To Think I Live A Completely Different Life

[xSnowFairyx]

……to most other Mumsnetters?

Recent threads and comments, as well as ‘cliche’ MN things make me feel like I’m living in a parallel universe.

A lady on here was shaken and terrified when her OWN HUSBAND rang their doorbell last night at 11pm because he’d forgotten his keys. She thought it was as a serial killer. Then so many other MN’ers refuse to answer their door. They think ringing a bell is rude. They are always “shaken” by an unexpected visitor or knock at the door. Or think their neighbours are up to something but are too terrified and shaken to have a grown up conversation with them about: parking, driveways, boundaries etc.

Another lady was demanding a GP appointment because she’d tripped over (or had some accident) and her big toe was hurty/bruised. She didn’t want to go to Minor Injuries. Then all the other “should I go to A&E threads”. It’s just madness. Why is there no common sense? Why do people ask anonymous strangers on the internet without consulting a GP, pharmacist, 111 or bloody NHS .uk first?

Why is everything too “outing”? We have a population of around 70 million people. Don’t get me started on the outing hobbies or activities. Especially the husbands.

What’s the deal with “hosting”? When my friends or family come round, it’s just them coming round. I am not a “host” I am a human being enjoying the company of my loved ones in my home.

So many recent benefits bashing threads. A recent person on here was asking if they and their family should report another family member for fraud as they received PIP but could “walk miles”. Complete lack of common sense and human decency.

And so many MIL and SIL bashing threads. I genuinely have not met one single person in real life who doesn’t get on with their partners family.
And, the amount of people who don’t class In-laws as family. Of course your husband/wife’s family is now part of your family! Also same for step children.

It honestly feels like a parallel universe. But as we say in Yorkshire, nowt as funny as folk.

Nope it sounds like you live a normal life, like many of us who are gobsmacked by how some of these OP’s manage to navigate life with such little resilience and common sense.
It gives a window into others lives and makes me appreciate mine more. I also talk to people IRL, not sure others do which is why they wind themselves up into a frenzy about perfectly normal stuff.
Yet we still read it….

Re. “Outing” I know what you’re saying but I have twice recognised people on here from a combination of otherwise fairly non- identifying posts so I get why people are paranoid. In both cases I messaged the person and said I think I know who they are so to change their user name.

Wooooooooorrrrrd

Maybe MN isn’t for you, op!

I don’t ask for advice on here but it’s certainly a form of late night entertainment.

I remember that in old threads the husband's overly time consuming outing hobby was always cycling. Whenever I see the local cycling club out on a Saturday morning I think "I wonder which one of these husbands has a thread about him on Mumsnet" 😀

I have recognised people twice online. It just takes a few unusual things.

Wouldn’t it be quite boring if we were all the same though? That’s what I like about it…it gets me out of the echo chamber I live in and lets me see how different people think/feel/live. Sometimes it’s entertaining, sometimes enlightening, sometimes baffling…but that’s why I keep coming back!

You're taking it all too literally. The Doorbell-gate poster has already said she wasn't being serious about the serial killer thing! It's much weirder that you're on here referencing other people's posts and criticising them... maybe you're more MN than you realise ;)

Totally agree OP!

Some batshit posts but definitely entertaining 🤣

They're trolling you though, they're mostly not real, they just know how to push MNers' buttons.

The first example brings to mind Mrs Bennet from Pride & Prejudice ("Are we to be murdered in our beds!") so this sort of thing must have been going on for quite some time.

I agree with everything except for the MIL bit. My MIL and FIL are nightmares as are their younger kids who they couldn’t be bothered to bring up properly.

I like MN to read on an evening as it’s entertainment. It’s the mindset of a lot posters that just make me think “…wtf?” So I’d disagree, I’m deffo not more MN than I realise 🤣 I’ve never been shaken by my doorbell ringing or call my family coming round as “hosting”.

Why are you here if everything everyone does is such an anathema to you? That it requires such a judgement from you?

I’m absolutely fine with answering my door, but I was raised, back in the day, to know if your doorbell (or phone) was ringing at 11pm, it generally wasn’t something good. Pretty much only the police knocked your door after 10pm. I wouldn’t be shaking in my boots but I’d be cautious.

I’d talk to my neighbours in a dispute about parking, but mine are lovely. Not sure I’d want to if they were a bloody nightmare.

You talk about common sense as if it is some universal level of knowledge that everyone must have in any given situation. It isn’t. Not beyond the most basic “don’t touch very hot things” type of example. Often it is misinterpreted as “I know something therefore everyone must know something”. As an example, it is common sense to me, to know that if someone is knocking on your door long after most people are in bed, it is more likely to be that someone has died or someone is about to, than someone calling round for a chat. But others will have a different judgement, based on their own knowledge and life experiences.

”Should I go to A&E” is a sensible question to be asking, nowadays when people are aware of overburdening the system, but also there is so much scaremongering about minor things becoming really major. If a first time mother has never experience a rash and a temperature on a child they might not know it can simply be a viral thing that calpol and a good night’s sleep will fix. They might be concerned it is meningitis and their child could become gravely ill. It isn’t common sense to know the difference between the two, it is knowledge learned from experience. They could, of course, spend an hour consulting Dr Google and come out none the wiser, or they could call 111 and wait on the line for a couple of hours to be dealt with by a call handler only to have to wait another 7 hours for a call back at 3am, all the time not knowing if their child is actually really sick, or, they can hop on here and ask a question where, generally, they will get a sensible answer, and usually some sympathy and people helping to calm them down. It’s just another tool at their disposal.

The most wonderful thing about it is, you don’t have to read any of it, if you don’t want to. That, at least, seems to be common sense to me.

It really is just that!!😄

😆😆😆

I think the explanation is simply that for every one person who posts about being shaken up by the doorbell ringing at 11pm there are a thousand more who don't start threads saying 'AIBU to have been very calm and relaxed about my husband ringing the doorbell?', because what would be the point of that? AIBU is a self selecting group of people who may have behaved in unreasonable ways, so of course it's not a normal population sample.

I don't believe that no-one you know has any problems with their in-laws.

But you are definitely superior enough to fit right in on MN 😂

You're brilliant, OP. Only you see the truth in life.

I’ve said twice now, that I read MN because it’s entertainment on an evening. Which it is. It’s fucking hilarious 🤣

I agree in the sense that if your doorbell rang at 11pm you’d think “Who’s that, what’s going on?” But that particular poster was expecting her own husband to be back home at that time, so to be immediately terrified and “shaken” by the doorbell without seeing who it was first….. is just … mental.

I disagree with “Should I go to A&E” is a sensible thing to ask on MN. It’s not sensible. Any adult with capacity should be able to search NHS .uk or phone 111 for appropriate signposting, or go to a pharmacy/Minor Injuries unit. (Granted 111 do send a hell of a lot of people to A&E because of the pressures on and lack of GPs).

Ah well, yes you’re right I DON’T have to read here. But I will keep reading. Because it’s entertaining.

No I think Mumsnet is a parallel
universe and most people (in real life) are as sane as you and I. Thoroughly entertaining though!

The outing hobby is never anything that would actually be slightly unusual. It’s never my husband dresses up as a storm trooper and visits sick kids or does extreme ironing, it’s golf or cycling. Whilst I’m all for not revealing too much, I, not sure either golf or cycling would make the post go from not a clue to one you go, mmmm cycling must be Dave from Hertford

😂 I do the same

I mean, we all read threads on here sometimes and think they’re a bit ridiculous. But also, not everyone is like you. Personally I hate people just dropping by. Usually cos my house is a shit hole and I look like shrek. The hurty toe poster was obviously just confused about which route to go down regarding her injury and had limited childcare/transport options.

I think it’s a bit unkind to start a whole thread about how stupid other posters are just because they differ from you.