Mumsnet depresses me......................................

[ssd]

All I seem to read about is mums who cook loads of great, varied home made meals their kids actually eat, kids who have nutritious, tasty packed lunches with things in it even I wouldn't touch, people who have cleaners and nannies etc etc.

Where are all the ordinary mums who have a battle with their kids most meal times, struggle to get their kids to eat anything other than toast or a ham sandwich, don't cook and freeze in bulk as their tiny freezer is too small, don't plan their homecooked meals a month in advance as life is boring enough without knowing what you@re getting for dinner 2 weeks on Tuesday??

Probably it's just me, maybe everyone else is super and organised and wonderful.

I agree with MB, we all have our own thing that we are good at and therefor make the most effort with.
We are definetly the physical side of family life, long walks, outings, parks etc.
We have been to science museum, Imax and Hyde park today. -- having fishfingers, peas and mash for tea

I'm such a crap mother I let my (nearly 3 year old) dd eat her dessert first, then her main course. Otherwise she has a dicky fit and I just can't be doing with the hassle. I will also let dd1 eat millies cookies on the way home from shopping just before her tea because I want them too and I can't eat them and not let her have any!!!

Live and let live is my motto...

Sadly its too easy to compare to the perception of everyone else.

If you do the best you can for your kids, no more can be expected of you.

Thats what I am doing, I have no family + no friends anymore but my kids are the most important thing and I am doing the best I can for them.

I hear all this rubbish from my friend, Perfect Mother. Drives me mental, so my ds likes chicken nuggets, chicken dinosaurs and fish fingers....And even worse than that is he sleeps in his bed in my room as otherwise he would be in MY bed in my room. Disgraceful mother. The looks she gives me. But i just think, he's happy, i'm happy, we're all happy in my house. So there!

while I was pg with dd I bulk cooked and had a month of suppers frozen!

The things that you have time to do before you have kids

Now it is more aof a hand to mouth exsistance!

plenty of ordinary mums here ssd

you are just reading what you want to read

I can't think of a single person who only posts 'showy offy' posts. Everyone has a struggle with something now and then.

It can make you feel inferior I guess if you let it. There are so many things we parents feel guilty about and when we see someone else seemingly doing a spiffin job it irks us. I do find some of the heartbreaking stories depressing and stay with me for quite a while but the fact that MN seems to give these posters a lift is good.

But Enid, you are Enif The Puritan and an icon to us all!

I am one of those women who cooks (nearly) everything from scratch, can't bear clutter or dirt and whinges neurotically on the minging thread....

I have just had a fellow mumsnetter to lunch. The house was a utter pit - have been thoroughly burning the candle at both ends and my teenager dds have been holding the fort, or not as the case may be - my ds flooded the sink in the loo and my dh proudly paraded all the junk that came glugging out when he unblocked it, and I came rolling home late and half cut to find my guests waiting for their lunch, as what I thought was a half hour in town meeting friends, turned out to be one of those endless French ceremony things that go on forever, followed by the inevitable aperitif.... have thorougly blown my mnet persona. . She was very nice about it all, though. But I reckon she now has me down as a minging lush.

Oh, and not only had I run out of horseradish, but the dreggy jar left in the fridge had a sellby date of may 2005.

I love being Enif

Excellent post by jmg1. Agree that you just have to find your own limits, and abide by your own decisions, without letting other people doing things differently affect you adversely.

enif - was the "enif" thing to do with a sniffing enid?

you sound like a sarth ifrican saying enough is enough

At least I know I won't get burgled, it looks like it's already been turned over!!! (not quite)

There is a lot of band wagon jumping on MN sometimes. I tend to laugh at it mostly, mainly because I'm a bit of a cynic.

There are a few people on here who could discuss their pet subject for ever and a day, but I feel they are mostly well intentioned.

ssd, I think we are all ordinary mums who struggle from day to day, week to week (I know I do). Some parents just throw a positive light on everything, withut realsing how it comes across to some of us

LOl

do you really think half of us are so capable in RL? coz the kids are falling over somewhere and the washing building up when we're on here...

For the disorganization I say 'here miss!'. I do plan my meals but that's coz I need to for shopping, I can only get to shop once a week.

ssd, just re-read my message and it doesn't sound very sympathetic even though it was meant to be. I just limp om from day to day!

I think a lot of us feel like you from time to time but I think the parents who claim to be like that are in the minority (albeit a vocal minority.

I can't 'afford'to work let alone employ a cleaner - and especially not a nanny!

When I lived in Surrey, comparing to my rl neighbours (wrong) but got me down.
They were 2 parents 2 kids, 2 cars, all the grandparents, no pets, well one had a dog but gave it away cause it was too much like hard work. dh's clean cars for 2 hours EVERY sunday morning. Everything looked so rose tinted and perfect.
Then there was me with 3 kids, 2 dogs and no family. Seriously struggling to get through the days.