Complete this MNHQ & GNHQ survey about feeling invisible for a chance to win a £100 voucher! *Thread title edited by MNHQ*

[RebeccaEMumsnet]

Post edited by MNHQ

We at MNHQ and GNHQ would like to know your opinions about the concept of feeling invisible as you get older.

This survey is open to all Mumsnet users in the UK.

All who complete this survey will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter or Gransnetter will win a £100 John Lewis voucher.

Here's a link to the survey.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw.

MNHQ

@elastamum

OFGS!

So not only are the over 50's invisible - but they are also grandparents

Argh - we didn't mean at all to imply that the over 50s are all grandparents - not least because we've got a few 50-something MNHQers with children in primary school!

GNers tend to be aged between 50 and 75, so we originally asked for the views of the over 50s, not because we assume you're grandparents, but because age-wise you match with the profile of the typical GNer.

However, in this case you'll see that we've changed the survey in response to your feedback, and it's now open to all MNers.

Thanks,

MNHQ

Dear Justine - you're a woman. Do you feel invisible? I don't.

Perhaps the reason so many Gransnetters feel invisible is because you've created a ghetto for them. I'm over 50 with a 12 year old DD and I have no intention of going over to Gransnet EVER. I'll age with the rest of my peers on MN and continue to chat with them and the young whippersnappers.

It is the media - and that includes MNHQ - that plays a massive role in making the ageing process traumatic for many. So take a stand against ageism and delete this bloody awful survey.

Actually I think parenthood makes one invisible and that compounded with being an older mother makes one doubly so...

Obvs 50 something mothers are already invisible (or simply don't exist) if all are assumed to be grandparents already! and and more than a little bit !

Completely agree with Maquiladora about the Gransnet ghetto. No intention of venturing over to Gransnet. I do intend to stay here and challenge ageism though.

We still have a teenager in the house and DH is 60 next week, grandchildren are a long way off.

Teddy: "Actually I think parenthood makes one invisible and that compounded with being an older mother makes one doubly so..."

I agree with you on this. I do fight it by giving my voice particularly on line.

Appalling that such an ageist and patronising survey was thought necessary in the first place. Oh I've filled it in and commented at the end.

How dare you or anyone judge a complex being like an adult human purely on her sexual attractiveness to young men who wish to impregnate her/ or not. That's what it boils down too.

She is capable of so much, the unfathomable depths of love, care, wisdom, practicalities, creativity, humour, hatred, cruelty.
Yet you judge her solely on the youth of her face and the litheness of her body. Shame on you.

I didn't have a problem with it. I do feel invisible and I bloody love it. I can dress for utter comfort and to please nobody but me - there is no expectation or requirement for me to be decorative or pleasing any more.

I think MNHQ are getting a hard time - I remember the thread about "Mi5 should recruit from MN" and loads of posters saying they'd be brilliant because, as middle aged women, they are invisible and would be happy to shag various combinations of Lucas north, adam carter, tom Quinn and occasionally Ros

Confused here! If the assumption is Grans - why include 'How many children - 0' in options? Mumsnet / Gransnet - why the difference? Grans are Mums or has this been ignored? As mentioned, parents come in many age brackets now and I feel these on-line ghettos cater to those in marketing, who really don't know better and probably never will!

This drivel doesn't help older women and there is a much bigger issue regarding aegism in society, than simply being invisible!

Can I ask what age those who compiled this survey are?

My local council has a 'policy' for 'over 50s' and I read it when I turned 50, and not once did the policy mention the issues of being a working parent of school aged children.

I think similarly here, the 'invisibility' is that of working mothers and our economic contributions, maybe?

i feel invisible now ive answered that survey!

lol, done.

Not at all - as a 50 something with an 8yo I can vouch for the fact we don't assume that everyone over 50 is a gran. But...the invisibility thing is a much reported upon phenomenon (take Helen Walmsley-Johnson's The Invisible Woman for example, and many, many press reports) and while we realise everyone's experience is different, a great many people have reported (on our forums and elsewhere) that as you get older people treat you differently. As we say - this may not be the case for all (which is why we wanted to find out more) but it is for many...whether it's being passed over at work, treated like an old dear just because you have grey hair...

Oh Helen Walmsley Johnson does write some utter drivel.

Come on, CariGransnet - who composed your survey which, amongst other monstrosities, asked us about not getting wolf-whistled at anymore! And why did you feel the need to create Gransnet?

My DH recently got made redundant, as he is over 50 he expected things to be a bit tougher this time. He has done little other than tell friends about the redundancy and has been regularly contacted with a wide range of job opportunities, and is starting a very good Job next week.

The relevance is that we need to stop thinking that age is necessarily a problem.

Gransnet?

Jesus I read the title and thought you meant the real GNHQ

That's really tickled me.

I like Gransnet b/c they aren't so PC as MN, like breath of fresh air.

Done!

we did operation christmas child, where you wrap a shoe box in christmas paper and fill it up with things to send to a child in another country that wouldn't get anything for christmas otherwise. I did it with my 3year old and explained to her that some children don't have parents or any money so we would make them smile by sending them some stuff for christmas. My 3year old said I could give the some of her toys to make them happy!