MN makes me feel bad

I would probably make you feel bad about your drinking and diet. But I'd probably make you feel incredible about your parenting, your home, your income, your age, how clean your kitchen floor is and how often you change your sheets. Point is, no one achieves perfection in all areas and the comments people make about their lives that compare favourably against yours are just one aspect of a whole.
The only person you should compare yourself with is you. Am I doing this as well as I want, or would I like to improve on it? How much better am I at this than I was last year?

Casts a different light on people on high salaries work really, really hard for their salaries and deserve every penny", unlike the "shirkers" on minimum wage.

Do you think you eat crap, drink too much or too often, and that your children watch more TV than you'd like?

I personally always feel bad about housework because it feels like an never ending battle. Every single time I tidy or clean, something else needs doing. I'd love to be clean and tidy but I am slovenly.

Also wrt screen time, the research/evidence points to small screens (phone, iPad) being more damaging than big screens (TV). My toddler watches Paw Patrol but as far a he's concerned, the TV shows only that and the news and I will keep this charade up for as long as humanly possible.

It's recommended that children under 2 don't have any screen time and that young children over 2 have no more than an hour a day. So if you have a couple of times a day where your dd watches something for half an hour while you get a few jobs done then you're doing ok!

@Mattins I find this exactly. You have put it very well. I joined in 2006 but only have a week here and there looking at it, and then feel really brought down - not by any particular issue - but just by the overall tone of the active threads. I just start feeling like the world is full of judgement of a particular kind and it makes me feel miserable.

My eyes roll so far back in my head whent hey're ranting about fruit.

And dried fruit? Well, it would probably be considered healthier to offer them crack cocaine

Too much iron in Brocolli /s

Fruit is apparently the devil's food with some of those parents. "ALL THAT SUGAR!".
It makes you wonder what they do feed their children. Presumably just raw broccoli.

She takes photos of stuff and then makes up a narrative.if we go anywhere then she will take two sets of photos, one with coats on and then another where they all take their coats off for example. Then she will post about the day she had out at such and such a place weeks later on a day she’s actually doing the big shop at Lidl and very definitely not climbing a tree. Once she stopped the car to take a photo of a post box then six months later posted about it with a load of nonsense,

Once my mother was covering for me at the dreaded swimming lesson and my mum had taken a tiny basket with some strawberries in for after the lesson and she posted about them like they were hers #NorfolkStrawberries or whatever. She doesn’t even know my mother so that was weird.

@TenLittleLadybirds
Presume you mean MAFS 🤣 They're in bed by watershed so that mummy and fermented grapes time now 😁

I don't have kids either and stay well clear of that area it's awful

Don’t feel bad @wilkoqueen at least you belong here. I’m childfree and on the MN without kids board we’re frequently told we’re pointless, worthless, abnormal, not real women, abusive, have no empathy etc, etc. One mum even said we’re in the same category as racists😂

I don't think most people are lying but I think that there are a lot of people on here and we're all likely to boast about what we're good at and gloss over the things we're bad at. So the person who has high achieving kids might not do much exercise. And the person who does loads of exercise might drink too much. And the person who is teetotal might not earn much. And the person on the high salary might have a shit marriage. And the person with a happy marriage might be overweight. And the person with a healthy BMI might have ND kids.

So yes, in every area of your life, there may be someone on here who is doing better in that aspect. But that doesn't mean they are winning in every other part of their life.

There was a thread the other day that was a completely derailed when not only did a man post but he also committed the major faux pas of admitting that his wife was a lot younger. To add insult to injury she was also a size six, which apparently is impossible if you are older than 12.

Yes I understand OP.

I also have a toddler and it's the diet threads that get me. Things that people say they'd never dream of feeding their children or themselves, and it'll be things like homemade shepherd's pie???

Very odd attitude to food on here at times.

@Kitkat2065 trust me my son watched that as a baby too 🤣 but now he’s 3 and repeating everything I don’t have it on because they’re all swearing and arguing constantly!

For example, if people post about their exercise regime and I think "god, I know I should do something about that", it isn't anyone else's fault. I either have to get comfortable with not exercising or choose to do something about it.

Nobody can "make (you) feel bad". This is a common error. You are describing your own responses to yourself and you should own your own feelings and opinions.

I watched MAFS Australia when I was pregnant with both my babies, then the repeat seasons during those delightful new born stages where they cluster fed all bloody night. Between that and bluey they both love a good Australian accent 🤣

But usually on threads where there are a bunch of sanctimonious types, there are often also people who are more sensible and practical.

Admittedly, the sanctimonious types do tend to have a lot to say!

But it's like real life - you like the people who think similarly to you and can ignore the ones you don't. The only difference is tha tin real life you actively go looking for those people rather than on here where it's like throwing open the door to your house and putting out a newspaper ad to say anyone can come - you have no idea what you're going to get.

Enjoy your coffee!

No, no - it’s excel-hic-excellent. I’m slamming a shot every time the words ‘pinch of salt’ crop up on this thread, and now I can barely type, let alone stand up. If my eight-year-old wasn’t here to get another half bottle of Smirnoff from the freezer, I’d be in real trouble.

Well, if you don't like it you can always visit somewhere else in the vast Internet. Nobody is forcing you to be here.

This is why people who look down on influencers and say they have an easy life are completely wrong. Imagine mumsnet criticism but applied to your own social media by more people every time you post anything ever, even just a picture of your cat.

I saw the one above screentime, the comments were bullshit 🤣 my toddler is active, out and about, we play and bake together but he can easily have a good few hours of TV in the day