Is mumsnet aimed at rich families ?

[starsparkle08]

I’ve seen quite a lot of threads on here where families seem to have a huge amount of disposable income .
Im a single parent without a huge amount and wondering if I am in the minority on here ?
I’ve noticed there seems to be more people with lower incomes on netmums ? Am I generalising or have others noticed this also

Re the constant cleaner threads: I think there are a lot of women on MN who are flat out busy. They have so little time for themselves that a few hours cleaning a week would make a world of difference to their weekends. So it's a priority to find a person to do dull jobs to create free and family time. If you earn enough to afford it, then you are helping another (probable) woman to make a little more for what she also needs. Be grateful you can afford it, and pay up!

Be grateful IF you can afford it, and pay up CHEERFULLY.

I hope not, this week I’ve had to choose between buying bin bags or apples as I can’t afford both 😆. I don’t feel i belong in netmums though.

IndieTara I'm a single mum, will be 51 this year and my youngest is 10!! Glad I'm not the only one.

I'm a full-time student living on benefits and a student loan and really struggle financially.
I also have 2 of my four children at grammar school which really really confuses the schools' admin and apparently bucks the trend for children of low-income single parent families
I will graduate next year and then start working again, at a higher level than when I stopped. I think of myself as fairly intelligent - I have 10 'O' levels and various other qualifications from over the years.
I love Mumsnet because in the main, posters think like I think and say what I would say. I don't post often and tend to stick to reading the AIBU because some of the replies are so funny. Plus I don't have time to browse at the moment!! Waiting for June...

Netmums was too young, 'hun' and text-speak for me - thought it was because I'm older but apparently not!!!

if you look at holiday threads, there are people who barely go camping for next to nothing in the UK, whilst others enjoy luxury holidays in Disney, and others honeymoon in Maui

Well off or struggling families seem quite well represented and have as many posters claiming to be from one or the other.

I'm not well off but I'm a sweary sod and got kicked from the other site twice 🤬

There's also probably a lot of posters in the SE, where a higher salary doesn't go very far.

When DS was tiny and at (posh-ish) kindergarten, there was a rush for places at a favourite campsite year after year. It was apparently beautiful, but the whole season sold out in about 20 minutes in November to the same families year after year. Very cheap, yet super exclusive, because everyone waited for booking to open and pounced immediately.

I don't think it's "aimed" at anyone, it's just evolved. Or am I being naive?

Waves at @DoveOfPiss 👋
I'm not for Netmums either ( shudders )

I've been here for 13 years under different user names.During that time I've been in various income brackets. Right now, I'm mc poor single parent. I don't think MN is aimed at the comfortably wealthy, there is a mix of people

There's also probably a lot of posters in the SE, where a higher salary doesn't go very far.

The wider stereotype is that those situations highlights the meta narrative of this forum of being champagne socialist, this forum went full on "tax the rich" during the last GE, but when Corbyn targeted 80K a year resulted in a lot of mental hoops.

The ironic thing is that this forum will broad brush other internet communities and pretend that this community is the "real" diverse kind.

Celladora - Wondering what a third site for uber wealthy or merely super posh procreators would be called...

Matersweb!

Definitely a member of the Jeremy Kyle class here....wondering if I should flounce out and find my new netmums chums....

We're not rich, nor poor. I'd say we are comfortable - we can pay for the children to do extra-curricular activities (mainly music based) and if the boiler or car was broken beyond repair, we'd have enough in the bank to get a new one without too much hardship. We can't afford to send our children to private school though (I wish we could). I class people as 'rich' if they can afford to privately educate. I guess different people have different criteria for what they consider rich or poor.
Also, we are not paying off our mortgage at the moment. We're on a 'barely above base-rate interest only for the life of the mortgage' type of mortgage. So we don't have a large percentage of our income going towards paying that bill each month, which lots of other people do. Obviously, at some point, we will have to look at paying back the capital too. We bought an absolute wreck though so the house is worth much more than we paid, we figured we could always sell it if we had to.

I do find the constant insinuation that if you're a single mother you must be poor really irritating.

Oh, I don't know. Why we have to argue about who earns what, who is a snob, who is out of touch etc. Can we just help each other with advice or just a nice word? What bothers me is this judgement everywhere. How I am dressed, why I am size 8 after tree kids, why I don't have facelift and why I am not married to a more wealthy man.

Sometime it feels that one can not be right. Breastfeeding, sleeping arrangements, schools, fashion choices any of it can be used to belittle and scorn fellow mothers. Why there is no sisterhood? It is difficult to be a woman doesn't matter of a financial background or education.

As for money - everyone ( almost) need to work to earn or to keep it. There are plenty of people who have money and miserable and otherwise. People also spend differently and may come across as extremely wealthy or poor depend on the perspective. E.g. I spend a lot on food because I have no time to shop around for better deal, I work a lot so my choice is to safe elsewhere. I don't have a car and cycle everywhere but i am not jealous of those arriving to a school gate on massive tanks because I wonder where they park them and how much the upkeep of it. However they may think I am a peasant :).

Two points to add: one is that it depends a bit on how you define wealth. You say ‘disposable income’, OP, but there are people sitting on huge value assets who haven’t got much ‘liquid’ wealth to spend. Based on demographics alone, I’m sure the advertisers of MN would be rubbing their hands, but the reality is many people live necessarily frugal lives in fancy places.

I’ve been on threads recently where some very middle-class/middle income assumptions were being made (by many posters). It’s tweaked my view of who’s on here (or more correctly, who’s on the threads I’m interested in). One that stands out for me is when a man in a post was described as wealthy, it was assumed the woman in the post wasn’t and therefore was a ‘gold-digger’.

Generally, though, I don’t see MN as a single entity, run by or attractive to just one group. Many groups coexist here in relative harmony, and the bust-ups I see don’t usually come down to income levels. Moral outrage, goadiness, wilful misinterpretation and agenda-pushing are not exclusive to any income bracket.

I think the opposite. Lots of posts that bash people who send their dc to private schools. A current thread on night creams is all full of people talking about about cheap brands. Barely anyone mentions anything other than supermarket brand creams or Simple or Olay. Everyone talking about waiting for the sales to buy Boden. It's not even like Boden is very expensive. People pouring scorn at the idea of spending more than £5 on birthday presents for their dcs friends. Not well off people at all on here. People outraged at doe dung £100 on a dress

I’ve seen people on here who have described themselves as “not well off” and have thought that we must have very different definitions of that phrase.

Seriously I’ve seen people on here who are on about £40-50k saying it. To me even if that’s a combined income and includes children, it’s far from poor. A lot of it is to do with poor budgeting.

Leontine, don't you think that £40-50K for household in London or other expensive and popular areas is very little but in some other areas the family who has this amount at their disposal will leave very comfortably?
This also depends on how much is to commute to work, how much of your mortgage is paid off etc..

Besides 3-4 kids are much more expensive than one :):). You also need a bigger house, bigger car and any holidays become unaffordable.

You can not just look at the number and think it is outrageous...

I'm a working class single mum from a working class family.
It does seem to be very snobby at times with people assuming that any wage lower than 60k a year isnt enough to live on, but I manage fine.
Us working class people are more fun anyway 😂

Maybe the more well off mum's post more as they don't have to face the real world and sweat the small things

Perhaps it is down to confidence and knowing yourself and what is right for you. I don't care if someone recommend a £250 face cream that i cannot afford. I'll make a mental note and may be look for other products with have similar active ingredients or save and buy this "miracle"in a few years time.
I would never hate someone who has more money, or more beautiful or made better carrier. "Good for them" I would say, learn from successful people and live my own life.

I don't think that MN is populated by women who made money on people trafficking or dealing drugs so those who earn more than 40-50K done nothing to be ashamed of. I came across very boring, arrogant people who are rich but in equal measure, if not more across people who blame doctors, lawyers etc. for their high income. ALL of the doctors, lawyers and other professionals put insane hours in their education and career while others had "fun anyway". Consider that.