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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder if mumsnet is a haven for very well off and slightly blinkered individuals.....?

254 replies

preparetobeflayed · 23/04/2009 11:17

Obviously I have changed my name on this thread as I am prepared for the onslaught.....

Threads about Boden, how sad they are that their jumper from Boden has been pilling, 'oh woe is me my nanny has called in sick', 'I am hard up now the tax band has increased (although I am still earning £170,000....

Where are the rest of the population who reflect most of the parents I meet. I also wonder whether some people are able to look around and see what else is happening in the world....?

(Just having a bit of a rant about some of the other threads I guess......

OP posts:
fourkids · 23/04/2009 16:15

MollieO, eeeewwww...what's right with it???? REAL men don't wear baggy, elasticated-waist pink and pale blue patterned pull-up tousers. (sorry again to all the MNers whose DHs do )

DH says boden catalogue should be hidden from DDs because it sets a very very bad example because all the women are super-scrawny. Also he says how come all the women have a huge grins on their faces all the time and all the men look super-sultry (or possibly super-sulky!)? It is true...have a look!

Anyway, ideal man should be wearing NOTHING!

retiredgoth2 · 23/04/2009 16:28

.....I wish I had known that Boden for men was non-u.

I have purchased, and worn, a light brown coat from this online emporium.

...it made me look, I felt, rather swish.

Until I was informed that I resembled a hardware store proprietor whilst wearing it.

Fork Handles, anyone?

fourkids · 23/04/2009 16:33

LOL...but Arkwright or Granville retiredgoth2

fourkids · 23/04/2009 16:35

anyway someone must buy boden for men (although the men's section gets smaller each season I reckon) for them to still make it. I guess someone, somewhere out there in the middle classes has to be...(I mean as well as you retiredgoth2)

MarmadukeScarlet · 23/04/2009 16:47

I saw a man dressed obviously in Boden from head to toe in the dunes at Instow recently (ginger cords and a tank top over a stripy/patterned shirt) - he was with his 5 totally Boden/Joules clad young DC who were completely soaked/covered in sand.

As were my DC, having had a fab time splashing in the sea and building sandcastles - but my DC were in 'play clothes' not £35 dresses.

I snorted to myself and considered what my thread title should be if I started one.

Also thanks back there for the PSB definition, I though folk were assuming that because I send my DC to private school bad things couldn't happen to me.

Niecie · 23/04/2009 17:03

I keep pondering how to jump into this discussion but I can't decide what side I am on.

I am a SAHM/student, so income of my own, but already well educated. DH was a high earner but decided he would rather work for himself so isn't at the moment but hopefully will be again. I don't wear Boden although DS1 is currently wearing some Boden trousers I got off ebay for 99p because they have a draw string waist. Parents are most definitely WC. DH's parents MC but poor (vicar).

So who's side should I be on? What am I allowed to talk about and to whom?

Or maybe I shouldn't be here at all.

HecatesTwopenceworth · 23/04/2009 17:12

I don't see that at all, there's a real mix on here. That's why I like it.

(But if any of you really rich buggers read this...gizza tenner )

fourkids · 23/04/2009 17:17

No please stay

And please stay right where you are - on the fence. This sides stuff is all tosh. (that's just in case you haven't already worked out I think that!)

But...be veeeeeeeerrrry careful what you talk about!

Or...we could debate your DS's Boden trousers? I mean, obviously you are MC because he is wearing them...maybe LMC cos they were from ebay? but on the other hand, maybe not LMC at all because you are obviously not needing to try to hard iyswim? And FIL is a vicar - yes, obv you are ALL middle class. In which case you will be slated whatever you say . See, if you were to choose WC you could talk about almost anything and it would be ok...you'd just have to tread carefully discussing a desire for more means tested benefits especially as we now know you don't work...but DH does, so you might even be safe there...

Who knows?!

Nancy66 · 23/04/2009 17:44

What is this Boden of which you all speak? I thought it was one of those coffee pots....

junglist1 · 23/04/2009 17:51

YANBU. I was flamed on a thread because I drop my T's! Over the top IMO

ThingOne · 23/04/2009 17:53

What a nasty little comment, Walkingwiththighosaurs "I did not have a child to palm off on someone else". Do you not approve of pre-school, school, or playdates? Or is it just nannies which make the smugometer beep?

I have nannies so that my children have been looked after properly while I have been long term sick. I can't afford it. I am in debt because of it but I chose to make sure my children were looked after properly rather than plonk them in front of TV all day.

Alternatively my DH could have given up his job, we would have lost our house and have had our housing costs paid by the state. On balance I think a little bit of palming off was a good plan.

Peachy · 23/04/2009 17:59

We might get a Nanny when we're bothn working, with 4 children its mroe economical anyway, lus we could elect one happy to work with SN kids. I think chidcare is a complex decision.

There's a lot of kind people on MN, who would give you their hug / half hour / whatever; that's what matters isn't it?

pagwatch · 23/04/2009 18:00

"There's a lot of kind people on MN, who would give you their hug / half hour / whatever; that's what matters isn't it? "

very well said Peachy.

pointydog · 23/04/2009 18:08

only read op but mn is what mn is.

Any message board can become a weird little microcosm of society. The weirdness is what I like. It's what you find when you look behind the boden, the high income, the school run dress, the lentil weaving, the redundant, the home-edders, the absolutely-whatever, that is interesting.

It all becomes dull when people get hung up on class and income.

junglist1 · 23/04/2009 18:25

Class doesn't matter one bit on here, until it's brought up by specific threads about accents etc. I'm working class, and was almost put off by being ripped apart over the way I speak TBH. Then I thought sod it, I can give support on here (or ere) as well as the next person, and if people met me, they'd like me despite the chavvy hoops and cockney accent (unless they were really uppity)

ABetaDad · 23/04/2009 20:11

junglist1 - that is the nice thing I find about online communities. No one judges you by your accent or how you look. Plus people talk to people they might never meet in RL outside the social circle defined by the place they live, place they work, school their kids go to, educational background.

beanieb · 23/04/2009 20:12

Only read teh OP, will read the rest of the thread in a mo but have to say - Mumsnet is the only forum I have been on where people post links to dresses which cost £100+ and talk about buying them as if they are a bargain.

MintyyAeroEgg · 23/04/2009 20:16

RG ... I think you mean 4 candles ...

willowthewispa · 23/04/2009 20:21

I think there is quite a mix on mumsnet, but at the same time it's quite middle class.

I do have to laugh at the idea that you don't have to be rich to employ a nanny. You have to be rich enough to pay someone else's salary! The average wage in this country is £25kish, so if you can afford to pay someone else £20k-£25k+ then you are rich whether you like it or not

Hulababy · 23/04/2009 20:25

Why namechange? Seems odd to namechange for this type of comment.

YABU

MN is full of huge mix of MNetters from the Uk and elsewhere.

APerson · 23/04/2009 20:31

IMO Mumsnet is majority chavs therefore I mostly lurk

Nighbynight · 23/04/2009 20:36

but willow, maybe you arent rich after youve paid a nanny??

mn has always been middle class, less so now than when it first started.

Hulababy · 23/04/2009 20:38

A nanny can work out cheaper than paying out for childcare elsewhere for 2+ children.

Mumcentreplus · 23/04/2009 20:44

MN is like life..a mixture...but what I notice is the ladies are smart,funny,honest and sometimes cool ..hence the reason I'm here...but there are some convos that baffle me! pendants..get a life (although I have had my moments!) fruitshoot haters get a hobby.. people who worry way too much about what other people think here's a question ..'Do they pay your rent?' breast vs bottle..lol.(keeps stum)....but then that's just my opinion ...because we are different and have different experiences, lives and loves!...I love Mumsnet!

arabicabean · 23/04/2009 20:50

I completely disagree with the OP.

I think that MN is more a reflection of the general society we live in. From reading various posts, there are obviously many people in receipt of benefits, many on modest incomes and as for the very wealthy, well I am sure there must a few of these on MN. As for earning 170K, although nice, that hardly puts you in the very wealthy bracket. I know a scandalous thing to say, but you tend to have a different perspective on salaries when you have worked in investment banking.

I don't understand the MN obsession with Boden. Wearing it seems to be associated with an aspirational lifestyle for a lot of people here. It is averagely priced high street clothing. Just that, nothing special.
If there were a lot of posts on MN complaining about their LO's Missoni cardigan pilling, now that would indicate a pool of affluence!