Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Things that stay with you.

471 replies

penfriends · 04/06/2016 23:42

What random things have struck a chord with you?

Mine is a Postsecret card that said:

"Everyone who knew me before 9/11 think I'm dead"

I read it years ago but I think about that person. Family, parents, siblings.

Just one sentence but it's stayed with me fore years.

OP posts:
JamieVardysParty · 11/06/2016 17:19

FIL is lovely, if fairly quiet and a little gruff to people who don't really know him. The first time I met PIL, he just said quietly to me "DH lights up when he's with you, you're good for him".

My lovely aunt who I wish I could see more often: "you're going to make a fantastic mother".

Archer26 · 11/06/2016 17:20

A positive one. About 9 I went on a brownie camp for a week. When m parents collected me two of the helpers said to my parents 'you've got a good one there'.

Also, when I left my last job my manger did a little speech and said 'one thing about archer is that she's always smiling'. I've now earned the nickname smiler from the security guard in my new job. These stick with me and surprise me as I always think I have a miserable face!

Flowers to everyone

iamwomanhearmesnore · 11/06/2016 18:07

Mardasnails - your story about the chap in your office bringing you tea especially the bit about how he "stared intensely at his monitor for the next hour instead of risking catching my eye" sums up everything I love about Blighty and its people.

I lived in London for years but am now back home in South Africa and afflicted with a terrible case of missing the UK, thanks to your story! My late dad was English and the kindest, most gentlemanly man and that's exactly the sort of thing he would have done, and especially the never-mention-it-again Grin

StrangeLookingParasite · 11/06/2016 18:25

Ah minmooch, that tipped me over the edge. Flowers

user1464734193 · 11/06/2016 18:56

"This will teach you to stay in on a Saturday night" said by doctor as she performed a rape kit on me, I was 19 and had been drugged and raped by my boss at a Christmas party.

"I'm transexual, you will have to learn to be a little lesbian, It'll be fun" -DH

"I don't want to know about those things, It's disgusting, I'm your Mother" on telling my DM I was struggling to conceive. Followed by "did you know X is pregnant, all my friends are grandmothers you know"
I never did havd children and she still does this

PhylumChordata · 11/06/2016 19:05

When I was tiny I overheard my mum say '(my sister) has the loveliest nature. Phylum is ok but (sister) is just lovely.

It fucking broke me. Nothing anyone has said before or since has hurt as much as knowing at 4 I was second best.

PhylumChordata · 11/06/2016 19:08

Monmouth I am so sorry.
Your post is so moving. God bless your family (sorry if you don't believe in God. All best wishes)

Cinnamon2013 · 11/06/2016 19:31

In my twenties I was about to be made redundant. I felt like my whole identity was coming apart. I mentioned it to a childhood friend and she pissed herself laughing.
She said 'you do know none of us give a shit what you do, don't you? If you were a binman we would feel the same way about you.'

I'd always felt I had to BE something to be worth something. After that I talipes I could just be.

Cinnamon2013 · 11/06/2016 19:32

Realised not talipses

Girliefriendlikesflowers · 11/06/2016 19:48

My pregnancy was not planned and one of the first people I told told me just to 'get rid' Sad all the more shocking given my beautiful dd is now 10yo and sat next to me, I still can't believe she said that.

The lovely midwife who when I told him the baby wasn't planned retorted 'the best ones never are dear' Grin

StealthPolarBear · 11/06/2016 19:56

Actually I remember when my dad told me he had cancer. I got in the car to come home and on every street by dire straits came on immediately. Dad loves dire straits and that song in partocular seemed so relwvant and I decided that would be what we'd play at his funeral. Pleased to report he is fine and I'm hoping cds wont be obselte at his funeral in thirty ish years time.

ScarletOverkill · 11/06/2016 19:59

Hearing the pain in my DF's sobs when he saw his DGD (my DN) in the mortuary after she died suddenly.
Flowers to all

UbiquityTree · 11/06/2016 20:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MadameJosephine · 11/06/2016 20:25

16 years ago I left an abusive marriage and fled with my 2 yo DS to my parents house. Late that night I heard my dad say to my mum 'well you know Madame can be quite provocative sometimes you know'. He still doesn't know I heard him but it was devastating to think that my own father thought that I had somehow brought the abuse upon myself. I still think about it regularly and I don't think our relationship has ever been quite the same.

On a brighter note, last year I separated from my DD's father and when I said to my DS who is now 19 'I can't believe I'm a single parent again' he said to me 'but mum you are really good at it'

CheekyMcgee · 11/06/2016 20:48

When my daughter had a bleed on the brain when she was just a few days old (resulting in mild cerebral palsy) the consultant who delivered the news said to me 'I'm so sorry' with such a deep look of pain on his face. I was very touched by his genuine compassion. A few weeks later, he said to me, 'it's about helping her to be the best Laura she can be'. I will never forget his wise words and five years later I am determined that whatever happens, I'm going to make sure she can be the best Laura she can be. (Not her real name).

When I was 19, I had a meeting with a college lecturer and he had to leave the room for a few minutes. I peaked at his notes and he'd written 'writing is her greatest strength'. I'll never forget that and I've since gone on to write freelance opinion pieces for newspapers.

Hearing my name called when I won an award for acting in a television series.

My stbexh walking out on me on Xmas day with the words 'that's it, I'm going back to London and I'm leaving'. Out child's first Xmas. Bastard.

Meeting a woman with severe mental health problems again after several years and her saying to me 'you probably don't remember me but I remember you because you were kind to me and people aren't often kind to me'. I was truly humbled.

DeathByMascara · 11/06/2016 20:53

I have cried so hard at some of these stories, it amazes me the pain others can inflict upon us and how resilient we can be.

I would say mine are minor compared to some, and I feel that they are, but at the same time I think I'm probably doing myself a disservice by minimising it & thinking my problems are worth less than others.

Being told by my teenage crush 'I don't fancy you because you're good looking because you're not, but you know that'. Well, I didn't, but thanks. Strangely I actually felt complimented by that, felt that I had a great personality, but I've never shifted the feeling of being ugly. Particularly because I told some class mates that we had kissed and he stopped talking to me, only confiding in me that he couldn't be seen with me in public and then started dating someone much prettier and more acceptable. Many years later he sent me a text saying 'I don't know why, but I find you really attractive'. I found my self esteem by then and called him out.

My boss, when pregnant with DD and returning to work after 2.5 weeks having been in high dependency in septic shock. 'It doesn't sound very serious'. I didn't call her out on it, and it's that that keeps haunting me. Wish I'd told her it wasn't a urine infection, as she supposed (without reading my sick line) and I was hours away from death.

On a nicer note, my FIL said something lovely to me last week which I'll keep with me. For background, my DH was very recently out of a long term relationship when we met and very much licking his wounds. For a very long time (and probably still a bit, actually) I felt I was a poor replacement and he would rather be with his ex. FIL said to me last week 'we knew before he ever mentioned you that something had changed, his voice sounded different, happier'.

Reindeerlily · 11/06/2016 20:54

When I was 8 30 years ago a bus drove past me and my cousin and a girl on the back mouthed at me FAT COW. It still hurts me to this day.

CheekyMcgee · 11/06/2016 21:07

When I was trying to breastfeed my very sick baby in the neonatal unit, my milk was going after two months of expressing and I really wanted to just bottle feed her because I was so stressed, the units psychotherapist told me that bottle feeding was fine because 'the best thing you can give your daughter is a happy mum'. She went on the bottle after that and a huge weight was lifted off of me. I'm so grateful to her.

Tiggywinkler · 11/06/2016 21:24

Flowers to so many people here. I wish I could hug those who need(ed) it.

When I was 11, and about to leave primary school, my beloved teacher Mrs Toft told me that whatever happened in life, I'd do well. I loved her so much at a time when my Mum really didn't.

I start my first job as a primary teacher myself in September, and I'm so going to pay it forward.

Fitzsimmons · 11/06/2016 22:05

Negative:

"You're fat, ugly, and no one loves you." - My ex-stepmum to me on numerous occasions when I was between 7 and 10 years old.

Walking through Chennai in India and a homeless girl about 3 or 4 years old had a matchstick box with about three paperclips in that she was trying to sell to earn some money.

"You're not good enough to do an English degree." - My A Level English tutor. Four years later I got a 2-1 in English from a Russell Group uni and today I'm a freelance writer.

Positive:

"You light up a room when you walk in." - A friend at uni."

Random:

"You! You are beautiful! Do you know who you remind me of? Judi Dench!" - A drunk bloke in the pub. I was about 23 and it was about 10 years ago so not sure if he was referring to her younger years or that I looked a lot older than I was Confused

DeathByMascara · 11/06/2016 22:08

Another from me - when I was travelling, I decided to do the Nevis bungee jump in New Zealand. The tour guide said to me 'I like a girl with a bit of get up and go'. This was a compliment to me and I repeated it to my mum. She said 'for goodness sake, you've travelled to the other side of the world on your own and you still don't think you've got a bit of 'get up and go' about you??'

That stayed with me too.

ThomasRichard · 11/06/2016 22:09

"The child I didn't adopt'. I have rarely cried so much at something I've read on the Internet.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 11/06/2016 22:10

It so leaps out from this thread that everyone who said the awful remarks to people were the people with the issues.

Hope people can see that and gain self esteem from this thread. Flowers

derxa · 11/06/2016 22:25

my beloved teacher Mrs Toft I hope I was a 'Mrs Toft' to at least one of my pupils.

MadameJosephine · 11/06/2016 22:39

thomasrichard that is utterly heartbreaking. I'm quite a tough old bird but that's got me crying now too, that poor poor boy

Swipe left for the next trending thread