What’s your pet hate

boheminan

The words 'my hubby'

Couldn’t agree more. And to those who detest sniffing - I am with you all the way.

I don’t like the idea of hating anything, so I will go along with the word bugbear, mentioned earlier, or the term pet peeve. That is now off my chest and I have several, as you may have guessed:

1. The ubiquitous abbreviation of the word university to uni. Why? I first heard it c.1981, when an older cousin, who lived in Australia was a university student. We all thought it sounded dreadful, especially with the upspeak which is so prevalent in Australian accents. I suspect the popularity of Australian soap operas in the eighties and nineties is the culprit here.
2. Far too many Americanisms overtaking the English language in the UK. Far too many to mention, but obligate instead of oblige, turning nouns into verbs and the very babyish train station instead of railway station. I find the word butt horrible; even worse than our equivalent bum (which was a strictly forbidden word when we were children). Meh and my bad are simply ridiculous. I can totally understand why the French have a society for protecting their language.
3. Swearing. This is one of my biggest loathings. It is everywhere and the worst words are used. It is bad enough hearing it on TV, but I find reading those words makes it even worse. In older books, phrases were used such as “he uttered a regrettable word,” “he swore,” or, even, “the reply was unprintable.” Unfortunately, the reply is all too printable these days.
4. Bad spelling, grammar and apostrophes used in all the wrong places. I find myself reading “l had went to the shop” rather than “l had gone to shop” far too often. Then there is the confusion between loose/lose, there/their/they’re, off/of and to/too/two. Basic primary school errors. As for would have/could have/should have instead of would have/could have/should have… enough to send me into an apoplectic fit.
5. Political correctness/positive discrimination in historical dramas; especially when it is based on fact. This is very much a result of trying to put modern values and sensibilities into the past. Let things stand. This also extends to hand-wringing “apologies” for historical wrongs, such as slavery. I was always very proud of the fact that the British government was the first to abolish the slave trade. Yes, slavery was terrible and should never have happened (and is still happening in many parts of the world, sadly), but I was not personally responsible for something that happened two hundred years ago. As it happens, many of my ancestors were coal miners. I would imagine that their living conditions were only marginally better than those of slaves.
6. The number of adults who happily admit to being bad at maths. They wouldn’t be so quick to declare themselves illiterate, would they?
7. Badly behaved children in public places and ineffectual parents. If l go to a restaurant for a meal, l don’t want other people’s children running around or screaming. I worked hard to make sure my children behaved themselves.
8. Smoking and vaping.
9. The “woke” movement. This movement is dangerous because a small, but far too vocal, group of mainly men appear to be eroding all the hard-fought battles by women over the past hundred years or so for equality with men. It is now the case that any man can declare that he is now a woman and this gives him the magic password to invade women’s sports, prisons, changing rooms and toilets. It is only women who are expected to give in to this and assaults and rapes on women as a consequence of this are becoming all too common. In my view, possibly the worst part of this is that toilets in secondary schools are increasingly becoming gender neutral. This is particularly unfair on girls, who are at risk of UTIs because they try not to use school toilets at any cost and, of course, as they cope with starting their periods.
10. The fact that babies who have been diagnosed with disabilities can be aborted up to forty weeks gestation (term). This is not only those babies who will be very unlikely to survive, but relatively minor disabilities. The discrimination against the most vulnerable members of society is evident from (before) the cradle to the grave.

This is a really interesting discussion as it gives us chance to talk about relatively minor and light-hearted peeves, but also much more serious issues.

The words 'my hubby'

nanna8

Cockroaches. Hate them. Sometimes in summer they appear in the kitchen. Dirty great big black things. I scream, can’t help it. I’d never seen one before we came to Australia.

nanna8, I only first saw one when living in Cyprus, and later, in Oman, there were so many, we could never get rid of them. We all lived in prefabs on a construction camp - perfectly nice accommodation except for those - apparently they liked living inside the prefabricated walls.

Didn’t really see them during the day, but if I ever ventured into the kitchen during the night, there’d be several of the huge things, scuttling about and brandishing their feelers at me.
Vile things!!

Witzend

I just thought of a seasonal one - the pernicious habit from across the pond of leaving ‘milk and cookies’ for Father Christmas! 😱🎅🏻

In the U.K. he is entitled to expect a tot of something warming, and a mince pie or two. Who on earth wants cold milk on a midwinter night?

My milkman (or rather his company) is even offering a ‘keepsake’ bottle saying ‘Milk for Santa’.
I am appalled!!

Oh I agree! We always left Sherry and mince pie and a carrot for the reindeers when I was little. When my children were little the sherry was substituted for either Baileys or Brandy!

I absolutely loathe shopping if all types, hence am Mrs Internet Shopping!

I too cannot get my head around why people (especially in our house) pile up their dirty dishes in the sink which is right next to the dishwasher.

Discrimination, of any type, makes my blood boil, as does a lack of manners and basic courtesy!

Other than that I’m very laid back

I just thought of a seasonal one - the pernicious habit from across the pond of leaving ‘milk and cookies’ for Father Christmas! 😱🎅🏻

In the U.K. he is entitled to expect a tot of something warming, and a mince pie or two. Who on earth wants cold milk on a midwinter night?

My milkman (or rather his company) is even offering a ‘keepsake’ bottle saying ‘Milk for Santa’.
I am appalled!!

Jelly Babies!

UGH!

Tasteless and slimy!

Far Right racist idiots.

Companies who thank me for reaching out to them.

Companies and organisations who - when it's discovered that they've made some awful mistake - insist that they "take our customer's safety incredibly seriously".

... and any recorded answering service that gives more than three options to press. By the time they've got to the 6th or 7th, I've forgotten the first 3.

Lastly, any website that encourages me to visit their FAQs - because I've never yet found an answer to mine among them.

JackyB

I must be quite content because my current bugbear is quite petty. It infuriates me when DH comes back from his keep fit session and goes upstairs to the bathroom and empties his gym bag out, leaving his towel and gym kit in there with the dirty washing. I then have to follow him upstairs and pick it up and take it back downstairs to the laundry.

He does the same when we come back from holiday or a weekend away.

Why on why can't he just leave the dirty washing downstairs and take the empty bag up?

And yes, I have tried to explain to him that it creates more work for me and doesn't even make sense.

Why are you doing his laundry?

Sniffing is my pet hate as well. My mother in law sniffed and I would say to her would you like a hankie and she would say “no I’m fine” sniff. My husband knew it drove me mad and would say “stop sniffing mum, blow your nose” she would say “no I’m fine”
I am currently giving a lift to an acquaintance with a broken arm and she constantly sniffs, I feel like I could push her out of the car sometimes.

Newatthis

People who gossip - evil people - this can cause so much damage. Also jealousy, can't bear jealous people and people who are mean, that is those who know how to put money in their purse but seem to forget how to take it out when it comes to paying their share.

So agree with this. Especially the gossiping. Have heard total nonsense which could have devastating consequences. Usually started by people who have nothing better to do.

Another pet hate - Santa instead of Father Christmas. People don’t even say Santa Claus in full.

I suspect some children now don’t even know the term Father Christmas.

I'll second that. 👍

Simpering, coy, coquettish behaviour of any kind in a grown woman.

Segregation and discrimination. Does not matter what direction it is in you should not treat someone different because of something about them that is quite irrelevant to what you are doing. Race gender and colour are the normal ones but there are others.

I hate waiting, and so I hate unpunctuality.

PS

Russell Brand when he refused to take his Alsatian dog out of the Waitrose supermarket in Henley on Thames

Putin 😝

Dog poo in bags but not put in bin

Some people insisting men are women

Rubbish on sides of motorways

Tripe

Oh, keepingquiet, you are echoing my thoughts on dogs. They are everywhere. On the beach, in the park, on the verges, the pavements. Now it seems a lot of people have three. Apart from anything else, how on earth do they afford them! Sorry I know this thread isn't about dogs.

Net Zero.

Oh I have a few. Poor spelling - that drives me nuts. eg their/there and such like. My partners loading of the dishwasher. It's worse than a child and I have to move everything. Dogs that jump up and their owners who think their dogs are lovely and that I want them sniffing and licking me. Rudeness. Cruelty to humans and animals.

Cleaning the bathroom. The smallest room in our house but it takes the longest to clean.
I could scream when I hear people, mainly youngsters keep saying 'like' after every few words.

Witzend, that made me laugh, bet your DH was hiding somewhere , afraid to appear...