You can always tell some women are childless by the fact that they....

[NinaInCognito]

...get in the way of you when you are in the supermarket dragging around a pram, trolley and fiddly child and then they sneer down at you with their basket full of organic lettuce, baguettes and mini-tampons while your trolley is loaded with nappies, a giant pot of Sudocrem and enough chocolate bars to re-sink the Titanic.

You then have to manoever around them while they continue said sneering.

God you can tell what sort of evening I have had, can't you? And I am embarrassed to admit that I used to be one of those women. I apologise to all you mums out there unreservedly.

Now for chocolate bars and MN......

who exactly are the older/frequent members sounds curiously like something you'd go to GUM clinic with

Aitch - If you are worried about how horrible everyone is being to poor Aitch - maybe you should re-read your posts and look at how horrible YOU are being.

Nina, you've done nothing wrong. Any chocolate going spare over there???

aitch is not being horrible.

She disagreed with the op.

She said so.

That's all.

fucking hell, ANYTHING can start a ruck here can't it?

get right over yourself amummi. i didn't leap AT ALL. i simply didn't sneer at women with children before i had dd, i like children now i see that makes me unusual. perhaps that's why i hated losing those pregnancies so much?

no offence taken lilolilmanchester

couldn't let that comment pass though (blame the wine )

i dont see anything horrible!which bit is offensive?i think ive missed something!

No she didn't just disagree. She thought it was a bit naff, didn't like being disagreed with herself, then turned it into something about barren women to get the moral high ground.

me too, cheesesarnie.

You've missed nothing Aitch, you started it.

I guess the thing is we're all informed by our own experiences. I KNOW some childless women sneer at those with children because I was one of them. I thought I never wanted them, I found them irritating, I wanted them not in my face if I was shopping in Kensington High St, I thought they should mostly stay at home. And I have been in supermarkets and seen looks of horror from women without children towards me, with my children esp if they're being loud. Now maybe they were looks of unbridled envy or sadness but hey, I don't think so!

amummi - i must have.please explain.

I think there is a fair amount of Friday night over-reaction going on here. The OP started a light hearted thread making a joke about how she feels the (in her perception) perfect lives childless look down on her sometimes. Whether this was or wasn't amusing is entirely in the eyes of the beholder but it seems to me the whole premise was no more nor less amusing or potentially upsetting than any other thread here.

Aitch, seriously, sorry about your losses, but what has that got to do with an innocuous thread about a supermarket? And it's pretty cheap to suggest that liking children makes you unusual on a parenting forum. Who said they didn't like children? Is there a point to all this that I am missing?

'You've missed nothing Aitch, you started it.'

Oh, ffs!

Are you for real?

[frin] pmsl-amummi.are you a name changer?
do you realise that so far in this thread youve said to aitch-
'Accept it and say sorry.'

and

'you started it. '

are you aitch's mother/sibling?

how about we all think to ourselves: 'oh, for aitch to have got that upset about this thread, perhaps it has hit a particular nerve. I know, let's not have a go at her, let's not try to make her feel even worse, let's just give her a virtual pat on the arm and move on'

Perhaps that would be too supportive for mumsnet on a Friday night

I always meeet my immaculately dressed and childless neighbour in Waitrose when
DS has stuff around his mouth and DD has bed hair from her afternoon nap.

Most times I groom them specially for the trip and pop them alongside one another in the trolley - faces gleaming and hair combed and shiny above their raw silk sailor collars. Me with freshly blow-dried hair, barely there make up (a fresh coat of Juicy Tube) and smelling gorgeously of Jo Malone Amber and Lavender. I have never met anyone I know when we are all prepped like this.

i ment to not [frin]!

As so rightfully pointed out Aitch, it is JUST my opinion. Like yours. We are all different. I am not the argumentative type so I personally wouldn't have responded in the way you did, if I think a thread is shite, I keep out of it. I leave that for the people who like to stir.

LOL www! I know what you mean. I had to buy a present for an employee off on maternity who'd just had a baby and I literally shuddered as I walked into Mothercare. I was very unforgiving when she came to work in tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt one day because she hadnt had time to do washing.....

I was a bit of a bastard really.

I got it all back though when I was pg and subsequently had my children. I still do get it when I'm out with DS because he has particularly challenging behaviour.

amummi, i am more than happy to be disagreed with, no problem at all. in fact i was happy to post an opposing view when the entire thread was disagreeing with me... i'm not a coward.

i am going to have to say a little 'fuck you' however about your barren women crack. not only did i not use that word, i was making no attempt to gain a moral high ground.

i just didn't find the OP amusing, not at all, sneering back at women who you perceive to be sneering at you is not attractive or light-hearted.

i'd hate to think that people thought of me or any friends of mine currently going through failing IVF treatments was being seen in this way. i wonder if Nina will be sharing her OP with her infertile friends?

In fairness to the op these women do exist, I dared to sit in a bus-stop with one (I was there first). She came in having a very important phone conversation, dd was just being dd and making a noise. Woman proceeded to then make lots of sarky comments about children, I barely resisted punching her.

I see her lots on the buses, she's always reading a book with a disapproving look on her face.

I take comfort from the fact it's the same crappy book for about 3 months in a row. I mean how long does it take to read a book, even in 45 min snatches.