The mumsnet demographic

[YourLastNerve]

Has changed?

When i first came on here it felt heavily skewed towards Londoners, professional women on above average incomes with 2.4 children. All children were slim, sporty, borderline geniuses reading paperbacks in reception fluently.

Now i notice that while in real life I'd say about 10% of people i know have someone in their household with either a disability, SEN or autism, on here it feels like most OPs fit this criteria. I wonder why that is - is mumsnet considered a useful resource for support/information for people in these situations?

Yabu - no one in my household has a disability, SEN or autism

Yanbu - at least one member of my household has a disability, SEN or autism

I have no data but I have felt that a large proportion of Mumsnet users are either ND or have children who are or who have other needs. Sometimes it comes up as part of the discussion so isn't in the title.
On reflection, maybe those people need help and advice more?

I've noticed that it's become more rabidly right wing. I have been very surprised at some of the views I've seen. When I joined it was more lefty.

I also think it has a lot of inauthentic posters, people from certain political camps are posting here and people selling products.

There also seems to be a rise in misogyny which coincides with internet trends.

It’s definitely a bit more low rent these days. On some boards at least it’s the home of the “poor, anxious, can’t manage the simple things in life and make repeatedly diabolical life choices” sort who are bitterly resentful of anyone happy with a nice job and home and a functional relationship.

But there’s still some cracking parking threads and I like recommendations on jeans so 🤷‍♀️

How very dare you! (Searches floor for pearls to clutch…)
👋

My whole household (me, DH, DS4, DS2) is neurodivergent. None of it is debilitating and it doesn't generally affect us day to day, it just is what it is. Relatively middle class. I am an immigrant and am a (not visible) minority.

I use Mumsnet for both entertainment and advice. Been here around a decade.

I've been here since December 2008. Most definitely working class and have a child with a genetic condition as do I.

Things have changed it was certainly more left leaning back in the day, it challenged many views I held and made me see things from a different angle. Living in a small village where there was not much diversity it opened my eyes my thoughts and ideas were insular. I see many things completely different now and I am eternally grateful for that. I now have internal debates rather than beliefs set in stone.

There's definitely more racism of all kinds, benefit bashing, ableism around but I think that seems to reflect the world as a whole. Things are moving backwards in many of these areas.

I'm still glad I joined.

Online forums are always going to skew a little bit more towards disabilities than real life, for people with them and caring for people with them. Mumsnet especially is going to attract that because of the various boards they have catering to that.

This. The site feels more like a data farm than a supportive forum now.

I have been here for just over 20 years. It was a small site then where you really knew many user names. I had the same user name for years until that data breach. One thing I do not miss is the arse licking of certain posters. I don’t fit in with your original demographic nor the one you are putting forward as the changed demographic.

There is one truism here in that online forums attract the socially anxious and socially inept. That is the overwhelming constant demographic on here. What I like is that whilst some write pure fantasy and in the past when a small site a couple of people were outed as absolute fantasists. I like how people can actually write what they really think plus the advice given can be sound.

I'd actually be really interested in the statistics for this.

I'd be quite happy to fill out the occasional questionnaire (With the option of 'prefer not to answer' for age, race, location...

I feel AIBU has been taken over by bots/trolls/whatever you like to call them. It's cleverly done, and highly manipulative. They post extreme messages about trans people or Palestine or whatever, and whip up feelings of disgust. People then respond with quite hateful things sometimes. The invective is often so strong that if a more moderate person dares to offer an alternative view, they are vilified.
The direction of travel is really not promising.

its possible to be a professional woman with an above average income and also be disabled and/or neurodiverse. It’s possible for children to be bright and disabled and/or neurodiverse. I will give you that sporty is rarer to add to the mix.

Dunno.

I've been here for a couple of decades. The biggest change I've noticed is an influx of benefit bashers and Tories.

Dont have the voting enabled but I have an autistic DC. I didn't have DC at all when I joined though - I came for the Litter Tray board and stayed for the parking threads!

I do think the demographic has shifted since I joined nearly 15 years ago. It certainly used to be very liberal and left wing, these days things seem very harsh (and I don't mean flaming a ridiculous OP), misogyny is rife, the racism is getting more blatant, threads on benefits or people who are otherwise struggling are awful. More people willing to cut people out of their lives for minor transgressions or who are determined to have nothing to do with their neighbours. Or mothers in law. Definitely more right wing than it used to be.

Ageee with everything @BarbaraHoward says but particularly the paragraph above .

I think the demographic is quite a bit older than I expected. I’m not sure if it’s got older vs when I joined or younger people have left.

Or maybe there are fewer young people around....

Maybe my peers have moved to other sites & younger people are less inclined to use MNs in the first place?

Do you mean less younger people in general @Reugny ie ageing population?

I think that anything that allows women a voice is great. I've felt comfortable enough to say what I believe and give advice on here when before that I didn't know another place to do that.
I think it feels very un-london centric, almost more about other areas and about different type struggles. I like the fact that I don't know or care where someone's from or their status financialy, I just do get good advice and support off here.

Yep.

Added to that people are becoming parents later and this site due to its name is primarily aimed at parents.

It is very England centric.

Though many posters don't help themselves by refusing to state they are elsewhere in the UK or even abroad.

Some of the abroad threads make me laugh as people refuse to indicate what country they are in like there are not British people everywhere.

But saying you live in Australia is so completely outing…

I think there are a lot of older people on here because they joined in the 2000s when their children were young looking for parenting advice but stayed just for the social chat. That's me anyway. I've also taken advice from the puppy threads and elderly parents boards over the years.

@Reugny most people are still becoming parents in their 30s but the site definitely seems to skew to people born in the 60s/70s. Perhaps young parents today just use different platforms.

When statisticians have done the average age of parents over the last couple of decades they have started in their first time mothers have progressively got older.

Just did a Google and the average age of first time mothers in 202¹ was 30.9 years while in 2001 it was 26.6 years.