To be unsure of how much I actually believe on here

[Youllneverseemeagainn]

Anybody can write whatever they want and can fabricate everything.
I'm amazed by the number of posters who claim to earn circa 200k (and no not just women). They claim they've 'worked damn hard' to get here and now only need to work about 3 hours a week in some mysterious role. The number of people earning this sort of salary in reality is very low, what are the odds that they're all on Mumsnet?

The number of posters with perfect marriages, still having amazing sex 3 times a day after 65 years of marriage, slept together within 3 seconds of meeting and moved in together the same day, husband covers the bed in rose petals still every day and so on. Again it's not the norm.

Everyone's child is a strapping 6'4 with 'model looks', thin as a rake despite eating 4000 calories a day.

It's just not representative of most people, I'm not saying the above doesn't exist but it's the number of posts on here that stipulate things like this, it feels very exaggerated, does anyone else find this?

Yes, the posters who have these incredible lives who would definitely LTB if he didn’t put the loo seat down, and don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a DH that ‘pulls his weight 50:50’

Yeah right!

Exactly! These DHs who get up at 4am to clean the house top to bottom and do a monthly shop before cooking breakfast in bed for their wife every morning..right.

YANBU It's very common on mumsnet to tell fibs about

1. how much you earn
2. how much you pay your cleaner
3. what activities you have got booked in for christmas

Take it all with a pinch of salt, I do.

Oh and their children are always ‘well over the 99th centile’ - what are the odds!

If someone posts that my kids are short/ average and im just about scraping by with relentless shite - people want to better that and so will bend the truth until it snaps.
For what its worth i have a very average life/income etc but I love it.

They overpay the mortgage by £3000 every month, 2 years of salary in a savings account, £500 per week shopping bill for 2, but life is very tough on this wage don't you know!

If it makes you feel any better OP I certainly do not make £200K, though I worked hard (as a lot of us do) for my role. I don’t have a cleaner, I hoovered yesterday afternoon throughout and due to DDogs it looks like I haven’t bothered. My mental health is in the toilet and I’m having breathing hyperawareness and panic on the daily that is quite literally pushing me to the brink. Oh, and none of my DC are towers of perfection either. Not that this makes them anything bad at all. But sometimes I do read some threads and think if that was my biggest problem I’d be floating. Unfortunately people lie, people over egg the pudding as it were. You have to take things with a pinch (or a fistful) of salt some times.

I kind of agree, but I've also been on the receiving end of people calling bullshit on me.
Under an old username, I started a thread a few years back as I found a kilo of cocaine in the cellar of my house. It was so utterly bizarre and noone was around for me to tell! So I shared it on here. I don't think a single person on the thread believed me and i was called a liar over several pages. which i do kind of understand as its obviously a strange find, But at the same time, its a bit of an odd thing to make up. I gave up trying to defend myself in the end 😅

I think a disproportionate amount of high earners / educated folk are on MN compared to national average. Grammar is generally pretty good on here and there’s always been a certain amount of snobbery. Plus complex political issues away from parenting are discussed in depth.

Other parenting forums like Netmums are probably more proportionate.

So many have gifted and talented kids
Have hundreds nay thousands spent on each child at Christmas
Looking for a reasonably priced 'prom dress' no more than 5 grand please as I have a stretch limo fire engine to hire
Both big earners £250,000 plus each (without twice yearly bonus) but how much free child care can I have please and when -now

Good point Sartre

statistically, yes, high salaries are very rare, but in reality I live in a not particularly affluent north west town and the vast majority of people I know earn well and are very comfortable.

It's the high amounts of earnings that I find really perplexing.

Even given regional variations and that I know some types of jobs pay high-level than others I struggle to get my head round the salaries quoted.

I always think why anyone earning such high amounts should turn to MN for advice when, even if they don't have family or friends to talk to, they could actually afford to pay someone for expert advice and guidance

Ohhhh I earn £999K a year but I have to buy my food in Lidl and get my clothes from charity shops! I don't know how the rest of you do it!

I'm a prince.

It's like the how much debt do you have threads, when posters rush to smugly tell us they have £0 and that if they can't afford it 'they go without'. The average person has at least a small amount of unsecured debt.

I don’t earn anything near £200k but I don’t find it difficult to believe that there are multiple people on here who do and larger numbers in the £100k+ bracket. There are many threads from people discussing the pros and cons of specific London private schools where fees will be £20k plus a year.
Only a small percentage of the population will earn that much but that is still quite a lot of people. The demographic on here skews towards higher earners. Also people start threads about jobs earning very high salaries so people with those salaries will respond.
I have a 6ft teenage son who while not ‘rake-thin’ isn’t overweight, that doesn’t seem unusual to me so it seems weird to me that that would be something you would think is made up.

Everyone's child is a strapping 6'4 with 'model looks', thin as a rake despite eating 4000 calories a day.

I have seen some of the other claims you mention on here, although personally I wouldn't say they're the norm, but I've never seen this one! In my experience 'everyone's child' on MN is a stroppy second child who is three years old, throws daily tantrums, and is making them lose the will to live!

I believe approximately 2% of what I read.
I don't doubt for a second their are some people who live these incredible lives and good for them however the people I know with these levels of careers appear to never have time to breath nevermind post mindless shite on Mumsnet.

I know someone who earns 200k a year and shops at Aldi, like I know people walking around M&S who are topping out at 50k.

Don’t forget the “I’m 59 but look 21, and when I’m out with my granddaughter people often ask if we’re sisters” claims.

If it makes you guys feel better, I'm disabled and on pip and UC, so not a high earner. My DC have sen. My house is small, rented and in a crappy area. I have a crap car and no debts

I don't have a cleaner, and I'm over weight

Oh I’ve got the decorator in today, finishing off the youngests room and when that’s done, the cleaner will do the house. I shall sup fine red wine.

Reality…

Its me decorating and then I’ll hoover the house after. Once that’s done I’ll crack open a bottle of co-op red and consider how many bottles I’ll drink.

I think you’re conflating a bunch of different types of poster, OP. I’m genuinely often in disbelief at how deeply unequal marriages are depicted as normal on here, because that doesn’t reflect my own experience or that of anyone I know, but I can’t imagine that many people are trolling about being martyrs to housework and childcare for frankly dreadful men. I find the high earners less incredible than that.

The number of people who hate parenting and regret having children always surprises me. The parents I know IRL are all besotted with their children.