... to think MNers are a strange bunch?

[user1457213512]

Aibu to think that Mumsnet can't be representative of real life, can it?!

A lot of people on here just seem so, I don't know, just... odd. Bizarre. Strange. A lot of people on here just seem to have really outlandish odd opinions that I'm just not sure if I'd ever hear someone have in real life. Posters just seem to pick up on the most unusual things from posts i.e. A poster posts about how they didn't get a house they bid on, and then another poster chimes in saying how they're even lucky to have 5p in savings etc etc (I'm rubbish at examples).

So yes, aibu to think that some (not all) mumsnetters are crazy aliens who I have no idea how they function in the real world?

Ps I like mumsnet and it provides me with a lot of entertainment. The strangeness does not make me want to leave.

Gwen, it was a million posts up the thread, but by 'lower-middle-class', I don't mean income, which doesn't necessarily correlate to class, I mean an attitude and set of preoccupations, anxieties etc. Toilet brushes, being 'houseproud', a terror of unexpected visitors exposing a less than tidy house, extreme conformity and an obsession with what other people do/consider 'normal', 'matching' sibling names that are neither 'chavvy' (the ultimate horror) nor 'try-hard' (only slightly less horrifying)...

Most people have opinions that would seem ridiculous or offensive to a few/many/most others. In the real world, we can judge the situation and gauge the potential reactions of others before chucking an opinion out there. On a forum like this, there is no way of knowing who will read it, it's sort-of anonymous, so unless an opinion is grossly offensive (and will therefore likely get deleted) there's little reason to hold back.

For example, in real life I'd never admit to wanting to see handguns legalised, or that we should bring back public hanging, or that duelling should be a legitimate way of settling a dispute, or that the whole of the rest of the House of Commons should have set up in an uneasy coalition against the Tories, or that saying words like "glamping" should be made a criminal offence. Here I have no problem saying them. BUT, opinions like me thinking that we should XXXXX XXXX XXXXXXX or XXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXX or XXXX XXX XXXXXXX XX XXXX - I keep those in my head.

(Probably not worth trying to work out what those words were, I think I've miscounted the X's.)

Has anyone mentioned the saintly brigade? The op relates an example of bad behaviour from a random (e.g. Woman turns up at op house ranting about some voluntary activity ops dh runs) and eventually some hand wringing dogooder will berate op for "judging" the ranter and will often go on to explain how she would have "supported" her by offering an on the spot counselling session or keys to her car. Those posts always make me snort as such utter virtue signalling bollocks.

God yes Kerala I've seen lots of threads over the years where an OP recounts an emotive or fraught situation only to have smug posters queuing up to tell her "I would calmly and politely have explained that blah, blah, blah... I certainly would never have raised my voice/slammed a door". Yeah yeah course that's how it would have gone. Offer them a creme egg while you're at it eh?

Not only every man is abusive on MN, but cheaters too and every other woman is a cesspit of STIs.

There definitely should be a mumsnet equivalent to Godwins Law, something like the longer a thread complaining about a horrible relative goes on, it becomes inevitable that someone will say 'well, my husband/ sister/ cousins BIL died years ago. I'd give anything to smell their toxic farts and have them beat me over the head with a shovel again!'

Me and DP can row like there's no tomorrow, we always have (although we're mellowing with old age) but if it had been up to MN I would've LTB years ago!

I think having a blazing row can be good sometimes actually, it's quite cathartic.

Ditto Babycham! Only thing is, my DH isn't much good at a row

I actually met someone in RL at a children's party recently who was horrified that I'd contemplate letting the DC wear the same clothes (not underwear) 2 days running. They're past the constant shitting and puking stage and not yet at the BO stage. What's the problem? On here some kids go to school in the same shirt for 5 days.

Isn't this the beauty of the internet though? eg I hvae a signed letter from Lady Thatcher in my office. Some people are socialist and cannot believe people vote Tory. MN gives us the chance to communicate with people who are different from us and allow us to build bridges and understand the different views of others and find common ground. I think it's really good.

Also some people who don't earn much can see that some of us can earn a fair bit and it can even be life changing. So much good is done on here not least because people are different from how each of us is. (And yes I am yet another person who wanted to be totally alone once I had a baby - I remember that massive relief when I was allowed a 6 hour transfer after birth back home (for the non home births) to be utterly alone with no people around,,, just as I cannot wait for the Autumn when for the first time in life I will live part of the year alone. We don't all want to be with other people all the time.

I always shake my head when people recommend ignoring awful behavior and taking "the moral high ground". Drives me insane!
There's nobody on that moral high ground and because nobody tells the arsehole that they're an arsehole, they continue to behave that way.

At least if you're never going to see them again, or don't want to, you may as well call them out on their behavior and tell them out loud that they're a cocksucking fuck nugget then you have the satisfaction of having done it.

Fucking moral high ground bullshit. It's total rubbish and there's never any satisfaction in taking it.

Only the one (goady) opening post from the OP...wonder why that is then?

I've loved this thread, I'm amongst my own on here! What on earth is goady about the OP? That comment in itself deserves a place on here!

It's great when you get a thread which is the perfect storm of MN-ness. An OP who commits the cardinal MN sin of being rude, followed by 25 pages of pearl-clutching, insults, passive aggression, head-tilting, hypocrisy, armchair psychology and chronic overthinking.

I have never understood how MN has corralled such a huge community of people who all get shocked awake immediately by the merest "bip" of a text message arriving between the hours of, say, 7pm and 9am. Such an event will totally ruin any sleep they may possibly have had for the entire night and therefore how doing such a thing is completely outrageously rude and entitled.

And how putting phones on silent or otherwise muting text message alerts is a disgusting suggestion because there is the 0.0001% possibility of an immediate and vital emergency where there is absolutely zero other way to communicate with said person.

Just read what you want to / skip if it offends / comment if you can help but don't be nasty - there ARE some trolls and keyboard warriors on here but, for me I get some humour in a very stressful life so it works for me. PS what DID happen to the parcel in the end?

I completely agree, KERALA!

@Lucysky2017 Some people are socialist and cannot believe people vote Tory. MN gives us the chance to communicate with people who are different from us and allow us to build bridges and understand the different views of others and find common ground.

But that isn't how it goes. On MN if you do not worship at the altar of Corbyn, you are immediately denounced as a society hating capitalist pig whose sole aim in life is to personally torture everyone who has less than you because you get kicks from it. You are also personally responsible for everything wrong in society, because again you enjoy seeing people suffer.

It was impossible to have a civil discussion about it without it turning into such a thing - even those oh-so-clever posters who pretended to be "genuinely interested" in why someone would vote Conservative.

Oh exactly shots. And you must be in favour of completely open borders and totally free migration. Even suggesting that a cursory glance at people's passports might be a good idea instantly makes you a complete Nazi who wants to gas anybody who can't prove they have pure British ancestry.

Perhaps it's water off a duck's back to me then - I did find quite a few like minded Tories here during the election campaign. I also think even if most people hold a different view it's important those of us with a minority view express it too so that people can perhaps be converted to the Tory or whatever else it is cause.

Well, the OP did a fine job in lighting the fuse and running away, cackling evilly, no doubt

And we all obliged and piled in

What I always find amusing about these threads is that people talk about Mumsnetters like they are a humongous lump of other people that don't include them.
It's like when people go to the supermarket on Christmas Eve and complain about all the silly people who leave everything until the last minute and clog up the supermarket on Christmas Eve. They are only in there because they need a few last minute bits and that is different.

Yes, everyone is included. I like it when people have a different view from mine. I can learn from them and they from me. I do think sites who want a broad audience have a difficult job in ensuring inclusiveness but not cliches. I want to live in a UK where we can all be utterly different from each other if we choose - home school, Eton, local state primary or whatever.

I often have conversations on here that I never have in RL. That's why I come on here, I suppose. Usually you hold similar views to your friends, so you don't often have discussions where there are hugely opposing views (unless you count a couple I know where he is Brexit & she is Bremain ).
Also I sometimes go to topics I'd never go near in RL

I love the MN obsession with phones and cut off times. I know nobody in real life who has a set "cut off" time for time for when people can call or when they'll call someone. Obviously, you wouldn't ring someone too early or late (unless it was an emergency). The way some people react on here to getting a phone call at 8:03pm (3 mins after their cut off) makes it sound like they've just been given a pile of shit to look after!