To get annoyed by Mummy Businesses

[NeilFan]

You know the type cake making, knitting, cup cakes, carding etc. Generally SAHMs whos kids are now at school and feel the need to go back into work but can't really be bothered. They pick up some hobby that people have diplomaticaly said they are good at and think it can be a business. Only know one person who actualy has a talent for their business choice, all of the others would be better just asking for cash directly rather than palming off sub standard products onto polite friends. Same goes for all of that pampered chef and candle who are even more deluded. My first post on mumsnet but this stuff really annoys me!

I'm a single working mum and I have most of those hobbies you've listed. None of them are buisnesses though, as I don't have time to develop them.

What are your hobbies Neilfan? Maybe you are a bit jealous? Nobody is forcing you to buy anything. I think you should stop wasting your time worrying what other people are doing and cultivate a few skills of your own.

SGB "antique lace nappies" well of course no less will do for little Ptolomey...

sgb that is what I mean. Although the ones I know are people with hubbys with a good salary not millionaires but comfortable enough to support their next directory/ boden lifestyle on one income. Reckon the mummy business is enough to convince them they are contributing to the household income. In reality they are just taking money from less well off friends and giving it to some conglomerate who sells on the raw materials

Clearly these business are so varied with regards to level of skill, size of business and how the products are marketed (e.g. if friends are bullied into buying them), that it's not really possible to make generalisation.

To be honest, what annoys me a lot more than these business is the term 'mummy business'.

Antique lace is soooooo last decade.......yawn.....

That should be 'these businesses' not 'these business'. I'm obviously suffering from 'mummy brain'.

at whole thread, especially interested in the crispy coated shite sticks...mummy businesses are what we all need, no more job interviews where they ask about your 'other commitments' - do you lie, and then have to explain that you have to leave cos your child has banged his head at school? I was even the last one in the room at a bb style interview when my mobile went off (yes I know I should have switched it off) to tell me to come get the kids, there was 2mm of snow in the playground.....did I get the job? did I fek.
solidgoldbrass has a point though...(gnashing of teeth)
My mummy business has to support us.....(it is not cakes or parties though)

Sorry if the term annoys but it is appropriate not meant as derogatory. The only reason they are in the 'business' is because they are mummies and are expoliting the social network they built when they became mummies.

That's an assumption though - there are probably some of these businesses out there that are not run by mothers!

In any case, why 'mummies'? Why not 'mothers'? It sounds rather pejorative. It's used in other contexts as well, such as 'mummy porn'.

I am 'mummy' to my children (or more likely 'mum' these days), not anybody else!

Bloody hell. Cupcake rage hits MN.

And yes. I knit.

I think the OP is trying to differentiate between mothers who run businesses, and women who start "businesses" that dont actually make money or operate as bona fide businesses as something to do, or to make themselves look like they are contributing. If they are funded by hubbies well paying job, not actually making any profit (or even breaking even), and only selling to friends and family that they lean on to support them then I would term that a "mummy business". The school mummy mentioned above seems to spend more time talking about her business than actually running it or promoting it, its almost as if she is doing it just so she can say she has her own business. She certainly finds a reason to drop it into every conversation.

Someone who knits or bakes or makes jewellry and runs it as a proper going concern is a mother with a business.

I agree with you, OP. I'm all for people starting small businesses - I love to see people with entrepreneurial flair and fantastic ideas. I also admire people who work really hard.

It's when you get people who are supported financially so that it doesn't matter what they hell they produce and then they do something they're not that good at but you are supposed to admire them and what's worse, buy the stuff, when you haven't got as much money as they do and don't want what they're selling. And they talk about having a small business when patently it's making a huge loss but their husband is backing them so it doesn't matter.

First rule of business - sell what people want to the people who want it.

Phew, glad to get that out of my system.

bogeyface hit the nail on the head...exactly what I am saying. Thanks.
These are the people who talk about their business all the time. Probably fills a void in conversation at dinner parties.
I certainly do not mean to dis any parent who starts an honest business from a talent they have.

Yes, I do get the distinction made by bogeyface (and others!). I'm still not keen on the term 'mummy business' though. Unless applied to Worra's shit on a stick business.

Vermicious do you have problems with "Yummy Mummies" too? I only ask because ime it is the YE that is most likely to start this type of "business".

YM not YE!

imperialBlether thanks you get what I mean.
Sounds like you have been in the same position as me. It is difficult sometimes as humour nature is to be polite and buy but deep down inside I am raging. Why can't these people go and do real good with their time and talents.

Exactly it is the self percieved (and humourous? Yummy Mummy mug owning) YMs that start these businesses.

I was going to get fairly outraged at your OP but see now what you're on about and no, YANBU to be menaced for money for overpriced, unsaleable-on-the-open-market tat.

OTOH, women who really work their butts off trying to make ends meet by setting up homecraft, "cottage industry" businesses - nothing to be snarky about there, I feel but the quality has to be there

Oops- I mean YANBU to be annoyed by being menaced for money for overpriced, unsaleable-on-the-open-market tat.

:o

'Yummy mummy' is generally used pejoratively though, isn't it?

In any case, I would like to point out that I am definitely not a yummy mummy, nor do I run a mummy business.

Can I add that I hate the Avon adverts where people talk about 'starting my own business'...it's not your business you're an Avon lady