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So, us rotten lot....

999 replies

scarredpierced · 11/04/2013 10:19

How many of us actually meet Shona's little sidekicks criteria?
She states that all of us on Mumsnet are in our 30s, living in London and have a degree. How many people here meet that criteria?
How many are popping prozac depressed at the shit life we now have with kids?
Damn that woman is nasty!

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 16/04/2013 20:37

I remember Xenia's previous posts because essentially it's the same point made every time. Grin

mrsjay · 16/04/2013 20:38

so we have over 9 pages about xenia \and are way off topic i cant even remember what the OP was supposed to be

ComposHat · 16/04/2013 20:41

ok,so you cut and paste
you bold
any original non gripey she said dis and dat in 19canteen thoughts

Are you taking the piss now?

I really cannot fathom any meaning in this post whatsover. I am not saying this to be snarky, but that is complete gibberish.

DamselWithADulcimer · 16/04/2013 20:47

ScottishMummy is often incomprehensible, but '19canteen thoughts' is even more incomprehensible than normal. Confused

JugglingFromHereToThere · 16/04/2013 20:51

HaHa - a real, tea spluttering LOL @ scottish mummy, Compos, and Damsel Grin

Xenia · 16/04/2013 20:54

I think people miss my point. It is that in all cultures as soon as they can afford it or if they find a wife mug enough to do it people will get others to help them with looking after the children. That may be foisting them on to a 6 year old whilst you go out to work in a factory or tying them to a board (native Americans) or the 1m UK domestic servants circa 1900 but it is universally so - that most women of sense know hours of childcare is pretty dull so as soon as you have the economic power to have others do a chunk of that if you have sense then you do so.

TiggyD · 16/04/2013 20:59

Where can you get these child boards? Does Cath Kidston do them?

MistressoftheYoniverse · 16/04/2013 21:06

Speak for yourself Xenia...child care is very different to domestic stuff in a heart beat I would take/pick my children up from school,take them on trips and exciting escapades,organise tea parties and go on shopping trips, cook dinner (no washing up) ..keeping house?.. now that I would readily palm off if I was rich enough Grin

ouryve · 16/04/2013 21:07

One of these might do the job, Tiggy - it'll just need bigger hooks.
mikebatts.com/ebay/SpecialTools68/DSCN5501.JPG

JugglingFromHereToThere · 16/04/2013 21:07

"I think people miss my point" Xenia

  • so you acknowledge there is only ever one Xenia ? Wink
Lizzylou · 16/04/2013 21:20

Hmm, so Xenia being a servant was a lifestyle choice? I think not in most cases.
Luckily we no longer have children going up chimneys/ working in factories 6 days per week.
Sorry to be the one to have to tell you, but we have somewhat progressed!

ComposHat · 16/04/2013 21:22

That may be foisting them on to a 6 year old whilst you go out to work in a factory or tying them to a board (native Americans) or the 1m UK domestic servants circa 1900 but it is universally so - that most women of sense know hours of childcare is pretty dull

That is so many shades of stupid I don't know where to begin.

The absolute divide between wage labour and domestic work is a relatively recent one and dates back no further than the industrial revolution. It isn't inevitable and it is a cultural construct.

You don't really imagine facotry and mill workers of the Nineteenth century thought- '10 hours of backbreaking repatative labour for a pittance, now that'll be an enrriching experience that'll push the gender boundries' Of course not, it was a product of economic neccesity as wages in the cotton districts of the North-West were so low that they couldn't be supported on the wages of a sole male earner. It was a product of neccesity an family survial, not choice.

As others have said, the vast majority of domestic servants were 'maids of all work' not Nannies. They would perform drudge work around the house, not childcare.

Sorry Xenia, that isn't the case that all women in all cultures palm childcare off on a minion at the first opportunity.

As you've done throughout this thread, you've taken your own opinions and values and treated them as universal truths, when they really aren't.

Lizzylou · 16/04/2013 21:26

Thankyou composhat.
Xenia for an intelligent woman you don't half talk out of your arse!

DamselWithADulcimer · 16/04/2013 21:31

It's interesting to read all this, given that the thread was in response to Shona Sibary's comments about MN.

I disagree with most of Xenia's posts. I gave up a fantabulous job to become a SAHM, which I think is the best, most fulfilling, most rewarding job on earth. Nothing would ever have convinced me to farm my children out to anyone else. I am educating my daughter (and my son, btw) at massive expense - but not in order to force her into a high-flying career (though if that's what she wants to do, that's up to her).

For all that I disagree with her, though, I have never, ever seen Xenia slag off another poster or make directly personal comments about anyone else. Sadly, the same can't be said of most of the posters who respond to her. In that respect, Shona S is right. Sadly.

mrsjay · 16/04/2013 22:26

I wonder if these servants were self employed empowered women who could make a fortune in their work ?

JugglingFromHereToThere · 16/04/2013 22:59

I just don't see that Xenia has been "slagged off" Damsel
I'm sure she is a strong woman who can cope with a bit of robust debate.

exoticfruits · 16/04/2013 23:12

Xenia can cope with it, she has been saying the same thing for years. She can't understand that everyone is different. Some of us find child care really interesting and would find her job dull - nothing wrong in that - it would be boring if we all liked the same. However- Damsel is quite right- she doesn't slag off other posters, probably because she is sure she is right!

Sparklingbrook · 16/04/2013 23:13

I don't think Xenia will stop until she wins us all over. Grin

GettingGoing · 16/04/2013 23:17

Tiggy 'Where can you get these child boards? Does Cath Kidston do them?' Grin

lljkk · 17/04/2013 07:24

Ironically, the OP was about whether you can stereotype MNers.
Which those of us who hang around here would emphatically say you can't.
You can't even stereotype them into polarised factions of high power high stanards WOHMs vs. Husband and Child-Focused ambition-stunted SAHMs.
It just ain't that simple.
Much as people like Sibary (or Xenia) would like to make it.

JugglingFromHereToThere · 17/04/2013 07:32

Nice thread rescue lljkk Smile

And agree, it's not that simple.

But simple too makes a better story, especially in the DM Grin

exoticfruits · 17/04/2013 07:40

If they were so stereotyped I wouldn't come on- it would be boring.
It is so interesting because it has all sorts , all ages, all opinions,all walks of life, from those hoping to conceive to those with adult children and everything in between and those who have no children and includes men.
You couldn't really get a wider range.

DamselWithADulcimer · 17/04/2013 10:02

Juggling, I'm quite sure that Xenia is more than capable of defending herself, should she feel the need to (which I suspect she doesn't - I suspect she doesn't take this stuff personally).

But I'd see this (most recent) comment as slagging her off: "Xenia for an intelligent woman you don't half talk out of your arse!"

I don't think Xenia has ever resorted to that kind of rudeness.

Thumbwitch · 17/04/2013 10:25

But she called her an intelligent woman, Damsel - that's not slagging her off. That's just telling her that she is not producing comment in line with her intellect.

Lizzylou · 17/04/2013 10:34

Perhaps I was more to the point than I meant to be Damsel but to be perfectly honest I know from being on here years that there are posters who will address a well researched and succinctly put counter argument and there are others who will continue to bang their one agenda drum regardless.
So last night as I was tired and about to retire I made a comment about the poster (intelligent) and their comments (which I considered to be historically incorrect).
Mea Culpa.