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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

'In the trenches'

130 replies

saraclara · 10/11/2025 16:20

AIBU to think that referring to early motherhood as being 'in the trenches' is pretty crass? I've always hated it, but this week it's particularly jarring.

Being in the trenches meant sheer terror, millions of deaths (around 3m died in the trenches) and many more injured and traumatised for the rest of their lives.

Comparing wrangling toddlers, to that, just seems deeply inappropriate, imo.

OP posts:
anniegun · 10/11/2025 16:27

Language expressions do not have to be literal. I might put my head above the parapet at work but would be suprised to get shot by an arrow

StrawberryJangle · 10/11/2025 16:25

Yanbu. I don't know how anyone could even defend the comparison.

I've not heard it thankfully.

Nightlight8 · 10/11/2025 16:25

It probably feels like that at that moment when you are having a bad day.

MD2020and10LambertandButlerPlease · 10/11/2025 16:24

Yabu, language evolves.

PegDope · 10/11/2025 16:23

YABU it felt like a war to me.

I was battling anxiety, boredom, overwhelm, regret and the daily sheer relentlessness of it.

I was a single parent working three jobs to keep a roof over our heads.