To ask for your best examples of brass-neckedness to entertain us all on this dull day?

[Salmotrutta]

I've got one from decades ago.

My older brother was about 18 and going out with a girl of about 16.

It was pretty short lived as she seemed to be a bit spoiled etc. and they were only teens after all.

My brother was the one who ended it but girl seemed to think Mum was behind it.

Mum wasn't but she had asked to girl to help bring in washing during the rain when she stayed over at our house one weekend as mum was in the middle of something when rain started.

This was apparently a criminal act to ask someone for a bit of help so girlfriend moaned to brother (who I think had got rather exasperated by her anyway by this point) and he ended it.

Apparently this did not go down well.

Next thing, her little sister phoned my Mum and castigated her for being the cause of all this! Little sister would have been about 14 and mum would have been about 45!

That didn't go down well either.

[damepeanutbutter]

What a brilliant thread. Just back from holiday and supposed to be catching up with admin, but MN is just too much of a magnet....

Here's mine... 20 years ago I was newly divorced (no DCs) and bought myself a little 2 bed terraced house, which was going to be the start of my new life. The sellers were a family of four plus cat who were moving miles away and staying in a caravan park before they could move into their new home. When I turned up with my removal van the family were all still there and told me that their cat had disappeared in fright when all the furniture started being moved and they were going to wait for it to reappear.

They waited and waited and waited, watching all my stuff being unloaded, commenting on everything 'ooh, that's nice etc etc'. It became very annoying. However, eventually everything was in and I wanted to close the front door and get on with my life. However, they were having none of that. They decided they would go off, but they gave me instructions on how I had to leave all the doors in case their cat came back. I had to leave the back patio doors open until she returned. Then I had to go to Sainsburys and buy a specific brand of cat food THAT DAY (my moving day) and was to feed the damn thing at a specific time (they gave me money). And I wasn't to worry if the cat decided to sleep on my bed. SLEEP ON MY BED!!! I am not a cat person. I certainly did not want the cat sleeping on my bed. So, a real pain, I had to keep all the doors closed in my new home and wait for the cat to reappear. Which it did. That same night.

They called me later from a payphone. I said, 'please come and collect your cat'. They told me they couldn't as they were now in the west country and would come back a week later!!!! 8 days later I had not heard from them so I called their solicitor (no number for them at their camp site) and told him that as of two days' time I would not be able to look after the cat as I was going abroad (true), so it would be locked out of the house and would probably starve. Oh, and I had run out of cat food by then so had to go out and buy more.

Anyway, that call did the trick and they called and asked me to go and buy a cat box from a vet, which I did (had to take time off work). Vet told me to drug the cat with pills he gave me and which I paid for and then to coax it into this bloody cat box. Getting a cat into a cat box is almost impossible I discovered. I stayed at home to wait for the woman's DM (who I then discovered lived very close by and could have organised the vet stuff herself, she was retired, not working FT like me) to come and collect the cat. She was an hour late. I had decorators in the house and she then wanted to come in and have a look round at the work I was having done. I said 'no' and thrust the cat box in her hands, took the money off her for the vet's bills and closed the door. I never received any thanks for saving these people's damned moggie and I often wonder if they would ever have come to collect it, despite their wailing about how much they loved it after it had run away.

[ShitStickSugar]

These are fantastic! !

[sanityisamyth]

An ex-friend of mine used to have permission to ride my horses. She and her brother rode my horses for years, at my expense, and I did all the transport for them (30 mile daily round trip) to take them to the stables and back. However, friendship catastrophically broke down as DH was far too close to ex-friend and her family for my liking, especially the things that he was saying to her about me.

In May I went to see my parents in Yorkshire for a break as couldn't take the bitching (have a currently 7 mo son and the whole family were being vile to me). I told DH on no account was he to have any contact with ex-friend. I later find out, after he lied to me about seeing her, that not only had he been constantly texting her, but he'd collected her and her brother, ridden my very unfit, elderly pony for 10 miles (including galloping it around the moor) and he'd taken photos of it, then emailed them to her, at her request.

I didn't find this out until weeks later when someone told me of one of the photos on Facebook. I very politely asked here to take it down but she refused and I got a load more abuse from her and family. If it had been a car she'd taken without permission and published photos of her driving it, the police would be interested?

A few weeks ago I hit a real low point and told DH I was near suicidal (due to the actions of said ex-friend and her family). His response was to go straight round to ex-friend and her family to spend a nice day dog walking with them leaving me with severe depression and a 7 mo baby.

I found out where he was, went to their house to see him. Was to,d by the grandmother he wasn't there. I then get a text from ex-friend who caused all he problems telling me that she was with my husband so it wasn't his fault. WTF?!

[Elswyth]

Sanity, how absolutely awful I hope this isn't ongoing still.

[expatinscotland]

sanity, your husband should have ex before his title, too.

[sanityisamyth]

We very nearly headed at divorce. He doesn't think he's done anything wrong. He actually told me at one point he didn't want to stop being friends with them. I told him its either us (his wife and son) or them. But he wasn't willing to give them up, in case we didn't work out then he's lost everything.

I've since found out that the family are here for him, whatever happens ... How nice for him!

You wouldn't believe the things he was texting her. And, according to the ex-friends mother, I shouldn't be unreasonable and stop him talking to, and being friends, with who he wants!!!

I might write the whole saga down. It's very long and complicated!!

[CeliaFate]

Fucking hell, sanity! You poor woman. I hope you've kicked your dh's arse out into the street for treating you like that.

[expatinscotland]

I wouldn't bother other than seeing a solicitor with all those texts, applying to divorce on grounds of his unreasonable behaviour and tell him to fuck off to hers.

[BoffinMum]

damepeanutbutter, if you hadn't fed the damn thing it would just have taken itself off and moved in with a family who gave a fuck. Cats do that. It's not like a dog.

[BoffinMum]

Sanity, they both sound dreadful, like the worst kind of Jilly Cooper characters, and I would leave them both to it and move on.

[sanityisamyth]

I'm gonna write the whole sorry saga down - it's been going on for months. Don't want to hijack this thread and want/need to get it all off my chest. I know it's only going to be one side of the story but I'd welcome opinions!

[CeliaFate]

sanity Perhaps start a thread in Relationships? Plenty of people there to help.

[2kidsintow]

One of my friends repeatedly asks me to do references for her. Usually AFTER they have applied for whatever.

So far I've done university application references, adoption process references (more than once) and job references.

The most brass necked was when I got a phone call at work (school) asking for a reference for her as she had an interview, only they were interviewing that morning and could they have it before 11. No, they couldn't as I was teaching and the first moment I had to write an email was 12. She hadn't told me she was applying and hadn't asked me if she could put me as a referee.

When her DH phoned my DH about something he was very that she hadn't mentioned it when they were at my house for a cuppa just the day before.

I don't know why she puts me down as a referee anyway, she's not worked for me.

[Lweji]

I don't know why she puts me down as a referee anyway, she's not worked for me.
I think I can guess why.

[sanityisamyth]

I've put it in AIBU - I was told so many times I was ;)

[damepeanutbutter]

boffinmum - you are right! I was quite young then and was a mug. If it happened now I would tell them where to go. They should have captured that bloody cat before they started moving furniture. But I see how compliant and sweet my own DD is to people who brass neck her and I was a bit like that. Not any more!

[Mooycow]

i was having driving lessons ,as a young 17yr old i was very shy , any how on the lesson he would regularly ask me to stop off at places ie post box , post office and i would sit there waiting for him to come back , and off we would go, but it was all included in my 1hour lesson.
One day feeling i was feeling very brave, and when he asked me to stop outside the local super market whilst he got a few things i agreed as usual,, so off he popped , i leant over to the passenger door and pushed down the button to lock the door (thats how long ago it was) pushed the button down on the drivers side , got out and locked the car , and walked home. never heard from him again

[theressomethingaboutmarie]

A couple from me:

SIL has quite the brass neck. We were all going to a wedding and I was heavily pregnant and so couldn't wear my usual wedding-y outfits. SIL was working abroad at the time and asked me if I could get her dress (that was at her dad's house) dry-cleaned. No problem, said I.

Upon her arrival to the UK, she brushed off paying me back for the dry-cleaning. She then asked if she could look at a couple of my dresses and she wasn't sure if her dress was right. I thought I'd give her the benefit of the doubt and loaned her two dresses. She wore one of them at the wedding and looked lovely. She gave the dresses back to me (I'd given them to her in a suit carrier with both dresses on wooden hangers) in the suit carrier. The hangers were wire and worst of all, she hadn't got the dress she'd worn dry-cleaned. It stank of cigarette smoke (she's a smoker) and as she'd put them both in the same suit carrier, they both stank!

Again, she brushed me off for the dry cleaning costs and I just vowed never again - I've not loaned her a thing since (this was 7 years ago).

Her DH is a free-loading useless lump too. They'd been living abroad and were in the process of relocating back to the UK. DH and I were living in a place that had two bedrooms, both with ensuite. Her DH was relocating back to the UK first and to our home town. We said that he could stay with us for a while (I was about 6 months pg at the time) and that he didn't need to pay us any rent. We'd like to help them get on their feet etc.

Our landlord was a PITA and only gave us one set of keys (they were a copy, so we couldn't get copies made). We warned BIL about this and he was cool with it. DH loaned him a car to drive, drove him around the town to recruitment agencies etc. We really did our best.

After a few months, he left abruptly. He went to another family members house telling them how awfully we'd treated him, we'd not even given him his own set of keys and that he didn't have enough space!

[DownstairsMixUp]

Did anyone just watch Don't Tell The Bride? The best man reminded me of this thread!

The best man and groom fell out, when they made up the 'best man' said he wouldn't do it unless the groom agreed to a stag (he wasn't bothered about having one) and insisted on £500! Groom coughed up and the best man arranged a night in a bar watching Liverpool and getting pissed (the groom didn't like footie and not a massive drinker!) the groom on the night said he had enough then best man says can he leave the money there to pay for the rest of the stags drinks (!!)

He also made him cough up £320 for his suit, moaned when he spent money on shoes for the bride and convinced groom to hire wedding dress while he got to keep his suit and shoes! I was watching like

[captainmummy]

When dp and I first starting going out, he had a neighbour with a brass neck like a giraffe! He'd take her places, fetch and deliver her DC all over, fix cupboards, mow the grass... One weekend we were packing my car up for a weekend away, when her friend (staying over at hers) came over asking if he could get her a phone card credit (long, long time ago!) - she didn't want to walk to town 5 minutes away, could be drive to the shop and get her one?
I didn't want to go ballistic (early days of our relationship) but let him know that our weekend away was starting NOW and not when he had done her yet another favour for which she was never grateful. He felt guilty about it for a long time (healthy young woman forced to walk 5 minutes to the shop!) Until he and neighbour had a spectacular falling out (basically she didn't like me (wonder why, the grasping cow?) and demanding he chose between us! Spread lies, demanded her family didn't talk to him... Unbelievable, .

[awsomer]

Oh, oh, I've got one! (Although it's not quite as good as some of these. Mexican house thief remains a firm favourite.)

I went camping with 3 friends as a teenager and we each invited our (then) boyfriends. Our parents said they'd share between them the lifts there and back. It would take 2 cars there & 2 back.

Friend A & Friend Bs DMs did the lifts there, but as we were dividing up the stuff to take (tent, stove, luggage, food, hidden booze, etc) Friend A and her boyfriend got in her DMs car with just their bags and drove away. Leaving 6 of us remaining with our bags plus all the camping things! When we confronted them about it later they said they didn't want to be squashed in the car!

On the last day Friend Cs DM and my DM were doing the lifts home but Friend Cs had a work emergency (childminder and had been stuck with a child who hadn't been picked up) and said they'd be late to pick her half of the group up. "Nevermind", says Friend A, "I'll call my mum." 'Problem solved!' we think, 'and it makes up for them driving off before.' Friend Cs DM was hugely apologetic and greatly relieved (as were all of us).

My DM arrives, packs up the car with half the stuff and half the group and we leave. I get a phone call the next day from Friend C to say when their lift arrived the mum said she was only taking Friend A and her bf as they were planning to stop off for a meal out on the way back! Friend C and her boyfriend had to struggle back on public transport with all the camping things and it took them nearly 4hours!

[PedantMarina]

You call their bluff, BSOW. You call their bluff, but goooodddd.

[PedantMarina]

and then come back and update us, because this is going to be brilliant entertainment

[Innocentbystander01]

I lent my neighbour a beautiful old fashioned carriage pram. About two months later I walked onto my garden to find her on her garden showing some random how to put it all together and attempting to sell it.

I soon got it back.

The same woman also borrowed a small amount of money off me over a weekend and I rang her and asked for it back during the week she the. Told the people she was with I was harassing her to lend me money!