What first brought you to Mumsnet?

[HenryInTheTunnel]

Interesting first post, OP!

My very first query was about step parenting when i was in a relationship at the time with someone with a child from a previous rel. I didn't post but liked to read about all the potential pit falls and suggestions of how to approach that situation. I then got sucked in to the chatter on Active Conversations and have been here ever since, about 10 or so years now.

What first brought you to these murky waters?

ivillage.com had changed format drastically, leading to a large group of us from one board decamping to a free forum one of us made. In fighting ensued. It was horrible, so I gave up. I was missing the chat, laughs and debate something rotten. We'd just got SKY and I was watching a programme about parenting littles. These two women featured, Justine and Carolyn, giving advice a long the lines of "what the mums on mumsnet recommend is stuffing your child with raisins to stop them kicking off in the supermarket". etc.

I did a quick google and found... a lot more than raisin based chat. I was slightly put off because Mouldies had not long happened and there were still raised hackles. Having just gone through one online community implosion I was not keen on a second round. But there were loads of witty, intelligent women talking about everything else under the sun & this time they were doing it my time zone. So I hung around.

I think it was around 2009, iVillage had had its day and I needed to find somewhere else. I’ve been here ever since under a few different names.

My mum bought me the Mumsnet books from The Book People in 2004. I found them to contain the sanest parenting advice I had so far got my hands on, and was therefore prompted to go online for more!

I have no idea. I was most likely just really bored and looking for something to read if I’m honest.

I came when I was pregnant with my first in 2003 and have stayed ever since . Though post Jeffreygate I name change all the time .

It was entirely accidental, I was pregnant and was looking for netmums on the recommendation of the HV but couldn't remember the name properly. Nearly 8 years later I still haven't made it to netmums

I'm here because of Penis Beaker...

It gained notoriety within my circle of friends when I'd discovered it and because of the comments we named our group whatsapp chat for a weekend away in Dublin "Acid Fanjos on Tour".

I love how I can get lost in the boards when I'm on my break at my desk at work

I was having trouble with my mil and looked at relevant threads where I gained reassurance and advice without even posting!

A friend mentioned it to me in about 2006, when our DC were babies/toddlers together. I have no idea why! But am still here 12 years on and about 2,000 NCs later.

In 2013 I had three DC under the age of four and I was at home with them a lot. I remember finding the Christmas thread to begin with and I bought an Elf on the bloody shelf as a result, still do that bleeder every year now as it’s expected. Thanks MN .

I had just left home, fallen pregnant at 18, had a miscarriage, been dumped and I needed advice and support didn't want to tell my mum and my friends were well meaning and lovely but a bit useless... MN gave me support and perspective and I don't know what I would have done with out it!

Several NC and 8 years later I am still here!

Yep Bounty Debates.
I Still Computer.

Saniflo toilets, of all things. Googled "macerator toilet problems" as I was buying a house which had one and a few MN threads appeared in the search results. The property/DIY, housekeeping and telly addicts boards have kept me here ever since. The macerator toilet, on the other hand, has been removed! I'm still living in the house though.

I was sittting round waiting for DC2 to arrive, had been excoriated by the huns for 'failing to wave to a poster from an ante-natal thread on an unrelated, serious thread' (I kid you not) and thought fuck that, is there anything more interesting out there...
First one up was a thread about a non-backing up driver, loads of us were pulling up chairs for the next day's school run etc, 7.5 years ago now

I remember that thread OhGodWhatTheHellNow - it was bloody brilliant.

I am another who was banned from the forum that shall not be named, mostly for swearing and/all calling people out on their bullshit. I like the freedom of speech here hun

I was considering adopting a child and searching for experiences and stumbled on the adoption threads. It was 2003/2004.
Decided I couldn’t do it - wouldn’t be able to hack the process and am happy now with the decision.

My DC (now 18 and 19) were very little, I was stuck with my useless ex and no help, and just wanted other mums to talk to.

My unplanned pregnancy

Dd was a velcro baby who didn't sleep. We were also camping in someone else's house at the time and understandably wore out our welcome. I didn't have any real life friends as we'd just moved to a new area and my scattered across the country friends didn't have children.
I was desperate for some support.

As a Yank MN was never on my radar - it's almost unheard of in the US. I saw a one page article about it in The Economist weekly news magazine (they were quite taken by the AIBU and CF threads) about their advertising business. I've always been an anglophile and DH lived and worked in London for a year, so I decided to take a peek and then jumped right in.

I think I had been googling about anxiety and depression and an old thread came up on google. I explored more and realised how much information (and sass) there was here. It helps me a lot with my anxiety at times, and (I know it can be a negative) but I like that is anon. I can express opinions without the anxiety of friends judging / reading etc.

Pistonheads forum slagging off Mumsnet. Thought the blokes on PH were just a bad as the people on here they were criticising. I've stayed on here for some years now mainly lurking but now my DD loves Mumsnet now she's a parent having listened to me laughing my head off at all the posts

I think the thread that stays with me the most was the poster who fostered the newborn addicted to drugs who then died herself. I thought she was awesome and her death was so upsetting to me as I felt I knew her personally from her posts

At parents' welcome evening at my child's new school, the HT told the parents that the school was being slated on Mumsnet and if anybody had a problem, please come to him and not broadcast it online. This was the first year at my child's new school and I had never heard of Mumsnet until then. I immediately came home and googled Mumsnet and the school's name. I stumbled onto AIBU and have never left!

I was looking for information on veggie lifestyles one day. Suddenly I came across this website. That was several months ago when my son and daughter were infants.