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? 😊

Again, that supposes that the only reason for the forums on Mumsnet is to answer a question set by the original poster. I don't think that's the case.

Well it is. People are generally responding to a question somewhere in the thread, if not the op and the same thing applies, that poster has likely long since departed.
If you want to ask a question, start a new thread.
Using the pub conversation analogy, it’s like wandering in 2 hours after everyone has moved on and trying to resurrect a conversation, people are bored and have exhausted the topic.

The other reason zombie threads are disliked is because they're often resurrected by spammers or trolls. So the actual thread (and any questions therein) are totally irrelevant. It's just for them to get into Active Discussions.

And aren't there enough current/topical threads to discuss, without the need for the old ones?!

People who “correct” you by laughing at how stupid you are, rather than just saying “actually, that’s not quite right…” or similar. The irony is, the ones who are rude and mocking are usually wrong! (Yes, lumps of human porridge who laughingly told me there’s no such thing as “grounds for divorce” in the UK, I’m looking at you.)

While I am probably rather extreme in my birthday-hatred, I certainly know other people who are birthday-phobic in real life. The thing is, that if you don't know people extremely well, you probably won't know that they are birthday-phobic, because they won't make it known when their birthday is.

I think there are a certain number of people on MN who are judgemental of others who don't 'do' their birthdays in the same way as themselves, and this happens in both directions. I have certainly come across the 'childish and entitled' comments; but I've also come across posts where people who dislike their birthdays are accused of being 'miserable curmudgeons', anti-social, ungrateful, or insincere; and where dislike of ageing is seen as simply vanity.

No, I think many contributions are just adding to a discussion that sits online permanently and the original poster's initial question is relevant only because it's provoked the subsequent discussion.

You could read this discussion now or in two years' time and it would be equally (ir)relevant.

I'm not phobic of cards or cakes as such; I'm phobic of people making a fuss of my new age. I don't think I hated birthdays QUITE as much before the current emphasis (which I do think is fairly recent) on 'big' 'milestone' birthdays.

And I find it even more upsetting if I've told people that I want my birthday to be ignored, and they disregard my wishes. I understand that people, who do celebrate their birthday, will feel similarly upset if others ignore it. So maybe we aren't really so very different; we both want others to consider us as individuals, and to respect our wishes!

I agree these are genuinely disturbing. Threads dominated by what are basically pro Ana comments. I have no idea why they don’t get deleted. I think people who enjoy making others feel bad about their calorie intake need calling out for their own sake.

God yes. There was one thread (a few years ago) about diabetes and a bunch of people were saying that fasting would help a type 1 diabetic. It wouldn’t, it would kill them.

Any how to treat a burn thread. Advice is generally shockingly awful.

This goes for any medical thread, really.

There's always the "oh you're not on fire so don't need A&E" bunch who seem to revel in being smug about "sorry your arm is hanging off, but it's not an accident or an emergency, is it?" 😏😏😏

Or ‘A&E now’ about anything.

‘I got blue lighted in’. Well of course you did, ambulances don’t tend to take a stroll to hospital.

People can't just admit they were wrong. When the thread doesn't go the way they hoped they accept it with caveat "ok yes it was me but because I have some long historical thing of X".

Just say yep, was a bit of an arse.

There's a live one right now ...

So (irritating many posters by starting this way ), what have we learnt from this thread?

That whatever or however we post, someone somewhere will be cross!

Generally what I’ve seen is that posters who tell the OP that they shouldn’t care if everyone forgot their birthday are sometimes dismissed as curmudgeons which is not quite the same thing. There’s a difference between “I don’t care about my birthday and wish no one would mark it” (fine) and “I don’t care about my birthday therefore you shouldn’t care about yours either and if you do you’re entitled”, which is how it’s usually expressed or strongly implied on the threads I’ve mentioned.

My DH hates any celebration of his birthday which I respect, but I’m not going to go onto some stranger’s thread when she’s posted about feeling ignored, disrespected and generally not cared about on a day which in general society says it’s acceptable to have a bit of a fuss made about you by those who profess to love you, and tell her she’s a spoiled princess who should be more like my DH.

Not posts, but comments. ‘Give your head a wobble’, ‘you sound like hard work’, endless ‘hilarious’ variations of ‘get a grip’. Makes the commenter sound like a cat-bum mouthed bore imo!

I’ve always hated this. You can tell it’s the same people who love watching what others eat and constantly love to talk about it.’

@SoundTheSirens I love when someone mentions they took their birthday off work. The outrage 😂

oh )) I ABSOLUTELY LOVE these kind of posts (examples below are only slightly exaggerated)

"you know if you eat less and exercise you will lose weight, have you tried this?"

"you child should be doing insert skill at this age, I was taking my siblings to school/ cooking/ cleaning/ had a job at ten years of age"

"why are you expecting your husband to pay for anything, women should pay for themselves and save money for the maternity leave"

"how dare you look at his phone, so what he shagged your sister, you are in the wrong as you snooped"

"both me and my husband have hundreds of female friends, no idea what your problem is - I would not be upset if my husband sent kisses and dick pics to a female friend, its normal, you have to trust your partner"

Threads where posters insist that everyone does or has done cocaine. No they don't. The people in circles they move in do, but everyone does not take illegal drugs.

Derailers.

I’ve never done cocaine

Me neither. Don't know anyone else who has done it either - well that I am aware of.

Neither DH nor I or any of our friends and family have tried it. I know people who have but they are not in my friendship or family circle. They just happen to be random people I know.

Posters who have a blinkered view on the World and insist everybody does what they do with no idea people may not have as privileged a life as them. "Of course everyone has a car and drives/spends £££ on gifts (especially for weddings) or holidays/ has parties for a zillion children... There is a poster on a thread at the moment who is insisting that a long haul flight to Australia is not a big deal (with a baby) because everybody does it