What has MN taught you?

[Candyfloff]

I've been thinking about this today.

MN has taught me;

• Thinking on a deeper, critical level.
• That some behaviours I previously thought of as annoying and inconsiderate are downright abusive.
• To defend myself.
• That some people on this planet are just nuts.

And of course;

• Sugar is comparable with crack.
• Fabric Conditioner is the devil.
• 'Posh Chocs' exist
• A bath is similar to being a pig wallowing in filth

So what has MN taught you? Any lessons that you'd like to share?

So so much, but I think it can be summed up with

'The art of critical thinking'.

I've learnt that people on £100,000 salaries don't think they are financially better off then someone living on the breadline..

That some people worry about things that are not worth worrying about

I have also learnt that whatever you have gone through there are others going through similar things and dealing with it in a different way making me reflect

And on days when I haven't coped as well as I would like I have learned that there are a whole pile of people out there posting things that take my mind off things, make me smile, make me cry, make me feel warm and fuzzy and more importantly make me feel that I am not alone.

Stepmothers are the root of all evil.
Withdrawal is an effective form of contraception.
A man's 45 minute commute to work with his face in someone's sweaty armpit is considered his 'me time'.
Drink more than two glasses of wine a week and you are an alcoholic.

I can't believe noone has mentioned Zoflora yet!
I've learned to be more understanding of people in difficult relationships and family situations, and am amazed at how strong people can be living through the most awful circumstances.
People can get very invested in other people's problems and can get very angry if they choose not to take their advise based on the small bit of information they know.
I never understand why parents of toddlers try to give advise to parents of teenagers and vice versa.

That there are people out there who avoid other people's homebaked cakes.

That by most MN standards I don't do nearly enough cleaning.

To open the loft hatch to cool down the upstairs. I was very grateful for that this week.

Eaudear yes, very much so.

poorremus That's a great idea!

'Sorry, that doesn't work for me/us.'

'Can you explain what you mean?'

^Both helped me tackle some very difficult situations without causing conflict. Thank you, MN!

That there's a lot of funny caring women out there who I'd be friends with if I could.
Also there's a few people who enjoy being nasty to others.

I've learned to open my AIBU email every day, because usually and

That lots of people have very uncaring and sometimes unkind in-laws. I am not one to over think -but it’s good to know I’m not the only one!!!!!!!!

You can’t make other people do things.

Tampon after sex, catches all the juices, never looked back

• there is really fantastic advice from posters on a whole variety of topics, invaluable!

• mismatch sex drives is a huge problem, people struggle on in misery rather than addressing the problem as it arises

• there are SO many horrible men, it's depressing

B*tches be crazy.

Fabric softener. Try ecover, gentle no chemicals, good for the planet 🌏

BasedInDublin, there's also loads of wonderful, kind and caring men out there too.

How much people like to complain about NOTHING 🙄

To have stronger boundaries

That EVERYONE is judging me.

For being not just but also a single Mum and for being over a size 8

*Not just single but also a single Mum

I've read AMAZING threads on here. Gloriously funny (like... literally laughing out loud). Incredibly helpful.

Also read pile-ons, which are generally horrible (I've always wondered who would actually go and watch public executions, like they did in "history". The answer is many posters on here).
Added on from that, groupthink. It's horrible. OP posts something, an early poster states strongly "it's X" and poster after poster just adds a variant on that.
On the same theme, I've posted about things and MN has misunderstood and will NOT be persuaded otherwise. That's very unhelpful.

On a lighter note, finding teens getting drunk is NOT considered funny on here (got my arse handed to me on a plate for that one under a different name).

S&B can also be vicious (I got roundly told off by them, also under a different name). Thought only AIBU did that. I take this as a badge of MN honour.

That some people clean to obsessional levels and think it's normal.

That some people ask for help for the most stupid things (I once actually read a post for someone asking how to book into a busy exercise class that was always full. Like the internet would KNOW that??? Obvs the poster couldn't say "it's the 5:00 aerobic class in Uxbridge" because that would be too outing. Um... so how can we help you?)

Having said all that, I've seen MN be so helpful and caring it's actually taken my breath away.

Oh, and (maybe, for sometimes perfectly innocent reasons) posters often embellish and lie. Maybe not for perfectly innocent reasons. There was a thread about "show a picture of your bedroom" and posters were putting up pictures of magazine bedrooms and pretending it was theirs. Like... who, exactly, are you trying to impress???? Crazy!

Women are clever
Mumsnetters are often as pedantic and language obsessed as I am (Hooray! The English language thanks you!)
Hypocrisy is as bedrock a human characteristic as I always thought it was (The recent heatwave had the climate change Chicken Lickens forcefeeding their offspring Magnums and running their tumble dryers as they couldn't be *rsed to out the clothes on the line.)