About us
Mumsnet was set up in January 2000 by Justine Roberts, a sports journalist and Carrie Longton, a TV producer. We met in antenatal classes and soon discovered that the best source of information on everything from sleep problems to choosing first shoes was the other mums from our antenatal group. But our gang of mothers didn't have the answers to every question and not everyone has access to other mothers, so we had a simple idea: to build a much larger circle of parents sharing their know-how on the net.
There are now ten of us at Mumsnet Towers – mostly mums working flexibly part time and our philosophy is simple: To make parent's lives easier by pooling knowledge and experience.
"Mumsnet is an internet phenomenon" Sunday Telegraph
The site’s grown rapidly too with one million visitors each month clocking up 13 million monthly page impressions or hits. Mumsnet Talk, our discussion boards, attract around 20,000 posts every day.
"Online parenting sites are enjoying a boom...But Mumsnet is the daddy" The Times
In March 2002 we celebrated the launch of the first Mumsnet book "Mums on Babies" - a guide to the first year of parenthood written by the real experts - other parents; followed in Jan 2004 by "Mums on Pregnancy". In autumn 2004 the website and books were joined by Mumsnet - the TV show, as Justine and Carrie fronted a fifteen part series for Discovery Health called "Mum's the Word". Once again the parenting advice they were dispensing came from the most reliable source possible - other Mumsnetters. We’ve also produced two magazine guides to the best stuff for parents and have six more parenting and
lifestyle books due to be published by Bloomsbury from April 09.
Mumsnet is a social enterprise. Though the site is a business and we hope to be a profitable one, our overarching aim is not the pursuit of profits. We manage Mumsnet with the aim of serving our community as much as serving our shareholders and we endeavour to conduct business in an ethical manner. With this in mind we do not accept advertising from a number of companies and for a number of products that we believe do not sit well with our philosophy - namely to make parents' lives easier. Enjoy!
Mumsnet campaigns
Mumsnet is a community and is not a lobby group. We are independently funded and have no political axe to grind. That said our members are very active when it comes to something they feel strongly about. In July 2007 they caused the Madeleine McCann ad to be pulled from British cinemas
Following our much publicised legal battle with Gina Ford we lobbied hard for a change to the internet libel law
Our membership has also been consulted by government on policy issues:
Government seeks Mumsnet's views on how to help families in the developing world
Justine has been in to talk to Gordon Brown, who cited Mumsnet as a "great internet organisation", about how the government can best help spread parenting advice.
David Cameron has said he would use websites like Mumsnet to spread local information for parents
Harriet Harman has talked publicly about government following the Mumsnet model
In May 2007 following the tragic death of one of our member's children hundreds of Mumsnetters walked A Mile for Maude
"Mumsnet is a virtual shoulder to lean on" The Observer
"Things like the website Mumsnet which bring mothers together to swap advice are wonderful" Sir Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi
"Mumsnet is the country’s most popular meeting point for parents" The Times