Are there any MN's out there that aren't like this?!

[MyLifeHasChanged]

Going on about Birkenstocks
Have a family inheritance
Private schools for kids
Saving loads for their Retirement or kids UNI

Yes we are all from different walks in life and that's what makes mums (or mumsnet) great!

I just feel I cannot relate to this site anymore!

It's just confirmation bias, OP. There are soooo many threads making implausible generalisations about MN users. Plenty of them are along the lines of "All MNers are single-mum benefit scroungers who wean their babies straight on to burgers and full-fat coke." - i.e. the exact opposite of what you claim

And then there are the more niche ones like "Why is it that EVERY MN user thinks dogs should always wear coats/prefers olive oil to sunflower oil/thinks that dogs should never wear coats. Etc.

In the fraught context of online talk we are hyper-sensitive to sources of opposition/friction, so posts that are "not like us" have a salience for us.

I have really really awfil feet which are with age getting worse (bunions🙈). Birkenstocks are a blessing to me.

No Birkenstocks here, they don’t fit my feet and most of them are ugly. I do see them mentioned fairly often, but then I read the style snd beauty threads.

I did inherit my husband’s share of our house I guess, and I have some insurance money but not loads. No idea if will inherit from parents, they may leave to grandkids.

No private school!

I do save for retirement but not bundles. Only one kid at uni and she has loans but I’m helping out with some stuff. The others might not go, one is only 12 so ages away.

Nope none of these. Worked in public sector all my life, no children, but even if I'd had them I wouldn't have been able to afford private schools (and don't agree with them anyway), highly unlikely to have any inheritance apart from a token book or two, and public sector pensions really aren't the lavish gold-plated things that some of the press would have you believe unless you're very senior. I tend not to join the posts about wealth on here because a) I have nothing to contribute and b) they tend to be so black and white they make me cross (eg you live up north so by definition bought a 4 bedroom family home for £50 ; I'm really poor because I can't afford new cars /three holidays every year /only earn X multiples of the national average income)

I’m 55+ and as the OP is describing.
Fortunately most young parents still have their own mum and dad around but are spending lots and earning little.

Birkenstock. I buy a pair of knock-off Mayari (€10) every Summer and they go from slippers, to going out, to dog walking over 3 years.

State schools with private music lessons and sport activities. Summer school for favourite hobbies at 16 to learn some independence.
DH and I stepped in if they were struggling with maths etc. and during lockdown.

Family inheritance. Yes, and DH. Enough to pay off our modest mortgage 5 years early and buy a 4-sleeper student flat in DCs’ university city.

That was to save paying their rent and getting rent money from friends’ parents to cover the bills. So you could call that “saving for university”. State University fees are low in this country.

Ive been on MN since DC2 was a toddler, though, and at that time of life we were living hand to mouth.
So, maybe my cohort are more vocal, have more experience to share or just have more time to post!

I think it might just be the areas of Mumsnet that you hang out... though I feel similar sometimes 😬

I had to Google Birkenstocks when I first saw the word on here. Still don't get the supposed hype about them 🤷🏻‍♀️

Possibly a few thousand, not sure/don't care. I'd much rather my remaining parent used their money to make their own life comfortable.

Currently stressing about choosing a secondary school for my eldest, however, private schools haven't even been on our radar! I just want a state school that my child will survive in (& hopefully thrive!).

Not really fussed about pension. I most likely won't live long enough to claim my state pension & have zero private pension pot to piss in...
I would advise my children not to bother with Uni, unless they had a specific focused career goal that required it. Other valuable education options are available.

There are plenty of us "plebs" on here 👋

Not me, I'm on benefits (husband works,we have autistic kids)

No private education here. My mother spent the large inheritance my father had thought she would hold on to safely for us. I have a term time job as have no childcare available so am pretty skint but appreciate that overall I’m lucky to have it. Older kids have gone to University with only loans. Haha to saving for my retirement.

My sheepskin lined Birkenstocks are bliss, but I don’t feel the need to write about them.

But do you come on here and 'go on' about them?

Lives in a quaint village. Involved in the local church and PTA.
Refugees welcome as long as nowhere near them 😂

That's my observation too...alot of Deform, Restore and openly bigoted people on here..

That's them!

Oh 🤨

You're a Tory voter regardless of their manifesto or the policies they put out?

To be honest, I find the working class are much more likely to hold socially conservative opinions nowadays.
It is a badge of honour amongst many of the middle class to hold progressive views, the negative impacts of which they are completely isolated from.

About 1/3 people get inheritance.
About 6% kids are in private school.

So those people aren’t representative of the uk as a whole.

I think that was true a long time ago. Back when Netmums was at its peak and MN was where people drifted to when they were repelled by the commoners and their ticker tapes.

But now, I think MN is far more economically diverse but you still have loud mouth show offs who cannot help themselves from megaphoning their privilage with some tenuous link to the thread.

You lost me at birkenstocks though.

Birkenstocks - No

Family Inheritance - Nobody I’d inherit from is dead yet, though I have had dark thoughts of “if only there was an accident 😳”

Private School - Nope, they went to the local Comp. Private is a waste of money in my opinion.

Retirement - Yes, we save into pensions, that’s it.

I'm none of those but have friends like that. Working class background here but have done well career wise and financially. Kids in state school and we still have a very working class outlook on life.

Yes. Also, the average UK inheritance is £11k too. It's not typically a game changer.

I’m the polar opposite!

Most are not like this but there are some who are, and some who say they are.

I've been here since the start under various names. I loved my original one but it was used against me in a legal matter so I had to change it I now change regularly as there are lots of aggressive posters.
I came for advice on colic and nappies.
I now have a 27 year old DS and I'm 60.

No to the ugly shoes. I do wear sketchers 😁

Some private school for DC but not me (council house kid but posh university).

No inheritance. I paid for living expenses and housed my parents. DH had a small inheritance twenty years ago.

Had to cash in my pensions due to serious ill health. No work for two years due to the above so claimed some benefits. Hopefully returning to work next month. We've slid down the munsnet earnings scale!

I do think the demographic has changed especially on finance, education and property. More women working in good jobs, better educated and owning their own property.

I despair at the huge amount of physical and financial abuse of women and it's seems that it is now commonplace. I try to offer advice on these threads but they are very difficult to read. Definitely not the nappy cream and teething of old.

OP i am none of the above.

I find MN to be a very different place than the one I joined 21 years ago. It makes me feel quite inadequate at times as though I have failed in life, not sure why I am still here other than for the very helpful Elderly Parent board.

Most people on here now seem a world away from my real life. I live off carer's allowance, I have no funds for a retirement, my dc never went to private school or uni, I shop Vinted not Sezane, Holland Cooper or Nobody's Child (I can't even afford those brands second). I won't receive any big inheritance like so many seem to on here, my mum has advanced dementia and her care costs are huge.

I totally get where you are coming from op, although the longer I frequent MN and compare it to the place it was years ago I am starting to believe so many threads these days are utter bullshit (not some but many).

Wait, you aren't 'the' firing babies into Lebanon Gina Ford nemesis??