What draws you to Mumsnet?

[sarah12398]

Long time reader, a few posts..
but I love catching up on Mumsnet daily, and seeing you all...

I was wondering what makes you log in and read?

For me.. I joined about 10 years ago seeing it as a forum for "mums".. (10 years later and mine are now adults)..

I love; When a post you're following becomes a Classic! Viper advice, parking diagrams, penguin bollards, laughed and farted, neighbour problems, relationships, Mexican house guests, property, decor..

..And the laughing, pelvic floor holding, moments whilst reading your responses to chats.... whilst trying to persuade work that I really am professional and just checking emails!

..but now educating myself on other topics I'd not really thought about.. and it's all thanks to you lot.

just sat here on a Saturday night and wondering what brought you to Mumsnet, (and I'm not a DF journalist!)

I joined when my first was born and I was looking for a wider perspective on motherhood.
Lost touch with it for years and then when I discovered an affair needed the anonymity of a female chat room again. I stayed for the feminist board, sporners corner and parking threads!

Hmm. I like the volume of traffic, the range of threads and (after a decade around the place) sometimes the predictability of responses, especially around things like step-parenting, property prices and weekly shops.

@itsamegladon

I joined when my first was born and I was looking for a wider perspective on motherhood. Lost touch with it for years and then when I discovered an affair needed the anonymity of a female chat room again. I stayed for the feminist board, sporners corner and parking threads!

Had the husbands affair thing too.. it was alarming to find out how common it was, it good to hear others experiences 💖

@EssentialHummus

Hmm. I like the volume of traffic, the range of threads and (after a decade around the place) sometimes the predictability of responses, especially around things like step-parenting, property prices and weekly shops.

Can you make a cooked chicken last 6 days though?? 🤔😀

The general level of conversation seems more intelligent than most widely-used forums. Also, the wide range of topics is appealing and 'the Power of Mumsnet' means you can usually get advice on even quite niche issues, if you need it.

I love the skewed view of the world you get on here. So many people are so outraged by such normal things. So many people who earn £100k+ a year.

I just find it a really interesting cross section of society.

Sheer boredom tbh

Nosiness!

@MamaWeasel

Sheer boredom tbh

🤣🤣 come on.. there are more exciting apps!!! 🤣

Joined when I was pregnant with DS1 and I find it great as a sounding board for pregnancy, parenting and everything else.

Browsing the chat boards are my go to thing when I'm bored. Or obsessively checking a juicy thread!

Nosiness.

And to see the naivety of some people, how offended people are to the slightest thing. How threads go from one extreme to another.

Oh lots more. Gives me a right giggle.Passes the time!

Education Board

It's like walking through a coffee shop, where 50 conversations are going on and you can eavesdrop or join in with any of them.

You learn about stuff, might be important stuff like the FWR conversations or it might be mundane stuff that you really don't need to know, like the best services near Macclesfield

And sometimes you get to help people because you know stuff they don't or just virtually support them.

My children are grown up and left home long ago. I wish this forum had been around in my day, I was very lonely as a young mum and had no-one to turn to for advice.

I love the discussions on here, I have learned a lot; also learned that many of the things that either happened to me, or else things which surprise or confuse me now, are very common. It's helpful to know I am not alone in my experiences, thoughts or fears....

Advice on here is still relevant even at my age, some threads make me laugh, some are sad but I really feel for the strangers who share their experience....

I kept hearing people mentioning Mumsnet, but wasn't sure what they were on about. I decided to take a look one night, and I will be perfectly honest I thought these people are on another planet 😁

There were some pretty bizarre opinions and views, and it became more bizarre, as I read on 😂

I then signed up and stayed.

Heard about it, had a look and loved the variety of topics. Some posters are hilarious, some are bloody tragic. I have bought a massager and fungal nail treatment because of good things said on threads. And I have also received some wise and considered advice. I love MN

Also, the wide range of topics is appealing and 'the Power of Mumsnet' means you can usually get advice on even quite niche issues, if you need it.

Yes. In the last month I have asked for advice on take-out cafes in Whitstable, late-model Citroen people carriers and whether or not my camellia was doing ok. Spot-on advice every time. It's quite magical. I remember when DD was about a week old @fatedestiny responding to a question I'd posted about how to BF lying down with the most extraordinary level of detail and care, I still well up a bit thinking of it. There are plenty more examples of the same.

(I try to give niche advice back when someone stumbles in my corner of the world, but it feels quite uneven.)

I joined after finding out I was pregnant but then miscarried shortly afterwards. However, I stayed through further subsequent miscarriages and, finally, having my DD. I very rarely engaged in posting, and once when I did I got my account banned because MN thought I was a dodgy sort (it was a badly phrased question about a real life thing)!

I stay for the politics, for the feminist boards, obviously for AIBU - but I think that MN generally is the voice of the nation. Women/men from all walks of live, often extremely knowledgeable; it's a unique dataset. I wouldn't be surprised if doctoral research was based on it in the future, especially through events like Brexit and COVID.

Women, Stanley, women.

Like many others, I came with a new baby looking for - and finding - practical advice, and people to 'talk' to at 4 in the morning.

Stayed for the feminism board and random hilarious threads like the Sistine chapel screamer.

Boredom..

Currently lay in hospital In ward, post-op bored AF. Mumsnet helping me through

I joined many years ago (had to re-reg a couple of years ago) in fact I was on my way home from a spa break. DH and I had started to talk about starting a family so I browsed through a few threads, and stayed.

I like the fact that there's very little smoke blown up arses, that one minute you can be reading something side splittingly funny, and the next, shedding a tear.

I have mumsnet to thank for getting me into crochet, for becoming stronger as a woman and for opening my eyes to a number of things.

The complaining and the angst over so many minor things. I used to think that I was uptight and anxious but now, having read mn for almost a decade, I realise that I'm actually so laid-back I'm almost horizontal!

I've read some good advice and some funny threads but mostly I like reading the ones where someone is "fuming" about something.

Boredom really, I look for the juicy ones, bit bored of the oh having an affair, neighbour problems are good, as I don’t have any neighbours so I can scoff at those lol…. Small children problems bring it all back to me, how I miss those days.. not !

I came here by chance when my 17 year old was making my life a misery - horrible girlfriend (quite similar to one starring in a currently thread) smoking weed, rude, treating my house like a hotel, etc. I think I googled 'kicking my teenager out'.

Anyhoo, it was a trial, to be sure, but it all worked out; he's 26 now, a fully functioning member of society, finished Uni, working as a teacher and his currently girlfriend, well she's the daughter I always wished I had.