To be fed up with people referring to 'first world problem'?

[Olympiathequeen]

Enough with it now. It's been done to death and it's very irritating when you read it in every other post slight exaggeration

It might be minor, it might not be one experienced by desert nomads, it might be many things but it's not a first world problem, it's a problem.

And it's pretentious.

Meh I don't like people writing off other people's problems by saying "it's a first world problem" - most of our problems are first world problems. OTOH I can see why people use it to say "well I know it's not a huge deal but it's bothering me"

I have what may be an old-fashioned problem understanding what we mean by "first world".

I understand the outdated term "third world". In French it used to be called "tiers-monde". "Tiers" is the fraction, 1/3, a third, yes, but not "third" as in first, second or third which in French is "troisième".

I thought we used to say "third world" because a third of the world's population lived in poverty.

This means there can be no first or second world.

Looking at the question another way, if you think third world applies to developing countries and first world applies to G8 for instance, where is the "second world" that nobody talks about?

Shock... I've always wondered what the 'second world' is.

YABU when you look at what you have compared to the world population we have a lot to be thankful for, yet generally people moan about inconsequential nonsense.

It's Cold War terminology. First world was the Capitalist allies, second world was the Commies, and third World was everything else.

For example - saying the wrong film name at the Oscars. I think that is a first world problem. ie not a problem.

I agree. If we weren't allowed to moan about "first world problems" then Mumsnet would be almost completely empty.

Thanks Cao, I've seen that definition elsewhere, but it doesn't explain why the French translated third world as tiers monde suggesting "third the fraction" rather than "third the rank".

Moaning about people that are moaning about having 1st world problems is also a 1st world problem

I thought that 1st was developed, 2nd was communist and 3rd was developing.

Oops missed caos post. That's probably more accurate.
I use the term. Just a way of acknowledging that I know it's not a massive problem in the scale of things and I know how lucky I am but I have an issue with....

bantan. Guilty as charged! 👩‍✈️

I also hate the way when people are being questioned about something, they will say to the interviewer

'That's a really good/excellent/perceptive question'

Well it should be they are professional interviewers, so they should be asking good questions .

Op I think that's used to buy time more than anything else - it's my go to response to questions when trying to think of sensible answer (for presentations not interviews sadly)

Haha. That's not surprising. But at least I'm not imagining all these things. I thought it was a 'buttering up' of the interviewer/questioner, but buying time makes more sense.

Ooh you wouldn't like the what's app group I have with my friends then entitled "first world problems"

One could ask, if they don't really matter then why ask them, but as someone rightly pointed out MN would grind to a halt if all all unimportant problems were removed

I would definitely not like the first world problem app!

It could be jealously on my part of course because i don't buy red quinoa or own any Le Creuset

Olympiathequeen

Enough with it now. It's been done to death and it's very irritating when you read it in every other post slight exaggeration

It might be minor, it might not be one experienced by desert nomads, it might be many things but it's not a first world problem, it's a problem.

And it's pretentious.

Ignore above. Went too fast and now I can't be bothered responding. (First world problem...)

Ignore above. Went too fast and now I can't be bothered responding. (First world problem...)

Saying: 'That's a really good/excellent/perceptive question'is just stalling.

Hopefully is correct saying "that's a really excellent/interesting/though provoking question" is about giving you some precious extra seconds to panic think of a good answer.

Of course if is does work to butter up the interviewer then that's always a secondary benefit...

Scarlett. it's just that there's such a lot of it!

First world problem here. Someone sent DS2 a plastic toy for his birthday when I specified only wooden ones.... shock, horror!

Now the plastic stuff may just have been parenting wisdom on their part. Wooden toys look lovely but they are also:

Easier to knock lumps out the wall with.
Easier to chew teeth marks into
More painful to trip over
More dangerous to whack your sibling/Mummy/the dog with

Considerably harder to sell/give away when child has grown out of them.

I quite like it as a leveller - but not in an arsey way. I wouldn't say it to someone with a genuine problem or who was upset. But DH and I say it to each other sometimes when we moan about something trivial.