Why Abbreviate

[Goldengirl123]

I don’t understand why people on here say DS instead of son or DH instead of husband. Why?

It’s DDog that gets me - it’s a fucking dog - and you’re nae shortening anything there.

Vibe

Some are confusing - DS can be son or sometimes sister. BF can be boyfriend or best friend.

STBEXH took me a while!

I need clarification on whether DS2 is your second son, or your two year old son as I seem to be seeing both.

Yeah I know, I think people use them interchangeably. I used to think it was just DSx means your xth son, but then realised some people had enormous families and fractional children so figured that it could be either

It's a long-standing internet abbreviation that goes back decades. It's not specific to Mumsnet.

Its just quicker. There's a guide to them somewhere on here. I r been in here far too much for over a decade and I don't even notice them now.

Quicker

idk

GP is the worst. It can mean grandparents, general practitioner or guinea pig. Personally I most commonly associate it with the second one. Posts like "My GP bit me" or "disappointed with kids' Christmas present from GP" can be confusing.

Back in the mists of time, people used "DS2" to mean second son, and "DS(2)" to mean the age.
You just have to try and pick it up from the context usually, which isn't ideal.

And DS when used to mean "sister" (DSis is v annoying to type/ read but it is at least clear), and DF to mean fiancé not father!

Dhamster always makes me laugh 😂

It's not just a MN thing.

DS2 should mean second son and DS(2) should mean son who's 2 but people misuse them.

Don't use them if you don't want to but you can't dictate how other people use them.

It's not really about quickness anymore I think it's more that it's the slang of message boards and MN has a few of its own little in jokes like YABVVVVU. I like Ddog shows they are part of the family.

It’s quicker than typing out ‘daughter’ or ‘husband’ etc every time. Although sometimes it can be confusing (eg: DSIL might be son-in-law or sister-in-law, DD usually daughter but occasionally people use it for dad) usually you can work it out by the context. I don’t even notice it anymore.

In terms of the DD1, DS2 etc I feel like when I first started using Mumsnet (over a decade ago) it always referred to birth order but in more recent years it has increasingly been used to refer to age, I think maybe that’s because of sites like Reddit where it is common to put your age when referring to yourself (F39) or others and that’s now becoming a thing on mumsnet too. Occasionally it’s confusing when the child is pre-school age as DD2 could mean second daughter or two year old daughter, obviously much less confusing with higher numbers as can usually assume DD14 is more likely to refer to a fourteen year old than the fourteenth daughter of a family, unless of course the Radcliffes frequent Mumsnet (which they probably don’t considering the general opinion of them amongst mumsnetters, especially their ages when they got together, isn’t great!).

Yeah I find it all a bit naff tbh...
(to be honest 😂😬)

For a very long time I thought OLD was a dating site and thought what an odd name. Then one day it clicked that it actually stood for Online Dating.

For the same reasons abbreviations are always used: 1) for brevity 2) to feel included in the group/organisation by using the in-lingo. It's perfectly normal in all kinds of industries, companies, sports, hobbies, clubs and forums! If you don't like it, don't use it. If you don't like forums that do it, don't join them!

Because that's the convention

Do it. Don't do it.

But it won't change

Sort of got used to it
I find it even weirder when people write about an abusive partner, or otherwise foul behaviour on partners' part & merrily continue using "DH" or "DP" - if I reply I either drop the D or put it in inverted commas.
If I'm writing about a difficult area of a relationship I can't use the D - usually just put "mother" etc.

That's what I thought as soon as I read the thread title.

When people start listing their pets as DDog, DCat etc.

It's not even an abbreviation. It's longer.

But people do it for brevity. I don't because I don't like it. The only time it's an issue though really is when people mix them up or aren't consistent so DS means son and sister in the same post.

Or DF can mean friend, father or fiance and it isn't always obvious from the context.

Eg DF cancelled meeting up three times in a row. Why have they done this and AIBU that it means they don't care about me?

Becasie the possible explanations and resulting analysis really does depend on who it is.

ds2 is son 2 , ds 2 us 2 year old son.

ExDH - if he’s an ex what’s so fucking dear/darling aboot him?

At least these are fairly consistent if a bit confusing at times and the GP one is automatically doctor in my head. It's the way names are shortened like KP or abbreviation for some other thing without an initial full wording mentioned in the post like we should all know who/what is being referred to that irritates me. I know some are common like NAMALT but others seem to be just shortening events or maybe they are popular terms on certain boards but don't make any sense if you've read as shown up on active/trending list.