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 actually 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 party lot who are even more deluded. My first post on mumsnet but this stuff really annoys me!

NEVER try the "oh I've no money on me" line, you just get "oh no problem I can come round to yours later in the week and pick it up" without deducting the cost of doing so from my so called "profit"

LimitedPeriodOnly I shouldn't think the OP spends every minute of their life worrying about 'Mummy Businesses' possibly they just cane home after a hard day and were fed up hearing their friends go on and on about their marvellous (and unprofitable) enterprises and thought they'd be brave and start a post a wee rant on MN about it.

IIRC the OP doesn't slate all kitchen table businesses and does say they have a talented friend setting up things properly.

Wouldn't a clock do for teaching dcs the time? Or am I missing something? Worked for dd, anyway.

motherinferior it is our calling and our cross to bear

Cheriefroufrou - I can't imagine you having any trouble telling someone to fuck off with their wares.

I think I tend to agree with the OP. Why would I go and spend a morning at someone's house, knowing no one else but the host who is too busy to talk to me properly, when said host barely said 'hello' until the invitation? 'cos we are not really friends and this isn't really a party.

Yerrss

'Blaardy hell', I guess kim147

Oh and another one: the people who have written poetry or songs about their terrible traumas despite having no talent for verse or music, who then try to flog this stuff! I have no problem with people wanting to express their pain by art or music or writing, it is good for you to do so. But having suffered doesn't give you artistic talent if you didn't have any beforehand. And even if you're donating the pennies you make from Bunny Gets An Amputation to charity, it's still a waste of time and resources if the only reason people will buy it is because they are being emotionally blackmailed into doing so.

is thi going to be on channel five in the morning?

SGB if you write that song I will buy it.

It can be the Mumsnet Charidee Single. Xmas No 1. Dae it!

"I've never been to someone's house and had to avoid someone selling something, and am considering myself lucky now!"

Neither have I. Where are all these tat selling mums? I only knew of two mums in the village who sold stuff they had made. One makes her own properly handcrafted and individually designed jewellery and the other makes cupcakes that are actually edible. Neither of them pushes their goods on the other mums.

A friend of a friend started up a mummy business. They have made £18k since March. Am very and very impressed!

£18K since March?

1. maybe the tale grew in the telling
2. the capital for that must have been unusually high

Kerala: is that profit, though? Or is it that they bought in £15k worth of diamond-studded dildos or whatever and sold them for a total of £18k?

sgb very funny. Probably going to be sold at a craft fair this weekend.

I would have nothing personally against hobbyists trying to turn something they enjoy into a child friendly money spinner. If they can do it great, if they just enjoy themselves great. Setting aside that the money spinning is from friends and acquaintances and the business model doesn't stand a lot of scrutiny....
However i've come across a couple of people who really do use this sort of hobby to avoid getting a job which the family really needs them to do. My SIL has been planning to go back to work when the youngest hits school (she worked in a school so her pre-family job would fit in well with childcare) but now has become a Reiki therapist. So far this has only cost them money, on courses and equipment. I totally see the lure of being your own boss and only needing to do 10 hours a week. Way easier than the rat race, that's for sure. If she actually brings in enough money to help their finances then good on her, i will eat my words, and her overpriced crystals more fool her customers. My worry is that this 'job' will never make the kind of money they need but chasing the pipedream will stop her getting a boring real world job that would.

solidgoldbrass - its profit. Their only outgoings setting up a website and their time.

Honestly it is true. They had a good business idea and its taken off. Its not selling stuff though but a service - they are both smart women with 7 DC between them.

Must be babysitting/nanny/au pair. Good luck to them. It' must be quite a hassle.

Tryingtobenice, I know SOO many people with Reflexology/aromatherapy etc qualifications, I only know one who has made her training costs back and now makes a living from it!

(including my mum and MIL, both went back to their previous "boring" jobs because actually its LESS hassle to be employed then to run a serious business that's sucessful enough to make an honest living wage?)

Kerala: Well good luck to your mates then. They are obviously offering a service that is wanted by people at a reasonable price.

SS: Oh yeah, the dimwitted woo peddlers, who like to bang on about living in a cashless utopia where they would trade with each other. a reiki session for a tarot reading, a totally shitty piece of tie-dye for a storytelling seminar.

Only it's fuck all use as a way of living as the people who can supply the necessities like food, fuel, plumbing skills etc, tend to want cash rather than aromatherapy massages.

1. It really does depend on the product said mummies are selling. If they are well-made, reasonably priced, useable products - fair enough. If they consist of a bit of old ribbon, some glitter and a twee fountain-penned message on a piece of card, sold as a 'handmade greetings card by Rosie's Mum' and relentlessly pushed on friends for £3.99 - then fuck off.

1. Re the mothers in Red magazine, Daily Fail et all who have cake baking business and pop up craft shops. They are ALWAYS married to bankers, live in Suffolk and have four impossibly beautiful children called Gracie, Isabella, Milo and Beanie.

Hmmm

I dont know what I would be classed as. I work from home. I "make" things but I have orders from all over the UK and have only had work from friends that I have done for free, or given them as presents does that make sense

It's LOTS of hard work - I'm answering emails at all hours, I only get a few chances to actually sit and work as have small Dc at home with me. People pop in as I'm at home so obviously need people to come eat my biscuits

MN was a huge boost to my "business" and actually what got me started. I asked if it was some thing you would buy. Amd peopl did!!

OP - Your post is misogynist, are you?

I run a Mummy Business, I am a Mummy & I run a Business.

I am also VAT registered and pay taxes.

Is that ok for you OP?

"I run a Mummy Business, I am a Mummy & I run a Business."
a mother who runs a real buisness is a buisness woman who just happens to be a mother too
very different group to those who have "mummybusinesses" and call themselves "mumpreneurs"

oh god solidgold don't get me started on cp-ops, yes a carpenter will do hours of work for you in exchange for a rainbow candle or worse a meditation session - gah! One I knew (my mother is into these pipe dreams!) tried to give "wishes" as gifts and payments! Funnily enough despite buying into every one of these schemes going she still had to work for the government till she retired