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?

I don't actually do it. My Dad used to do it for us as kids. It was fine. Everyone fed, no-one dead mentality.

I was told in lockdown/ covid that I was committing actual literal fraud.
I was getting the food vouchers from DCs schools as they were on FSM.

School 1 used a website where we got sent a code and could pick which shop we wanted, we then got eVouchers for that shop.

School 2 sent us Asda vouchers as that is the supermarket nearest the school. It's not the one nearest my house though and is actually 2 bus rides away. And they couldn't be used online. Obviously being covid times we weren't meant to be making journeys like that unless we had to. So I used to sell them to my mum, not for any profit, and use the money that was then in my bank to do an online shop. Apparently I deserved to be arrested and locked up.

The alternative was that the vouchers didn't get used at all, and I struggled with the increased bills.

FWIW I also hoover up spiders.

This is absolutely true, I'm a nanny of 19y (although as pointed out to me on a potty training thread means that I don't know what I'm talking about because I'm not a parent. Sure) and the "Magic window" of course works for some children but also does not for many! I genuinely find, unless they're desperate to be out of nappies at 2 (which has happened twice in all my many potty training!) then waiting longer makes it a much quicker and FAR less stressful process.

But don't announce that on MN or you'll be told youre shit at your job 😂

I was criticized for saying that if a stranger says hello or makes small talk while waiting for a bus (for example), it's nice to reply - or even start a conversation sometimes. Apparently we should all keep ourselves to ourselves and not 'harass' people.

God forbid you're a professional and can answer a question about your profession on here 😂

Not considering hiring a nanny to look after my toddler for her frequent hospital admissions so I can continue to work as I can't afford to not work...

Does anyone remember that thread where the OP was taking her DS to a theme park for his 3rd birthday. The ticket price increased to an adult price when they turned three so she was planning to tell them he was two, as he literally turned three that day.

She was told that it was theft, that she was setting her son up for a life of crime, that he would likely be in youth detention when he grew up and then carry on to prison.

Honestly it was mental, to the extent there were threads about it at the time.

My Arabic pronounciation from non-Arabists (but it's ok as their DH's spoke Arabic) and more recently, inclusivity of step children in family meals which apparently you're not meant to consider.

Yes! And all the ones where you’ve accidentally stolen something and you should immediately return to the shop and beg their forgiveness.
I accidentally didn’t pay £1 for some satumas once, so I should have spent £4 in bus fares to apologise.

If they overcharge me I don’t go back either! Which has also happened.

Years ago under a different UN.

We are a blended family and had DH daughter 80 percent of the week and his ex had her 20( So we had her mon/Friday, ex had her Sat and sun) This was court agreed and what ex wife asked for.

Every weekend on a Friday exwife would state she had made plans to go out on Saturday so DSD needed to stay here. This got to be so regular that in the end DSD only saw her mum on Sunday about twice a month.

We didn't mind at all and loved her to bits, but it did make DSD sad and she needed some therapy.

We obviously covered all DSD costs, clothes, school uniform, trips, school supplies, hair/makeup ect( DSD was a teenager). Mum never paid a penny and although we would have been entitled to CM from her, we never asked for the sake of harmony as poor DSD was already sad enough.

When it came to DSD prom, we were in a very difficult position financially for various reasons and asked ex if she could help towards costs. She refused and I had to sell my ring so we could afford DSD dress.I was sad, but when you love your kids you make sacrifices for them and I didn't want DSD missing out.

When I posted about this the backlash was HUGE. My DH was a downbeat dad who needed to work more( Even though i had stated he was working 2 jobs to try and keep us all afloat) . Who did I think I was taking over the mothers role? It wasn't possible that the ex didn't want to see her daughter and I was making that up. My personal favourite though was even though we had DSD pretty much 100 percent of the time, WE should be paying the ex wife maintenance, and to be thoroughly ashamed to ask for any kind of contribution from her!!

The sad thing is, take a look at pretty much any stepmother post and you will see insane stuff like this.

And yet ... here we all still are! I've been piled onto a time or two but I keep coming back for more of the contrary, hypocritical, neurotic dripping in irony bat-shittery! It's what makes Mumsnet Mumsnet!

ETA Neurotic!

This should explain

Asking my 12 year old son to go to his bedroom to watch YouTube or whatever he was watching on his phone, at 9pm so I was able to watch TV myself (something non-child appropriate) after I'd been working all day and then running around feeding the family. Apparently that makes me an awful mother and making him unwelcome in HIS OWN HOME. Nobody cares about what I want to do in MY OWN HOME that I work bloody hard to pay for.

Being a dog owner who swings my bag of dog poo as I walk.

Being married to someone who has previously been married. There must be a reason his first marriage didn’t work, he’s clearly a nailed on wife abuser/cheater/axe murderer. His ex wife’s two affairs were clearly his fault

Thinking of asking my 19 year old to pay rent.

For calling out a man for mansplaining that young women shouldn't be creeped out by him when he struck up a conversation with them. I'm a man, which is obvious from my user name, and his reply to me started with something like "You women...". He also mansplained what a feminist ally was, and how he was one, but apparently "you women" didn't understand.

It was very funny. I think the thread was pulled.

and also Not asking my 19 year old to pay rent 😂

I think there a few people on this thread who are confusing ‘being disagreed with’ and ‘being criticised’. It’s not really a problem for someone to side with your friend / MIL / DH rather than you on an AIBU thread, for example, or to have different views on whether you should give a kid a dummy or whatever. Obviously I know some people are incredibly vitriolic in their disagreements though, so I do understand that even that can be a bit batshit.

My favourite examples are the ones where people are essentially directly told that they are an awful person for something utterly inconsequential.

Not on Mumsnet, but in another forum I was once told that I “obviously have no self-respect” because I didn’t get angry when my brother called me ‘sprout’. No matter how much I tried to explain that he was my older brother and in my family ‘sprout’ just means ‘kid’ and he was being affectionate, this woman would NOT have it and basically decided I was some sort of brainwashed disgrace to the sisterhood for not minding my own brother calling me ‘sprout’.

Using capital letters...in the thread title. Apparently it was rude and aggressive 🤷‍♀️

Omg loads of things. Giving 5 year old a tablet for some of the time on a 10 hour flight. Giving my dog anxiety by letting Mil dogsit and that's why she was pooping in the house a month after the dog sitting. Turns out she was intolerant to her food 🙄

I was on mat leave and trying to find a childminder for when I went back to work. I was having difficulty with this as some childminders locally were saying I'd left it too late (DD was 3 months old) whilst others were saying it was way too early for them to commit (it was nine months before I went back to work.) I asked for advice / other people's experiences as to what I should do.

I was hauled over the coals for being "selfish" and told that I was unreasonably "expecting a childminder to keep a place open for me," and / or "stealing" a place from someone that was going back to work sooner. I hadn't asked anyone to keep a place open for me. I was just struggling to find childcare and needed a bit of help as to what I should do.

The recent thread about a kid picking daffs out of someones front garden went absolutely mental.

The lofty assumptions that I condone picking them after I said that unless a child is specifically told not to pick daffodils (meaning from the verge, not a garden), that they wouldn't necessarily know they were planted and not weeds, like daisies or buttercups, was also (disingenuously) misunderstood.

I stand by that comment, as (and I said this in the thread!) I had done it myself as a kid as had many other commenters!

God I’d leave it on the lowest setting for five minutes perhaps slightly off centre of ring 😂
never been in my loft either in 11 years 😳

My daughters ears being pierced