Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

Getting it off my chest....

288 replies

Willow2 · 02/10/2001 20:44

Anyone want to join in on a thread just devoted to sounding off about (non parenting) things that have annoyed you? Well here goes...
I would like to say a big thank you to the absolute xxxxxx that pranged my car while it was parked outside my house sometime in the last 48 hours. The fact that you didn't feel it necessary to leave your details just adds to my love for you. You are probably one of the caring commuters who parks in my road (for free) all day before taking the train to town - glad that we can be of service. Nor should you let the
fact that your journey has turned our quiet little cul-de-sac where kids play footie in the street into the fifth lane of the M25 worry you in the least. And don't be perturbed by the fact that I, and all the other mums in the road, can now no longer park anywhere near our houses when we come home with the supermarket shopping and a car full of screaming kids. Hey, it's all just helps make our day even more fun. So thank you, nameless stranger, for completely annihilating the front of my car and losing me my no claims bonus. My week had looked really boring, now, thanks to you, there's so much to do... I have to go to the police station, get insurance quotes, fax my insurers and then wait for them to send an assessor round to view the damage. And then, if I am really lucky, I will lose the use of my car for several days. Gee things are looking up. You have really made my day.
Sorry chaps, just had to let it out.

OP posts:
Selja · 11/03/2002 20:56

Thanks for the advice robinw. I'll have a go at trying to persuade dh that it would be a good idea again. Thing is he's got these superduper drill bits and screwdriver and thinks he's Handy Andy. I'll keep it in mind though.

anoushka · 13/03/2002 19:35

i have just had the motherinlaw to stay she lives in cornwall she came up for mother's day and went yesterday it was so tense because i am stuck in the house with her when my son was a school and you should see her house a show house if you ever saw one so she was cleaning my house and it so PISSES ME OFF i am made to feel like motherin law forced to do this and i should have done it but do you know what pisses me off the most i have done it and then she goes and does it again a few hours later like i have not done it right i have a good mind to say you come to see me and not to clean my house but you have not to offend your motherinlaw i am soo glad we dont live close and only see her about once a mounth well i feel better now thanks for letting me moan

Tinker · 04/05/2002 13:26

Just went to Parcel Force depot to collect parcel that Post Office had tried to deliver day earlier.
Was told, after suspiciously long absence, that "it's been signed for, someone came earlier". Er, so how come I've still got the card for it?

Bloke looked again - "no, can't find it" with a shrug an no sense of embarressment. Said he'll lok for it later an then it'll be delivered again on Tuesday. Hello? I'm here because I'm not in during the day. Another shrug. "Can you ring me first?". Made the mistake of saying could he ring Monday - got another shrug and a glance as though I was stupid - mad "mistake" of forgetting Monday is BH.

Aaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhh! So angry - It's MY parcel that THEY have lost and I'm made to feel I'm in the wrong!!!

Then got very childish pleasure by driving into nice sedate town with "God save the Queen" (Sex Pistols version) blasting out of windows of car!

jenny2998 · 04/05/2002 21:41

OK here we go;

*People parking in designated spaces

*People with children, smoking

*People smoking and holding their cigarettes just at child face level

*Shops that you can't get around with a single, let alone double, buggy (including our Mothercare ironically enough

*Supermarkets when people just abandon their trolleys in the most inconvenient places, or stop right in front of you blocking the aisle and oblivious to your existance...

susanmt · 05/05/2002 10:34

I am currently enduring the 10 day long visit of my husbands grsndmother. She has NO social skills at all - she booked her flights to come here without asking first, invades your personal space, touches you all the time and wont stop hassling my toddler as well as pawing the baby, passing CONSTANT comment on how we look after him (for some reason she seems extremely anti bf and keeps saying 'poor you, having to feed him like this' etc) and then moaning about all the negative things that have ever happened to her, no matter how trivial.
I am faking a bout of flu (with dh's full cooperation) so I don't have to see her at all today, as along with the postnatal depression this is too much for me.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhh!!!

Feel better now!

IDismyname · 06/05/2002 09:04

Poor You, susanmt!! Just make sure that this flu bug is a really nasty one, and keeps you in bed for.... at least another few days!

star · 06/05/2002 13:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

batey · 06/05/2002 16:25

My turn, Sainsburys in Bath! They only have 2 two seater trollies which unless you get there at the crack of dawn are always being used (suprise suprise). I wrote to them some time back moaning about an awful trip I'd had there. They wrote back saying now they've got 4!! Whoop-de-do!. Wrote to Head Office who basicaly fobbed me off. I've given up now, and shop somewhere else!!

Bron · 06/05/2002 21:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hopey · 06/05/2002 21:51

Sainsbury's is nothing compared to Safeway. As well as only ever having one trolley with baby seat, the only direction it can go in is in bl**dy circles!!!

SueDonim · 06/05/2002 23:15

You don't even need a trolley in our Safeways cos they never have anything to put in it. Last week they had no potatoes. No potatoes - I ask you!

JanZ · 07/05/2002 13:48

The Safeway I go to (not the closest, but the "big" one a wee bit further away) has a VAST selection of trolleys, with ones suitable for putting car seats into, or a single baby seat alongside a toddler seat, or double baby seats, and of course all the "ordinary" trolleys can take two toddlers (or in my case, ds and a handbag!)

But it does sometimes run out of milk!

AnnieMo · 07/05/2002 20:28

I used to hate shopping in our local Somerfield when ds was tiny - the trolleys with the baby seat on them are always left outside in the rain so are always soaking wet and filthy. I did complain but was just told - well we do have paper roll to wipe them. It always meant putting the car seat in the trolley which left no room for the food - or if you did squeeze it around the egdes then there was no room once it was bagged up!

Moan number two - our local doctor's surgery has put up a notice saying no buggies or prams beyond the front door. This strikes me as very stupid - what is a mum supposed to do with a small baby or a very active toddler when they go for any examination. I am sure that any doctor would not want my very lively 15 month old causing havoc in his consultation room - especially as they are not the safest as places. Surely they would be better tied into a buggy. I must summons up the energy to complain.

Janus · 08/05/2002 12:23

Two days in a row standing in dog poo in my street. If I ever see an owner let their dog poo and not pick it up I am likely to attack them! Has anyone ever had a go at anyone for doing this and, if so, what approach did you use?

Zoe · 08/05/2002 12:51

WHY did two "Pay at the Pump" petrol pumps reject my personal account debit card and my joint account card and advise me to "Pay at the kiosk"??? There is money in both accounts (I just checked ) and if I WANTED to pay at the * kiosk I would have done!!!!!!!!!

The whole point of the d* things is that I don't have to
a) get out of the car and lug ds with me to pay
b) leave ds in the car while I pay

And if the ambulance drive who was behind me in the queue who thought my predicament was hilarious is reading this, then two words, and the second is "off"

Phew I feel better!!!

Azzie · 08/05/2002 12:54

People with older kids who park in the mother and baby spaces at Tescos leaving people with babies and toddlers to struggle in the ordinary spaces.

Janus · 08/05/2002 13:31

Azzie, totally agree and do remember a funny day I had once. Was just putting my shopping in my car, parked in the children's spaces (with my baby!) and the car next to me was pulling out. A lady started to whizz in driving a very expensive soft-top car and no child in sight and hence got beeped by the person behind her with children in her car. She looked around and I said to her (as it winds me up too) these spaces are for people with children, I think she needs that space. The lady shouted at me 'this is my child' and held up a little lap-dog!!! I said, 'no, I don't think so, I think you need to give your space up' to which she then screamed 'some of us can't have children you know and I have just been visiting someone with a brain tumour' and stuck her tongue out at me, she was nearly 40! I was dumbstruck and so just shook my head to which she continued to call me names and give me obscene gestures. She was barking!!
Seriously though, I do think the signs should be changed to something like 'reserved for people with children/infants in car seats' so that those of us who have to have room to manouver a child out of a car seat have the spaces, not those with capable walking children.

Tetley · 08/05/2002 13:49

I agree entirely with you, Janus, about the signs. The number of times I've seen people using these parking spaces with teenage kids...! It's a pet rant of mine on numerous occasions!

Also, without wanting to irritate any disabled people, I have also seen at my local supermarket, quite a few times, disabled people parking in the 'Parent and Child' spaces, when there are lots of disabled spaces free. This has left me with nowhere to park, as I won't then park in a disabled spot

Jaybee · 08/05/2002 14:19

I was once in a similar situation when dd was tiny and witnessed some flash car driver parking in a designated Mum & Baby space - obviously did not want anyone banging his precious car!! I parked behind him blocking him in - then decided to have a coffee after I finished my shop!! I heard my registration no. over the tanoy which I ignored - on the way out I advised customer services what I had done and why I had ignored the call - she found it highly amusing. The man was going absolutely barmy when I returned to my car, I slowly and calmly packed my shopping, strapped in dd and drove off - I felt soooooo good!!

elwar · 08/05/2002 14:38

LOL, Jybee! Nice one! Make him think twice about doing it again, eh?

SueDonim · 08/05/2002 14:45

Brilliant Jaybee!!!

Once, I saw two women park in a baby bay and one of them calmly reached into the boot of the car, took out a baby seat and placed it in the car, then they walked off! I was too flabbergasted and postnatal to say anything, sadly.

Enid · 08/05/2002 14:51

Jaybee, LOL

My bugbear is when the family park in the kids spaces, then the mum gets out to do the shopping leaving dad behind with the toddler/baby in the car seat to wait for her. The times I've needed to park there and fumed as I've seen a row of dads and kids sitting blithely in the car...if they aren't getting out then THEY DON'T NEED THE SPACE!!! Why do I have to park miles away and then have a stressful weave through the car park with an unruly toddler???

And, sorry, but WHY in my local Tescos do they have MORE disabled slots than mother and baby slots...I have been sorely tempted on many occasions. There are 20 disabled places and I've only ever seen half full at any one time...

Azzie · 08/05/2002 14:57

Enid, I suspect they have some sort of legal requirement to provide disabled spaces, whereas they provide parent and child spaces purely out of the good of their hearts

Rara · 08/05/2002 15:13

oo, excellent : ranting about all the inconsiderate shops, my favourite past-time at the moment! A couple of exmaples here of giving with one hand and taking with the other...

Firstly: Tescos, who stopped selling Nature Boy&Girl nappies for no good reason, just as all the other big s/markets started doing them, so there obviously is a market for them.
However, I have to say, the service at my local Tescos is very good - the "customer champion" (usually the manager who loiters round the front doors) has often gone on the hunt for car seat trolleys for me when I can't find one. He also got a trolley boy to ealk me to the car with a huge brolly when it was lashing down with rain so that me, dd and the shopping wouldn't get wet! All the more annoying, then that, I need to now but nappies from a different s/market!

Secondly: in my home town we've just had a breastfeeding initiatve supported by a lot of the shops & cafes in town: they display a badge on the door and women are more than welcome to b/feed there, and if anyone doesn't like it, THEY are asked to leave (the person complaining, not the mother!) - hoorah! Except the Druckers that displays the sign has a front door that only a hobbit could get through and tables and chairs laid out like an assault course. OK for babies in slings, maybe, but rubbish for buggies.

Rara · 08/05/2002 15:14

excuse my typos - i get excited when i'm ranting!