What's your Mumsnet History?

[BikerWife]

Just being nosey really

I came across MN in about 2006 when I was searching for info on childminders vs after school clubs. DC are now 25 & 19!

I've hung around active convos and at times posted quite a bit in the doghouse & chicken keepers (I Remember both those areas being created) as well as teenagers and step parening.

Had a break for a few years and came back during covid. I think I've had about 12 usernames.. I had a 'forever name' but lost it after some security problem with the site a few years ago.

I like it here it presents me with different viewpoints and challenges my thinking about subjects. I reckon I've been spending maybe an hour a week on here the last few months. Think this is about the 5th thread I have ever started!

I can’t remember what brought me to Mumsnet, probably googling “how to get a baby to sleep” at 3am some eleven years ago!

I spend a lot of time here, like you said it challenges my thinking and classics never fails to make me belly laugh when I’m feeling low.

TTC first, then AIBU, then Infertility, then FWR. The latter two have been incredible for me.

@BikerWife

An hour a week?

Christ, i can do afew hours a night just recently ....
Mostly reading threads.....

I need to get a life

Been here atleast 10 years....

Had about 10 usernames.....

I very rarely start a thread....

I first posted in 2013 when I was having trouble with breastfeeding DS and was feeling guilty about swapping to formula. I haven't always been a prolific poster and I've had 2 name changes since then but I've been using MN ever since.

Reading about Corey haim and stumbled in

A few years ago I found mn and posted about being semi estranged from my dc. 30 odd miles away and a struggling relationship mainly due to toxic exh and his brainwashing...
Received zero support - mainly comments about I was out of order expecting dc to want to travel /see me when I had moved away.. Frustratingly I hadn't gotten across how warped exh was and I had no choice but to move etc.. I left mn for about a year feeling defeated and frankly crap .
Then I received news 2 dc wanted to live here full time!! They are nc with df now and free from his abuse and neglect. Both dc on path to great things.
I feel able to hold my head high here now!
I am not such a rubbish dm as I was made out to be after all!!
And I make a point of never shoving down someone already low..
Many people need to stop and imagine themselves in other's shoes ime...

I typed something like "I hate being pregnant" into Google on a night shift and spent the whole rest of the shift crying with laughter. That would have been about 10 years ago. I sometimes get the arse with it and disappear for a while. I go through phases of contributing more or less, but regularly namechange. I've no interest in being recognised/remembered.

I've been here since 2014 when I was googling about noisy neighbours. I'm fortunate to not have a very demanding job that allows a lot of time for Mumsnet. I feel like I live here and 'know' lots of people!

I love the community feel and how you can always find somebody with a common interest such as the Westminstenders or Royal Style threads. I've learned loads from here, including how lucky I am!

I also appear very knowledgeable to others as apart from DH absolutely nobody in real life knows I'm on here, and DH doesn't really understand what it is!

HavelockVetinari what is FWR?

I found MN after googling something that was a minor concern with toddler DS2 in 2012, joined, got into a row on AIBU, hid for a bit, then slowly started posting again in chat I think I've had about 5 names but this one has been it for a few years now!

I was googling baby names about 12 years ago and found a thread called something like "I can't believe I'm asking for baby name ideas on the internet". MN was a lifesaver for me during the baby years, then the feminism section was set up during the Dittany years (surely lots of you must remember her) and that was where I mainly lurked. Have now added style and beauty and the litter tray to my usual hangouts, in addition to FWR.

I found it after a dreadful colleague came over to our team to discuss something. We had been given a box of chocolates to say thank you for something and so offered her one. She had a look at the top layer and then went to the unopened second layer and picked the one she wanted. I thought this was appalling and I googled ‘chocolate box etiquette’ and found myself on Mumsnet. It was a very funny thread! General agreement is that you don’t go into the second layer unless they are your chocolates.

I think since 2006, maybe earlier. I read a lot more than post. There used to be a lot more of the really smart political posts - not so much now.

There are a lot of really rude posters - keyboard warrior types who really should go off for a wank and chill out

I was looking for early pregnancy info as I'd had on & off bleeding from an sch. That was almost 11 years ago! I like Gardening, Housekeeping, FWR I appreciate the irony, The doghouse, Weather (but usually only in Autumn, Winter & Spring) & Chat.

They were discussing something juicy that had happened on Mumsnet on the Jeremy vine show, must have been 2013/14
I would have been 14.
I came for the drama and stayed for the feminism!

I can’t remember how I found MN but it was when I was ttc dc1 back in 2004. I mainly stayed on the ttc, pregnancy and postnatal threads at first but ventured out further when I got braver. I remember seeing the teenager posts and thinking that stage was so far away it would never arrive 😂 and here it is 😲.

Lost count of usernames although some were one-off jokey ones for the benefit of the theme of a thread. I usually change when I suspect I might have revealed too much information over time.

An hour a week?

MN takes up all the little moments in my life that computer card games used to swallow up, and the rest.

I think about 7 years ago over the Xmas hols. DP and DS were gaming a lot (and ignoring me), I was home and found an incredibly sad thread about DV where the woman was trying to escape, had been recently attacked and was terrified, and actually fled to a refuge over the days of the thread, she was met by one of the women working there and spoke about settling in with her kids. She was amazing and the help she got from other posters was amazing and I was hooked. I often think of her and hope she never went back to him.

I really wish I could stay off mumsnet as it does eat into my time (understatement), but I love it, mainly for the feminism board now, but also the laughs of AIBU and the 80s music thread (at the moment).

I’d guess I’ve had 6 or 7 username over about 15 years. Can’t be sure, though, because I’ve deregged a handful of times, twice for security reasons (inc the Jeffrey debacle), twice or maybe three times to try to break my MN habit (didn’t work ).

I arrived about 12 years ago after googling something about kids dance classes, and I found the extra-curricular board. Been here ever since.

Lurked in 2007 when working in a company doing healthcare info graphics stuff, because I found it interesting to read the breastfeeding and co-sleeping info, all of that was new to me. Would get frequently confused between netmums and mumsnet :o

Joined in 2009 when DS1 was a few months old. I'd been on iVillage but they changed the board format and it went all weird. Loved MN from the start!

I was on here all hours of the day/night when DS1 was tiny. Helped me leave EA XP. I used to post a lot on Relationships because it felt right to use my own experience to help others leave. I was also all over the AP/gentle parenting threads although now DS1 is (much) older I look back and cringe a bit! I was mostly right but would love to go back and explain some things to my younger self, not that I would listen.

I can't remember when I slowed down/stopped coming on quite so much. Possibly 2014/15 ish. Can't remember any specific reason why, nothing in particular.

I was on maternity leave in November 2012, feeling lonely and googled something to do with what to pack for the hospital.
Ended up reading an article with links to MN and haven't looked back.
I've never started a thread but really love reading various threads - the poverty one sticks in my mind in my commuting days.

Read about MN in the paper so came on for a nosey in 2007, set up a new account in 2010 as I couldn’t work out how to change my user name

MN has given me so much support over having DS diagnosed with ASD when he was 9, he’s 23 now!

@ExhaustedBeyondBelief I’m very similar to you. I joined in 2009 when I was pregnant with dc3.
I very rarely start threads, and pretty much come on every day

Joined in 2017 when pg with dc1. Whenever I googled something pg related, all the results were from MN. I gave in and joined.

Stayed in pregnancy for ages, then joined the ante natal thread for my DC's due month. That was so hugely important for me. If I search by my old username and read my posts there, its like an awesome diary. I met up with people from that thread 4 times.

I'd occasionally bounce around AIBU and chat, sometimes start a thread and got proper flames a couple of times.

I got pg with dc1 6 months after dc1. I spent my whole pregnancy on the childbirth thread. It was hugely important to me and instrumental in me having an awesome home birth.

In the last 10 years I've been on mn a lot. Camping, exercise and style and beauty would be my normal hangouts. I'm usually just pressing active threads though.

I'm a bit done now. I find the anti-men sentiment so tough. I'm not even talking about the feminist trans stuff here - which I do strongly disagree with, but mind a lot less cause at least they're having a proper discussion. I just hate the lazy anti men bias, terms bandied around like man child and cock lodger. People here are so quick to assign the worst possible motives to all men and their actions.

I'm also really really surprised by the response to BLM. I guess that's true in RL though as well. It makes me really uncomfortable that MN is much nearer to Daily Mail than I realised.