to think I have been brainwashed by mumsnet?

[stottiecake]

In a good way

Am co-sleeping, extended bf-ing, baby-led weaner.

On my shelf I have 'Raising Boys', 'What Mothers Do', 'how to talk so children will listen...' and 'Our Baies Ourselves' (but I found that one all by myself!)I want 'The Politics of Breastfeeding' and Ann Sinnots book.

My non-mumsnetting mummy pals are like

I wonder how I would have parented if mumsnet had not been recommended to me. I am very happy with the way things are though.

I mostly lurk but have found the support and advice on here invaluable

Soap nuts?
What are they?

Is it some kind of soap/face cream/costs a fortune but pretending to save money thing?

I use the liquitabs. I believe they kill the environment, but they smell good.

I can't be arsed with this environment thing. It takes up so much time, and I don't want to use old mud as face cream, I want to use the latest one recommended in Heat the highbrow face cream recommender.

I do recycle my bottles and cans if that helps?

I do BLW
I don't use real nappies
I don't use a mooncup...Ewwwwwww
I don't know anything about the curly hair lark
I don't do slings
Baby books...only when in Tesco flicking through, wouldn't buy one.
I take my son to McDonalds.....sometimes.
I cant' spell....and goodness how you lot hate it when there's a typo!

those books don't tell me what to do. they just agree with me on how i do things

they aren't baby books like gina/baby whisperer/annabel/miriam etc, they are books about childhood. i find them interesting. my other big favourite is sheila kitzinger, i lap up anything by her.

and soap nuts..well they're nuts, that produce soap. that link tell you all about them. they sorted dd's skin out a treat.

I will be a first time mum, and I have to say mumsnet really opened my eyes.

Before mumsnet I thought that everybody gave birth lying on their back with their knees up

Before mumsnet I thought that the maximum possible time to breastfeed (without being a weirdo) was 6 months

Before mumsnet I thought you HAD to move your baby into its own room and that controlled crying was the way to do it

Before mumsnet I thought Jo Frost was indisputably the best

Before mumsnet I would have gone throught the Mothercare catalogue essential for new mums/babies list and bought everyhting on it.

Mumsnet has shown me that there are so many different ways of parenting out there and (most) won't do any harm.

I always was a bit lentil-weavery but mumsnet has shown me how I can inflict that on my baby as well

I am a hippy anyway.

BUT...

I was thinking about this the other day, actually. Mumsnet has really opened my eyes in terms of feminism. I always thought of myself as a feminist, but after reading the porn thread, and the ones about women in the media (Lady Gaga's vid a recent example), I have really started to notice the girl/boy divide. I am now making an active effort to raise my DSs to be respectful of women.

So thank you, mumsnet.

I seem to know a lot of pretend-y Mums.
I love Mumsnet's tell it like it is style of parenting.
It's refreshing.

Would someone point me to where I can learn more about a Mooncup?

well, threads on here made me realise that it was ok to bf your baby past 6mths (and I subsequently did with dc3)

I had also never heard of mooncups before coming on here, and am now a convert.

Discovered BLW on here and realised I'd just found an excuse to save myself hours of cooking and pureeing- nice one!

I wouldn't say I followed these things as a trend, because I wanted to be a "real" MNetter, but rather that I'd never been aware of them until coming on here! I think I've learnt quite a lot of useful stuff on here.

But I still let my kids have the occasional fruit shoot..

I hit the roof when my husband bought the kids a fruit shoot each. I feared that people were watching us. MN did that to me.

Condensedmilkaddict.

Google Mooncup - the first result tells all.

I did it the other way round... I was doing BLW/cloth nappies/co-sleeping/babywearing/reusable san pro etc etc long before I came on MN. But it is nice to find like minded people

You are all individuals.

Yes, we are all individuals

I'm not