I think I'm turning into a Mumsnet snob

[PirateJelly]

My best friend was telling me about a really good book she had bought the other day to help her with her DD, she told me it was a NetMums guide to parenting, I pretended to listen but straight away I switched off as she was telling me what it said.

Today at baby group another mum complimented me on my wide knowledge regarding baby rearing and asked me what book I was reading, I said I learned everything I knew from a parenting website. She politely asked me if it was it was Babyworld, and I actually snorted at her and said no it's Mumsnet like that should explain it all, and what a stupid question to ask

The other day a friend asked if DS wanted a fruitshoot (hes only 10 months by the way) and I said in a snobby voice no we don't touch fruitshoots!

There are many more examples like this.
I don't know where this attitude has come from but I'm becoming aware that I am far more judgemental of other peoples parenting (if it's un mumsent like) and very judging of their parenting forum choices and actually try to convert them. Is this a bad thing? I know for a fact I wasn't like this before I joined mumsnet many moons ago, I feel like it has changed my whole mindset.

I have become less judgy since joining MN but less able to tolerate textspk. The thing I love most about here is that most people are literate. Some forums are such bloody hard work to read.

I have RL friends who use babycentre and that makes my eyes itch but they are great parents - MN parenting isn't the only way

What the hell is unmumsnetlike anyway ?

Anyone who doesnt BF till 4, BLW, cloth bum (confused) baby wear, co sleep and not vaccinate ?

i was having a conservation with a friend of mine IRL the other day, and she's got a toddler and one-on-the-way. i asked her if she ever went on MN and was actually that she didn't! she said she'd registered and been on here a couple of times, but she'd never been on the boards.

and i thought "but you breastfeed! and you had a water birth! how can you not MN?"

I started off on BC actually- and made some pretty amazing and very MN real life friends. Haven't been on there for about 2 years now, but can't find it in me to be so judgey about it!

Mumsnet is for:

Boden
Home baking (espcially cupcakes)
Mooncups

Mumsnet is against:

Junk food
Too Much Telly
Climbing Up Slides

God knows why OP feels so strongly about fruitshoots - I imagine that the whole fruitshoots thing started as a joke years ago.

I am less judgy than I used to be.

OP - this is a website. It is not a code of conduct Which Must Be Followed. Or the ten commandments.

I love MN but it is not as important as some people think fgs.

Daft cliches like fruit shoots, greggs sausage rolls, Boden, cupcakes etc are why all mumsnetters are viewed as one of the same breed aka middle class yummy mummies (urgh).

The simple fact is that this community is as diverse as any collection of 850,000 people is likely to be.

Threads like this just exacerbate the myth.

I do wonder, if there are 850,000 members, how come I see the same usernames again and again

I don't admit to anyone in RL I'm a MN'er.

I like the anonymity too much.

Myth? Myth? Don't be ridiculous.

I had never heard of Boden or Mooncups before coming onto this forum - and I still haven't felt the faintest urge to buy either.

I also don't do much (well, any) home-baking, though I am capable of it.

And I don't have any major issues about DS eating junk, or enjoying TV and computer games, so long as they are not all the time.

DS had his first bottle at 6 weeks, my enthusiasm for cloth nappies lasted about a week, and he was in his own room by a few months. We both seem to have survived reasonably sane and healthy.

It does piss me off that MN is getting a reputation of being full of hippyish middle-class Boden wearers, as that is such a limited attitude.

at climbing up slides.

I've never home baked in my life.

"OP - this is a website. It is not a code of conduct Which Must Be Followed. Or the ten commandments."
GetOrf: don't say that!!! i'm re-writing my life's rules on MN!

based on MN

i wish we had an edit option....

Do you know,

I know someone in RL who is the epitome of stereotypical MNer. Home baking, yummy mummy, v middle class of the right sort, raises her children very very carefully they are neat polite and well turned out to the nth degree.

You know what.

She'd never come on here. She consider it a shocking waste of time

I am less judgmental and much better informed since going on MN, especially about breastfeeding (I did not breastfeed - I am more pro-breastfeeding than I could ever have imagined)

I'd say MN is:

Pro bf
Pro "How To Talk ..."
Pro swearing

Anti smacking (though it understands the pressures that might lead one to want to smack, and seeks to help)
Anti certain Babynames (which I will not menation for fear of offending).
Anti the Daily Mail

I've become more judgey about other web forums, with their cliques and (((()))) (used to read babycentre ) and less judgey of other parents

I didn't come on here much (although was registered) when DD was a baby not least because I embraced the pain relief of epidural at her birth; bottle fed from day two; used disposable nappies; had her in her own room very early on; single parent; went back to work after 4 months (needed the money); etc. Now that she's older, I really wish I had come on here during those long, lonely days and nights. It wouldn't have changed my parenting choices but it would have been a lot less isolating...

I think I'm less judgey and more respectful of other people's choices since coming on here. I'd never give anyone a Fruitshoot - they're disgusting.

Just managed to get a chance to come back on. I think my problem is for a couple of years I mainly tended to lurk and read old threads which meant rather than developing my on pov I was kind of brain washed by the old style of mumsnet, which IMHO could at times be rather judging and middle class in it's style of parenting (from what I read anyway and feel free to flame me if you disagree, and I'm not saying eveyone or all the time)it was very different to the likes of the more fluffy parenting websites where incorrect practices were not corrected by others.

The thing is I am very far removed from the boden wearing, extended bf with 2 labradors type of person some people think mumsnetters are. If anything I'm the complete opposite, yet I still have this attitude that makes me judgemental which I feel has come from too much mumsnet.

Maybe it's just me, but by chance I found out an old school friend was also a mumsnetter and she admitted she agreed with how once you'd been on mumsnet a while you couldn't go back to other forums because they were generally so out of touch with the way you think about things now. I don't know what to think.

nickelbabe - must agree it would be nice to have an edit option... I guess we 'correct' in our heads quite well most of the time, but I chuckled when I read "was having a conservation with a friend"

Jamieandhismagictorch - "Pro swearing"

I'd say it was simply "tolerant" or "relaxed"... unlike the vast majority of discussion areas online.

Most people swear once in a while, and some obscure it a bit (so f..k o.f for example would not be found)... reading fark orf or blardy makes it clear what's meant in each case)

Just managed to get a chance to come back on. I think my problem is for a couple of years I mainly tended to lurk and read old threads which meant rather than developing my on pov I was kind of brain washed by the old style of mumsnet, which IMHO could at times be rather judging and middle class in it's style of parenting (from what I read anyway and feel free to flame me if you disagree, and I'm not saying eveyone or all the time)it was very different to the likes of the more fluffy parenting websites where incorrect practices were not corrected by others.

The thing is I am very far removed from the boden wearing, extended bf with 2 labradors type of person some people think mumsnetters are. If anything I'm the complete opposite, yet I still have this attitude that makes me judgemental which I feel has come from too much mumsnet.

Maybe it's just me, but by chance I found out an old school friend was also a mumsnetter and she admitted she agreed with how once you'd been on mumsnet a while you couldn't go back to other forums because they were generally so out of touch with the way you think about things now. I don't know what to think.

Sorry for double post

i never tell anyone i use mn.
before, years ago, i liked the anonimity. it was my secret source of info. fab.
now it is emabrassing, due to the bad press. i still like mn and think its greta, but the bad bits, the direction it has taken, allowing tabloids to quote us, etc, i don't like those bits so would never tell anyone.