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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

MY 12 year old used my fabric scissors to open a bag of popcorn. Is there any point keeping them?

260 replies

VerityBridge · 07/07/2024 22:00

Or shall I just drop them off at the bus station with a tenner and tell them they need to make their own way in life from this point on?

OP posts:
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Thedayb4youcame · 07/07/2024 23:00

VerityBridge · 07/07/2024 22:00

Or shall I just drop them off at the bus station with a tenner and tell them they need to make their own way in life from this point on?

This made me laugh so much. I'm 46 now, but as a child I was forever scraping my mother off the ceiling for using her utensils for something we shouldn't. 😂

triballeader · 07/07/2024 23:02

This kind of behaviour is the reason my new fabric scissors have a small padlock on to secure the handles together.
It was the only way I could stop my DH and son using them to cut wires!

It could have been worse….they might have used my Japanese embroidery scissors.

thenightsky · 07/07/2024 23:03

I've Seen others use a combination lock to lock the handles together

Genius!! Why have I never thought of this in my 65 years?

Luckily DD has grown up to appreciate good fabric scissors and is now a senior fabric technologist and gets to boss other people about re equipment.

PickAChew · 07/07/2024 23:04

Animalfromthemuppets22 · 07/07/2024 22:18

My dh bought me a pair of expensive fabric scissors and a couple of months later used them to clip the wings of our chickens.

🫢

Topofthemountain · 07/07/2024 23:04

LuluBlakey1 · 07/07/2024 22:40

I found DH using mine to cut up pictures and card for the History quizzes he is doing with his classes in their last 2 lessons of term. Big quizzes, not easy, one for Y10 and one for Y12. 8 rounds in each, require colour coded cards (was what he said when I complained) .
I have brought them to bed with me (the scissors), sharpened them with their sharpener and put them in my bedside drawers.

Eek I think he should be very afraid.

LuluBlakey1 · 07/07/2024 23:07

Topofthemountain · 07/07/2024 23:04

Eek I think he should be very afraid.

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Oh just to put them out of his way! I wouldn't blunt them chopping bits of him off.

PickAChew · 07/07/2024 23:07

LordSnot · 07/07/2024 22:57

If they're so delicate that cutting one popcorn bag will blunt them, surely you have to regularly sharpen them anyway?

Show quote history

Nope. Used on fabric, good ones are pretty much self sharpening but as soon as they're used on plastic or paper or random wayward pins, they're often done for.

OrwellianTimes · 07/07/2024 23:09

I’ll add to that my dad who mixed a tin of pain with my best cake palette knife.

MummyDummyNow · 07/07/2024 23:10

Thoughts and prayers OP, thoughts and prayers.

Scorchio84 · 07/07/2024 23:14

Okay I'm not a crafty or a seamstress person at all so can someone explain to this ill-informed dumbass why they're ruined? I've seen this before on here over the years & often wondered & then it goes out of my mind to look it up 😊

The Tweerzerman tweezers now I can totally get 😡

LittleTalkingMan · 07/07/2024 23:14

I bought some very expensive fiskars thread snipping scissors, my husband used them to trim his beard! Grounds for divorce!

ChaLee144 · 07/07/2024 23:16

Cut some kitchen foil with them and they will sharpen. I learnt it from YouT hacks.

Lilacapples · 07/07/2024 23:16

I wouldn’t even drop them off I’d make them walk in bare feet!

Thedayb4youcame · 07/07/2024 23:17

triballeader · 07/07/2024 23:02

This kind of behaviour is the reason my new fabric scissors have a small padlock on to secure the handles together.
It was the only way I could stop my DH and son using them to cut wires!

It could have been worse….they might have used my Japanese embroidery scissors.

My grandmother had a far better approach - she simply hid anything and everything I ever showed an interest in. Sure, she had stuff "for show" and to pacify me, but really only she knew where she kept the things she actually used.

SabrinaThwaite · 07/07/2024 23:20

GHSP · 07/07/2024 22:10

I am thinking of opening a rehabilitation facility for such children, as I have three teenagers, one of whom used half a bottle of L’Occitane shower gel to wash his trainers, and another who used my anodised Swiss roll tin as an oven tray for chips.

I bet his trainers smelled fabulous though.

NotSentFromIphone · 07/07/2024 23:22

ImPunbelievable · 07/07/2024 22:11

Am I the only one to at doesn't understand the problem?!

You can spend £100 on fabric scissors (mine were more like £30!). The are never to be used for anything except cutting fabric.

Cheap supermarket general scissors are for kids to open their popcorn.

TeaGinandFags · 07/07/2024 23:23

When I was first married my late husband used my butter knife as a screwdriver.

Hanging is too good for some people.

Get your scissors sharpened and put the fear of god into your child.

To the posters who feel the scissors should have been kept out of reach: 12 yr olds get everywhere and do not respect sacred objects.

GoingOutShoes · 07/07/2024 23:24

My DS used my big pasta pan to keep his mouse safe while he cleaned its cage. Didn't wash the pan before putting it back in the cupboard. But promised he tipped the poos out...

CindyBirdsong · 07/07/2024 23:24

A fond memory of my childhood, being shouted at not to use fabric scissors or the pinking sheets to cut the edges of paper to make it fancy.

Thedayb4youcame · 07/07/2024 23:27

TeaGinandFags · 07/07/2024 23:23

When I was first married my late husband used my butter knife as a screwdriver.

Hanging is too good for some people.

Get your scissors sharpened and put the fear of god into your child.

To the posters who feel the scissors should have been kept out of reach: 12 yr olds get everywhere and do not respect sacred objects.

Mine used a wood drill bit to hang a picture on a brick wall.

The drill bit was beyond ruined. My husband was beyond tired.

The drill bit must have cost all of £2, but no way was my husband interested in knowing how to tell the difference between a wood, metal, and masonry drill bit.

Indeed, I was stunned to know he'd even used the drill, and when I think of all that could have gone wrong, I knew I'd got off lightly. His attitude was "well you do all the drilling anyway, so why do I need to know this"? I guess his mother had asked him to hang a picture, and he thought "why not"?

Crispynoodle · 07/07/2024 23:28

Are you kidding me? Put them up for adoption shocking behaviour

Runnerinthenight · 07/07/2024 23:32

AnnieSnap · 07/07/2024 22:24

You really have to be a sewist!

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Or in my case, the mother of one!

Razorwire · 07/07/2024 23:35

Similar to the sandpaper method, common household items like aluminum foil and steel wool can be used to sharpen fabric scissors. Cutting through the aluminum foil or steel wool pad will resharpen dull sewing scissors for reinvigorated precision cuts. Once finished, clean off the blades and test the sharpness.

Setorrunny · 07/07/2024 23:36

I caught my DH doing his toenails with my embroidery scissors.

Reader I divorced him.

Jellytotsandwinegums · 07/07/2024 23:36

This has given me the fear - right back to being a kid and using my mothers 'good scissors' to cut paper. I think I should have just taken myself off to bus station.

Not only was there a risk of blunting them, it was proof that she really couldn't have anything good for herself. Sorry Mum!