Is Mumsnet an English forum?

[Purpleturtle43]

Seems like pretty much every poster and responder assumes everyone on here is from England.

When asking questions regarding schools, health care, tenancy etc surely it would be useful to say what country you live in since the rules and laws are different all over the UK/world.

While I agree with your general point, the islands you mention are not part of the UK. They are Crown Dependencies which means their constitutional status is tied to the monarchy. They are self governing and have their own parliaments and laws. The UK does however provide defence and a few specific things like that.

I think this has less to do with geography and more about the persistent need on here for some posters to pick apart bits of posts irrelevant to the question.

E.g a poster complaining their DH is still in bed when they've already done the food shop, cleaned the house and put up the shelves. They want advice about their relationship not what time Asda opens.

@quantumbutterfly people in real life don't generally see me as chill - I always tell them they'd get quite the shock if they saw me unmedicated 😂

@Goditsmemargaret I'm not sure what you mean TBH

Oh that''s Proper up north 😀

Yes I have experienced similar. What is annoying is less the assumption of a default English poster which as others have explained is kind of reasonable based on numbers - it’s the complete failure of imagination that maybe, just maybe the person is not in England.

see also comments like “can you not just sit in the garden?”. What garden? I don’t have a garden!

Yeah, you sound clueless

Hardly anybody in the UK thinks it is the centre of the world. Unlike say the USA or for that matter France.

You should try and visit a large city like London and meet people. It’s about as connected as a place as you find anywhere.

I don't live in the UK but as it's written in English I would assume that it's British there are a fair few of us not living in the UK though

In my experience, English posters tend to assume an OP is English unless otherwise stated (and even then…). Posters from the devolved nations do not.

Why didn't you state it in your original post, then?

And a fair few of those sneaky Yanks seem to have barged into MN. Sod them. 😂

@MauraLabingi I have an idea of a way you could rethink about Scotland and England to lessen the weight of the chip on your shoulder.

The irony is that you are talking about “England” as if it’s a uniform lump. Do you think that people in Northumberland are culturally the same as people in Devon, or Sussex, or Merseyside? Hardly.

Physical geography enabled Scotland and wales to hold onto political independence long after the other regions of Great Britain were swallowed by the dominant warlords.

You are blessed with much more identity and independence than most English regions. It’s pretty cool for you.

I come from Mercia. I’d place a bet that I know a lot more about Scotland than you know about Mercia? More to the point I don’t know much about Mercia either…..

I can’t learn the Mercian language on Duolingo. I can’t go to the National museum of Mercia, or lobby the Mercian Parliament for our own laws. There is a culture and there is a humour, but we don’t have what you have.

History has placed us where we are, and it’s best to find the positives in what we have.

In an ideal world, each poster would make it known which part of the UK they are from.

However, it's just simply a case of England being seen as the default because the vast majority of users are from there.

I know it can be hard not to see it such as times, but it's really not a deliberate slight against other UK countries. Just more of an inevitable one when the userbase is divided up such as it is.

If it was a simply a case of all or most UK posters assuming posters are from England because it’s the larger nation, that would be one thing.

But my experience is that this isn’t the case. Rather it’s only English posters who make this assumption. Posters from Wales, NI and Scotland do not tend to make this assumption.

This is what I get when I put “Mumsnet” into the search bar: “The UK’s most popular website for parents”. So MNHQ are trying to walk the walk. The users are a different matter…

Oh goodness me. You’ve got a complaint, so instead of couching it in a spurious thread question, just spit it out.
You’re Welsh/Scottish and offended? Just say so!
It’s a legitimate complaint, but I would just say that it has more to do with ignorance than arrogance. Inter-changing the words England, Britain and UK drives me nuts too, but I try to let it wash over me on MN.

"People in the UK dont think its the centre of the world".

And yet we have so many posters on mumsnet, who think that every poster on mumsnet - lives in England.

That is a small minded mentality.

You see it in so many threads. Like the poster above mentioned. She wrote that she had just dropped her child off at school.

Another poster wrote "you're lying because its a bank holiday in England"

Instead of writing - where are you living? Which would have been a more rational response.

She indeed thought that everyone on mumsnet lived in England

What percentage of the circa 8000000 users are you referring to?
I think you may need to get out more.

Out more?

Ive been out in three different hobby groups this week.

And i went on holiday last week.

Work takes up the rest of my time. Then the gym. Then volunteering.

Im out loads.

Im never "In"!

A sample of quotes from threads on MN is not representative of the UK.

I’m sorry you have encountered small minded people so far during your 6 months in UK. I hope you get to meet others.

I did not use the words you placed in quotation marks. The wording you quoted has a different meaning to the words I actually wrote.

As for English bias on MN, I don’t have anything to add to what has already been posted.

How fab you are able to afford 3 hobbies and have worked in lots of countries.
Your privilege is showing

I have honestly never read something akin to

"you're lying because its a bank holiday in England"

I've certainly come across people not thinking beyond their own world e.g. "but it's not school holidays at the moment", which I think is thoughtless rather than superiority complex, or sometimes a poor attempt to try and catch someone out.

Privilege? Dont make me laugh.You dont know what anyone on mumsnet went through

My dad abandoned us when i was a child. I grew up with a single abusive mother. We lived in total poverty when i was a child.

I've worked my way up and ive achieved everything ive achieved, with zero help from anyone
. So i definitely didnt have any privilege. Im proud of myself for what Ive achieved by myself . We make our own lives.

Oh how wonderful, ..
English and England bashing . How unusual .!!

lol. You don’t know anyone on mumsnet either but you seem to know how isolated and untraveled English people are.
So rather than being judgemental about a certain country, perhaps post about how you overcame said obstacles to attain your current privilege.

Also my 3 hobbies - one is free, and the other two cost 5 pounds a week each.

So is spending ten pounds a week on hobbies really showing privilege?

Maybe you just need to get out of the house and actually get motivated and join one!