To be too uneducated for Mumsnet

[est1999]

When I'm on Mumsnet I feel so uneducated.

MN seems to be known for being a bit middle class or maybe that is now a dated assumption

I've made a few threads in the past under a different username and some of the words other Mumsnetters have used I admit I've had to Google the meaning of!

Everyone seems to have a degree or their children are in the process of getting one (if they're old enough)

Most women on here also seem to be very high earners. 50k+

And private schools are a norm for sure.

Maybe that's just my Mumsnet algorithm so to speak lol.

I used to earn between 26-28k per year in a basic admin job. No degree. No A-levels. Now I earn even less after having DC and going part time.

Anyone else feel the same as me at times?

That's not a terrible salary - must have been, what, 32k gross?

Just Googled Penis Beaker!

I guess everyone can learn something new every day…

I allow for a degree of exaggeration on pretty much every post I read on here from income, behaviour of relatives (especially MIL’s) and healthy food consumption.

I don't instantly mistrust the posters who say they or their dhs earn six figures. As AllyCart says, there are lots and lots of those around, whether sole or joint household income. London has so many of these.

Someone earning 100K would be living a different lifestyle from someone on 300K or 500K or 1m+, depending on which part of the country they are in. They would give themselves away with little clues if their lifestyle did not match their earnings. Or their grammar, choice of words or understanding was not consistent with their profession or background.

So no, not everyone who says they are a high earner is talking bs.

My salary is similar to yours OP. I have a couple of A levels but no further qualifications, however hopefully my DD will be going to uni next year. (DH had only a few GCSEs and all GPS left school at 15 so she's the first in the family to go)

You'd think 100k was regular salary going by MN.

It’s a big mix but I don’t recognise the posh, educate your kids privately ones! Or not loads of them!

I think sometimes and me included you’ll sometimes over exaggerate your life etc. No one wants to be living credit card to credit card (I’m not!) or has a secret gambling habit then unless you disclose this either as a thread title or a well known fact about you then everyone keeps that shit hidden unless they’re drama llamas!

For me, though I’d never admit it here, my pension probably isn’t brilliant as I contracted out of the gov one (serps) and I think I have to make up the difference! I do have a private pension and small ones from work but most of my income will come from BTL’s my family have, only a few not a huge portfolio! Partly because my DB was self employed for years and didn’t make allowances for a pension. In fact until earlier this year I was all set to rent out a room to pay my small mortgage until I realised that a policy I had was due to mature plus I could pay off my mortgage and build up my savings. At 51 you’d maybe expect me to have paid off my mortgage but I bought in my early 30s. I’ve been in debt (bank loans) when younger too and credit card debt. I actually had investments to pay this off but had some skewed reasoning that my investments were better where they were (until they crashed!).

I now have Isas, savings accounts, some old shares and nothing else, no unit trusts etc because I didn’t know what I was doing with the latter!

I’m not in any way posh either, I suppose lower middle working class if anything. I don’t earn £50k either (could do!). Most of my good fortune has been down to luck, family inheritance and not having kids!

I'm another of those who doesn't understand the assumption that those saying they are high earners/wealthy are lying.

I've been on Mumsnet for years and do fall into the educated/high earner category. It pales into insignificance now as DH set up a business which brings us around £2 million net a year. I don't post about it as there's no point, but have done here just to say we do exist and use Mumsnet.

According to this paper the majority of Mumsnet users are middle-class, university-educated women, and 74% of users have a household income of over the national average 45].

But deffo, some people project their 'best' life on here

I'm very careful these days about googling stuff posted on here.

Ignorance really is bliss sometimes.

Oh and I have the sun total of 4 GCSEs, an NVQ apparently equal to 2 A levels and a legal sec diploma with a pass with merit. I’m not stupid but hated my schools and couldn’t wait to leave!

I think MN is just fine as long as you don't take it too seriously. Usually, somewhere amongst all the posts, there are things that are useful or helpful for other people. But there are always people who disbelieve what you are saying regardless of the topic.

To be fair, I probably wouldn't believe my life if I wrote it all out chronologically, but as long as I know it's true it doesn't really matter if others don't. And I do rather like giving my opinions on such a wide range of subjects.

From a sahm, dependant solely on DH (who earned 39k before retiring) living in a new build (well It was 24yrs ago when we moved in lol), who has 2 young adults who both have degrees and have never given me a minutes trouble, I have a cleaner, and I don't cook. I only attended school 40% of the time, I don't have a degree, but actually I'm also intelligent, educate myself and look up words or situations all the time!

Just be yourself, don't worry about what ottthers might think of you because, honestly, it doesn't matter a single jot!

I think so too. I am on 33k after 25 years do it does go up a bit over time.

Where do you earn 28k for a basic admin job

London! My pa gets £35k & its not a terribly demanding job - coordinating meetings, diary management, expense claims etc.

I think OP possibly thinks that there are pp on MN who judge people with poor spelling ,grammar etc . I can predict the OPs who will be given a hard time by more articulate posters . Am sure I am not the only person to have noticed this 🤷‍♀️

I wonder if people feel the need to mention they are not in England as a sort of disclaimer before giving their thoughts. Someone pounced on my comments recently for having the audacity to express my opinion on two threads about behaviour in schools because I didn't even teach in England and of course the thread was about English schools. There was no mention of England in ether of the original posts. This person wasn't even a teacher but was outraged by my comments and believed she was far more knowledge about behaviour in schools than me who has taught for 20 years! 🙄
OP, yes there are a lot of arseholes on here who are full of their own self importance. There are many fantasists too. Like any form of social media, don't believe everything you see /read.

DC is currently applying for an entry level job in London, advertising a starting salary of £22k. It is a great career start for the person who can afford to take it, and there will be overtime, but it's not an option for a young person without a family able to help/subsidise.

Not that I am suggesting that OP post was poorly written!

@est1999

no not a typo.

it was an entirely different site until that stupid (made up bollocks). It attracted a much different type of poster & has never recovered.

pre that, there was real debate, good conversations & any disagreements were kept on the thread & you'd talk to the same person without any drama on another thread.

a large majority of us knew each other pretty well, it was really nice.

newbies were welcome, but shitty posting was soon sorted out.

MN moderation was very different. Calling a spade a spade was fine & telling people to wind their neck in or to jog on was ok.

I miss the way it used to be.

There are waaaay more 6-figure earners in the UK than some of you seem to think.
Step that down a level and there are 8.8 million people who earn over £50k per year, according to the ONS so I'm not sure why it's so unbelievable that there would be a lot of high earners on here.

Honestly there are loads. I'm in chartered accountancy and by mid 30s most friends are senior managers & upwards and earning 80k plus.

DH went to a quite academic private school, keeps in touch with a group of 7 men. All bar one earns over 150k. The one lower earner is on about 80k.

Among my friends, most earn 60k min. The ones who do the same/similar job as me earn between 100 & 150k, my boss is on over 200k.

In London these are quite typical salaries when you hit the late 30s/early 40s earning peak.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was wondering what that meant. I trawled through 4 pages to see if that was going to be explained or if it was a typing error. I eventually Googled after reading your comment! 😂

I'm on £30k in the Midlands for a basic admin job. Go for the private companies.

A lot of people who seem clever are just actually really confident to say absolute bullshit they may or may not believe to back up their argument (know people who do this irl too) understanding this has been very helpful for my social anxieties!

Maybe it’s a generational thing? I’m in my late 20s and I’d say probably 90% of people that went to my failing state comp went on to do A levels at the local college and then probably 75% of them went to uni.

Maybe this is my MC bubble though because I earn 50k+ and wouldn’t consider it very high - I have a bog standard civil service type job so not particularly a high flyer.

I often feel that way OP. My background is solidly working-class, and despite having a degree the most I've ever earned (at age 55) is just shy of £25k. The salaries and personal wealths that get bandied about on here make my eyes water.

And then there's the London/home counties bias. Although I'm from 'The North' as MNers like to call it 🙄 I lived in the home counties for a while and I don't agree with the many many MNers that seem to consider it the best part of the country to live in.

I often feel that if I met the 'average' MNer (or who I perceive as such, anyway) she'd look at me like some of the people I met at uni did, i.e. like they think I keep coal in the bath, despite my being a graduate, articulate and intellectual. Some of that is down to area of provenance/accent/class background rather than education, granted, but I think we all know that all of these factors are relevant in terms of how people perceive each other.

@ThursdayFreedom exactly that.