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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to feel sorry for the people who spend half their lives on mumsnet?

476 replies

destinationzero · 09/09/2011 12:27

I lurk a bit at work ( prenteding to be busy, saves me making the tea ) and have started the odd thread here and there seeking advice, BuT my god I feel sorry for the posters who are on here day in day out for hours.
I know some people are socially isolated and I'm sure they get a lot from mumsnet, but it is rather sad when it becomes your main source of adult interaction, and by choice for many I imagin. I know mumsnet has one million members, but it's always the same names coming up in active conversations. These forums should be a place where you drop into now and then, not somewhere you rely on for friendship.

AIBU ?

OP posts:
BelleDameSansMerci · 09/09/2011 12:29

Well, you've just ensured you won't be on the Christmas card list Grin

AuntieMonica · 09/09/2011 12:29

bahahahahahahaaaa!!! Grin

Sad
ExpensivePants · 09/09/2011 12:30

YABU. You can't possibly make a judgement on someone's life by how much they post on an internet forum. People use the internet in different ways. Also remember that some posters may be bf or something for large parts of the day and not able to do a lot else at the same time.

GloriaVanderbilt · 09/09/2011 12:31

What these forums should be is a matter of personal perception and judgment

It's none of your business and yes, for some people it is their only form of adult interaction.

What you gonna do about it? Tell them to stop coming here? That would help Hmm

theginganinja · 09/09/2011 12:31
Original poster
destinationzero · 09/09/2011 12:32

They could read a book ExpensivePants, what did people do before Mumsnet?

OP posts:
GloriaVanderbilt · 09/09/2011 12:32

and FGS go and make the tea for a change. It's YOUR TURN you slacker

GloriaVanderbilt · 09/09/2011 12:32

Oh you're just on the wind up.

feck off then

fanjobanjowanjo · 09/09/2011 12:32

Are you bored at work or something? Get lost if you "pity" us all and our pathetic existences! Hmm

GloriaVanderbilt · 09/09/2011 12:33

and reading a book isn't interaction either Hmm

TheMagnificentBathykolpian · 09/09/2011 12:33
Grin

It's hard to stay away!

I work from home - I run a tourism website. Plus I design policies and procedures and do all the admin etc for my husband's business. ATM I am doing ISO documents.

I am sitting at this computer for what must add up to 10 hours a day. Sometimes more.

I have my work open and a mumsnet tab open.

I would be far more productive if I closed the mumsnet tab Grin

If you were to search my name, you'd find loads of posts scattered the whole day and you'd be forgiven for thinking that I spend all day actually on mumsnet.

You'd be wrong.

In between posts, in the last few months alone - I have designed an entire quality management system AND got it accredited, designed an environmental management system and am auditing it in preparation for accrediation. I've added about a dozen pages to my website, answered several questions about local events, reported on 4 different galas and taken about 100 pictures which I've added to the photo gallery.

So YABU. You have no way of knowing who is actually doing what, while they appear to be pissing their life away on mumsnet Grin

HPonEverything · 09/09/2011 12:33

What expensivepants said.

Like you I lurk at work and am about to start mat leave, so I expect after the intial mania straight after the birth I'll be hanging around on here quite a lot, it may appear I have "no life". You can't possibly know what other people have going on in order to feel sorry for them.

Please don't feel sorry for me when I'm around a lot - I promise I'm ok!

shakey1500 · 09/09/2011 12:34

Don't feel sorry on my account m'dear, I'm having whale of a time Grin

Enjoying my new found freedom known as "school hours". To be fair I have the filing all over the carpet in front of me so I'm inching my way slowly into doing something

But, my life isn't complete until I've witnessed how much the antique vase goes for on Bargain Hunt. Tis imperative you understand.

So, direct your pity elsewhere Grin and don't be so judgy. You don't know peoples reasons

HandsOffOurLand · 09/09/2011 12:34

How funny. I had just been going to start a thread on exactly this topic - only it was going to be 'AIBU to think that prolific posters should get a life?'

Do they have so few friends in real life that they have to go in for non-stop online banter with strangers? Don't they have ... children to look after?? Houses to clean? Jobs to do? (Though I suspect the most prolific posters do have jobs, and are using their work time to hang around being opinionated on MN).

Yes, I think it definitely amounts to: get a life.

ExpensivePants · 09/09/2011 12:34

Maybe they read a book some of the time? Maybe they hate reading?

Either way, I don't suppose anyone is asking for, or wants your pity so I wouldn't worry about it.

Pagwatch · 09/09/2011 12:35

Oh don't be ridiculous.

How can you possibly judge somones life from such a distance.
I am on here loads. I have an iPad and mumsnet at the hairdressers,whilst dd is doing her two hour swimming coaching sessions, waiting for ds2s bus to bring him home, when I am doing all his food prep and baking.

Don't feel sorry for me based on your narrow judgement. I strongly suspect that you would swop at least some of my life

LadyBeagleEyes · 09/09/2011 12:35

The only way you would know that posters were on Mumsnet all day, every day would be if you were on Mumsnet all day every day.
Fact.

ExpensivePants · 09/09/2011 12:35

Do they have so few friends in real life that they have to go in for non-stop online banter with strangers?

Maybe they do. Maybe they have shit lives and MN is really important to them. Does that make you feel better? Hmm How lovely to be so superior...

TheVermiciousKnid · 09/09/2011 12:36

YANBU, I too feel sorry for people who spent half their lives on Mumsnet. I'm sure with a bit of re-organising and better time management they would be able to spend at least three quarters of their lives here. So come on everybody, make an effort!

LeQueen · 09/09/2011 12:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ThatVikRinA22 · 09/09/2011 12:36

when im not at work i do pop on here regularly, but really, i dont think i deserve your sympathy Grin, at the moment its saving me from hoovering and washing the floor...

tethersend · 09/09/2011 12:37

I'm only come on here to try and catch one of your witty, incisive contributions, OP.

WEEKS I've been waiting.

CardyMow · 09/09/2011 12:37

I spend quite a lot of time on here. Unfortunately, I am at a different life stage to my RL friends at the moment. We still meet up occasionally for a cuppa in the cafe or at each other's houses, but it is occasionally.

My friend's youngest children have all just started reception, their houses are no longer baby-proofed. I have a 7mo baby. A lot of my other friend's dc are now teenagers, or 7+, and they are back at work FT. It's a lot harder to go out with them in the evenings when they CAN find time to socialise, as I am now an LP, bf'ing a 7mo baby, and starting work myself next week.

It doesn't make me sad to be on here so much - it gives me something to do when I am sitting on the sofa, bf'ing DS3, my older dc are at school or in bed, and my friends are at work. Doesn't mean I don't also spend far too much time chatting to them on the phone - I can type and talk.

Things will work themselves out in a few years when my dc are older, I'm sure, but for now, I'm glad to have MN to pass the time.

tothemoonandback · 09/09/2011 12:37

They should all be out running about in the fresh air having picnics.

Pagwatch · 09/09/2011 12:38

You dimwits people are aware that some posters are carers, or disabled etc etc.

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