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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

to find the Guardian article "The Dummy Mummy Decade" offensive?

330 replies

PenguinProject · 08/02/2009 18:18

See here. Then again, perhaps I should be polishing my bugaboo rather than reading the Guardian...

OP posts:
NormaJeanBaker · 10/02/2009 23:34

Mrs MH - yes - easy target and lazy journalism - definitely. I imagine the woman she met was a bore before she was a mother. Or perhaps she was fascinating but not interested enough in tales from Yemen to please RC.

bigeyes · 10/02/2009 23:36

Mrs Merry Henry - how can you almost agree with NJB its clearly offensive and NJB cant see why - sorry NJB but whole heartdly diagree with you

MrsMerryHenry · 10/02/2009 23:36

Exactly (to UQD and NJB).

I have emailed MN Towers to request the hidey hole, will keep you updated.

anniemac · 10/02/2009 23:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

MrsMerryHenry · 10/02/2009 23:38

Bigeyes, I totally agree that Rachel Cooke was just filling space, but I am annoyed that she picked on such an easy target. Any dipstick knows that some people are boring and some are not, so why pick on mums?

Have I redeemed myself?

bigeyes · 10/02/2009 23:39

Clearer now NJB

Well done Mrs M-H

NormaJeanBaker · 10/02/2009 23:40

Blimey with those eyelashes you could wrestle Liza Minnelli's .

MrsMerryHenry · 10/02/2009 23:50
Wink
bigeyes · 10/02/2009 23:50

oh matron

I must compose oneself for the serious academic piece f moulding of words that surely is going to take place tomorrow - I have a lunch o attend and a spot of shopping ......

......but I do hope we can work on this in all seriousness. Dont worry its just rose I am drinking its never as bad as red

In this state I probably feel more sorry for her than anything else.

TheDullWitch · 11/02/2009 09:04

I think we re missing the point here. We're all being defensive about accusations we bore on about our kids. And some of us do, some don't. We know who we are.

But the overriding point, is that today's society is kid obsessed. It s all family friendly this, flexi time that, "hardworking families" are the political unit most discussed, family tax credits, money devoted to this and that family iniative.

Childraising is absolutely centre stage now. As it never was before. It is held up as more important than anything.

Imagine not having kids - either by choice, or worse, because you couldn't. You'd be pretty pissed off, feel excluded and resentful that your life wasn't similarly validated everywhere you looked.

wotulookinat · 11/02/2009 09:20

The writer hasn't had kids, so can't understand the all-encompassing joy that they bring. However, I do agree with her in one way, that some mothers can be a bit of a bore going on and on about every tiny detail of their child's life. I would rather hear about someone's child than someone's job though.
But I'm a mum and I still find plenty of time to read. In bed...if I'm not too tired!

bagsforlife · 11/02/2009 09:25

Yes, it's as though no-one EVER had children before all these thirtysomething journalists gave birth. One wonders how we all managed without their advice/columns.

Still agree that the article was complete and utter tosh though. She'll be the first to be boring everyone to death if she ever actually gives birth...

TheDullWitch · 11/02/2009 09:31

Bagsforlife> Zoe Williams was totally "eff you dull mums" until she pushed one out. Now she is a world class baby bore.

bigcometobedeyes · 11/02/2009 10:40

Right! I am not drinking wine this morning as I was lastnite, with my clear head on I would like to know if we are sending a carefully thought out joint response MrsMH was leading on something?

SixSpot · 11/02/2009 10:53

DullWitch, her Anti-Natal stuff is as dull as dull could be.

I think she is finding her old form again when she writes on other subjects though.

I heart Marina Hyde, myself.

MrsSchmaltzyMerryHenry · 11/02/2009 11:31

Dullwitch, Zoe Williams was a bore both pre and post baby (an ex-Grauniad journo friend who knos here also agrees with me). Yes, there's baby stuff all over the place, but then there's lots of info about EVERYTHING all over the place. Why single out mums and families? A family is just a collection of humans, and humans make up society, so why shouldn't these policies be given significance? Bit of a non-argument, IMO.

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 11/02/2009 11:54

I heart Lucy Mangan. And her dad.

SixSpot · 11/02/2009 11:56

Yes, I think she's tops too, LadyGP. Very funny.

MrsSchmaltzyMerryHenry · 11/02/2009 12:01

Who's Lucy Mangan's dad? Stephen? She doesn't do much for me, I'm afraid. She's done the 'self-satisfied columnist' thing once too many times for my liking.

MrsMattie · 11/02/2009 12:01

Where's the secret hidey hole, then, MNHQ?

I am trying to get my application for my Masters sorted out today (in between coo-ing at my 3 mth old and obsessing about mother-related shit on MN, obviously!), but would be delighted to take a break from all of that to help with this.

SixSpot · 11/02/2009 12:06

A secret hidey-hole?

On MN?

Has this thing kicked off yet?

HelenMumsnet · 11/02/2009 12:09

Hello, Mrs MerryHenry - and everyone.

We're afraid we don't have the facility to create you a secret hidey hole.

But we'd be more than happy to find out when Observer Woman's publishing deadline is - and who you should send your finished riposte to.

Can't wait to see what you're going to say

Fennel · 11/02/2009 12:23

But of course Lucy Mangan's more interesting than Zoe Williams lately, she hasn't got a baby.

I like Zoe Williams except when she writes about her very boring baby-life. Which I guess supports that irritating Observer woman's point, many otherwise interesting women can be pretty tedious when they have a baby. Even for those of us who have our own children.

rempy · 11/02/2009 12:35

Can only agree about the tediously lazy journalism in these two articles. And even worse, I was stupid enough to buy the paper, thinking that there might be a serious consideration as to why being a mother (note, not a parent) has become so fetishised, and feted, in certain parts of our society.

Did I get an analysis of post-feminist, consumerist society interacting with the changing social demographic of later childbearing interrupting established career pathways? Did they touch on the ever expanding roles of women at home and work, and the inequitous uptake of traditionally female roles by men? Did I hear any comment about the translocation of the American model of family - the "soccer moms" phenomenon (due in turn to complex interactions of social conservatism, very few maternity rights, and a strongly christian culture)?

No, I got an ear bashing about how boring I was, how my choices weren't fashionable, and how my brain was only fit to examine the colour choices of my childs buggy.

And despite accusations of being even more materialistic and selfish post-children, most of the twenty reasons for not having children were about money.

Never again will I be buying the observer.

Not even for Sport Monthly. Sorry DH.

vezzie · 11/02/2009 12:37

Zoe Williams is a tragic example of a halfway decent brain turned to mush with laziness and hackery - nothing to do with kids. She has this very annoying habit of starting a sentence as if she is going to list a few examples of something, and finishing it with something like "or other things in that vein which I can't think of now" - although it is her fucking JOB to think of them, she is being paid to think and write properly, lazy complacent cow.
Secondly, the other thing that bugs me about her, is that she is ignorantly dismissive in print about diet / weight / nutrition issues, probably being someone who can effortlessly stay slim by eating normally and having no conception of the difficulties of people who can't or are sugar sensitive or something, which is a crashingly ignorant insult to those whose lives are ruled by weight issues, and AGAIN she should KNOW BETTER than to spout off in print ignorant crap about stuff she could RESEARCH.

excuse ranty capitals, it's just I had high hopes for Williams once.

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