To detest FAMILY day out, FAMILY meal, FAMILY fun!

[lulucappuccino]

Why do some people use the word "Family" to describe everyday activities?

I come across it on MN, Facebook and often irl.

I mean, the kind of families who do everything together anyway.

"Oh, we had a great family holiday". You never go on holiday separately and haven't for fifteen years.

"I made a really tasty pasta bake. #familymealtimes." As opposed to any other type of meal you ever have.

"We enjoy family day outs at the local arboretum."

Etc, etc.

Don't get me started on "Quality time".

I'm going to have some quality family time now, mumsnetting.

I hate #feelingblessed and all the stupid shit on Facebook too.

With the Bank Holiday coming up I always at the sad looking bouncy castles in pub gardens and the posters saying, "FAMILY FUN DAY!"

I just think talk about an Oxymoron! Or should that be #oxymoron?

One of the worst ones is when people make a special hashtag up for their trip or holiday and keep using it. It's a holiday not a marketing campaign you don't need a set hashtag!! #jonesfamilydobutlins #cornwall2016 #thompsonsinblackpool etc etc

I also hate "little family" and putting up pics of kids with #loveher #lovehim - stating the obvious!

This is why I love MN!

I actually thought I didn't understand all the hashtag shite but I now realise i do but its all a load of old bol**cks!

Glad its not just me...

Personally any post with tbe words lush or hubby literally makes my toes curl!

#mumlife
That one really gets my goat. I had to unfollow someone on Instagram because she put it on everything. "I am a mum and I am alive" - well done!!!!! Good grief.....

#vinotime does my head in.

Yes, but random # that mean nothing like: #Family is not going to find anything. Just random posts from the world and its mother and their fecking #family

Just seen a picture of a "Family life at the allotment."

Good god.

#Blessed (THE RAAAGGGGE!!!)

Anyone find inspirational quotes annoying too?

Yes, but clearly a clue about the posters mindset.

#growingupfast #wheresmybabygone is common too yawn who cares.

I live in a yummy mummy wannabe paradise that is north Norfolk. I was hiding from my children on an especially desirable beach, when a family sat next to me, the children excited and hot started running towards the sea all happy and the mum stopped them, she actually stopped them, and then started directing them and the dad, while filming them she was telling them what to do.
It is all kinds of wrong.

When I was a kid, "family" prefixed to anything meant the whole extended family, and was always fucking torture. A "family meal" was something to be endured several times a year, on significant anniversaries, death dates and so on. Every time I read #familytime when parents are just spending time with their kids, as opposed to parking them in front of Stampy or leaving them do what normal teenagers do (desperately pretending their parents don't exist), it makes me twitch in remembered horror.

"Hubby" - boak.

I love this thread.

HashtagMakingMNGreatAgain

IKnowIDidItWrongIDidItToAnnoyYou

Also...I have a theory about hashtags.
They are used in such a way because they prevent any discussion of the concept they are promoting.
If something has a hashtag it must be an actual real thing, right? RIGHT? Who can argue with that?

Wrong.

Oh and Making Memories is BULLSHIT.

You don't get to decide what other people remember. A fucking hashtag isn't going to make it happen either.

I have one FB friend who whenever she's away on holiday thinks she's a travel writer/ photographer. The first shot is always a view from the villa window with a little table, a coffee, a book and a plate of cheese and olives - with the caption: And relax.... It bugs the absolute shit out of me!

I think the word "family" is tainted by the air of complacent righteousness it has picked up when constantly used in the media in a certain political way. So a day out is just a day out; a "family day out" is a consciously noble, but good hearty fun,, endeavour that is taken part in by people with good white teeth, excellent financial planning, and lot of kilner jars.

I hardly ever use the word family, but I have (hating myself) consciously used it in this way, when I worked for an LA based organisation that wanted me available for calls from 5pm until stupid o'clock (having worked a UK office day starting at 9). I said I would dial in to calls, if strictly necessary, between 8.30 and 10.30, but between 7 and 8.30 was "family time" - my pompous way of saying it's the only goddamn time I'm going to see my kids and they deserve a bath and a story. If people are not using the word family in a consciously manipulative way, then it's subconsciously manipulative, and they should take a look at themselves.

Sorry not related to the question! But she does always say "Schools out for summer- let the memories begin!" I can't delete her as my DS is friends with her DS arghhh!

also

I'm a facebook stalker, I like seeing all the #feelingblessed#lovemyhubby#numberoneson, usually from someone who hates their dh and spends as little time as possible with their son

or the ever popular #makingmemories#familytime from someone who leaves their kids with gran at every available opportunity

I think # must mean "opposite"...

Oh god. I have the ultimate hashtagger on my friends list.

She manages to combine all the above with the dreaded aloe vera shite stuff.

So we get a photo of one of her kids eating an ice cream (her kids are teens, not little kids) with hashtags like #lovemyson #happyson #workfromhome #mumtrepeneur #lovewhatyoudo #lovemylife #happykidshappymum #family #makingmemories.

I think I may win with this fucking bunch. Every bloody photo or post she puts up. Vom!

Yes I agree ssd. I think they believe their children will read through to their FB account when they are older thinking their parents were fabulous when actually they hardly spoke to them - it's like online Gaslighting.

OP YANBU. I agree entirely.

All I can say is, I'd rather see pix of my friends dc on the beach on facebook, hashtags or no, than another picture of Jeremy Sodding Corbyn (and I'm a cardcarrying lefty) . . .

(Mind you, I did click on this thread assuming it was the OP being dragooned into Bank Holiday Family Fun with the ILs / GPs and ready to sympathise big time )