Am I a laughing stock?

[CovidHeadache]

I jokingly call my house “surname towers” so for example if my surname was Jackson, my house would be called Jackson Towers. I’ve called it this for years, it’s very very lighthearted as I’m sure everyone knows. We host a lot of social events and I use the name in invites for example “birthday party, Jackson towers”, “Strictly finale party, Jackson towers” etc
In Christmas/birthday cards “love from A, L and all at Jackson towers”

All my friends and family know I call the house this and some call it this name too either in replies or just in general.

Anyway, last night I’d popped to my mums and my sister was there, we were talking about taking the kids to a Halloween event tonight and I said “why don’t you bring them back to the towers afterward and we can have a little party?”

My sister then said “I’m sorry but can we stop with this towers bullshit, it’s so cringy”. I said “It’s a joke! And you’ve never complained before!” My mum then said “not to your face maybe”. They both started laughing and my sister then said “no I’m sorry, someone needs to say something, people have been ripping the piss out of you for years for it, just give it a rest now”.

so to cut a long story short, turns out almost my entire family have been slagging me off for it for years and my sister hinted that my friends have too.

When I got home I rang my friend and asked her if the towers name annoys her and she said “no course not” so I asked if she knew if it annoyed anyone else to which she hesitated and then said “not annoy as such”. She wouldn’t elaborate further.

Now I’m pretty thick skinned and can mostly laugh it off if I’ve been a dick but this time I’m a bit upset, I keep trying to tell myself I’m not bothered but I can’t stop thinking about it. Have I been a laughing stock for years? If so AIBU to think someone might have mentioned it before now?

How can you possibly know to be able to declare that? I hope neither of you ever become high court judges!

Any offence or annoyance that you may have caused to others due to your joke name for your house is massively outweighed by the sheer nastiness of your so called nearest and dearest’s statements. Is this a once off or indicative of how they usually speak to you?

I personally think it's pretty cringe, and the kind of thing that's only funny once, if at all, but I wouldn't think any less of you for saying it, and it wouldn't be a topic of conversation behind your back! We all have our little quirks that other people find cringe or annoying, that's life.

I think it's just one of those harmelss jokes - though I wouldn't do it as my family would just comment and take the piss.

It is one thing I really like about MIL she not po faced and is up for a laugh - nice to have that round the kids growing up TBH.

🙄

What on earth gives you that impression? (No, I'm not a sock puppet, I just think you're making a ridiculous leap.)

Wow! Projecting much? I could've been more succinct. As in: YABU. Because people who do that are awful, typically?
Go recline on your grey velour 'couch'.

What on earth goes through people's minds, when they look through all of the many available threads (on just one tiny fraction of the internet), find one that doesn't interest them and then decide to click on it and then participate - to tell everybody that they don't find the thread interesting?!

Are they the same people who choose to participate in a tribute thread to a (maybe non-household-name) celebrity who has just died, purely to enlighten everybody else that they personally have never heard of them?!

No need to be such a bitch.

Yeah doing it once or twice, ok a bit cringe, but repeatedly doing it, it’s a lot cringe, so I’d really advise to stop. Just say at ours, come to me etc, you know like normal folks.

Have you considered remaining the property to 'doors closing, lift going up?'

this. I know other people who do the same and their friends don't think anything of it. I think your sister is a bit of a cow though

Yes, a weird response to a pretty innocuous thread and nothing at all like OP's concern.

As for the interiors comment... bizarre!

For me, the association is Fawlty Towers so i would just regard it as humorous that you called your house that. I think your sister and mum have been a bit mean, tbh.

Absolutely, which is why OP now feels like she's a "laughing stock" which I'm sure she's not. Her sister is certainly irritated by it and has probably had a conversation with one other member of their social circle who's laughed at it (with no malicious intent) and OP's sister has made this into a much bigger thing than it is. OP doesn't have a friends problem, she has a sister problem.

Look, even if some of your friends do laugh at it a bit, that will just be a temporary fleeting thought they have when 'Towers' comes up. It doesn't affect how they feel about you as a friend. Don't take it to heart.

I think its boredom. And/or drugs!

With cleaning my 5 bedroomed house, policing my husband and having a six figure job (!), I couldn't be arsed frankly.

Its all nonsense 😂

Ummmm

Stop inviting the miserable fuckers to Jackson Towers. Let them slum it elsewhere.

A friend of mine used to jokingly refer to my house as 'street name Towers'. And we took it as a silly joke. But I wouldn't refer to my own house as anything Towers as it has delusions of grandeur and sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket.

That's not logical at all, though.

You might as well say that, because Ian Huntley and Ian Watkins (formerly of Lostprophets) were disgusting, vile men, that means that all men called Ian must be as wicked as they were.

It's a silly joke; not a concerning behaviour.

The dog walkers, cleaner and nanny say it is modest.

What's your beef?

The gardener loved the towers gag

Sorry but I would’ve been laughing at you too it makes you sound like a cringy dick. I would drop the whole towers thing it’s as bad as giving your house a name.