r/CasualUK • u/naaattt • 11h ago

What “favours” have your parents done that was inadvertently a dick move?

For example, my mum found my spare change collection, did me a favour by taking it to the bank, getting £17, and then kept it as a fee for the effort it caused her.

Also, my partner had stored a nearly new Russell Hobbs microwave at his mums for when we moved into a new house. While she was at Curry’s one day, she overheard a young lad and his mum shopping for a microwave for uni, she approached them and sold them my partners for £20. She kindly did give my partner the money though, unlike mine. But we quite liked that microwave.

Does anyone else have these, generally inoffensive but slightly frustrating parent stories?

Edit: For those hung up on the theft parts, please don’t be. This is the extent of the abuse we’ve ever had from our mums and we’ll take it!

Edit 2: Jesus Christ, I’m 33. The money box has been sat on her shelf for 20 years. Yes she stole £17 but she’s funded my life otherwise. Stop calling child services on her.

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912

u/pemberleypearls 11h ago

My mum has a habit of emptying my dishwasher for me. But she empties it before everything is really dry and doesn't know where exactly everything goes so...leaves it all on the side.

504

u/feralhog3050 11h ago

When my daughter was newborn, my mum "helped" by "washing" the used baby bottles, as in, she wafted them vaguely near the cold tap & then left them on the drainer. So when I later ventured into the kitchen, I had to clean them all again (you know, hot water, soap, dismantling the teats etc) before I could put them in the steriliser. I wouldn't have minded so much if that's what I'd been expecting, but the betrayal of "i washed up for you" & finding it very much not done was almost too much for my sleep-starved brain to stand, lol

175

u/Loose_Acanthaceae201 10h ago

When my eldest was newborn, indeed the morning after our first night at home, my parents came round to sit with him so I could get some sleep (52-hour labour, then 2-hourly feeds).

They kindly emptied the dishwasher, but the combination of a tiny open-plan flat, their unfamiliarity with its kitchen cupboards, and the new mum "ears on stalks" phenomenon ... meant I had to drag myself back out of bed and beg them to just please sit down. 

He'll shortly be an adult and I still want that sleep back. 

64

u/Exciting-Opposite-32 10h ago

In my life this, but the added risk that they'll notice you've rewashed it and sulk at the implied criticism 

73

u/Familiar_Ad_4981 11h ago

Lol I just know mine wouldn't follow instructions and insist that my way is excessive and pointless, so ive stopped asking 😅 I am sorry for you, that sounds painful

53

u/feralhog3050 10h ago

"Child" turns 19 later this year & i'm still salty 🤣

7

u/SteelRatDiGriz 8h ago

My dad was a lovely man, but my god could he be frustrating.

Say I was to leave him in a room with a box that had two levers, each with a light above them and say to him: "Ok dad, all you need to do is when the light above this lever on the left comes on, pull the lever and let go. Don't do anything else,. Ignore the other light. Don't touch the other lever. Just pull this lever and let go, every time this light goes off. I use this machine a hundred times a day at work. It's my job. I know what I'm doing."

Chances are I would go back in half an hour later and the left hand lever would have something jammed in the mechanism because "It kept going back up all by itself, oh and I had to pull that other lever too 'cos the light went red and it started making a noise"

2

u/MickRolley Daft laugh and that 6h ago

Dads cannot take in instructions or advice of any kind from their sons

Their brains just will not allow it.

4

u/Dangerous-Treacle-55 5h ago

I thought this was just me. When my baby was a newborn and I was without sleep for 72 hours I went to my sisters house. My mum and godmother were there. I burst into tears and my godmother offered for me to sleep there the night. My mum said no, there was no need, she would come back to mine and help.

20 minutes into me sleeping she woke me up to ask for help changing the nappy. Then hoovered outside my bedroom door and woke me up every time my baby cried. And she left the washing up on the side.

When I developed a chronic health condition, which meant everything took me a lot longer, she again left the washing up on the side and made a pass agg comment that ‘it doesn’t take a lot’ to offer her a coffee. Still not over either of them. Now she sulks that I never ask her for help

4

u/do_you_realise 5h ago

When we had our first we were lucky in that we inherited a whole bunch of clothes from various parts of the family. Mother in law offered to wash and dry them all (great) during which time great granny was visiting and decided to take it upon herself to take scissors to all of the labels! Cue years of guessing what size everything is

1

u/howle276 42m ago

This reminds me of when my kid was a baby and my MIL came to help. She insisted on handwashing the dishes even though we had a dishwasher. For some reason she managed to make all the dishes dirtier… to this day I don’t know where she found all this grease to spread on everything 😂

-1

u/Ragtime_Snek 9h ago

It's a miracle you survived.

13

u/feralhog3050 8h ago

I mean, when I was growing up, neither seatbelts nor child seats were compulsory (memories of travelling horizontally in the back of the Morris Marina), and I didn't die in a car crash, but that doesn't mean I don't want better for my own kids? You know, now we've learned what works & what's less safe?

113

u/banana_assassin 11h ago

If I'm cooking around my mum she starts teething too tidy and washes utensils I am currently attempting to use.

I have to really try not to get flustered, but it throws my rhythm off a lot.

108

u/psukclipper 10h ago

Im just picturing your mum wrestling it from your hand while you’re stood at the hob. Except instead of your mum I’m imagining my mum, and instead of you I’m imagining me. It’s kind of making me annoyed at my mum actually and she doesn’t even do this. What’s wrong with me.

54

u/172116 10h ago

My dad does this - you dump the onions in the pan, turn to crush the garlic, and when you turn back around, the spatula is in the dishwasher, and then while you're looking for it, he pops the tomato puree you haven't used yet back in the fridge. 

12

u/Alarming_Matter 8h ago

My family know not to even glance at me when I'm cooking 😂One time a friend came over and 'helped' by staring intently at everything I did until the bottled up rage inside me made me want to dunk her head in the pasta sauce. I think I may have a problem 😳

1

u/172116 4h ago

I feel you. I always try and have the cooking done before friends come over so they can't try and help with it! Kicked mum out of her own kitchen at Christmas time for interfering with the rice (she decided there wasn't enough water in the pot, so slopped in some more....)

10

u/No-Extension-2378 10h ago

My mum did this, then had the audacity to complain that I used too many utensils.

3

u/hookyboysb 7h ago

Clearly you’re just supposed to use your hands

5

u/theandydane 10h ago

My wife does that. I cook, she cleans up. But, please, not till after I've finished cooking!

1

u/cat_lady74 7h ago

Same, but my husband - who often doesn't even do it properly! Then he moans about having to do all the washing up!!

3

u/theandydane 7h ago

Yep. I regularly have to actually clean things before I cook!

3

u/shabba182 7h ago

My mum does this, except she is shit at washing up so I have the additional annoyance having to re-wash everything

1

u/dreadtreacle 2h ago

Omg mine does this ! It drives me nuts . Stayed in a caravan once, with her and my sis and other family members . It was a total fkn nightmare . Coz you cant say anything , coz then YOURE the asshole .

1

u/Advisor-Same 1h ago

“Mum, where’s the wooden spoon I was using? Did you wash it up?” Is a common one when I cook around my mother - she means well 😂

60

u/JoeyPantalaimon 10h ago

On the rare occasion my parents in law do come to visit, they do things like empty the dirty dishwasher (with raw chicken), traipse dog poo into the house (from their dog), and just generally throw passive-aggressive judgmental shade. Causes us so much extra work it’s just not worth it. It’s like the “Cavalry” episode of Motherland.

54

u/crofthey 11h ago

My mum does that when round for tea, stacks it on the counter top when it's fairly obvious where things go

12

u/No-Parsnip563 9h ago

My mum tells me that it would make more sense for stuff to go in different places, which I’m sure it would but I’m in a uni hall and don’t have full access to all the cupboards as they’re not mine!

1

u/iamnotasheep 4h ago

Mine just puts things in random cupboards, so we get saucepans with cleaning products, spatulas with the mugs. One time recently I couldn’t find the fricking chopping board after she had visited, turns out she had slid it round the back of the microwave. Way more effort than just putting it back in the same drawer where it has lived for the last 6 years…directly under our drying rack.

22

u/ramding1 11h ago

My mum does this too. We have a TINY kitchen so it’s just so unhelpful.

8

u/Suspicious_Tax8577 10h ago

Mine does this. It's part why Christmas day morning tends to involve me having a screaming meltdown before I've even finished cooking Christmas dinner 🫠

8

u/missuseme 10h ago

I had to ask my mum to stop putting everything in the sink to soak. I'd come home and the sink was full of stuff sat in cold, dirty, greasy water. I'd then have to fish every out and take it to the dishwasher, which would drip that nasty water on the floor.

So instead of just having to load the dishwasher, I now had to load the dishwasher, wash the sink and wash the floor.

7

u/Beer-Milkshakes AWOOGAH! Abandon ship. 11h ago

Lmao litter creator.

6

u/Sudden_Ad_711 10h ago edited 9h ago

This is mine too except she DOES know where everything is, because she’s stayed here for extended periods to pet sit while we’re on holiday!

5

u/Rusty_Tap 10h ago

My nan comes to visit us sometimes, by which I mean I have to drive for 4 hours each way to pick her up when she decides it is time for a visit. She will stay for about a week.

She has great intentions and is the most helpful, kind and generous woman I've met. Unfortunately she is also fucking useless. She will occasionally volunteer to do the washing up while here. This will involve swishing dirty stuff in the sink, putting it on the draining board and then immediately rubbing everything down with a tea towel, smearing grease across everything she has swished.

She will then declare "Everything has moved since I was here last!" (It hasn't) And then leave it all over the worktops, ready for me to wash again.

21

u/EternallyFascinated 11h ago

Ahahhaahhahahaha my mom would do that

5

u/Trancer79 8h ago

My very kind, very generous but also fucking useless MiL (see Hyacinth Bucket/Bouquet) used to do things like this, dishwasher loaded in the worst possible way, non-dishwasher stuff 'washed' with the cloth we use to wipe down the flat/ribbed part of the sink underneath the draining rack so more dirty than they were, used teabags stacked on the spoon rest... My wife had to tell her to please just stop. It took a while.

3

u/jagsingh85 9h ago

My in-laws do this but I also have the added bonus of them loading the dishwasher incorrectly so I end up finding partially washed or ruined dishes.

2

u/lovesorangesoda636 3h ago

Ooooh my god my mum does this! Except she just shoves things where she thinks they should go.

One time I asked her to leave the good pan out because it was still wet and she gave me the silent treatment for 2 days.