said party was already in swing (no helium! All mouth work!)…MIL waltzes in, pretends not to notice our efforts, talks smack about us in the other room, then talks smack to our faces when others commend our contribution…fast forward to us back at the motel we’ve paid for to make all this happen, MIL messages DH simply saying, “send me your photos”…all relevant pics were on my phone…so I sent her the photos of DH setting everything up…nasty bitch…we did it all because we love our cousin…but good great Lordy…a little acknowledgment wouldn’t go astray…especially on Father’s Day!!!

OLP2019 · 04/09/2022 05:53

I'm fed up with dh and kids leaving clothes on the floor so now instead of picking up dh pants socks and T shirts that he's left beside the laundry basket I've started kicking them under the bed ... he hasn't noticed yet but he will run out of stuff sooner or later

LadyLothbrook · 04/09/2022 06:29

MargaretThursday · 03/09/2022 11:26

Dh knew someone who always had to be the best at everything.
One Christmas he came round, looked at our cards and said "is that all the cards you have. We've got four times as many, but of course everyone wants to be my friend".

Next year the day he was cming round near Christmas I found the last year's cards which we for some reason hadn't recycled.
Now the dc were at primary school where almost everyone sent cards to most of the form, plus friends in other forms so they alone would get 100 cards. Normally they put the cards in their own room, so I suggested they brought their cards down, and I put up the last year's cards and for good measure added any spare cards that I hadn't sent yet.
The house bristled with cards.

So he came in and immediately opened his mouth to repeat how much more cards he'd been sent... Then I saw his eyes just taking it in and he closed his mouth again and never has said it again. 🤣
Unfortunately he still boasts about everything else, but never about cards.

I wonder who will play you in the movie?

This type of petty is so wholesome because you're not really harming anyone. Really made me giggle 😃

Confusedpossibly · 04/09/2022 06:55

This one has me howling! Love it

Confusedpossibly · 04/09/2022 06:57

ofwarren · 03/09/2022 22:28

My boyfriend cheated on me so when he went to work I logged onto his Internet banking and donated his whole monthly pay to the Cats Protection League.

Amazing!!

giveovernate · 04/09/2022 07:04

RicherThanYew · 03/09/2022 12:42

@KyaClark He was born with the personality that he has. Now he is acting like a grieving father despite battering my poor sister and causing severe mental health issues that followed her into adulthood and led to her death. It's just a shitty situation, some people are just that awful.

That's awful, I'm sorry.

I hope you are able to live a good life, even with his awful "parenting".

giveovernate · 04/09/2022 07:08

Small office, just five people. We would take it in turns to make tea, one guy wouldn't make it for anyone so he was then excluded from the tea rounds. So, if he put the kettle on and walked away, someone would turn it off. If we made tea and there was enough milk for him to make his, we would throw it away, he'd then have to go and get more from the shop.

Might have been easier to be a team player and just make every fifth round of drinks.

Swipe left for the next trending thread