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Original poster

Anyone else here been on MN since it started?

265 replies

Quarks69 · 08/01/2022 13:36

Am not trying to be Clichy, So forgive the reminiscing.... but my eldest is now 22 and I remember MN becoming a thing about the time she was born, and today she left home good and proper...so it feels over, the whole being a clueless mum thing. The questions on here are on repeat and yet the answers are both the same and yet different as mumsnet was the ONLY social media out there at the time!!.

I Do remember being at work and keeping on clicking on the MN website, where the chats wouldn’t change all day! And then there was an amazing first meet up of all the mums, and I couldn’t make it and felt a bit jealous!

Justine et co must feel so proud of what they have created now, and their babies must also be grown up too, as is this website. Who could have guessed this is where it would be?

OP posts:
jalopy · 09/01/2022 07:38

I've been here since 2002. A few name changes. My number was 4 digits long.
There were very few categories at that time.
Now my kids have grown up, I only follow style, chat, iabu and weather now.

imip · 09/01/2022 08:12

I started lurking at the end of 2006. If I recall correctly you had to pay to send CAT messages? Dd wouldn’t sleep and I had had two babies that year, my first stillborn, and I was really in need of advice. I think I joined in 2011 when I was expecting my last dd. MN instrumental in helping me come to terms with losing my first child, empowering me to get another dc diagnosed with ASC when school were gaslighting next and also understanding my dysfunctional childhood. I don’t post a lot, and struggle to follow long threads (exception of Christmas bargins!).

I think you can tell some older names by how short they are? Apparently at some point you needed a minimum number of characters?

BIWI · 09/01/2022 10:34

I don't think so, @imip? At least not when I joined. My name is short simply because I couldn't be arsed to keep writing BecauseImWorthIt all the time! (And it always annoyed me that I couldn't use the apostrophe!)

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Families
SoupDragon · 09/01/2022 10:54

If I recall correctly you had to pay to send CAT messages?

Yes, there was a £5 one off fee.

MirandaWest · 09/01/2022 11:05

I’ve been here since 18 year old DS was a baby although I think my registration shows me as having registered while I was still pregnant.

Was a different website then but something still draws me in

Roussette · 09/01/2022 11:30

I remember the £5 fee to send CAT messages.

And I remember prolific posters that I was slightly in awe of! It was so much easier to recognise posters back then. I don't think there was so much, if any, name changing.

leccybill · 09/01/2022 11:43

In the early days, I won a few competitions and did lots and lots of product tests. I won a £200 Asda voucher for testing their new (in 2012) app which saw me through a very lean time - forever grateful for that.

Itsnotdeep · 09/01/2022 11:47

yes you did have to pay to CAT in the beginning.

Thornrose · 09/01/2022 11:56

My dd is now 22 also. I've been around a very long time.

My first post was about child modelling, I was crucified Grin

I was sent a book by a lovely poster and my dd was sent cards and gifts when she was in a MH unit. Awesome support from SEN boards back then which I'll never forget.

Pan2 · 09/01/2022 12:05

2005 vintage here. Am recognising quite a few names. I've always been some incarnation of Pan over the years.
Joined re enquiry over my highly sensitive daughter, who had just start primary school and I'd asked for advice. She is now a qualified nurse on a women's post-surgical ward.
It was suggested that Dadsnet was set up just for me. If only that were true..Grin

FWR was lively. Even before the trans-issues.

Pan2 · 09/01/2022 12:09

Ah yes Hasseled - rockets into Lebanon, from morningpaper. That was a controversy! The first controversy I was aware of just before that. I think, was a MN male having an affair with a married female MNer...Colin, or Cain, or.....Frank?

I0NA · 09/01/2022 12:10

@Thornrose

My dd is now 22 also. I've been around a very long time.

My first post was about child modelling, I was crucified Grin

I was sent a book by a lovely poster and my dd was sent cards and gifts when she was in a MH unit. Awesome support from SEN boards back then which I'll never forget.

Was the book about speech development in children? If so it was me .
I0NA · 09/01/2022 12:11

@imip
I think you can tell some older names by how short they are? Apparently at some point you needed a minimum number of characters?

I think that’s right, you used to be able to have 3 character names and now it’s 4.

BIWI · 09/01/2022 12:13

There's no limit on character names. Just look at some of the names on this thread!

OldTinHat · 09/01/2022 12:14

Yep, I have too under various names. My eldest is 23 next week.

WeWashEverythingExceptLaundry · 09/01/2022 12:26

Joined end of 2004, when my first dc was on the way. Stayed for several years under one or two names, deregged around 2010ish, came back a few years later and have NCd every few months since then. Have never been massively prolific but I've got a hell of a lot out of the place.

Even when I joined the character of it was, by all accounts, already different from the very early days.

The socio-economic diversity is much greater now than it was; I find it quite polarised now actually - the 'what savings do you have' threads* seem to mention either six-figure sums or zero.
(*Leaving aside why on earth you would put your financial info on a website like that)

I think the child modelling lot were disparagingly called 'moggellers' or similar.

Thornrose · 09/01/2022 12:30

@WeWashEverythingExceptLaundry I posted a cheery question about child modelling.

I was completely unaware that it was so very frowned upon on MN.

I quickly backtracked and lurked for a while after that.

WeWashEverythingExceptLaundry · 09/01/2022 12:49

@Thornrose Yes, I think there were quite strong group-views about various things in the old days, as you do get with largely homogeneous groups - a consensus about what 'we' approve of and what 'we' don't.

MadameFantabulosa · 09/01/2022 13:07

BonsoirAnna was definitely not Chinese! Grin I knew her IRL. She was obsessed with her daughter’s weight - took her out of school for lunch so that she could monitor what she ate. I remember her DD crying when she was refused a biscuit. Her daughter was a bit chunky at the time - I think she was about 4, which was a bit at odds with Bonsoir’s “you can never be too thin” mantra. I moved away a few years ago, but a mutual acquaintance told me that Bonsoir had had a brain tumour, but is OK now.

ClaudineClare · 09/01/2022 13:09

I am a newbie, joined in 2014. I have deregistered a few times, but always end up coming back.

I want to know what the moldies scandal was!

SummerWillow · 09/01/2022 13:12

I joined in 2000 I think, my oldest is 22. Never left with the Moldies as I also wasn't cool enough!

PegasusReturns · 09/01/2022 13:20

@2fallsfromSSA I remember your thread well, particularly the hard time you got from the supermarket sleuths who were so convinced you were making with whole thing up.

Your patience was admirable and I was so gratified when you came back evidencing the prosecution.

BIWI · 09/01/2022 13:21

@ClaudineClare

I am a newbie, joined in 2014. I have deregistered a few times, but always end up coming back.

I want to know what the moldies scandal was!

If you RTFT you'll see I posted an explanation earlier!
PegasusReturns · 09/01/2022 13:21

@MadameFantabulosa I’m glad bonsoir is well. I recall some quite mad exchanges with her but I was sad when she left. I always enjoyed her posting

KindleAndCake · 09/01/2022 13:21

I joined in 2008, I was going through miscarriages at the time and I found a lovely group of mumsnetters that I now call friends. Some of us were lucky enough to have babies in the end. We've continued to support each other and keep intouch.

I've had many names on here and have been very grateful for the support over the years.