Tell MNHQ why you use Mumsnet

[EllieMumsnet]

Here at MNHQ we would really like to get to know our users better and would therefore love to know why you use Mumsnet and if Mumsnet has managed to help you in any way.

Is the main reason you use Mumsnet for the advice from other users? And if so, what advice do you look for in particular or is it on everything and anything? Do you use Mumsnet as a place to browse the funny threads and have a bit of ‘you’ time? Is it more the product/service reviews and recommendations that you use Mumsnet for? Has the support of fellow Mumsnet users helped you get through a tough time? Or maybe you have created long-term friendships with other users and come on to chat to them.

Whatever the reasons you use Mumsnet and any stories you have on how Mumsnet has helped you, we would love to hear them so please share them on the thread below.

Thanks
MNHQ

"because it is ostensibly for ‘mums’ it is entirely underestimated" Absolutely. Remember after the whole Gordon Brown/biscuits thing, Ian Hislop on HIGNFY sneered about GB being on " Mums net" with such contempt, like he's been interacting with chimps or something.

I found Mumsnet through the Feminism Boards and they are why I've stayed here (mainly as a lurcker): informative, entertaining and funny.

Indeed YetanotherSpartacus. Odd to ask the question but then not engage. Do they not like our answers?

Perhaps they don't want to influence any?

I'd leave them be until they are ready to comment.

Style and Beauty and Feminism.

Joined many years ago when I had my first baby for parenting advice. Have enjoyed reading recipes, chat and AIBU etc but mostly the last few years for the Feminism boards.

Hey Mumsnet, I wouldn't bother doing any more nappy product testing around here. Know any placard manufacturers?

So funeeee

When I joined MN in 2007 I was looking for a refuge from the sparkly hun parenting sites and felt like I'd come home. I immediately loved the intelligent, witty and irreverent vibe to the place.

I stayed when I got to know people on the philosophy and religion boards, it's been a mainstay and constant support as well as a place which challenges me daily.

And lately it's been the Feminism board too. I can't say how grateful I am to the incredibly articulate and brave women who post here. I've learned so much and have also now converted my DD to the fwr board, she is always browsing it. Which is very wonderful.

Thankyou MN for being a place where discussion is still possible.

This has really cut you deep, hasn't it, RatRolyPoly?

That mothers might not want to talk only about nappies. That mothers can also be here for the feminism boards. Or that women who are not mothers might use Mumsnet for the discussion in a space with mainly other women. Shock!

Ignore rat they disrupt enough threads.

That mothers might not want to talk only about nappies. That mothers can also be here for the feminism boards. Or that women who are not mothers might use Mumsnet for the discussion in a space with mainly other women. Shock

Indeed. How dare we, uppity women!

You know, it is possible to have babies in nappies and be interested in politics / feminism too. I know a lot of people don't think women are capable of that, and would rather we shut up and keep to the nappies but they're really not mutually exclusive. In fact, having daughters (including one in nappies) has made me more politically active as I am so frightened for them when I see safeguarding being weakened

good point Nope

it's far more interesting (and touching) listening to the people who are genuinely engaging with the thread

the moral high ground is an unfamiliar place for me!

Er, love, as you likely know I am a mother and fully enjoy a feminist discussion, I just happen not to agree with the likes of you. Oh, and my feminism involves recognising women and strong not insisting they are weak.

Weird then that you would think I don't think mothers would be up for that sort of thing. As another poster said, I (a mother of two young children) "disrupt" enough that's with my tedious alternative perspective.

THREADS not that's

That was primarily to ToetoToe, but also to anyone else who baffling asserts that I don't think women and mothers can engage is feminist discussion whilst also bemoaning how I, a woman and mother, engage too frequently in feminist discussion.

There's only so much advice about nappies that one particular person needs.

It's great that women come for the nappies. Then the schools, recipe advice, universities, relationship advice, weddings and MILs.

And Feminism is interwoven throughout all of that.

I forgot to mention Style and Beauty. It's been really helpful. Someone told me how to do eye makeup once

Note to MNHQ: this thread got the FWR rallying call at just before 10pm Friday night.

It's interesting to compare at the balance of posts before and after.

Whatever Datun. I'm already a member of all the feminist forums I want to be. I came here to be primarily with other parents. If the focus has shifted, and this thread makes it seem very much like it has, perhaps myself and others should look again at what's on offer here.

Rat, you're the one who said MNHQ might want to 'stop doing stuff on nappies' - as though women could not be expected to be interested in feminism and have babies in nappies.

yes WongaGoneWronga, this is very much a self selecting survey

those selecting themselves are the ones who are engaged enough with the site to come and talk to MNHQ about it

there's nothing sinister there

This thread was linked to the FWR because so many people had already said they were on Mumsnet for the FWR boards.

I joined Mumsnet 13 years ago when I was pregnant. I used to post now and then on chat, AIBU, education.

But then everything changed when I started to read FWR (coinciding with Handmaid's Tale) and I saw what was happening to women and how the Gender Recognition Act consultation was a major threat to women.

I saw how we are treated by trans activists and other men who seek to take away our freedoms.

Now I only post on the Feminist and Women's Rights board. I post daily and regularly.

Thank you Mumsnet. This is the only place we can debate this.

On Twitter (which really opened my eyes( women are banned, stalked, doxxed jyst for saying a woman is an adult human female.

I'm just a normal mother of two. I find the long time posters on FWR have been so welcoming and informed.

Come over!

I'm not a mum so it's not my obvious home.

In all honesty, I arrived here a few years back carrying a hefty dose of internalised misogyny that had somehow built up despite my thinking of myself as a feminist. I came because I was laid up after an operation, and someone told me about AIBU and how the site was populated by crazy mumsy types who were always, 100% BU.

I was very, very wrong about who comes here. Intelligent, brilliant, articulate funny women with opinions and knowledge in spades. This thoughtless sexism that had fooled me into such a foul patronising attitude absolutely rocked me on my heels. Underestimating women, mothers is fucking patriarchy 101!

So I came to mock, found out I was wrong, and stayed for the feminism.