What little things drive you completely up the wall....?

[Piratelvr1121]

Well the Piratebabe woke up shortly before 5 this morning and would NOT go back to sleep.  Now it's about 9:30 am and he's out like a light, WAY before his usual naptime. 

[Luci45]

Walmart (and probably other stores) have their grocery bags on those carousel things at the end of the check stand.  When the cashier fills a bag, they turn the carousel to get a new (empty) bag.  That makes it easy for the customer to pick up the full bag and place in in their cart.  Or it would  be easy if the cashier would spin the thing so the full bag is facing the customer.  But nooooooo.  They turn the thing so the full bag is facing away from the customer.  Why??

Bad training. No cashier I have ever run into does that. Can you just mention it to head cashier without making a big deal out of it?

[EmmaJ.]

Yes Shalamar - that's exactly what my body's saying!

It's been going on most of this week.  I'm fine at work but when I get home I suddenly decide I must eat all the things, even though we don't have anything in the house because I shop for what we need for the week.  I've just gone through my cookery books to decide what to bake this weekend so if I'm like this next week I'll have tasty munchies.  Which leads me onto something else which drives me up the wall - when recipes don't tell you if common allergens (like nuts and alcohol) can be left out or offer substitutions.  I've got a recipe for some butterscotch bars but the recipe calls for peanut butter, I'm guessing I can't just leave it out but I have no idea what to substitute in.

Are you allergic to all nuts or just peanuts?  My grocery store carries a cashew butter that is just delicious and would probably work as a substitute.

[Girlie]

I'm getting to that age where anytime I say something such as "I'm tired," "I have things to do," "I'm busy," etc., I'm getting met with "But you don't have kids." As though not having children means I should have some bright party life where I never feel ill and never get tired.
It's not everyone, certainly, but enough to drive me nuts.

[siamesecat2965]

I'm getting to that age where anytime I say something such as "I'm tired," "I have things to do," "I'm busy," etc., I'm getting met with "But you don't have kids." As though not having children means I should have some bright party life where I never feel ill and never get tired.
It's not everyone, certainly, but enough to drive me nuts.

YES! However, the fact that I’m also single, and therefore have to do everything myself, seems to escape some people. Yes, its great I have no one to answer to or cook dinner for, etc. but, it also means I am the one who cooks for myself, cleans, grocery shops, runs errands, does laundry, etc etc etc with NO help from anyone else.

I’m tired because I work close to 60 hours a week at 2 jobs, with ONE day off. As for the busy, well, I do also have a life. While most of my free time is spent at home, as I am not all that social, sometimes I do like to go out and see friends, etc.

[Piratelvr1121]

You have my sympathy for that, as it does annoy me when I hear other people imply that people with children have the hardest lives imaginable.  It makes me wonder what they think single people do for a living? I guess they imagine it's just like tv sitcoms like Friends, where you see maybe 5 minutes of them at work and anytime out of work is spent just hanging around their perfect, immaculate homes or apartments doing nothing but watching tv and chatting. Or going shopping for expensive stuff, or what have you.

I have a few childless friends, some by choice, some not, but they all work and have quite a bit on their plates without having kids to add to it.  Some days they have a great deal more stress than I do of a daily basis. 

My bff is single and childfree and works full time and thus her few days off are often spent doing things around the house that need doing since there's no one else but herself to do them, nor is there anyone but her earning the income so she has to use her personal and sick days wisely.  I'd never dream of implying my life is harder because I have kids.

[Shalamar]

I had an experience from the opposite side a few years ago.  Our friends Jim and Jane used to be childless, while (at the time) we had two rambunctious toddlers.  We often had Jim and Jane over on a Saturday night to watch a movie with us.  Now, by the time they arrived, we'd cleaned the house, done a full grocery trip, prepared snacks, plus the 101 other chores and errands associated with running a household and looking after our two girls.  Invariably, when Jim and Jane arrived and we asked "how are you?", Jane would say "Oh, I'm soooo tired!" 

Now, the thing is, I knew for a fact that Jane's sleep schedule was a bit bizarre - she'd stay up until 3:00 a.m. most nights* watching TV, then she'd sleep until the middle of the afternoon.  When she and Jim came to visit us, the most energetic thing she'd done all day was get up and shower - and SHE was tired?

* Yes, most nights.  She didn't have a job.

[Snooks]

Yes Shalamar - that's exactly what my body's saying!

It's been going on most of this week.  I'm fine at work but when I get home I suddenly decide I must eat all the things, even though we don't have anything in the house because I shop for what we need for the week.  I've just gone through my cookery books to decide what to bake this weekend so if I'm like this next week I'll have tasty munchies.  Which leads me onto something else which drives me up the wall - when recipes don't tell you if common allergens (like nuts and alcohol) can be left out or offer substitutions.  I've got a recipe for some butterscotch bars but the recipe calls for peanut butter, I'm guessing I can't just leave it out but I have no idea what to substitute in.

Are you allergic to all nuts or just peanuts?  My grocery store carries a cashew butter that is just delicious and would probably work as a substitute.

I'm not allergic, I just don't like nuts (just to be clear I never claim to be allergic to nuts) and alcohol in a cake ruins it for me.  It just surprises me that they don't offer alternatives because I don't run a single event with Girl Guides where we don't have at least one nut allergy so I know that nut allergies are common.

[snowflake]

I once had someone ask me "What DO you do all day?  You don't have kids."  Uh...I pull money out of my unused uterus and go shopping with it!

A few years ago someone to me said, "If you want tired, you should try being a SAHM.  We can't leave our jobs."  Well, lets see.  I leave my job and then I go do exactly what you do.  I won't deny that adult interaction is a perk.  But I was a little annoyed that they pretty much told me that my life after work was "resting."

I also had someone (who has two teenaged kids in high school) tell me that I was lazy because I didn't have kids.  She didn't have a job and she freely admitted to going back to bed for a few hours after they left in the morning.  I know the kids and I'm sure she put in some good, hard work when they were younger.  I know she had a whole lot of juggling getting them to sports/music lessons, etc. in the evenings.  But I sort of wanted to brain her then.

Because of this I've made it a policy not to comment on other peoples' ease of life.

[nuit93]

I once had someone ask me "What DO you do all day?  You don't have kids."  Uh...I pull money out of my unused uterus and go shopping with it!

That's it, my next pair of shoes will be bought with funds from my uterus bank

[Diane AKA Traska]

I once had someone ask me "What DO you do all day?  You don't have kids."  Uh...I pull money out of my unused uterus and go shopping with it!

That's it, my next pair of shoes will be bought with funds from my uterus bank

Help, EvilTraska's trying to get me to be naughty by telling me the nomenclature of the location of items kept fore safe-keeping in a bank...

[blueyzca01]

I once had someone ask me "What DO you do all day?  You don't have kids."  Uh...I pull money out of my unused uterus and go shopping with it!

That's it, my next pair of shoes will be bought with funds from my uterus bank

Speaking of the uterus bank, my dear mother is going to drive me to drink even more than normal.  I have 2 sisters, both of whom have children. 

Since I am childfree, there should be no reason why, according to her, that DH and I can’t help out with cheerleading/braces*/expenses/life for my nieces.  Since, according to Mom’s constant rants, I’m selfish for not having kids     what makes her think that I’m suddenly unselfish?  There is a reason why I didn’t have kids.  Please respect it.

*okay, I’m willing to help out on the braces.  The poor kid really needs them and her father is an unemployed bum (thank god sis divorced him).  But don’t expect it for everything!

[Piratelvr1121]

That sounds like a brain hurt, too. Course I'm sure she'd call you selfish if you said you wouldn't spring for something the girls didn't need. 

[random numbers]

I once had someone ask me "What DO you do all day?  You don't have kids."  Uh...I pull money out of my unused uterus and go shopping with it!

That's it, my next pair of shoes will be bought with funds from my uterus bank

Speaking of the uterus bank, my dear mother is going to drive me to drink even more than normal.  I have 2 sisters, both of whom have children. 

Since I am childfree, there should be no reason why, according to her, that DH and I can’t help out with cheerleading/braces*/expenses/life for my nieces.  Since, according to Mom’s constant rants, I’m selfish for not having kids     what makes her think that I’m suddenly unselfish?  There is a reason why I didn’t have kids.  Please respect it.

*okay, I’m willing to help out on the braces.  The poor kid really needs them and her father is an unemployed bum (thank god sis divorced him).  But don’t expect it for everything!

I get that. My family, I have two siblings, with a combined total of 8 children. So three other households (including my parents) with lots more people, and twice the wage earners, but who brings the most food to family parties? Or the most expensive food? Me, household of one.

[mbbored]

Last night I caught the first part of the news where they spent 15 minutes covering the arrival of the crippled cruise ship into Mobile. 15 minutes of which about 1 minute was informative and the other 14 was repeated interviews of passengers saying "There was sewage! I had to wait for a burger and sleep outside!" or of locals saying "My daughter was on the ship! There was sewage! She had to wait for burgers and sleep outside!"

I'm not saying that that wasn't a miserable experience for the 4000 people on board, but there are so many other important things going on in the world that 15 minutes of repeated complaints just sounded superficial.