Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Things other people do that irrationally annoy you

501 replies

HuzzahIndeed · 18/10/2022 10:21

What do other people do that makes you really mad even though it really doesn't matter. My mum has made me so cross this morning over something that is meaningless. Logically I know it doesn't matter but I'm fuming. 🤣

The crime? She said that my youngest brother has been with his fiancé longer than I've been with my husband. I started dating my husband before he started school and got married just as he started secondary school so it isn't like she's slightly out. See, doesn't matter and yet grrrr.

Also middle brother announced his engagement at oldest brothers engagement party. Oldest brother and his wife are the most chilled people you have ever met (unlike me clearly) so didn't seem to mind but I was furious as it's such bad form.

Also the cat is a dick. She has several water bowls and fountains but won't use them. Put a mug of water down someone and her head is straight in there. We've taken to leaving water mugs in various places (which inevitable end up getting spilled) and drinking out of lidded travels cups.

OP posts:
Cinders88 · 18/10/2022 18:17
  • the sound of footballs being booted around in the garden next door .. especially when getting booted against a hard surface
  • the sound of someone eating
  • people who needlessly walk slowly and cause congestion, usually too engrossed in their conversation to give a shit about anyone trying to get past .. for example, when leaving the supermarket
  • drivers who take 10 minutes to leave a junction/join a roundabout/find second or third gear
  • apologies in advance to any Americans (or indeed anyone else this applies to), but I get mildly irritated by their pronunciation of words like basil, tomato, oregano, etc. I don’t know why, and no offence intended!
  • babies having their ears pierced .. I’m sorry, I know parents can make that choice if they so wish, but personally I couldn’t
  • people (usually men) who bang on about how “hard” they are and feel the need to brag about it .. it makes them look pathetic. And it’s usually the quiet ones you need to watch anyway 😉
AllThingsServeTheBeam · 18/10/2022 18:23

red4321 · 18/10/2022 18:07

I actually don't know how I say it now you know... Maybe a slight h aitch? I'll have to try and catch myself the next time I actually need to spell something with a H in

I'm aware it's definitely in the irrational category...!

I am genuinely intrigued at how others pronounce it now. I'm going to get DP to spell Hotel when he gets in from work 😂

Elsamit · 18/10/2022 18:27

Yep! Cyclists using the road, holding up all the traffic, do it for me too. The wide cycle lane near where I live is tarmacced, the same as the road , so I do not understand why cyclists choose not to use it. It is in an area not widely used by walkers as it runs alongside a busy main road. There is also a footpath section for walkers anyway. Oddly enough though, the cyclists have no issue with switching to the cycle lane when they approach a red light on the road so they can continue on their merry way without having to wait with all of the vehicles they have held up. 😉

Mentalpiece · 18/10/2022 18:32

When people walk towards you and you both end up doing a side step in the same direction.
It makes me want to shout out ' to me, to you '.
It's neither parties fault, but it doesn't half make me irrationality cross.

TigerDroveAgain · 18/10/2022 18:34

This one really didn't affect me at all...

Parking up where you can pay by app or put money in the machine - dozens (literally) of people queuing for the machines and moaning - they could have downloaded the app and paid in a fraction of the time! Dimwits

reigatecastle · 18/10/2022 18:34

Mentalpiece · 18/10/2022 18:32

When people walk towards you and you both end up doing a side step in the same direction.
It makes me want to shout out ' to me, to you '.
It's neither parties fault, but it doesn't half make me irrationality cross.

If people would keep to the left, like we drive, it wouldn't happen. I am on a one-woman crusade to improve peoples' pavement discipline...

SnoopyNoseTits · 18/10/2022 18:45

Performative sneezers at work

Bpdqueen · 18/10/2022 18:47

Baxdream · 18/10/2022 17:20

Cracking fingers 🤢

Omg yes this 🤢

alexdgr8 · 18/10/2022 18:52

how could you have married your fiance when he started secondary school ???

DarkShade · 18/10/2022 18:54

SillySausage81 · 18/10/2022 16:11

Haha that would wind me up too. My mum does that but with ages when we were little, which is at least more understandable because it was 30-odd years ago but it still winds me up that I can remember and she can't. Like she'll say things like "ooh, you won't remember xyz as you were only about 5" and it's like "mum, I was 12." Like how can you get such different ages mixed up? They're completely different, we were at different schools, lived in different places... And it usually completely changes the story too. Coming home from school crying because of silly argument with a friend is a completely different story if I was 7 than if I was 14.

Now I've got a baby she'll reminisce, saying things like "I stopped breastfeeding you when you were 4 months old" or "you were 12 months old when you started walking" and I just try and blank it out because the probability she's misremembered the age is so high that there's literally no point absorbing the information.

Show quote history

Yes!! My mum does this. Infuriating.

Also when DS was a baby she felt the need to relate everything he did to someone in her family, usually incorrectly and often at a massive stretch. Things like the first time DS was sick in bed my mum was like "oh yes this happened to you at that age and you said that you were covered in mud!" Errr DS is 6 months old very much doubt I said that at 6 months old. Or DS didn't like the feel of sand when he first went to the beach, mum instantly goes "oh yes your cousin Alfred didn't like sand because he was scared of the way it went into the sea and was frightened that he would be swept away" ok but that is different and completely irrelevant!! Comparing him to my sister, her nieces / nephews, colleague's kids all the time.

I know that I am unreasonable and she's just making conversation. But it's just so annoying, I am trying to tell her something about my tiny PFB, just go with it and stop loosely making it about someone else!

Elsamit · 18/10/2022 19:00

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣Howling at some of these. I didn't realise how much annoys me until I have read through this post and agree with pretty much all of them! 🤣

Navigatingnewwaters · 18/10/2022 19:02

You dated your husband before he’d started school??

losingit31 · 18/10/2022 19:06

People on their phone in a quiet but public place such as a train carriage or cafe who talk loudly in a foreign (to me) language. No idea why it's so much more intrusive than a loud conversion in my language, but it is. I think the fact you can only hear one side of it is part of the issue.

DH and I go to the same coffee shop at the same time most Sundays (he is a creature of habit) and after we've been there about 20 mins a guy comes in who sits near our usual table and watches stuff on his phone with no headphones - grrrr. We are moving house soon so won't go there any more, so won't miss that.

TitaniasAss · 18/10/2022 19:10

When people bite their fork/spoon so you hear the 'ting' sound of it hitting their teeth. God I hate that so much.

Bintymcbintface · 18/10/2022 19:11

Chewing gum with their mouth open, they look like cows chewing cud

Walking really, really slowly....

Picking something up off a supermarket shelf and reading the thing like it's a best selling novel whilst blocking any access to the shelf. It's fucking ham Barbara stick it in your trolley and move!

HumphreyCobblers · 18/10/2022 19:13

People sending a 'gentle reminder'. Just send a bloody reminder. It doesn't need to be gentle.

DollyDimples80 · 18/10/2022 19:17

My husband when he shout-sneezes, or when he sniffs constantly. People who don't use indicators. People who will happily talk to you then when you reply or say your part of the conversation drift off and immediately look at their phone. Drivers who pull out too far across the road at the give way lines so I have to swerve to not hit them.

Cheesecakeitalian · 18/10/2022 19:18

People who shove in front of you to position themselves right in front of a train door because they're so terrified of not getting a seat, then just get straight on when the door opens, don't even move out of the way to let people off! So rude and entitled

Cheesecakeitalian · 18/10/2022 19:19

I work in care and we write logs of what we did at each visit. I often see people writing, "I gently woke her." Well no, you're not exactly going to aggressively throttle her and shout, "Get up now!!" Are you?

Cinders88 · 18/10/2022 19:22

Bintymcbintface · 18/10/2022 19:11

Chewing gum with their mouth open, they look like cows chewing cud

Walking really, really slowly....

Picking something up off a supermarket shelf and reading the thing like it's a best selling novel whilst blocking any access to the shelf. It's fucking ham Barbara stick it in your trolley and move!

😂

That’s reminded me .. people spending ages pawing at different packs of the same thing to get the one they like the look of, holding multiple people up in the process. I understand why they might do this in certain circumstances, still annoys me 🤷‍♀️

And the space invaders at the clearance section!

Banana7 · 18/10/2022 19:24

People eating noisily, or not even that loud... I would be done for murder if I listened to my inner voice!

BloodAndFire · 18/10/2022 19:36

PinkPencilCase · 18/10/2022 15:09

Mines really specific. When a Bodypump class finishes and everyone is putting their equipment away, and someone goes and stands right in front of the rack where they take their weights off the bar, wipe it all down, hang it up as they go and just get in everyone else's way. Most people disassemble, wipe down and then carry stuff over to hang up quickly. I feel proper rage every time that happens!

It may be specific but I share this one 100%. Take your fucking weights off where you were standing, not blocking everyone else.

Other similar ones:

People who step out of shop doorways and onto the pavement without looking where they are going / still talking to someone in the shop.

People who take selfies in the gym/in crowded art galleries/in tube stations.

People who walk up the stairs two abreast, really slowly, so you can't get past them.

Mums with buggies, three in a row, who take up the entire pavement and seem to think you are going to magically dematerialise as they walk towards you.

Kids running around madly in supermarkets.

Peoniesandcream · 18/10/2022 19:38

Adults on bikes on the pavement (which is definitely not a cycle track) and electric scooters 😤

howdyhey · 18/10/2022 19:40

@FortheBeautyoftheEarth I hate this throwaway attitude too. I hate it even more when it's a huge, elaborate balloon arch and they say 'anyone want this? Needs gone tonight and it seems a shame to pop it'. Well don't buy the bloody thing then.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 18/10/2022 19:45

People who don’t pick their feet up and slop around hard floors, especially in supermarkets.

Explosive sneezing - yes, I do mean you, dh 🤬.