What's the most privileged/off the mark post/response you've read?

[waywardways]

I've name changed for this, just in case anyone does an AS and accuses me of getting DM fodder.

Me and the DC had to flee our home several years ago and we were moved into a tiny 2 bed flat temporarily. I made a thread at the time, saying me and 3dc had had a traumatic move and were very overcrowded and asked for advice on how to store our daily stuff in an efficient way.
Several posters replied helpfully, linking shelving units/freestanding storage, but one poster replied along the lines of:

"Your DH must be high up in the army and you have to rough it in officers housing until your 5 bed detached home is ready".

Another poster quoted the above with "This was my immediate thought too! It's so hard OP, but we've all been there".

I found this both amusing and perplexing because a) I would never have assumed the above and b) it was so far off the mark.

There was another thread very recently about food guidelines where the lack of awareness and privilege was quite frightening!

Agreed. I’m currently trying to get my license, I am not a natural driver and very anxious, so it has taken me so many lessons to get to test level (only to then fail several times due to nerves). It’s been astronomically expensive for me and I really don’t like doing it, but I have to. I find judgy comments about non-drivers on here to be really offputting - not all of us were able to fly through the driving exam at 18 years old with parental help. Some people don’t come to it until later life and it can be a lot to go through, both emotionally and financially!

The thread here the other day assuming people got voted off traitors because of racism. So entitled, like, make people untouchable because of race. The presumptuous ness of it was breathtaking.

I disagree with you here. Your colleague is just as entitled to talk about her circumstances as the junior is struggling to save the deposit. There’s nothing shameful or embarrassing about what she said. Some people can afford multiple houses and some can’t - so long as she wasn’t feigning confusion at why the other colleague couldn’t possible save up enough, or gloating that she has multiple properties while he had none - she was just explaining her (lucky and privileged) scenario.

I really hate the idea that you can’t talk about your wealth because someone else doesn’t have it.

Why are you complaining about privilege comments on a thread about the very thing? Seems odd.

I think this depends on how you are looking at it. I live very rurally, so having a car is a necessity (we've no public transport at all). But when I was a single mum to five kids I couldn't afford to pay for driving lessons for them or to buy them cars, even though they really needed them.

So, to me, the ability to learn to drive and have your own car made you privileged, although to others learning to drive and having a car was 'just the thing you did'. The kids couldn't even get jobs to pay for their own lessons, because they would have to travel to work, and they couldn't get there!

Everything is relative.

Just keep repeating. 'are you offering to pay? Very kind of you Vera"

I wouldn't be explaining anything to someone so tone deaf'

Something breaks in someone’s house and a poster will say check your home insurance. I always think why are they assuming that everyone has home insurance.

Oh Dolly, my love, are you okay? I’m not sure why you’re so angry about this. This thread is quite lighthearted. Nobody is saying being privileged is a bad thing but not knowing it is. Driving a nice car and having a 4 bed house is an aspiration of many and most people if they have these things have worked hard to get them. There’s nothing wrong with that. What would be wrong is that same person saying “you should just work hard too” to someone who already is hit in a lower wage job or who can’t due to disability/caring. I think you’ve missed the point of the thread. It’s not having a go at what people have, but their actions. Go take a breath and read the whole thread, you’ll feel better

One of the best things I read once was some fitness influencer who was talking about this. (I can't recall who). He said that people who say 'Everyone has 24 hours in the day' are morons. 'Everyone has 24 hours, but they don't all have the same time. '

It sounds silly, but it made me feel better about the fact I really was unable to juggle my life AND 'make time' for this or that considered 'essential' by some

Tbf lots of people who own have to have home insurance if they have a mortgage. Obviously it's not enforced if you're renting but it's a fairly common thing to have

I think you've missed my point. Pls come onto mumsnet to complain that people who are privileged ( in the PPs eyes) should never complain about anything lest it offends those who dont have what they have, for example: someone i know was involved in an incident which left him with very serious injuries. He was in hospital for weeks, with many surgeries. He has been left with a lot of nerve damage. He was awarded a large compensation which enabled to buy a nice home and a nice car. He doesnt look disabled but he suffers with quite a lot of pain at times. People have made some very snotty comments about how he affords all his so called "luxuries" accusing him of being a drugs baron and allsorts of things.
This person has told me on many occasions that he would give it all up in a heartbeat if he could have his old life back

This place is a joke and it's clear many people are fantasists and embellishers.

Yesterday, on a thread where OP didn't want to have a doormat because of the limited space in her kitchen, someone suggested buying a new house with a longer/bigger hallway. 😑

Someone posted recently about struggling to afford prescription costs. The first reply advised the posted to move to Wales in order to get free prescriptions, because of course someone struggling to afford £10 is likely to have loads of spare money to be able to afford to relocate aren't they

I mean there are tons but one that always makes me giggle was on a thread about UPFs and weaning and fussy toddler appetites someone suggested lightly poached lemon sole fillets, with tenderstem broccoli and some other grain that wasnt that common

Its not that it wasnt nice or appropriate food it was just said with such an air of 'I cant believe people dont feed their children this type of food'.

I also like the ones where people falling over themselves to express the horror of downstairs bathrooms, only ONE bathroom and toilet in a property, no ensuites, children sharing bedrooms.

Lol

Ha! I saw that one, yes to save 9 quid, do pack up, spend thousands on moving costs, deposits, changing your kids schools, movign away from networks, moving health care provider

Nifty little money saving hack right there.

Well, we'll have to disagree on that. I felt older colleague was being insensitive.

Its not enforced if you have a mortgage either, banks just like to make it sound as if you must have it. There may be the odd one or two with conditions like BTL but largely across the board it is optional.

I did used the enjoy the threads that were saying that Parkrun is basically a racist event.

It's always been a privilege.

Lots of people can't afford the ongoing expenses of owning a car (or the initial driving lessons and insurance).

You might work hard and go without other things but you are probably not going without food or heating in order to own one.

I quite often do some food shopping before going to David LLoyd (just for the pool) - nobody turns a hair at the supermarket bag (s) I cart into the club room (for a cup of tea beforehand) and into the changing room afterwards.

I do it before my swim, since DL is a very short walk from my bus stop. 🙂

I agree! The OP was getting such a hard time on there, and being accused of not wanting to see her son badly enough etc etc. It was ridiculous!

The usual responses of get a nanny/cleaner/lodger/bigger house/second car 🙄

Not always that simple! But you just know someone will post it.

Not here but I remember reading one of those how to make/save money lists in (I think) Red magazine (which I thought was a kind of normal magazine).
The list included using regular salt instead of Maldon's sea salt flakes to salt water when you are making pasta and "see if you can use your house as a film set."

The amounts of money people spend on food/takeaway/deliveroo/uber eats. Not even rarely. Regularly.

I have a weird perspective on this because I'm pretty middle class but I'm one generation removed from absolute poverty and war. I have family that are still in it. Its probably some psychological issue/inherited trauma in me but even though I have a little money now, I can't do it. I feel a weird sense of shame over the prices. I just think about how many meals I could make for that.

The assumption that childless people can “never know true love”.