To become apoplectic with unreasonable rage when my mother rings me to talk nonsense?

[HerBeatitude]

I won't even begin to go into all the ins and outs of her stream of unedited idiocies, but the last straw was when she commented that her fire alarm was beeping IE that it needs its battery changed. Therefore, she would call the fireman to come round and change it for her.

I pointed out that my DB is going round today and can easily do it for her and that would save her having to waste fire brigade resources which might be better spent changing the batteries of much frailer, isolated pensionrs than her and/ or saving people's lives in fires.

And no, she isn't frail and she isn't isolated, she has lots of friends and goes out every day. And one or other of my DB's is there 3 or 4 times a week. But "he offered - he said anytime I want help". So therefore, she's entitled to it, so why not call on it, however unnecessary.

I know, I shouldn't let it wind me up, but every so often I do...

yabu

what, she plans to dial 999 and ask someone to come and change her battery???

oh boy...

LOL no she won't actually call 999, she'll call the special number you get for the bloke who goes around and advises you on your alarms.

She knows perfectly well what's wrong with her alarm, but she wants the fireman to come round.

apoplectic may be a bit strong!

mmm - i wish i knew a number I could call and get a fireman to come round when I needed some small personal attentions like that

Well once you're a pensioner you will do.

I had two firemen round last week to give my house a fire safety check and fit me two new fire alarms - they came in a fire engine and everything!!

Not feeling guilty though cause it only happened cause I got accosted by a woman at the local fire stations open day trying to push the service. I merely said "yes".

If she rings the fire station, they may come round and swap the whole alarm for a brand new one with a 10 year battery for her. They'll also make sure she has an alarm on every floor (as is the current advice) and advise her on a 'get out plan' for if there is a fire. I found it really helpful.

In fact, they do it for anyone - check out www.direct.gov.uk/firekills or have a look in the phone book for the number of the local station. Do not call 999!

If she does just want the battery changed and your DH could do it, she is being a bit unreasonable though...

Oh Golden she knows all that, she had precisely that service a few months ago - the fireman came out and gave her a shiney new system with that 10 year guarantee you're talking about and told her all about how it worked (including that it would need the battery changed occasionally and it would beep to warn her of that) and to call him if there's any problems.

I think it's a brilliant service and I'd forgotten that it's not just for pensioners, anyone can access it and I would encourage everyone to do so if they think they need it. But I think to call out a fireman on the pretence that you're having a problem with it, when you know perfectly well what the problem is and someone else has offered to solve it for you, is an abuse of the service. Co-incidentally I needed to change mine yesterday - I was tempted to call a uniformed fireman in to pretend I didn't know what the problem was as well but I resisted the urge.

It is good isn't it - I feel much happier having an escape plan now.

The alarms they fitted for me have a 10 year battery though. If they do start to beep to say the battery is going flat, I have to replace the whole unit - the battery does not come out and is not replaceable. They are FireAngel ones.

Is it possible she has the same thing?

No she's got the same model I've got - it's a 10 year guarantee on the actual unit, and if one fire alarm in the house goes off, it sets off all the others in the house (she has 3 others), and they run off the mains electricity, but you still have to put 9v batteries in.

Your system sounds better.

Mmm We went to the firefighters gala yesterday, I walked around with a dreamy smile on my face...
They usually come into work every year asking for a donation for the raffle, I swear they send the best looking ones just so silly women like me can go all a flutter and donate more than the company allows

Ah, the ones they fitted for me are stand alone units with a 10 year battery. When the battery goes, you change the whole thing.

They replaced the alarm I already had on the landing with one of the new ones as the existing one was probably at least 10 years old as it was and the sensors would have been past thier best (it wasn't somewhere I could reach to clean so was dusty) and gave me a new one downstairs too. My new ones have hush buttons too which is good. It was a case of having to pull the batteries out of the old one!

If it's just a case of needing new batteries, I would say that she should let your DH do it. If she still has a problem then she could phone the fireman.

Just remind her that there are other little old ladies who need the fireman to visit too and it might take him a while to get round to her. It took ages for them to get round to us - I'd have gone crazy listening to the battery beeping in the meantime!!

@missingtheaction

Me too!