Why can't you buy nappies, do feminism AND look around the site for other bits which relate to having children?
Is this not a possibility?
MN is a place where you can talk about the impact of having kids without actually talking about the kids all the time.
It's a place where you can talk shite you wouldn't otherwise be able to, cos you've got kids and that stops you socialising in other ways, without talking about kids.
It's a place where you can be intelligent without being put down for it. People tend to assume that once you have kids you turn into a jibbering idiot. Being around others in the same boat has the effect of rendering that the utter bollocks it should be.
It's funny how the stereotype of MN that persists in the media and other areas of social media, that mothers are hysterical and stupid and yet there seems to be the suggestion that the most popular areas of MN are perhaps the areas that go completely counter to that. Remembering that there are lots of highly professional women here who are frequently dismissed in that stereotype.
That does raise question of whether MNs success does lie precisely in social attitudes which are anti mother and just generally hostile to women voicing intelligent opinions.
I don't always post in certain sections, but because I respect the intelligence and wisdom of MN, I know if I want to find something or ask a question MN is right there as a reference point - and often is more useful than dry Web pieces on how to deal with x problem which frankly are all too often written by people who seem to live in a parallel dimension to me. Or are just downright patronising or judgmental about how you are 'doing it wrong' (again often in a profound way that assumes the stupidity and uselessness of women/mothers).
In that kind of context, I'd also pose the question about why the feminism section might be particularly popular...
... Cos quite frankly I'm sick of being treated as a stupid woman who isnt important enough to listen to or be thought of in huge political decision making. And the broadness of that feeling encompasses everything from health, to work, to education, to housing and everything else that stems from that.
MNs power is contained simply in women talking and being relatively free to talk in a way that everywhere else seems to restrict. It doesn't actually matter what women talk about initially because if women are allowed to talk it eventually exposes the ways in which women are restricted.
Certainly that's precisely why I ended up here long term.