Has mumsnet changed your opinion on anything

[potentiallyme]

So many people seem so set in their ways. Have you ever changed your beliefs/opinions/actions/outlook because of something you have come across on Mumsnet.
Relationship/affairs/family/politics/work/finances? Anything at all that's made you stop and see a different point of view and take it on board?

Not changed my eyes, but opened my eyes to how the other half live.

@FindingMeno

Not changed my eyes, but opened my eyes to how the other half live.

Agree. Also how other people think when their guard is down (they're are some truly shocking views - to me anyway - being expressed about prisoners in a current thread).

I learnt about invisible disabilities from Mumsnet.

I agree with so much of what has been said on this thread, especially the feminism points.

To add my personal experience - depressingly, for some people, I’m sure - MN has helped me see that I really don’t want children. I never really did but I swayed back and forth because DH was on the fence. I joined this site in around 2014/15 when I was 24/25 and after reading countless posts over the past few years about the stress and expense, about chronic non-sleeping children, behavioural issues, wayward teens taking drugs, the potential hit to your career, the drudgery and thanklessness of being a mother… it showed me that I would be really, really bad at it. I do not want a child enough to roll the dice and just be happy with whatever I get.

I’m grateful to all the people on MN who post honest, raw accounts of what it’s really like to be a mum because it’s so rose tinted everywhere else.

‘ Surrogacy; it’s a human rights violation in my opinion and nothing more than the buying and selling of woman's bodies and babies. I didn’t think this before, I had the privilege of thinking it was just kind altruistic people helping others and I have no thought to the needs of the baby. ’

Same here. I hadn’t really thought about it before reading about it on Mumsnet and am now utterly firm in my view that it is a human rights abuse.

Mumsnet has also helped me crystallise why I felt prostitution was wrong and exploitative and that we should be working to abolish it, not normalise it.

Like so many others the feminist board has really opened my eyes to what is going on. It has introduced to so many different people who have written and discussed this area, for example Magdalen Berns, Helen Joyce, Katherine Stock, Rose of Dawn, Posie Parker to name a few.

Also, the stately homes thread has been a harbour.

Mumsnet has been a real education and a safe place.

@BreadInCaptivity, Thanks.

Not sure you ever get over something like that happening to you.

I made the mistake of starting a thread on a Saturday evening, and I suspect that some of the replies were booze-fuelled, but although there were plenty of home truths and some good advice, some of the posts were quite unpleasant.

Here is one of them, in reply to a post expressing concern that a tabloid might use the thread:

"No danger of that, they only lift the interesting ones."

Lots of 'You are wasting people's time posting' type responses' etc

Tarantulas! Thanks to Albie!

How completely different people are, how many people come dysfunctional families, the amount of anxiety there is.
Feminism and the trans debate.

@YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet

Hello - we've really enjoyed reading all your posts and we're v v pleased that so many of you have found MN helpful, entertaining and supportive.

With that in mind, we'd like to ask a favour if that's okay? We've been getting some pretty negative reviews on Trustpilot from unhappy campers who we've had cause to ban or otherwise sternly tell off for various misdemeanours.

If anyone feels able to add their honest experience of the site for the sake of balance, we'd be super grateful. Here's the link.

The thing is though MN - is that you aren't consistent with who you ban and posts you remove. I'm not going to go into it again but you persistently allow trolls to continue posting, whilst at the same time deleting their posts, and then replying via email when asked, saying you know you've dealt with things badly.

I'm afraid MN, you don't address things properly and you don't mod fairly, and you don't keep people safe on your forum - you do deserve the bad reviews imo. I've not left one because I can't be arsed but, I definitely would not be reviewing you positively if I did.

I can't write a review without setting up an account but I've rated you 'excellent' which I hope will work.

The Kyle Rittenhouse - not guilty? thread has really got me thinking, not just about the case, but wider issues such as lazy assumptions and media bias.

Another thing; I used to really want to be a teacher. So many threads on here now with teachers at breaking point, or just openly saying "don't do it"!

Not a career I would pursue at the minute, which is actually really sad. More so for the people already in the profession.

I'm afraid MN, you don't address things properly and you don't mod fairly, and you don't keep people safe on your forum

@makelovenotpetrol The thread is in danger of veering wildly off-topic (your fault, Mumsnet!) but how can anyone possibly be "unsafe" on an internet discussion forum? That's just ridiculous.

@MurielSpriggs

I'm afraid MN, you don't address things properly and you don't mod fairly, and you don't keep people safe on your forum

@makelovenotpetrol The thread is in danger of veering wildly off-topic (your fault, Mumsnet!) but how can anyone possibly be "unsafe" on an internet discussion forum? That's just ridiculous.

I don't think that pp meant physical safety.

I think if you post and you're feeling pretty vulnerable already and you get some robust responses to your post, that can make people feel emotionally unsafe. Proper trolling definitely could.

Also wanted to say, the preppers thread really helped me prepare for Covid and to understand how quickly it was going to spread, at a time when most pp were saying, oh it's just like the flu. So grateful for that!

@Appalonia

Also wanted to say, the preppers thread really helped me prepare for Covid and to understand how quickly it was going to spread, at a time when most pp were saying, oh it's just like the flu. So grateful for that!

Which will lead e on to another question. Thank you for every response, I'm gaining knowledge from boards I've not taken interest in before. You know the one. Thank you again for this.

Not the preppers, but lurking on the Brexit threads meant we already had a modest stash of essentials (loo roll included) that got us through the first 2 weeks of lockdown when we were isolating because DS had COVID symptoms.

@YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet

Hello - we've really enjoyed reading all your posts and we're v v pleased that so many of you have found MN helpful, entertaining and supportive.

With that in mind, we'd like to ask a favour if that's okay? We've been getting some pretty negative reviews on Trustpilot from unhappy campers who we've had cause to ban or otherwise sternly tell off for various misdemeanours.

If anyone feels able to add their honest experience of the site for the sake of balance, we'd be super grateful. Here's the link.

@YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet To be honest I think your post is quite tone deaf considering a vanguard of exceptionally dedicated and thoughtful women who MN banned, many for things that are discussed freely now that never should have been outlawed on a forum primarily for women’s very valid concerns that arise from the experience of being mothers, like safeguarding.

Read the room Mumsnet. If some of those (unjustly) banned women give you a bad rap on Trustpilot you know you deserve it.

PS Will you now unban Posie Parker and the rest given that they were legally right all along and the law has confirmed this?

Yet another vote for feminist board. Always been a v strong feminist but was a liberal ‘live and let live, anyone can be anything if they want to be’ type. I was vaguely aware that JK Rowling was expressing some views some people didn’t like & that I didn’t really understand properly. Now I have educated myself.

Menopause - how much it changes you as a person particularly in regard to not giving a shit about so many things and nurturing and pandering to people any more. The discussions around it make me feel less alone; why it has been a taboo subject for so long saddens me.

I love that this is a (mainly) female space. The mix of entertaining and funny & serious issues is so well done.

And I’m appalled that so many women put up with so much shite from lazy selfish men. I include myself in this. It’s opened my eyes somewhat. Learned the phrase ‘cocklodger’.

My partner recently diagnosed with Aspergers at age 47. Relationship in shambles with a 3 year old in the mix. Learned so much and got so much support from the living with a partner with Aspergers threads.

What a brilliant invaluable resource Mumsnet is.