It's time for mumsnetters to finally define "tat"

[Oxforddictionaryunofficialupdate]

Aibu for traffic, title not exaggeration.

In last week the world "tat" took over mumsnet faster than bedbugs did over Paris.

It's time to finally define it. In last week it was plastic items, decorations, some clothes, various home furnishings, kitchem utensils and small gadgets, jewellery (i think), chocolates and sweets...

Anyone using the worls "tat", please give an example items of what "tat" is in your minds. Like exact items examples not "just stuff no one needs".

Because at this point on MN it is simply "any physical item I personally don't like" 🤷 o EVERYTHING is tat...

Yabu - tat is life and everything is tat
Yanbu - it did get ridiculous now with even food being called tat

Cheap, low quality items that are mass produced with little useful purpose that are likely to be discarded within a year and sent to landfill.

So for me? Things like plastic, stick-on single use kids’ jewellery.

Or Mini Brands tiny plastic versions of branded food or toiletries (just why).

Plates made of material that isn’t safe to eat off.

The silk trousers I bought at a market in Portugal that split on the first wear and unravelled. Pure - but disguised - tat.

@Oxforddictionaryunofficialupdate

Another example of tat for me is seasonal stuffs. Like holiday themed bed linnens, throws etc.

but weirdly for some reasons i love decorating the house for christmas (though i dony do throws, cushions, etc). I think i do it tastefully but maybe someone could say it is tat? 🤷🏻‍♀️

i think halloween is tat but my children used to want to decorate the house so we did it, and this year i saw some houses that wrrr really serioulsy cool and made me want to do it again…

so tat or not tat?

But if you’re using the items as decor for 50 years I don’t think they’re tat! Is the disposable-ness of things combined with their uselessness that makes it tat to me.

If you're using the same items for decor for 50 years to me that implies you have a big enough house and stability of housing that makes that possible. And that you have the cash in the first place to buy things that last 50 years. So yeah, I do think 'tat' is a socio-economically loaded term. Cinema posters for example, are tat by your definition as they were produced to be thrown away but now they are collected and displayed by people who have the kind of high ceilings and big rooms to consider themselves above tat.

I think the magnets on my fridge are tat. But they are from holidays so I like them. Also stocking filler gifts that have no purpose. Puzzles and the like.

Walk into any branch of Søstrene Grene.
Every single item there is tat.

That's not right. Real Labubus and Jellycats are also tat.

That comment is just inverse snobbery. Tat can be from anywhere. It isn't about the actul cost, it's about the intrinsic value. The reason you see it so much around Christmas is that there is so much more of it about. Shops know that people need to buy things and they don't want to spend much.There is this idea that at Christmas you have to give things to people. Often it's transactional, they give to you so you give to them. Or they have to have something to open. You don't really know them, or know what they want, or know their taste. So a generic smellies gift set or a cheap plastic bracelet or a plastic tractor that doesn't actually do anything except sit there. But in your mind by buying and giving it you have fulfilled your mental obligations. Job done. Occasionally the gift will land and the recipient loves it. Then it's not tat. If it gets shoved in a drawer never to be seen again until it can be disposed of, it's tat.

Don’t forget Halloween! Any Mumsnet thread about Halloween cannot go more than thirty replies without someone talking about “tat,” usually preceded by the adjectives “cheap” and “plastic.”

Why Mini Brands? Because some people collect miniatures, that’s why. Don’t know why it’s worse than collecting anything else, though I acknowledge that the packaging for Mini Brands could be a lot more environmentally friendly.

That’s a really good point about money and stability of housing. I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right.

Tat: not needful or beautiful, nor well made / good quality
Tchotchkes: not needful but beautiful and well made / good quality

Therefore individual to an extent.

It's not even December yet. Tat chat starts earlier every year.

I have Halloween-themed sheets for my kids’ rooms. The pattern is dogs and cats in costumes trick-or-treating - or, as some Mumsnetters may know it, “begging for sweets.” 😂

I use that William Morris quote often, to which DH always replies " oh bugger, I'd better get my hat and coat then".

Cheap unnecessary item that won’t last long and has just been bought for the sake of buying it- cheap bits of plastic that will break quickly and no one wants but have been bought because someone thinks they need an extra thing to go in a party bag are a prime example.

Unnecessary stuff is not tat on its own, plenty of things are unnecessary.

Tat is also sometimes used simply to describe your possessions, as in “I'm tidying my tat.” or “have you packed your tat?”.
Even “tatting down”, used to describe clearing out from a site such as a protest site, where all shelters, structures and possessions are being removed, to restore the area to its previous wild state.

But I think it is mainly used pejoratively no matter what it consists of, as in: my possessions, your stuff, their tat.

I have shein dress which lasted longer than next🙈

Cheap and nasty. Nylon/poorly made shite that no one needs.

It is a very class-bound concept, especially on MN. It’s part of the same weird puritanical code that decrees that all towels/babygros/loo roll must be plain white, or you have no taste/class/whatever.

If you have b&m sparkly stuff in 6 bed, gym etc house worth 3mil up north, is it still tat?

Anything (t-shirts, mugs, car stickers, for example) that has something "hilarious" written on it.

Not if the owner loves it. Sparkly stuff in general isn't for me so I wouldn't choose it or necessarily like it. But I wouldn't call it tat. If it's used and appreciated by its owner, not tat.

I'd apply that principle to anything. But there are some things that a lot of people agree are tat. Cheap plastic that's going to break as soon as you try to do anything with it being one.

Tat to me means an item that is shoddily made, and is neither “ use nor ornament” as my mum used to say. It’s very subjective though - eg for me, fridge magnets are tat, but some people think they are ornamental.

People (including me) sell vintage tat on Ebay, Etsy and Vinted and made a good income from it. One person's tat is another person's collectable. I dont celebrate christmas but my shops have christmas themed tat in them at present and i have no objection if people want to buy them.