The school mums whatsapp...

[peoplearemean]

AIBU to say it drives me potty?

You have -

• the "alright hon" brigade who share any old shit and everything is "amazing babe"
• the "informer" who likes to be able to be the first to break all school news to everyone even though it has been emailed
• the "school can do no wrong brigade" who if anyone questions the logic of anything the school are doing generally pounce and accuse others of being unsupportive
• the "on it all day" who comment on everything
• the "teacher brigade" mum teachers who like to give a school view on everything without actually taking on board what someone has just asked
• the "wind up merchant" who comments just to poke the "alright hon" monotony
• the "what's for lunch" brigade every day at 8.55 am - read the bloody menu!

Please add to the list any characters I have missed.

And yes I have left it before but I was missing too much actual useful info. I would just like it if it could be reduced to actual useful information like school is shut it's snowing! (Somehow it breaks on here before the official website)

Rant over.

Ours is really nice helpful and supportive. Not of all the aforementioned crap at all. Messages are kept to a minimum.

I have three school-age kids and was invited to join 3 different mums’ WhatsApp groups. I left them all after two hours of almost constant beeping - the barrage of useless chitchat and irrelevant info drove me crazy. I’m not going to rejoin. All the important school stuff is in the newsletter, school calendar, parents’ portal and email anyway. Leaving WhatsApp does mean we miss out on some social outings, but honestly we probably wouldn’t have the time to attend them anyway. It feels good to be missing out on all the gossip though. Time is too precious to get involved in everything.

These groups and the twenty other ones I had pinging all day long with random what days are pe on and stuff about people’s Guinea pigs are one of the reasons I have just deleted my Facebook account and WhatsApp altogether. I feel so much more free.

We have a great WhatsApp group- mums and only used to arrange social events/ share lifts etc with the odd school comment thrown in! Love it. But I am not In UK

I like ours it's funny and reminds me of things I'd forgotten, gives me the chance to get to know the other mums a bit as I work full time. They do spend quite a long time discussing laundry tips which is a bit odd but each to their own

We have a nan in ours who likes to wake everyone up on her way to work to work at 6.45am every morning with a happy Monday peeps, lets home our little angles have a loverly day.

even her own daughter left the group as she could take no more, the thing is she's on the pat and the group is much amusement for myself and my own friends so I stay so they benefit.

Yup. We have them. Eldest child, uber useful group. Mainly WOHM. Posting reminders and helping out with Pick ups etc if a parent inadvertently gets held up.

Youngest child, completely opposite demographic. SAHM. I can come out of a meeting to 50 whatsapps about the most inane information.

There are also the stealth underground whatsapp groups - taking the schoolyard clique to a whole new level. I hardly ever post and mainly ignore....

I just joined our school FB pages/groups. One for each child’s class. One Mum is offering to help with childcare over the summer for anyone who is stuck... I was gobsmacked when I read that. I mean - lovely thought but that’s a CF thread right there!

Ah, ours is pretty great. One parent always takes a pic of the week ahead blackboard outside school and uploads it on a Monday for parents who don’t do school gate. Bit of organising things, bit of organising drinks and the occasional panicked ‘DD has to be chicken licken at assembly tomorrow, does anyone have a chicken costume??’ It’s got a few dads on it.

I occasionally have to bite my tongue when someone complains of poor communication by the school over something that was in the past three newsletters, but the flip side is last week when I was caught on a train because of a fatality and desperately asked if anyone could collect DS1 from after school club; a parent had him within 5 minutes.

You forgot your kind of mum...the likes to moan about anything mums.

If you don’t like it - get off the group. Stop moaning.

Makes me shiver ... yep we have one too. Luckily though, my DD is just leaving Yr 6 primary so no more of the Watsapp clique group 😉😉😉
The 'in group' are even organising a Limo to collect said darlings on last day, to drop them to school.... this is NOT Prom Night 🤔

You also forgot the self gratifying mother...’oh, I did this, that and the fucking other for the school fair etc!!!’ And then the others chirp in ‘oh thank you, you’re so great for doing that, blah blah blah.’
To which the do gooder replies ‘oh it was nothing!’
Get a fecking life you saddos!!!!!
Ok I’ll get off my soap box now🙄🤣🤣🤣🤣

Can’t relate to this at all

State school. 32 children.

The parent watsapp is useful, supportive and used very considerately. I’ve not posted myself but i refer to it frequently

I am so tempted to leave since one mum decided we needed a Slime Stall at the summer fair, spent £200 (!) on slime ingredients, then demanded £10 from everyone to pay for it. Then threw a hissy fit when not everyone actually wanted to pay and she couldn't get enough volunteers to actually run the stall. Endless messages with her sidekick, aka pop-up bully mum, stirring the pot.

One member of my class stealth underground group let slip to me (not popular enough to be in the group!) that when a ParentMail went out recently to say a child in the class had threadworms and to be vigilant, they gossiped about which child it was

Why do WhatsApp then complain about it?
Don't like it. Don't do it.

Ours is full of "Shit, I'm running late, can someone grab my kid", "Its Friday, everyone's welcome to come to mine for pizza and wine" "Anyone got the hat that Jnr has lost for the THIRD TIME?" "Is today the day we're meant to bring shared lunch? Please say no" and funny GIFs.

It is an unusually sane class of parents though.

Why do WhatsApp then complain about it?
Don't like it. Don't do it.

Because

1. You end up missing actually useful information (e.g. most party invitations are sent via the group, messages from the teachers via class reps are passed on through it)

1. There is no way of quietly leaving unnoticed, due to the way WhatsApp is set up. (If there is, please let me know it).

I love our school Mum WhatsApp group. It has the informer but we have also become mates and share other stuff too. Book recommendations, local events, husband moans etc. And shout outs for ‘I’m late can anyone pick up my kid’

You can mute it.

Left mine. Did a 'rage quit' according to DD (10)

Feel great about it 6 months on, no difference to my life!

Lemonpie - you can mute for a year

Tomorrow my child leaves primary and am I glad, there’s 10 kids in the year and very rarely do the mums talk to each other let alone have a fb or what’s app group. It’s quite amusing really at times. We have the Mum who cries at everything, then there’s the one who is in competition with her ex husband as to who has the best life. The third is just concentrating on her degree, the fourth whom won’t let her child go to a party or residential trip, the fifth whom only stands in the car park to collect her child like we’ve all got the lurgy!, one whom everyone is jealous of cos she and her daughter are stunners, one whom announces her entire life to everyone ( who needs fb or whatsapp!) and one whom wants to be the top dog and isn’t .... it’s a funny life the school hates

The cynical Mum who has done it all before and can’t get excited or worked up about anything

Proud to be this mum. The year 7 group which is from reception is called 'alcoholic beverage', we are great. Other group, someone imparts info and 18 messages saying thank you follow - muted.

How about the demanding mum who demands everyone forwards them £10 for a collection for someone who's organised a disco for 90 kids. Not sure what they're going to do with £900 but that's a lot of flowers!