Is anyone else getting suspicious

[KimberleyClark]

Of the number of threads being started in AIBU lately which seem designed to pit parents and the childfree against each other? It’s very striking how many there have been recently.

There's a thread in Site Stuff that's just gone up about this: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5203765-threads-pitting-childfree-women-against-parents

I kept trying to figure out if I get done for troll hunting and how to formulate it so I don't 😂

Good on whoever put it up!

I can't believe this one is still standing btw

I always get deliberately giddy in those threads, let them pick the bones out of that, and it's fun - there are some hilarious buggers on this site! 😄

Fair enough. Japanese mortgages did crack me up

Yes, I am highly suspicious.

I think it's worse though to see regular users, names that you recognise, chiming in with their usual CF bingo bollocks.

Particularly enjoying the one with the OP who doesn't want to be persuaded to work Xmas. Of course she could just get new years off instead, because if you don't have children then you are out getting pissed on nye. No other options are available.

I just ignore them to be honest - there are a lot of people on here utterly furious with their own life decisions, determined to make themselves feel better by playing ‘gotcha baiting’ with CF people and desperate for the attention they are starved of elsewhere.

I’m too busy enjoying my silent clean house to waste time giving them attention!

I've definitely noticed an increase too. It's not directly (or actually at all!!) related to your post @KimberleyClark but I always look out for your posts on here. I'm childless, not through choice, and reading (lurking) your posts over time has helped so much - you've mentioned you desperately wanted children but have had a wonderful life without them. I've found this so reassuring and insipiring, so thank you.

I hope this doesn't sound rather weird!! I guess its worth remembering that even anonymous posts can have a huge impact on someone - positively in the case of KC, but other times when reading the types of post the op was about definitely for the negative.

Thanks x

I also look out for @KimberleyClark 's posts and find them really positive and inspiring. 😊

Oh gosh thank you so much @LouScot and @Starfish89 - that is so wonderful to hear!😊 I’m so pleased my posts have helped and hope they continue to do so.

Is it just me, or does the thread about pet owners calling themselves pet mums and dads also feel like a thinly disguised dig at the childless/free? If it is it hasn’t worked, because lots of parents have posted that they do it too!

Not just you @KimberleyClark , the pets thread is just another dig at the CF_ if you can't be responsible for a DC then you're not fit to own an animal. My cat lives the life of Riley, if she was a child she'd be a right spoilt little madam 😂

Hi
hope you don’t mind posting!
but yes agree that pet thread was just a wind up and I think pple cause trouble and want to argue to the cows come home. There was another one bout the birth rates falling and some poster who has kids thinks she’s doing society a favour by having kids! I was like no luv, your not helping anyone out.
As a mum , I do have friends who do t have children, as well. Everyone is different
I just hate the threads with the children banning on flights. That scares me as if I ever took my child on a flight I’d definitely make sure they wouldn’t disturb, but just am not likening the hate towards kids at the moment by all peoples

I think you're being generous to say it's disguised at all! Definitely from the same stable.

I honestly couldn't be arsed to join the thread and justify the way I talk to the pets that according to these idiots, I shouldn't even have unless I'm prepared to adopt a couple of children alongside them. 🙄

Eejitmum101

I just hate the threads with the children banning on flights. That scares me as if I ever took my child on a flight I’d definitely make sure they wouldn’t disturb, but just am not likening the hate towards kids at the moment by all peoples

What is the point of posting that on this thread?
That's not what it's about and it isn't about "hate towards kids".
I've got 2 grown up children and a GC but crying babies and badly behaved small children on flights drive me nuts. For that reason, I didn't take mine abroad until they were old enough to understand that they had to behave. However, why someone finding a yelling baby on a flight annoying should scare you is beyond me.

Of my two DCs, one wanted children and has one (and one on the way), the other doesn't. I completely understand both mindsets. However, I was telling a friend this the other day and she's convinced that the CF one is only saying that because she's having trouble conceiving!
No matter how much I said that isn't the case, she couldn't see somebody else's point of view.
The fact that someone may take against my DD or disbelieve her because she chooses not to have children seems more "scary" to me than somebody rolling their eyes because a toddler keeps kicking the back of their plane seat.

This, absolutely. And the way they’re phrased, as you say, neutral language but provocative question, is strikingly similar.

I have just come across the dog/cat mum thread. Old faithful is on page 1 bemoaning how sad and tragic it is.

Some people are not very bright.

@LaMarschallin yes understood

I’ve hidden that thread. It was simply getting too weird & there were people who clearly had no idea what they were talking about.

So have I. There were people who seemed to loathe companion animals there.

I'm childfree by choice and the threads don't bother me. I kind of assume that all people with kids are more short tempered and stressed as a baseline so I don't take it personally. I find the threads that are linked a bit weird, but I guess it's a loss of normal understanding of social interactions.

I’ve noticed this. I do find these posts tend to be anti-children - or at least always turn in that direction. I’ve seen a few have been deleted which is good - but there are so many of them.

You haven’t seen any goady posts that are anti-people without kids, then?

Yes. Most posts about race also seem fake

I know childfree people hate this - but when I joined mumsnet, I joined expecting it to be a safe space for parents at the very least.

I have seen posts that are anti many things - from racism, to homophobia to sexism. And yes, mean to childfree people and mean to breast feeders and mean to animal lovers - the list goes on. But I just wouldn’t expect a platform that was originated to be a help for parents to be so anti.

It’s like joining an LGBTQ+ forum that is hijacked by people that hate you. Why should this forum be horrible to those of us that have chosen to have children? We already get a hard time in the real world.

I personally don’t care if someone has chosen to or not to have children - it’s their choice and I find it sad that childfree people also get abuse. But if you are going to be so cruel about your hate for people with children - don’t bring that energy to mumsnet.