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 think there was a point around a decade ago where it moved from "posters on Mumsnet will be direct and honest" to "posters on Mumsnet will be rude, hectoring and hostile but tell themselves they are being direct and honest". I think it was around the point where AIBU exploded and it kind of rubbed off onto the rest of the site.

@SoupDragon

I've definitely read some of your (very old) threads! I love how you're still on here! What was in your opinion your most enjoyable age of your children?
😊

Well, if you've mysteriously vanished tomorrow we'll have our answer...

Hardly surprising, people still have the same questions. I wasn't here at the start, it was a different dynamic because it was only small.

I've progressed in my threads from weaning, to primary school, to secondary, to uni. That's natural.

Did the invite to camp in the field have something to do with a horse?

Just a few years ago anything, ANYTHING, defending women's rights against transwomen was absolutely nixed, and users blocked for even daring to BREATHE women's rights to safe spaces on this site, now mn actually allow open discussion of it. I'm glad for the change to such a fascist stance.

Yep.
I've just remembered (speaking about women's rights and TRA) Posie was on Babycentre when I was under her real name (that's what almost everyone did back in the day- my username was my email address 😱) Madness 🤣

It was quite cliquey back then ( joined 2007 I think so not really early days) but definitely dafter, less self righteous, more accepting and much funnier.
What feels weird to me is that not only are the babies now grown, but some lovely posters are dead and gone ( Zombie, BoF, the one with the tent..argh peri brain!) I still think about them from time to time.

Why would you expect it to be different? Surely the problems and questions surrounding raising children will be the same in another 20 years also.

I've been here since 2006 since i had DD and was a bleary eyed new mum.
She finished her GCSEs yesterday!
I remember doing a christmas gift exchange with some of the mums in my pregnancy board and we met up in real life. I can't even imagine that these days!

Wow! Bless your daughter xx My DS is 8 months old I can't even imagine there being a time when he takes his GCSE's... sometime in like 2038/2039... crazy to think!

@ModestMoon

For a young person, (22 YO) when I think of early 00's I think of a whole different world, computers with the great big backs, videos, tapes, no smart phones etc, a lot of people glorify those years.. yet some of the threads from decades ago could have been written yesterday and you wouldn't even know! I find that interesting. My point is things aren't as different as they're made out to be

I joined in 2010 so not a real old timer, but it definitely felt smaller back then. People would namechange but for certain times of year like Xmas, or to take the piss out of something.

I think it was funnier and gentler - you didn't used to have to put 'lighhearted' on things. AIBU was always robust but you'd be given a straight answer rather than the pile-ons that sometimes happen now. I agree with the poster that said you could post about a variety of things - regardless of whether it was money worries or your next Caribbean holiday - and you would mostly get pretty fair responses. People didn't rush to moralise about how wicked you were to think about a holiday when there are starving children etc.

However the downside is that it felt cliquey back then; there were a lot of little groups which had in-jokes which could end up dominating a thread. 'Outing' was much more of a thing back then I think, because generally people were more open and shared more.

It had a massive impact. I remember the day that Riven posted about not being able to cope with her DD anymore - huge press story and ended up with David Cameron getting involved.

I rotate between names and de-regging because two loads of data leaks made me wary. Ultimately I keep coming back because nowhere else has such a huge and diverse community of women.

That was beetroots field. The weekend Gina Ford arrived.

im 2003

Lol at baby pasta @SoupDragon

It was different and not. The internet was there but not as mainstream as it is now, so it felt like a smaller place.

Mobiles were everywhere and although they weren't smartphones - I had a very dinky Nokia 8210 which fitted perfectly into my denim jacket pocket! - and we texted constantly. You had to be pretty inventive in a 140 character message limit when you didn't have unlimited texts on your mobile plan!

Tapes weren't as common - they were around but CDs were the mainstream. Likewise video vs DVD.

Hey @Cod soupy and me (incognito) - the three musketeers! Where’s Enid?

I loved MN back then - I found it in 2007 and stayed for the intelligence and black humour. I remember some of the classic threads and Friday evenings were always funny.
I went off it for a while, grew out of the baby years I suppose, and when I came back found it much more in your face aggressive.
I nearly bounced straight off again but found the Feminism and Elderly Parents boards worth staying for, and got pulled back in…

Absolutely! I would be slaughtered nowadays for some of my posts back then. I was looking back on some of them recently, and without a shadow of doubt, there would have been a pile on about some of the questions/problems I had as a newish parent. It's quite a shame really

I remember doing a christmas gift exchange with some of the mums in my pregnancy board and we met up in real life. I can't even imagine that these days!

This does still happen now, I’m in a couple of FB groups which started on MN and they do secret santas and meet ups.

I agree with a PP who said about childcare being more contentious back then, it seems like there were a lot more SAHMs whereas it is quite rare now.

Enid - She’s on twitter under rl name.

Can't remember when I joined, 2005 maybe? Was so much wittier back then, people used to make me laugh ,it's a rare day that happened these days as I spend too much time rolling my eyes at the utter nonsense people post. Fewer trolls made it a nicer place imo.

I was there in those days. It was funnier, kinder for sure. Now so many posters are so unkind and often downright mean to the OP who is looking for help and support. You did get to know other people's personalities on threads in a way I dont see often now.

It doesn't feel that different in many ways to 2000 except that I was a teenager then even younger than you OP

I do think the internet on parenting issues has changed - there used to be some silly fights over things like sleep training, bf vs ff, BLW etc (I remember people getting really irate about whether or not it was possible to do "a mix of BLW and spoon feeding" lol) - BUT - though we had those fights and MN had a reputation for being a "nest of vipers" it was nothing compared with the kind of extremism that you tend to see on SM on parenting topics today.

It used to be "cosleeping is a bad habit, don't start" vs "sleep training is cruel, I could never do it" now it's "cosleeping (or deviating even slightly from one of the 1000 sleep rules) will definitely 100% kill your baby if you even get it wrong just one time" and "sleep training is going to cause irreversible brain damage and completely destroy any attachment you have with your baby" It's just totally bonkers off the scale now. People still have the same strength of feeling and call people names but seem to back it up with these terrifying pronouncements of doom!

When they were away at university or, in the case of DS2, left home 😂

I do still think wistfully back to the feeling of a little baby's head nestled into the corner of my neck and shoulder of the feel of a small hand in mine though. The sheer uninhibited joy they got through just being alive too.

Aside from the hell of the very early weeks, all stages have been enjoyable TBH. I was lucky enough not to experience any hellish teenage years.