What has Mumsnet taught you you've been doing wrong all of your adult life without realising?!

[harriethoyle]

Inspired by a recent thread, in which I read multiple posters saying you shouldn't wear mascara on your bottom lashes (which I have been doing for the last 30 years 😂) what has Mumsnet told or taught you you've been doing wrong?

The irritating thing is then I made one eye up as usual and made one up without mascara on the bottom lashes and DH preferred the without eye! Don't even get me started on my inability to make a chicken last a week...

Tampons are small compared to the other objects, and while they swell they don't actually swell that much. Have you missed all the many threads on here which have pointed out that flushing them was the accepted way to dispose of them several decades ago? When I started my working life there was no other way when at work, and certainly no notices about not doing so. I was still flushing them at the end of my time of using them - and no blocked loo. I'm not in the UK, maybe we had better plumbing here!

I'm not in the UK and it was common to eat the birthday cake at the party here also, along with the rest of the party food, although a piece might be given to guests to be taken home as well.

I'm one of the haitch haters...apparently I'm an intolerant scumbag

I can answer this...if you get into the habit of washing everything after one use, including towels your washing machine is literally on 24/7
I'm not joking. And yes it's probably unnecessary

Those would never be my words, but I might suggest you take account of the fact that 'proper' speech has been very arbitrarily defined in this country and that there is nothing innately inferior about non-RP or non-standard Southern British English variants. Dislike of 'haitch', in particular, can be seen in some contexts as sectarian.

They end up in the sea and wash up on the beach. Though I remember the instructions saying to flush them and why would anyone re-read the instructions years later and who would expect the water companies to just pump everything into the river and seas unprocessed.

I used to hate the napkin cake as a kid. How to ruin a good slice of cake by wrapping it up to get squashed, hot and sweaty in a party bag and then have to pull bits of napkin off it too eat. I'm much more in favour of handing the cake around at the party.... And don't forget to offer some to the adults too!

I live in the south east. A lot of people say silly things I find annoying but I probably am a bit intolerant. The worst I've heard recently is a doctor on YouTube saying "supposebly "

I'm Irish and had never heard of cake to take home in party bags until MN. Cake is always eaten at the party where I am. You bring out the cake, sing happy birthday and blow out the candles, slice it up and eat it. I'm still not clear on whether the candles and happy birthday song still happen when it gets sent home in napkins. Do they?

poppyzbrite4 that's very often!!!! xx

Why do you hate it so much though?

It's the correct standard form where I live, ie the form taught in school. Small children are corrected if they say aitch. Just because someone says haitch doesn't mean they're wrong, they may just be from somewhere else.

I don't think people are intolerent scumbags but I do think they perhaps lack awareness that their way isn't the only right way.

'Supposably' isn't a word, though... 'haitch' is a correct variant.

Apparently only if you're northern Irish. Which I only just discovered

Up until recently I thought aitch was the only right way...

Yes, that still happens, then the cake is to be whisked off to be squashed into a napkin.
Sometimes the cake you sing happy birthday to is a only for the family of the birthday child and a lesser stunt cake is the one that comes in the party bag.

This isn't a rude comment to you so please don't take it this way- Im just curious. Did you also work full time whilst having more than one child?
If I didn't work whilst having children I would have found this a breeze - the direct debit thing isn't an issue, it goes out without me having to do anything but remembering to book appointment's and attend appointments, school events, world bloody book day outfits, having to send emails etc, get my prescription etc it's a little overwhelming at times. Then I forgot to attend a school play (yes my mistake and I feel awful) and I can just find the 'life admin' a bit too much on top of the load of life!

Well, there's a mix of aitch and haitch in NI as you'd expect. Haitch is the usual form in ROI.

I think some northern English accents also use 'haitch'.

Interesting article: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/haitch-or-aitch-pronunciation-letter-h-old-english-a8393766.html

I see, thank you!
Love the term 'stunt cake' 😁

I agree with your comment, @updownorthrough These things take actual time and someone has to do them!

I work full-time in a very busy job and have two school-age children who do a variety of activities. Just this week I have had a lot of ‘life admin’ to do in terms of orthodontists, booking parents’ evenings, arranging lifts to rehearsals with other parents, dropping at sports fixtures, booking a birthday party and organising invites, re-scheduling music lessons and paying deposits for school trips. None of it rocket-science but all, when taken together, quite time-consuming. Having to be the person to remember and juggle all this stuff is a type of chore. I don’t like it when other women dismiss what is often women’s default responsibility as nothing. It would certainly be a problem if it didn’t get done.

I'm uncultured because I don't have acres and acres of bookcases in my living room. I read a lot - on my kindle.

I do have bookcases, but only have two in the living room, and four in other parts of the house.

Reading about the husbands on here has put me off marriage for life..what the hell ladies?!

Only degrees from a select few universities are worthwhile ... unless it's Medicine in which case all universities are equal. If you can't do PPE at Oxford, NatSci at Cambridge or possibly Law at LSE, you are better off doing an indeterminate apprenticeship. Because those are the only 2 choices.

As someone whose first degree was from a Polytechnic ( an actual Polytechnic rather than a "shitty former poly" as the post-92 universities are called with an almost audible sneer) I do wonder how I've managed to have a professional career and retain some self respect.

So am I.

The word for the letter H is aitch.