I HATE MUMSNET: Why one mum thinks the parenting website is smug, patronising and vicious

[morningpaper]

night night

i never see this bullying, tbh. or at least where i see what appears to be a pile-on i just pop my typing fingers out and post 'hang on a minute, this is going too far' and then it stops. it's easy.

people who see 'bullying' should just speak up at the time, imo.

Mn can be all those things if you look for it, but if you don't, and stay outside AIBU - then its very suportive.

i think it a bit odd that though drawn to the discussion forum, instead of fluffy meaningless exchanges of platitudes she found discussion and then says 'oh well its all bitchery then' when no one forces you to look. you can hide AIBU if ya like.

Pretty much every topic apart from AIBU is (otoh) generally well behaved.

but she slagged the other forums off as 'witterings' though, so all bases were covered.

ach well, she's entitled to her opinion. there's every chance she didn't even have an opinion prior to the femail ed saying 'we need something negative about mn, they're getting too big for their boots'.

I love the idea that if the DM don't like it, MNers are doing something right

I was desperately uncomfortable with the notion that the DM liked MN enough to want to run a column....that didn't say a lot positive about us!!

Poor dear. Were we nasty to her?

like the idea of the bag.
Could we also have one that says (menacingly) 'Tell me your favourite biscuit'?

Maybe she can write another article about the reponses to her first artcle

I love that the best rated posts are all in support of MN. Wonder who's been clicking those green arrows...?

Do you think that when Sarah Chalmers became a journalist, all those years ago, she imagined she would be sidelined to write such inane nonsense as this? Her previous form has been indepth articles about Judith Chalmers knickers, whether cats have belly buttons and what your pram says about you.

Come on! She has a point! As someone who bf both her children, has a nursing degree, has bought from Boden but also gives her kids Fruit Shoots, McDonalds and readily admits to wasting too much time on the internet, I think she summed it up pretty accurately. The only parenting forum worse is IMO Babyworld. Not only do you get smugness, bitching, excessive BDing and smilies but the majority of the posters are complete morons.

Hilarious article. Hilarious about the 'grown women' using names such as mine. I have never found bullying here (no more 'arguing' than any other site anyway), I am not 'in' with the crowd so to speak (prefer being an outsider) but have still always had posts answered, loads of useful info and had support after loosing a baby etc. I also consider myself more working class and am only part way through a degree!!

Oh and I'm one of those old parents who had to buy a double buggy to accomodate my "last chance saloon" family before my clapped out ovaries packed up ready for the menopause.

i find it amusing that 'jane from Hove' is very disappointed in us, whilst 'Liz from Brighton' is very pro Mumsnet...

or maybe that's a Sussex in-joke.

well, in that case, i must be an outsider too.
i've got a degree and two boden tops (but i bought them from a charity shop) but i don't have any children (yet!).

I'm pretty sure i'm working class, although at the moment i'm earning no money and being supported by my OH (well, the first couple of years of a new business are like that).

I think by the time I get my children, i'll be having to get one of those double buggies, won't i?
[nickel slopes off feeling older than the hills ]

God that Alison woman is getting on my tits now. Deliberately dense?

"only vaguely heard of it and this was mainly due to the fact that one of the founders still had their four year old child in nappies. kind of put me off the website and have got on fine without it.......and from reading this article, quite frankly I don't think I will be clicking on any time soon.......!

• Rebecca, Bucks, UK, 27/11/2009 1:59"

What???

i think a few threads have got a bit playground, like that one about the 'horriable' child, or that one about over-diagnoses of syndromes, or that homosexuality in the classroom one. but this is the internet, and you get that sort of thing.

Arf. Too funny. Still, guess the mortgage has to be paid. Glad we could oblige this month, Sarah

Who has still got her kid in nappies aged 4?

I found the recent thread about the woman who gave her disabled child away to foster parents (discussed here in AIBU)particularly smug, unsympathetic and distasteful.
As mothers there seems little support or understanding amongst us.

That said, MN is far superior to any other online parenting site. If you steer clear of the obviously bitchy threads and seek out the support forums then the advice is fantastic.
Netmums = great for local info and support for new mums but lacking in spark or lively chat.
Babyworld = run by and for complete morons, obsessed mainly with bigging themselves up and bragging
Bounty = better for young or single mums. Terrible txt speak throughout the forums
Babycentre = similar to netmums but without the local info.

If the site ever got rich enough to buy a nice full-page ad in the DM for a few weeks, we would no doubt be treated to 'Why Mumsnet Has Turned It Around And Is Now Great'.