To sometimes feel like a brusque tweedy old lady on MN

[Imogentlasting]

I'm not that old, but some of the views on here really astound me. No one touch my child (on a thread I started); Christmas is just for me and my little unit, no relatives allowed; how dare an elderly person park in a P&T space; etc etc etc

AIBU to sometimes think the world is slowly going mad?

I asked a colleague recently, very tentatively, if I could hold her new baby. She practically shoved him into my arms and galloped off to use the loo.

I too had been reading too much MN.

I had a MN moment in Sainsbury's. A toddler was having an extreme tantrum. Later I found myself at the till behind the mother and toddler, and I did one of those "we're all in it together" expressions and said, "We've all been there!" The woman gave me a death stare and said, "We don't speak to strangers, do we?" to her child. That was me told. I was so embarrassed.

I always talk to dog people. Much nicer. (Not the MN Doghouse people, though - some of them are very scary.)

YYY - so agree -have found my niche and cohort of fellow 'just get on with it' MNetters
I find myself turning into a grumpy old woman at the tender age of 69 when I read some of the posts on here and in 'chat'
Also to some of the responses to my (dare I say innocuous) posts have been hilarious and sometimes downright rude.
Just to warn you - Gransnet is not much better except for the fact that there are a lot more of us 'old ladies' on there. I am not burly (size 12) or tweedy (skinny jeans and long top for me) but feel your angst OP.

feel I must defend the doghouse mnetters - as I am one - and doggy people are nice on the whole - in fact the doghouse and telly addicts are among the most sane amusing topics on here.
Rhoda - has happened to me too - one must not talk to other people's children as it is apparently 'creepy behaviour' and we are suspect.

I'm literally just browsing for 10 minutes while having a coffee, came across a baying mob on a primary education thread where I think op asked a perfectly innocuous question. It wasn't even aibu!

Had to have my say, expect I'll be deleted .

At last - common sense! I was beginning to think it was just me!
I've been coming on MN on and off for a few years under various different names and lately its like another planet!
I hate the 'golden womb' attitude you see on here. So you've had a baby or two, doesn't give you special rights and privileges or allow you to treat family members like shit. Your baby is part of a whole family not just your little private toy never to be shared!
Grow the fuck up !
Ahh that feels better!!!!!

I talk to every fucker when I'm out and about.

I don't care if they want me to or not!

I have a RL friend who won't let her FIL look after her DD because he uses the phrase "Now then" and once pushed her pram past a group of students smoking outside a college.

I'm always hopeful she's a mumsnetter and will post this stuff on here.

Oh, yes, mollie, most are nice, but I have encountered the equivalent of the Breastfeeding Lobby on there who insist on raw feeding, otherwise you are a canine abuser. I was told it was quite simple: you keep the food in your outhouse .

What's wrong with saying 'now then'?!

Does she think it will turn him into Jimmy Saville?

Ha ha!

Yep. She thinks, even though he is a lovely, caring and thoughtful man that saying now then puts him in the same bracket as JS. She needs Mumsnet.

I had to explain to my 4 year old that it was ok to talk to strangers when with mummy, as she had been taught that at school.

What a shame the phrase 'count your blessings' has gone out of fashion.

At last - common sense! I was beginning to think it was just me!

Me too

Some of the 'cut them out' 'how dare they' threads make me a little sad and as if I should walk on egg shells in case I upset someone. Then I spend some time in RL and see that in reality it really isn't like that.

I'm all for different perspectives on things sometimes but Jeeeezzz

I was on a thread recently where the OP was told off for using the term 'permanently offended' because it's only apparently used by people masking their disablist/racist/classist tendencies [sigh]

There's also an AIBU where someone alone isn't invited to their sister's at all for Christmas because she has a new baby and wants to be "just the three of them". How mean . The sister has definitely been learning from the MN Mean Rules.

Toughasoldboots I did.

You have been reasonable on that thread, others weren't. I stand by what I've said.

'It's like they feel now they've had a baby, they have some sort of 'power' that they never had before'

Yes x 1000000 to this. They've never been able to stand up for themselves or assert themselves before (and there may be very valid reasons for that) but as soon as baby arrives, they use the baby as the reason to turn into the world's biggest control freak.

OP, I'm 35 so hardly ancient and I agree with you. The hysteria over someone touching a baby's cheek or hand is quite something. Shoving a finger in a baby's mouth, or kissing a stranger's baby, is really out of order but a stroke on the face or hand?! My friend was someone who hated anyone holding or touching her baby and it was incredibly hurtful actually.

That thread is so sad Rhoda. The OP has no other family in England and even offered to do all the cooking if they would include her, but it was still a flat 'no'.

That thread really is sad. Who the feck would say to their only sibling who will otherwise spend the day alone, 'no you can't spend even a few hours with us on Christmas Day.'

I agree with a previous poster who said about the UK not being child friendly and those that bemoan this fact. Places that are very child friendly tend to have the entire family from both sides involved in their lives and those of their children, plus assorted members of the town or village they grew up in, the attitude is that children are part of everyone's lives and touching, talking to them, etc., is de rigeur. Some of the posters on MN would combust if that was replicated here.

I frequently see a very insular, isolating attitude on here from some posters, then the same posters whinging on when no-one helps them and theirs and want to post "What do you expect with your attitude?"

The sheer selfish all about me attitude is pretty awful but thankfully not one I see much in real life.