Page 4 | Is Mumsnet an English forum?

Purpleturtle43 · 2025-05-09T10:16:59+00:00

Seems like pretty much every poster and responder assumes everyone on here is from England. When asking questions regarding schools, health care, tenancy etc surely it would be useful to say what country you live in since the rules and laws are different all over the UK/world.

quantumbutterfly · 10/05/2025 11:20

Is this going to be a confession thread? My name is quantum and I live in the UK

(which to be honest isn't very united and I have my doubts about the kingdom thing too.)

lolalei3 · 10/05/2025 10:58

I’m Australian

quantumbutterfly · 09/05/2025 23:54

@GarlicPile ' curdle my groats' may be my new favourite phrase.

queenmeadhbh · 09/05/2025 21:57

GarlicPile · 09/05/2025 21:46

Oh, god, it's Everybody Takes Themselves Seriously Day. I'd have marked on my calendar if I'd known.

Was that directed at me?? You’re being pretty unpleasant, I was just contributing. Don’t know why you had to mock me by pretending I was distressed with the implication I’m being melodramatic and should get over it.

GarlicPile · 09/05/2025 21:46

Oh, god, it's Everybody Takes Themselves Seriously Day. I'd have marked on my calendar if I'd known.

queenmeadhbh · 09/05/2025 21:16

GarlicPile · 09/05/2025 18:52

I didn’t know the cut off in England was different so how would I know to say “it’s different here”??

Oh, no, @queenmeadhbh, that must have been awful 😭 The sheer horror of dealing with ordinary people who don't know the school admission dates in other countries. The utter humiliation of having to explain! So traumatic for you

I do hope you're recovering safely. Thoughts and prayers.

Edited

Where did I say it was awful? You’re pretending I’m devastated when I’m just agreeing with the OP that it’s annoying.

it’s quite clear from my point that the annoying bit is not whether or not they know; but the assumption that instead of being from somewhere where it is different, I must just be wrong. If someone told me the cut off for the school year was January I would say “where are you?” and not “it’s not January, it’s June”.

Thegodfatherreturns · 09/05/2025 21:10

Arina22 · 09/05/2025 15:47

"People in the UK dont think its the centre of the world".

And yet we have so many posters on mumsnet, who think that every poster on mumsnet - lives in England.

That is a small minded mentality.

You see it in so many threads. Like the poster above mentioned. She wrote that she had just dropped her child off at school.

Another poster wrote "you're lying because its a bank holiday in England"

Instead of writing - where are you living? Which would have been a more rational response.

She indeed thought that everyone on mumsnet lived in England

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How do you know that posters are assuming the person is English though? It doesn't usually make a difference unless it is a legal discussion in which case Scotland might be different but people who aren't Scottish wouldn't necessarily know that.

Elsvieta · 09/05/2025 21:05

Eagle2025 · 09/05/2025 19:45

I'm always surprised by the number of people who type mom instead of mum. Makes me wonder where they are from.

That's what they say in parts of the Midlands I think.

Elsvieta · 09/05/2025 21:04

Purpleturtle43 · 09/05/2025 11:33

People don't assume they are talking about Britain, they assume they are talking about England.

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Well unless they're talking about legal issues or stuff to do with the healthcare or education systems, which can be different in Scotland (and Northern Ireland, and the Channel Islands, and maybe the Isle of Man), it won't be relevant. And if it is about those things, people from those places will know they need to say.

MissConductUS · 09/05/2025 19:56

Eagle2025 · 09/05/2025 19:52

I wondered about America and Canada

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I can't speak for Canada, but mom is common usage in the U.S.

Eagle2025 · 09/05/2025 19:52

BethDuttonYeHaw · 09/05/2025 19:50

Birmingham and the midlands I believe

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I wondered about America and Canada

BethDuttonYeHaw · 09/05/2025 19:50

Eagle2025 · 09/05/2025 19:45

I'm always surprised by the number of people who type mom instead of mum. Makes me wonder where they are from.

Birmingham and the midlands I believe

Eagle2025 · 09/05/2025 19:45

I'm always surprised by the number of people who type mom instead of mum. Makes me wonder where they are from.

tinytemper66 · 09/05/2025 19:35

I assume that most people posting are English, unless they specify another location. I am in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Seagullsandsausagerolls · 09/05/2025 19:31

BethDuttonYeHaw · 09/05/2025 17:57

Agree that bugs me too.

see also the annual threads insisting that Halloween and Santa are American.

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Add Mammy/mummy and Daddy.

Abitofalark · 09/05/2025 19:09

MissConductUS · 09/05/2025 18:36

I agree completely. I was joking. See the last two letters of my handle. I'm an American and have been on MN since 2017.

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I know you are! For some reason I didn't write it as addressing you directly but I meant to. A mind slip or something.

Abitofalark · 09/05/2025 18:58

Madcatdudette · 09/05/2025 18:16

Hey @Abitofalark why the laugh emoji on my post?

Why not, if it was funny? Presumably it struck me as amusing, clever or witty.

GarlicPile · 09/05/2025 18:52

I didn’t know the cut off in England was different so how would I know to say “it’s different here”??

Oh, no, @queenmeadhbh, that must have been awful 😭 The sheer horror of dealing with ordinary people who don't know the school admission dates in other countries. The utter humiliation of having to explain! So traumatic for you

I do hope you're recovering safely. Thoughts and prayers.

AlmostSummer25 · 09/05/2025 18:40

Purpleturtle43 · 09/05/2025 12:23

I'm not saying English people are ignorant, I think the behaviour I have outlined specifically is ignorant. Those are 2 different things.

E.g. If saying to someone, that was a bit selfish isn't the same as saying you are a selfish person.

You are twisting what I am saying to turn it into an English bashing thread.

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No twisting required.

when the vast majority of a group are x, its natural for x to be the assumed default.

x don't need to state they are x. Others do when it's relevant.

I'm dual national, when I'm posting from England, I don't state that, when I'm posting from my other country, I state that when relevant.

It's not difficult, you're just stirring!!

Deadraave · 09/05/2025 18:40

I mean it was developed in England wasn’t it by an English woman. So I guess technically it’s an England based website which is popular across the UK and used by many other English speakers in other countries?

MissConductUS · 09/05/2025 18:36

Abitofalark · 09/05/2025 18:23

Ah no. I don't think they are sneaky. At least, the ones I know of! They seem to me generally straightforward and not barging or uncivil.

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I agree completely. I was joking. See the last two letters of my handle. I'm an American and have been on MN since 2017.

Madcatdudette · 09/05/2025 18:29

Arina22 · 09/05/2025 18:22

I'm working class too love. You have some weird issues abiut privilege and money.

Your nastiness says a huge amount about you.

You told me I had privilege , because I paid 10 pounds a week to do a hobby.

How weird!

Edited

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Amazing how people jump to ‘you’re weird’ as a retort.
If you think that your privilege just because ‘you do hobbies’ you’re wrong but hey, you do you.
I would say that the nastiness is your side only. I don’t think asking you to share how you escaped your abusive single parent mother to become so well travelled as being nasty.
You just don’t like being told you’re privileged do you?

queenmeadhbh · 09/05/2025 18:29

GarlicPile · 09/05/2025 18:23

Apart from a few gripes about respondents failing to understand some things are different in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and other countries, this complaint is nuts.

What you're doing is similar to posting on Expats In Dubai and moaning that replies assume you're in Dubai!

Mumsnet is a London-based website. If this curdles your groats, stick to Scottish websites where the majority assumption is that you're a Scot in Scotland. If you enjoy Mumsnet and want to post here about something that's different in Scotland, mention your location and its relevance.

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for me, the difficult “interface” comes when it’s something that (for instance) I do not know is different in England so I don’t know to point it out. What you’re saying means the onus is on the non-English to know which bits of our culture, life, language, whatever, are not the same as England and to point them out.

for instance a thread where I commented saying that someone would be the oldest in the year as born in August. Cue lots of people telling me I better do my research as I was totally wrong. I didn’t know the cut off in England was different so how would I know to say “it’s different here”??

ErrolTheDragon · 09/05/2025 18:29

I think YANBU to suggest it’d be useful if posters say where they’re from if it may be relevant, but that it’s unreasonable not to realise that if someone doesn’t say then the default assumption will be English. Similar to this being a rare forum where we tend to assume posters are female by default.

gamerchick · 09/05/2025 18:27

Getting really fed up of these slag the English off threads. Give it a bloody rest.