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Original poster

Things I only ever see on Mumsnet and never in RL

536 replies

HankyScore · 16/12/2013 10:18

Wedding gift lists angst. I don't think I've ever been to a wedding where there wasn't a list. It's normal.

Parents who never have even a sniff of booze when their kids are in the house, and the angst over 'what if I need to drive them to hospital?'. Perhaps everyone I know is a raging alky, but it's just never come up as an issue.

Old ladies on the bus having a pop about breastfeeding/children/the yoof of today. Has never happened to me in all my eleven years of parenting. I only ever meet nice people on public transport. Perhaps I am just incredibly thick skinned and don't notice the judgy stares?

People giving much of a shit over BF/FF, or at least not once they are past their own days of feeding a baby.

There is more.

I'm off to think of some.

OP posts:
notquitenormal · 16/12/2013 21:52

I am genuinely shocked by people who scorn baked beans because they are 'junk food.' I mean really? really?

Sure if you don't actually like them...but beans are a staple. It's rocket fuel for five-year-olds, surely? As is custard and fish fingers.

Whistleblower0 · 16/12/2013 21:54

The posters who insist that their child is being indoctrinated because they sang a hymn or said a prayer at a school assembly, and they are atheists, and so shouldn't have this evil foisted upon themGrin

2Tinsellytocare · 16/12/2013 22:02

People who say they are traumatised by being put on the naughty step as a child, MN is the only place I've ever heard of this.

SatinSandals · 16/12/2013 22:17

and she wasn't the kid's mother, just a "woman who happens to live in DH's house"

This is typical! I want to shout, 'no she isn't, she is a woman who is going to have a relationship with the child for life, she will be at his wedding, she will be step grandmother, her parents, aunts, siblings, dog and all will have important relationships with the child'-if she and the child get on well together-which they most probably will. It is her house, her rules and she will often be in the house without the DH!

SatinSandals · 16/12/2013 22:19

Love this thread. At last all the normal people together

Grin. (sometimes you wonder where they have gone!)

SatinSandals · 16/12/2013 22:21

I agree with all yours Whistleblower!

Gileswithachainsaw · 16/12/2013 22:25

People who never make the link between their 2/3 yr old drinking three pints of milk a day and the fact that they forever have the shits and never eat their dinner.

:o

fatlazymummy · 16/12/2013 22:42

People who think sandwiches are 'sad' and somehow unsuitable for lunch or tea.
I eat sandwiches every day, so do other people that I know.

desertmum · 16/12/2013 22:48

people who whisk their kids to the doctor at the first sniff . . . .

lessonsintightropes · 16/12/2013 23:23

We asked for specific honeymoon things as our gift list (but didn't include the list in the invites)... wear shoes in the house and wouldn't ask someone to take them off; routinely drink a bit on some weeknights; don't give a toss about BF/FFing; and I can make a chicken last for three meals (roast, curry then soup). I think Mooncups sound hideous!

I am not sure whether this makes me a normal person or a MN typical thinker Xmas Grin

Mushypeasandchipstogo · 16/12/2013 23:34

Yes never ever heard of anybody in RL using moon cups and everybody I know with a bastard mirena loves it!

lade · 17/12/2013 01:10

I love the Christmas topic, but I do get amused by some of the threads on there.

Elf on a shelf. I have never seen one of those bloody things - what the hell are they !?!

Competitive underspending, I know it has been raised lots of times, but well it is just so common to spend loads of Christmas, and of course everyone who does are automatically getting themselves into loads of debt, and are terribly irresponsible. I am quite sure the "spenders" have never heard of saving.Blush

I always wonder why people get worked up about how many presents other people's children are going to get at Christmas. Does it really matter? They're never going to meet your children. Some children will get more presents than yours and others less....

Those who maintain that Christmas trees have to look awful colourful or they just aren't Christmassy. Like, without tinsel it will just be soulless / department store etc. what utter bollocks. There is nothing more festive in the eclectic mix of colours than having a more limited range, except in the mind of those who think it! Just because some people think it, doesn't make it true. (The argument works the other way too, of course)

People who give a flying fuck what anyone else's tree looks like. When did we get the Christmas tree police, who started insisting that Christmas trees have to be colourful / tasteful / tacky etc..? I have never heard anyone in real life arguing over how a tree should look. Who actually cares, and if you do care about what other people do with their trees / decorations, perhaps (in the best possible way) you need to get a life. We all have individual tastes, of what we think looks nice - that's what makes the world go round. There is no one way of doing it.

That said, the topic is great for sharing ideas, I'd be lost without it Grin

Leavenheath · 17/12/2013 01:51

I've seen loads of things mentioned here in RL. And when I come across something I haven't, if enough posters are saying or experiencing the same things, I'm more likely to think it happens in RL too but people don't talk about it.

For example, it's unlikely a male work colleague will fess up to being a lazy arse whose wife needs to write instructions for him to wipe his own arse, or that he's a porn hound who's so addicted he can't get it up anymore with said exhausted and pissed-off wife, but there are enough men like that described on this site to convince me they certainly aren't imaginary.

If only.

Furthermore, I genuinely haven't met any stepford wives who call their partners 'hubby', think that women should do all the housework/ parenting, that horrendous male behaviour is just 'boys being boys' and that any woman who objects to her partner going to a sex club on a night out is controlling, paranoid or jealous- but they are in our midst and represented in huge numbers here.

This is the real snapshot of life I think. In RL it gets edited.

GoshAnneGorilla · 17/12/2013 04:25

Someone on here once claimed that she had friends who were from the aristocracy and they thought the Royal Family were a bit common. Only on Mumsnet.

BohemianGirl · 17/12/2013 04:50

People with children who drink gallons of milk a day and think that's a good thing.

We clear at least 60 pints a week between 5 of us ....this is bad?

There are loads more that wind me up but I'd be banned for going against the mainstream and being very very non-PC

BohemianGirl · 17/12/2013 04:51

Someone on here once claimed that she had friends who were from the aristocracy and they thought the Royal Family were a bit common

Princess Michael?

learnasyougo · 17/12/2013 06:41

wow, I fit many of these never in RL things. mooncup using, no tumble dryer (never had one) non driving etc. I'm not weird really. I assume many other people live like I do.
And that's the thing. our social circles are more restricted than mn is. Where else do you see the range of income to be 12k to 200k? People DO make a chicken last more than a meal (because they have to. We get 4 dinners and 2 soup portions out of one) people DO have fears about what to buy in Lidl (seeing the band wagon but being a bit scared about jumping on). I don't know anyone in RL who employs a nanny, but I don't then conclude that's not RL. For some people, it's a perfectly normal thing to do. Not in my circles, but still normal.

but what IS elf on a shelf??

SatinSandals · 17/12/2013 06:51

I had to ask about an elf on a shelf, apparently it is a little doll that arrives in Dec 1st and moves around the house doing things to amuse the children- that was the explanation I was given.
I remember the aristocracy one, every so often she gathered herself up and hinted that she was rather grand in the past. I remember her saying 'think Mitfords'.

SatinSandals · 17/12/2013 06:58

I looked it up, she said they could give the Mitfords a run for their money and she came from a family who thought the Royal family were a bit MIF, it was lost on me, not having worked out what MIF was.
The same person said that she refused to say toilet or serviette.

SatinSandals · 17/12/2013 07:02

I also had to have the 'Christmas Eve' hamper explained to me.
In RL I have never had anyone care two hoots about someone else's Christmas traditions, whereas on MN it is almost 'pistols at dawn'!

Ragwort · 17/12/2013 07:08

What about the absolute hysteria if people have more than one glass of wine (even more shocking if they are pregnant) - most people I know in RL drink moderately - it's not a crime, it's a pleasant thing to do. People getting obsessed about what will happen to their unborn child if they have half a glass of champagne; how will they get the children to hospital in the unlikely event of an accident Hmm.

I am not referring to alcoholism, just the views towards 'social drinking' that you see on Mumsnet Grin.

Crowler · 17/12/2013 07:13

I remember the thread about the Royal Family being common, I think it was more specifically that none of the extremely smart/posh families would want their daughters paired off with Prince Harry because he's common?

BohemianGirl · 17/12/2013 07:14

Who are all these non drinkers ? According to the press, all the 'mummies' are necking wine every night by the bucket load Grin. I have no idea what the 'daddies' are doing, under curfew and waving the bog brush round whilst wearing marigolds I presume

greenfolder · 17/12/2013 07:18

I had never heard of an elf on a shelf until last year.this year someone is posting a daily photo of theirs on face book.

fatlazymummy · 17/12/2013 07:39

People that are religious / go to church. I don't know any in real life but it seems quite common on mumsnet.
Concerning kids drinking milk - I've never heard of that being associated with childhood obesity. It's one of the things I was brought up on.

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