Mumsnet posts which drive me mad

[Ilovecleaning]

Anyone hate these posts?

• really really really long posts
• long posts with NO paragraphs
• posts which start ‘ I have a friend, let’s call her Jane; her DH, let’s call him Sam… you can’t bloody well follow the post. Much easier just to say Friend and DH.

Any others? 😊

The ones who post a really obvious question that they could have spent nanoseconds finding the answer instead.

You know the ones:
'How do I get a passport for my child?' Or 'Can I cut neighbour's overhanging branches?'

By the time they've bothered to start a thread they could have answered themselves with a bit of judicious googling.

And yes also those who quote the whole OP, especially if they're the first to respond. Plus acres of un-paragraphed text. Just no.

The ones that are really long and you get invested only to find out in the last paragraph the aibu is really stupid like “aibu to buy my husband an apple?” Or some complete non event that did not warrant a post.

It’s when people post on subjects with laws/regulations like divorce/child maintenance/funded childcare hours where there are been loads of posts giving perhaps conflicting advice, saying, ‘there is so much incorrect information on here!!’

As if they know so much better than everyone else, but not posting any more information so nobody knows what is incorrect and what is not!

There's a lot of promotion of disordered eating on here, and I wish Mumsnet would clamp down on it. It's actually dangerous.

From competitive under- eating posts to 'advice' like: try eating just 500 calories a day or fasting, and people claiming they feel HUGE at a size 12. Really grim.

Totally this. Those entitled, arrogant people are the worst. I think some people use mn how they use blameless customer service agents – somewhere to channel abuse and release some of the anger and frustration from their own lives. Twats

Or the flip side of "DH left the dishes in the sink without washing them up AIBU to LTB"

Especially when it's an AIBU post and they don't like the responses they get!

I agree @DerekFaker, it’s the food related ones that often rile me. So many mumsnetters apparently wouldn’t dream of eating any convenience foods or upf’s because they cook everything from scratch. It’s definitely bordering on orthorexia.
The one that annoyed me not long ago was a poster worrying that her son was bordering on tubby & wanting to check she wasn’t feeding him too much. Cue lots of posters criticising the meal she had posted saying that their hollow legged DS’ could eat double that. One poster even listed her children e.g. DD 16 gym bunny, can eat what she wants, DS 18 lean & athletic with a six pack. Apart from the fact that this isn’t helpful to the OP I think it’s very weird to describe your children like this.

The types of threads I find a bit pointless:

”what size do you think I am?” followed by a headless photo with zero context. Why ask anyway? You will receive guesses that are moderated by the mood of the responder and you have a good chance of getting some nastiness. And why bother? Will you have more value if strangers on MN judge your headless torso to be a size 8?

The other type of thread I find a bit pointless:
”I earn £30,000, is it enough to live on?” Well, let me see, do you live alone in a tent or are you a family of six hoping to buy a house in Surbiton? This is often followed by “that’s masses you show off” or “my gym membership costs more than that”. Then a slow drip feed about costs or savings that renders any input pointless.

Targeting you?!

I was responding to your post, that's all.

@LindorDoubleChoc

People who post in Aibu but have already made up their minds but just want validation.

^^this. Then they argue with anyone with an opposing point of view. Why are you here then?

I read one yesterday that was advising eating 500 calories a day. Ridiculous advice.

This. I avoid those threads now.

No. I can read books so am not put off by a long post and it being a wall of text rather than paragraphs isn't a big deal to me.

Let's call them.. don't care either. Bit easier to follow than friend a said to friend b then friend b said to friend c that friend a then friend a talked to friend d...

Or ds took ds to see df and me and df went out while ds and ds were with df but .. and you've got to work out the sister from the son and the father from the friend or fiancé.

Tbh threads like that are better than threads like this that are just about telling posters the way they post is annoying.

Someone posts about how nasty/cruel/abusive their DM or MIL is, still working full-time, goes on holiday etc - I wait for the first 'could it be early onset dementia?'. No matter that the woman in question is about 45!

People who come onto threads about celebrities or popular TV shows just to claim they have never heard of them, when they could just google them. (And I suspect a lot of the time they HAVE heard of them really, unless they have their head up their arse 24/7.)

I know they are just trying to appear superior to us low-brow plebs, but it just makes me think "Oh fuck off you insecure wanker."

When someone quotes the original OP. We know the post you are referring to! Why do it?

Long OPs full of irrelevant info.

Cancel the cheque posts - please just read OP's updates and in some cases just read the OP thoroughly.

Posters who get snotty or nasty right from the off for no apparent reason - often with vulnerable OPs and if anyone tells them to tone it down a bit they get nasty with them too. You wonder what's going on in their lives to do this or if they are latent bullies.

Posters who take an opposing view to others but won't say why and get snippy when asked. "I don't HAVE to explain myself!" - no you don't but it makes the thread and your posts in particular pretty meaningless - "well it's that way because it is as that's what I think so there" is a pretty weak argument.

My personal bugbear are posters who use extreme and skewed language to try to make their point. People who don't agree are "deranged" or their situations must be awful or they must accept awful behaviour - no you just disagree. If you have to falsely ramp up your language to make a point it is probably a pretty weak point.

Really worrying posts where the poster doesn't respond after the initial 2-3 posts.

OPs who post about negative behaviour towards them, ranging from appalling to just a bit off and are given good advice that they can't take because of xy&z. It's frustrating for posters advising. I take it they just made the thread so that it will be confirmed that OH/DC/DP/DPIL/DB/DS/DFriends are total sh*ts but you are going to do bugger all about it.

I'm sure there are loads more

I was reported for saying the royal mail have brought out some coins with dinosaurs on. I have no idea what the report was or why.

Oh and if someone points out SPAG the 'I'm dyslexic' well so am I, what is your point.

I dunno, I've only ever seen it on here...moment I see that any other (potentially decent) point they've made is lost. The 'wobble' brigade

The “this is MUMsnet, why are you even here?” type posts to childless/childfree women like they’re asking something startlingly original that no one has ever asked before……..

There's quite a bit of that on MN about lots of things @DerekFaker. There's a post up now where people went "so what exactly is a Hungry Horse pub?". Look it up. Funnily it never happens for the more middle class type things.

Posts that have hundreds of replies, despite the OP never returning to respond after the original post. What's the point? (and it's not just others talking amongst themselves, it's individual responses to the post).

The endless posts about useless husbands/boyfriends. Just admit you want a whinge rather than asking if you're being unreasonable. I'm grateful for the Hide option as these are so common.

@rubyredknowsitall

I hate the phrase "give your head a wobble".

Me too. It is really patronising which is the intention of course

So many mumsnetters apparently wouldn’t dream of eating any convenience foods or upf’s because they cook everything from scratch. It’s definitely bordering on orthorexia.

Tbf, I don't eat UPFs. The wisescale consumption of them does bother me and it also frustrates me when people come on her advising very low calorie/fat diets because all the current research recognises that the body is not a simple machine etc. Low carb is better for your body than low fat.

A weight watchers ready meal, for example, is NOT a healthy option and some people really don't understand that.

People advising someone eat 500 calories because a poster has plateaued at 800 cals a day simply don't know what they're talking about.