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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:
Cactu · 09/01/2022 13:28

I joined after reading a Guardian article about how mums were spending their evenings pouring a glass of wine and chatting to each other on Mumsnet. Obviously a radical concept in 2005. Thought I’d see what it was all about.

Arseanall · 09/01/2022 13:42

@Pan2

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?
It was Tamba and Karl? IIRC
Thornrose · 09/01/2022 13:50

@I0NA it was about toxic relationships...eye opening for me back then.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Families
Arseanall · 09/01/2022 13:50

Baby pasta threads were frowned upon as were moggelling threads in 2001 and 2002

There were definitely tribes. The a no nonsense, posh, Boden, head girl crowd of cod, Enid et al, the FTWOTH professional crowd of Bells, bossykate and others, a journo crowd of Aloha, Absf, Edam, motherinferior, a social worker & public sector crowd, Scummymummy, Batters, Tigermoth. It was very London centric. But so funny at times, really laugh out loud hilarious.

TeaAndCake · 09/01/2022 13:50

I first posted in 2005 but had lurked since 2003. Been here ever since.

I did attend a meet up once and met Anyfucker. She didn't disappoint!

Pan2 · 09/01/2022 13:59

Ah yes thank you Areseanall I've just been out for a walk and remembered his name but not her's.
Googled morningpaper and saw her hilarious, deeply sarcastic apology to SWMNBN 2006.

Mouldies - I was away for a couple of years and came back to that. Sounded like big/cool girls on the playground stuff. Nasty.

Ariela · 09/01/2022 14:21

@Quarks69

Aha 713 😀 never was a witty poster though..no change there!
Mine is about 500 less than yours, but I don't remember you! Then again I never posted much
100problems · 09/01/2022 14:37

I joined the day the Bobble Thread was trending. It really made me laugh so I stayed.

ClaudineClare · 09/01/2022 14:45

Thanks @BIWI!

merrymelodies · 09/01/2022 14:49

I joined when I was pg with DC2. I9 years ago.

Ihopeyourcakeisshit · 09/01/2022 14:50

Anyfucker doesn't strike me as someone who'd do a meet up?

prettybird · 09/01/2022 15:20

I joined in 2001 (might have lurked initially) but changed my name in 2003 (I think) because I'd linked to my db's business and he got upset (I thought I was doing it positively as in proof of how someone can be successful even if they're not so committed at school but he didn't see it that way Sad) Had the same name ever since but anyone who knows me would recognise me and I'm careful never to say/write anything I wouldn't be prepared to stand by in real-life Halo

I came here via babycentre.co.uk and never left Grin

Ds is 21 now Shock

I used to be able to walk into town for lunch, get back 3/4 of an hour later and then spend the last 15 minutes of my lunch hour scrolling through everything that had been posted in the previous hour Grin

TeaAndCake · 09/01/2022 15:35

@Ihopeyourcakeisshit

Anyfucker doesn't strike me as someone who'd do a meet up?

I know, but she definitely did.
It was 2010.

baggies · 09/01/2022 16:07

What were the moldies?

SofiaAmes · 09/01/2022 16:26

Pretty sure I've been here since 2000 or early 2001 right after DS was born. Number is 6433. Internet forums were so new back then and I was so out of it that I used my real name as my user name. I was renting a house out a few years later from abroad and the woman knew it couldn't be a scam because when she googled me all she found was loads of posts about breastfeeding on Mumsnet.

BIWI · 09/01/2022 16:27

@baggies if you read the thread you'll find I've already written about them!

SummerWillow · 09/01/2022 16:33

See BIWI's summary of Moldies below. I remember feeling a bit narked to not be nominated to join but I didn't post much and had a low profile, so not surprising.

In the early days, MN was a group of women who often got to know each other pretty well. Looking back, I'm amazed how little I was bothered about anonymity and how open I was online about my life! Times have changed.

BelladiMamma · 09/01/2022 16:36

I joined in 2003 and have had the same username pretty much ever since. I've gone years without reading and posting and then get back into it again. It's been great!! Thank you 😊Justine et al

2fallsfromSSA · 09/01/2022 16:49

Ah thank you @PegasusReturns. Yes there was some sleuthing going on and one poster who said I probably deserved it because its annoying when children play with the testers!

Luckily we didn't have to go to court as he pleaded guilty when he realised not only was I going to testify but two women were coming all the way from Leicester as they were so horrified by what they witnessed. I had dd2 by then and was stressing about how I would give evidence whilst breastfeeding a newborn! I really would not have pressed charges without MN behind me and I will always be grateful for that.

Pan I remember you well. I also remember Bonsoir and I am sorry to hear that she has been ill. Morningpaper was brilliant, as was policywonk.

2fallsfromSSA · 09/01/2022 16:53

It's interesting reading this thread. It really was a different time even when I joined in 2006. The internet was around but it was nowhere near as invasive and embedded into our lives as it is now.

RainbowConnection1 · 09/01/2022 17:04

Does anyone know how TrintiyRhino is doing? She went through such awful times and I think of her and her DC often.

Arseanall · 09/01/2022 17:07

Ah, sofiaAmes, I remember your lovely house, it was linked IIRC 🙂

Your father was a scientist I think? I remember someone asking you to defend yourself about driving an SUV and your posting that actually you were often carrying around long pieces of wood because of your job (fair enough, architect?)

SofiaAmes · 09/01/2022 17:22

Ha. Yes long pieces of wood AND 3 step kids plus an extra step step kid plus my two. And then there was the day that exH hit a deer on the motorway at 70mph with 2 dc in the car....I was very very glad that he was driving a LandCruiser with a cattle grate in front (we bought the car used and it came with it).
Both parents were profs of Biochemistry (father was famous) and yes I'm an architect although moving on to career number 3 as soon as I figure out what it's going to be!
Mumsnet was a lifeline for me. I had my 3+ stepkids and not a clue of what to do. Topics like lice and pin worms and autism were just a few that I was educated about from Mumsnet.

baggies · 09/01/2022 17:32

[quote BIWI]@baggies if you read the thread you'll find I've already written about them![/quote]
Sorry! I read so far into the thread and thought I wouldn't find out.
Wish I'd been on here then. Would love to have read the posts.
Had anything happened as big as that since? I'm a newbie on MN, only a couple of years. Always thought it was for newish mums, not 60 yr olds!

PAFMO · 09/01/2022 17:36

@Pan2

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.

You and I were at a concert together in the late 80s iirc from a thread a million years ago. Mary Coughlan? Apols if it was another one of the menz but I think it was you!