To think that this Times article about selfish mothers is vile

[mumbot]

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/janice_turner/article6916343.ece

A bitter and one sided view of motherhood. Do you agree?

Articles like this and the comments in response just show how hated children are in our society and how many people would prefer it if children were kept locked away until 25. Babies' pushchairs take up too much room, toddlers walk too slowly and are irritating and noisy, schoolchildren clog up the roads with the school run, are generally thick and a waste of time, teenagers are feral yobs.

As people feel bad about saying they hate small children, the vitriol is aimed at the mother instead.

ok let's stop this now ISNT before I get so depressed I can't get out of bed tomorrow. MOST people don't hate us or our children, I know this because lots of people smile at me and DD during the day and she is in a Bugaboo .
Let's rise above it, carry on being nice people with lovely children and let the bitter Times comments posters get on with their lives.

Please google Janice Turner before responding to this thread and you will realise that she isn't just venting, It's a very well thought out article and completely accurate on the whole. I left the shopping centre the other day because I was fed up with being hit on the heels with prams and having to detour down different aisles because the one I wanted was blocked with prams belonging to chatting mums. Fine, chat but move to the side or go to a coffee shop. I agree, what's with the car with pram car spaces? My DD as 4 little ones, 6 months to 6 years and she does not do any of the things mentioned in the article. Consequently she did not get all defensive when she read it because she recognized it as being a general observation of todays society. I do have a niece who fits the criteria but having said that she is a lovely person and would be the first one to do anything for you.

I was all prepared to spew bile at the journo...then I read the article. What's the fuss about? Someone did something selfish and nasty to her parents, and it made her angry. Stop the press.

The only bits I disagreed with in the article were: "motherhood has never been a bigger doddle" come on, Janice, motherhood has never been a doddle for anyone and never will be.

And the ending where she has a go at parents for complaining about the hard bits - huh? Everyone complains about the hard aspects of life, whether parenting-related or not.

Apart from that I think the article is pretty sound, and certainly chimes with my values.

Nelly - what slings have you tried? Unless you have ongoing back problems, 7 months old is not at all heavy for sling-wearing; many mothers carry their kids up to and beyond 2 years. It could just be that you have tried slings that don't work for you/ have not adjusted them correctly to support your back. Also don't forget you can carry him on your back in some slings - easy-peasy and not weighty at all.

If you want to try another sling start a thread - there'll be lots of advice here. It will make your life so much easier on the bus!

Will also add that the article was inspired by her deep hurt at the treatment of her elderly parents. My mum is the same age as her parents and I guess I would have reacted in the same way.

I think that the note scrawled on the car was an absolute disgrace and that some people think that they are God's gift because they have kids.

However, an article suggesting that all parents are like this is a bit crass. I'm sure most people would agree that the obnoxious mummy and her note are an extreme eg.

It is boring and predictable which is not what opinion pieces are suppose to be. It's also such a broad generalisation of a large section of the population that it's not a well thought out piece as someone has claimed. The piece seems a little as if the author wasn't quite sure what to go on to write after having the go at her parents note takers and instead thought that blaming the note on that fact they were obnoxious people wasn't enough so lets blame the fact they were parents. Easy targets. Lazy journalism.

I agree with Libra

It seems to me that JT wanted to wite the said piece and used the note on parents car as an "excuse".

When in fact the two things might not even be connected.

i know you are wrong about that tbh

How so?

Do you know who wrote the note?

god no its nto a conspiracy.
i just know.

look youll all have to accept that "Someone on the internet disgrees with me"
and that is it really. guidance

"i know you are wrong about that tbh"

really? I bet you £10 that these people were horrible obnoxious gits before they had children.

Conspiracy? WTF?

Look you all need to get some sense of proportion.
there was an article written that you disagre with - ther eis no need for three days of pulling the author apart. You disagree - fair enough.

spicemonster, we know it is supposed to be a polemic, but what an easy and vulnerable target she is trying to undermine - new mothers! I don't think anyone here would object to a one-sided and garbled attack on other groups e.g. politicians or bankers or socialites or city boys in the opinion section.

while the article was trite, it has also been very successful. The frenzy of delight in the Times comments, and even on here has left me That is what makes me keep coming back to this thread. Janice Turner has tapped in to a wave of indignation about allowances made for new parents. And I am really dismayed by that.

What has a conspiracy got to do with anything?

The examples she gave of things that shouldn't happen though were BF in church and taking children to restaurants.

She didn't say some parents are awful, she said all of them are.

And it is hard not to have your child impact on other people. For example yesterday when I was walking with DD, she can't walk as fast as adults. They have to walk around her. That is impacting on them, I can't see a way around it.

Crossing the road is another example, the green man comes and we cross but again she isn't quite as quick as the adults. Drivers get angry about it. Another thing that I can't see a way around.

thesecondcoming, I agree with everything you have written and find it absurd that those sort of threads appear on MN all the time. But, I've never come across that kind of preciousness in real life. I really don't think it is the norm. Maybe that is a danger with using MN for research?

Maliboo, if you write a piece like that, you do it to provoke a reaction. WilfSell put it well: "Am a bit shocked that more of you can't see the rightwing anti-feminist tone buried in the article tbh. Or maybe you can and you think that's a good thing. Oh well."

'It is boring and predictable which is not what opinion pieces are suppose to be.'

I think it was excellent as an opinion piece-it is still being disussed, fairly passionately,on here 48hrs after the thread started-therefore it did what it was supposed to do!

Well, obviously ImSoNotTelling, you´re supposed to strap your child to you until they can walk as fast as an adult.

sorry-discussed

ah that's where we will have to disagree, you say fairly passionatly I say with a bored air of come on you must be a better journalist than that. Also it's not a frenzy, 300 posts in 48hrs on mumsnet is NOTHING, in fact it's almost a diss to the journalist.