DH’s penguin obsession

[BettyWhittaker]

DH is obsessed with penguins (the biscuits, not the birds) and always has been. He says every British household has a packet of penguins in - just as his grandparents did 30 years ago.
He’s particularly excited at the minute as they’re on offer in Asda for £1 a pack. He came in the other day with 3 packets, all different players - acting like he’d just closed in on the deal of the century.

Anyway, I know it sounds petty but it’s winding me up. Every evening around 8pm he stands up and says “penguin?” No I don’t want a fucking penguin, I never do and I’ve told him to stop asking me. Yes it sounds like a small thing but this is years of frustration. This morning his mother came around whilst he was out and once I made a coffee she said “no penguins in?” Ffs and they act like I’m the weird one!!!

Anyway next week we’re having a little party for DGD and DH wants a plate of penguins all arranged on a plate for the buffet. I think this is tacky as hell. He thinks I’m being a snob.

AIBU???

Bonus points for anyone who can tell me if every British household does indeed have at least one packet of penguins in.

I’m not fussed on them tbh.
I don’t think having them at a party would be tacky, each to their own.
His behaviour is weird though.

Seal bars in this house. The poor mans Penguin.

I haven’t had a penguin in a while. Fancy one now! May have to pop Asda tomorrow😊

Eh, I couldn't get worked up about it. I love to snack on a Penguin though!

I'm quite p-p-p partial to a p-p-p penguin.

Finances dictate that I have to buy Seal bars from aldi these days though.

No Penguins here. A Penguin is a bird or a book in our house. We don’t ever have biscuits in unless we have people coming who will expect them though…my Dad mostly. My Dad is never without chocolate biscuits and he never has Penguins either. Since my Mum died and he is just pleasing himself he only buys Tunnocks Caramel Wafers….my Mum used to like a Blue Riband and occasionally they used to buy Jacobs Clubs or Viscounts for DS who had a thing for them when he was little. No Penguins!

TimTams are like Penguins but superior. Tell him that.

A former boyfriend was fixated on penguins, but the polar bird not the biscuit

I haven’t eaten a Penguin since the 1970s. Club biscuits were always better anyway

If he bites off the top and bottom he can use it as a straw. You have to be quick though, too much and it disintegrates, just the right amount and it tastes like a brownie. Gooy, chocolatey loveliness!

They are weirdos!

Penguins are just sugar now. No chocolate in them like the olden days of real chocolate.

I don't know how your DH and MIL have stayed excited about them.

Guess I’m foreign.
no penguins in my house, in fact I’d take the bird over the biscuit any day,

I'd find it endearing tbh. Although I have to admit I think penguins are overated so yanbu or that point. I like a Tunnocks tea cake or a caramel wafer.

Very funny. He sounds like Jim Royle. "Penguin, Barb?"

I don't like them and never have them in the house.

That said, you husband seems to have a slight obession with them but in the grand scheme of things, it's trivial, harmless and inexpensive.

It's not doing any damage and won't bankrupt you - far worse he could be doing.

There's also something slightly (albeit only slightly!) endearing about a grown man taking such pleasure from something small from his childhood. He sounds easily pleased and low maintenance.

Sorry but I'm voting Team DH!

Not sure how a plate of biscuits at a kids party could be construed as “tacky as Hell”. 🤔

Does he make you sit and listen to the little joke in each wrapper ? 😂

It’s hilarious! But that would be a no from me as far as for a buffet, I don’t serve packaged foods to guests, especially little ones, i personally would knock up some chocolate biscuits, sandwich with buttercream and cover in chocolate to make a point!

They've changed their recipe and can no longer be called a chocolate biscuit as they don't use enough cocoa! Therefore they're banned from our house!

You’re definitely being unreasonable to not want a platter of penguin biscuits at your DGD party - if they’re not a kids biscuit then what are they?! Maybe if it was a black tie crystal glasses fancy do, you might have a point - though even then it it’s a family favourite for your DH’s family it’d still be a fun in joke!

We usually have them in. Two large teens, me and DH. Actually I polled them all on the relative excitement / quality level of all similar wrapped biscuit items (eg Kit Kat, club, gold bar, penguin, wagon wheel (controversially included), time out wafer). To my astonishment, penguin biscuits ranked top for both of my sons and near top for my DH. I would definitely have put Kit Kats and mint clubs above them. But the people have spoken. So now I make sure I usually get them on the order, for the random fancy* biscuit snack.

(we do have much “nicer” food, and do plenty of cooking and have fruit and whole grain stuff and the like, but they all want chocolate biscuits too and that’s fine by me as I can resist them way easier than crisps!)

*fancy only in that wrapped biscuits are by definition more fancy than a hobnob. Not that they have any degree of culinary merit!

This has made me laugh as last night was in Sainsbury’s with my partner and he got very excited to tell me that penguins were on nectar card for £1 a pack 🤣 he bought two!
I don’t think we’ve ever had them in before though!

I should add i would eat them eg take them in a picnic hiking but no we don’t normally buy them or any other packaged biscuits nor other biscuits, don’t have snacks in our house because we can’t resist

My Mum often has Penguins in her chocolate biscuit jar and, if not those, it's Clubs or something equally as 1970s/80s.

We last had them here for the kids packed lunches occasionally - kids are both now 21+

No penguins here.

No penguins here but DH is a beast for a CurlyWurly.