Most ridiculous things you’ve been criticised for on mumsnet

[Peacepleaselouise]

Lighthearted…
What’s been the most silly things you’ve been heavily criticised for on mumsnet?

During a friendly mascara discussion on the Style and beauty thread, I said I liked Charlotte Tilbury mascara. Well, a couple of minutes later, a poster responds to me with absolute fury! She said that it was rubbish mascara and I was an idiot! She's entitled to her opinion but it was the venom with which she came at me that was breathtaking! I was a bit upset for a few minutes actually.

Crazy times !

Hmm, where do I start?

• Using the word 'mate' as a term of endearment (it's 'vile' apparently)
• Not enjoying camping
• Watching Game of Thrones (for which I was told there must be something wrong with me for enjoying a series with sex and violence in it)
• Liking football
• Not being able to drive
• Liking horror films

Obviously I don't expect everyone to agree with me on these things, but I do find it baffling that my preferences in this regard, which affect other Mumsnetters' lives in precisely zero ways, would cause someone to be genuinely furious with me.

@ItGhoul anyone liking football on mn is instantly a pariah.

@Sulu17 it's so strange how sometimes people go all in with the huge overreactions to literally nothing on here.

I had a similar-ish experience just night on a Telly Addicts thread where we were all joking one guy had clearly lied about his age. I made a jokey remark quoting one poster who wrote "he was born in 1980" and she went off on one. Said I called her a liar and posted a huge spoiler regarding the outcome of the TV show we were discussing. Thankfully we got it taken down before too many people read it but it just seemed so unnecessarily vindictive.

I was once misunderstood on a post saying I don’t do a certain task for my kids. I explained I did do it and got a pile on saying it was too much. You really can’t win sometimes

You are not wrong. At a toddler group a little girl accidently knocked my son over. He was a very sensitive child with very low pain threshold and he absolutely cried and screamed and a group of concerned adults formed around us. The little girl’s mother came along and tried to force an apology from her little girl, who herself had become disregulated and alarmed by the commotion and my screaming son. I repeatedly told the Mother it was fine and no apology was needed as it was a simple accident. The Mother would not let it go and followed us around the play group in a fury trying to force an apology out of her by now completely hysterical child. We ended up having to leave to escape her.

I still regret not dressing this selfish Mother down. She gave not one crap that she was ruining our time at this play group through her behaviour.

Modeling an apology is a much better learning experience than a forced one from a small child.

These examples make me shudder!
Seriously, though, I think there have always been deeply unpleasant people within every community, but now they can be nasty to strangers all over the world. The bullies swarm to online forums.

I have been bullied on here when two people ganged up on me and seemed to enjoy scolding me for my (fairly mild and reasonable) view on something. You can't be the voice of reason on MN sometimes, you've got to be violently pro or anti something, no middle ground, no letting people use their own judgment. It very strongly reminded me of two awful prefects who harrassed me at school. Power mad and vindictive! God knows what they were like as adults.

I've not done it but bread, butter, cheese and cooked chicken freeze well, so you could add salad on the day. It's not bonkers.

I tend to keep my posts light because I can’t deal with a hammering. However my fashion choices are not to everyone’s tastes and someone once called my new shoes “vile” which seemed a bit much.

I did have someone follow me onto another thread with her friend once to try and bully me, but I name changed so spoiled their fun.

I thought that’s why Dyson made the end of my vacuum removable, so I can get the stick into corners for the spiders?

That is a bit much you can almost feel their revulsion of your shoes!

I have been criticised for delaying giving my teenagers smartphones. There is a whole movement about it now!! But a few years ago I was unanimously attacked for waiting until GCSE year. Told I was too strict (laughably far from the truth!) and it was unfair, and I was damaging them socially. Children in question could not be more grateful for those few extra years without phones!

I have also been called pathetic, had some nasty comments about my 'small life', and told to 'get a hobby' because I requested (and was later granted) term time only hours at work. Jealous much??😆

Yes, I was basically told that I couldn't possibly really like it and that I must just be pretending in order to make men like me

Ditto. Only DH eats cooked ham here so taking one slice out of a new pack leaves 3 sitting in the fridge. Either he has a ham sandwich for 4 days running or I make the lot into sandwiches and freeze 3. Sometimes I channel Victoria Wood and make up 8 if there is an offer on naice ham.
Of course I should reject Waitrose ham and cook and slice my own, but believe me that is highly unlikely to happen!

I once was bored and started a thread in chat about something I was considering how to make fairest for the DC.
It was one of those situations where either way was fair in some ways and unfair in others, and I wasn't really bothered which happened, and the DC had been fully in the discussion, and could see the above"

I put it on being very clear about the above, thinking it could be interesting to see people's thoughts, and if I'd missed something.

I got about 6 replies all of which were along the lines of "why is this bothering you so much." "If you can't make a decision on that sort of thing you shouldn't be a parent".

None of the answers gave any thought to the actual question.

I ironed a new bedding set, this meant I would either be abused so badly I’d end up dead, or I had severe untreated OCD.

Being a Sikh, someone set up a whole reddit thread to complain that my son has a common Sikh hairstyle, they also made up that I had purchased him for a relative from India, which was quite interesting for a child born in the UK with no Indian relatives! Another poster then made up that I had several children (not sure where I kept these imaginery children) and I buy cats from rescue centres to abuse them 🤣 although to be fair my cat likely agrees because I won’t give her an entire bag of dreamies a day!

I had a similar experience to @MargaretThursday when asking if something was fair for my DH vs his sister. Hardly anyone replied and I was called petty for questioning the fact SIL was being gifted an entire house.

I think often people's comprehension skills are poor. They don't read the initial post carefully, pretty well invent their own version of what has been said and then start ranting about that. God help them if they have ever had to read an exam question.

Told I shouldn’t be driving if I couldn’t unscrew a wheel nut that the garage had tightened with a machine.

Told by one mumsnetter I was an awful mother for leaving my dd17 overnight when I was 20 miles away and my parents and sister live just around the corner from us.

Saying that the Oh Crap potty training book didn't work for either of my DC. Apparently I must have read it wrong or not read it at all.

Having a baby with my husband, because he has an older daughter who was 10 at the time. I also got called "delulu" for saying that my stepdaughter loves her baby sister.

Also got dogpiled massively once after telling a story about my daughter (2 at the time) opening a cupboard at my parents' house, where we were living temporarily, and breaking a gravy jug. It was a post about appropriate consequences for toddlers and I didn't at any point say she/I hadn't done anything wrong but apparently nothing short of public execution would have been sufficient punishment for taking my eyes off my 2 year old for less than 2 minutes.

Oh you can’t have an opinion..ever. Posters ask for opinions and then get offended when you give one.
I upset someone recently for saying Dublin is rough as fuck these days. It is!!