Mumsnet in the early ‘00’s. I’m obsessed

[FTMummy2022]

You may say I have too much time on my hands but I’m completely fascinated & obsessed at reading old threads from the early 2000’s on MN…. Don’t you think it’s weird/ironic that the topics of the threads themselves pretty much haven’t changed at all in 20+ years? It literally is the same old crap different day…I was born in 2000 so for me it’s like reading what my mum would have posted about being a parent… anyway, just a thought.

I come across these threads often when searching things on google and putting Mumsnet at the end 😂 we're all the same really just years difference lol

Back then it was just Justine and Carrie talking to each other

I have been on here since about 2007 and this is exactly why I’ve stopped engaging as much. It’s just the same old stuff again and again and most way out stuff that’s different is later deleting as posted by a troll!

I now only really engage on niche topics where I am learning new stuff I need eg SEN board

Oooo I might need to read!

That’s because women’s life stages change but the issues in those stages don’t.

yiur mum’s worries as a new mum will be yours and your daughters and your granny had them too.

I am reading a wartime diary and feel the same. Interesting to see how little changes for women (although 2000s isn’t really that long ago!)

Lol. I joined MN in 2001. Gawd I am old.

Some things have changed

For one - smartphones weren't a thing. So no threads about children / screens.

Gina Ford was the news of the day.

But on the whole - the groundhog is pretty consistent.

My 1st post was back in those early days when DS ( born 1999) was an awful sleeper and I was a desperately tired new mum.

these days he’ll easily sleep for 24hours and i’m now a desperately tired old mum! 🤔

Why are you surprised? People have the same questions about their lives now as then. Advice about children /relationships/education/work etc. I guess what would be newer today are issues around social media. Even the economy and political issues haven't changed much.
There's often a quote or excerpt posted on FB which is very relatable, then you find out it's from over 100 years ago. People and their issues don't change much.

I think I joined in 2002 so I would have been posting then. It was a very different feel because it was so small.

The subjects haven't changed a lot although Baby Pasta doesn't crop up any more 😂 There seems to me a lot more in depth technical knowledge about subjects now - probably die to better internet searching and a greater breadth of posters.

That's not that long ago!

I joined in 2006, I remember lots of Gina Ford and everyone had either Maclarens or slings. Bugaboos were new and very very expensive

Actually mamas and papas was quite a big deal, they had a massive flagship store on Regents Street

I had my first son in 2001, yet only came to MN a couple of years ago when youngest child had problems attending secondary school.
I'm not sure if MN would have been a positive for me. There is a lot of scaremongering and negativity, esp concerning young males. Not the healthiest of forums in my opinion, l like the gardening and litter tray threads the best.

Here is it on the Internet Archive - Mumsnet 2000!

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010418165318/www.mumsnet.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20010418165318/www.mumsnet.com/

Ironically although this is the #bekind age, the replies from back then are often much gentler/more affable

Is it a published book? I'd love to read a wartime diary

It was a far more homogenous group of white middle class mums back then. It was far wittier and far gentler.

i was on mumsnet in 2006 and then sporadically after

my personal feelings
there was a lot more jokiness, threads about problems would turn into silliness and larking about rather than the moral grandstanding that we see now.
We used to have a weekly roundup (Aitch?) to summarise the best and funniest posts. Hard to imagine that now.
You'd recognise most people's names and they had 'personalities'. You could rely on certain people to pop up on certain types of threads. People were sniffy about there being a mumsnet royalty, and the known posters who were involved would deny there being such a thing.
The actual advice would be from a few people who really knew what they were talking about - tiktok for breastfeeding is someone who'll always stick in my mind as keeping me going when it was tough
Everyone was always talking how it used to be better

I’ve been on here since 2003 and it was such a nice small community back then. We all really knew each other, met up in real life etc. I look at those threads because they have my birth threads of two of my DC’s home births, amongst other things (now almost 20 and 17) Ahhhh I was so young…

I don't think that it was wittier. Definitely fewer rude posts. People "knew" each other or thought that they did. Far fewer posts from women in abusive relationships too

Hi soupy! 😘@SoupDragon

👋🏻 to fellow oldies! 😂

Pretty much all of the differences between the early years and now are purely down to size.

There’s nothing new under the sun.