It’s a different generation and it is sad but the pendulum will swing back the other way.
Good Morning Wednesday 13th May 2026
Being asked for an honest opinion
To be really irritated by chefs over praising their own food?
I've just been reading an old thread on Mumsnet where posters are bragging about the number of men they've slept with. Dozens seems to be a quite normal amount, over 100 seems to be nothing extraordinary and quite a few have completely lost count. Loads of one night stands also seems to be taken for granted.
AIBU to be quite shocked at this? If I saw a thread with young men boasting in a similar manner I'd think "What a bunch of creeps".
It’s a different generation and it is sad but the pendulum will swing back the other way.
BigBertha1
I agree with coastpath - couldn't be bothered. I don't remember getting many offers anyway and they won't come now.
Don't be so sure of that.
Due to health DH rarely goes out, so I am becoming increasingly aware of the fact that widowers or divorced men of about my own age have got the feeling that I am available.
I am not; nor am I imagining things as some of the questions have been quite unambiguous.
I thought we were permissive enough in the 1970s and that the advent of AIDS had changed attitudes - it did for a while, but yes, I too am shocked at how careless the young are.
It may be consensual sex between adults, but I know of many young and not quite so young who have not bothered using contraceptives of any kind, and have either ended up pregnant, or with one of the STDs.
Coastpath
*if they have to try out a hundred before finding their life partner, then they can't be very good at the preliminary filtering process.*
A bit like those people on Location Location Location who've viewed a hundred houses and still not found 'their forever home'.
Not everyone is looking for a life partner, they just enjoy sex. As long as it is safe and consensual I do not see a problem.
It was out and out love (that I tried to resist) that resulted in me being a oncer. Religion and self respect inspired the marriage ceremony.
Wow, there are some attitudes on here which seem stuck in the dark ages! As long as everyone is above the age of consent and it's all consensual, what business is it of anyone else?
The pill changed it Blondiescot at least it did when GP's would prescribe it to unmarried women.My GP gave me my first pill prescription 6 weeks before my wedding ,I had asked a few months earlier but she wouldn't give it to me .
Scotland even in the 70's wasn't "liberated".
We tried to rent a flat and after 4 agents refused us on the grounds we had no marriage certificate and FAMILIES needed to be housed first we gave up and stayed with our parents ,didn't do us any harm .We did get a brand new council house ,semi with gardens back and front and a garage just 2 weeks after the wedding .
Attitudes evolve constantly and this is just one of the changes that I have witnessed in my life time. Of course women have always had sex without commitment but it is more acceptable and easier now.
Sex is merely a bodily function after all in which too much emotional and moral value has been invested IMO.
I take this with a big pinch of salt!
paddyAnn that’s just not true The pill made it safer for women but if there had been no out of wedlock sex then there would have been no need for back street abortions and we all know they were happening a LOT
I’m with Visgirl on this. A whole salt mine of salt, in fact!
MN are not a young generation, the current generation are apparently not having as much sex, in the same way as they dont drink as much.
I really don't see the problem as long as it's all between consenting individuals. It's only sex.
I feel ancient having had only two partners and being married to both.
I got fed up with Mumsnet because of the amount of 'man-bashing' which seemed to be prevalent.
DH won't do his fair share of housework? Dump him.
DH goes out on a friday for drinks with the boys? Dump him.
DH didn't notice the new hair-do? Dump him.
DH doesn't satisfy sexually? Dump him.
It seemed so caustic and vindictive.
So reading this made me sad that so many young women had never found a real 'husband' - just a partner to pay the bills and have children with, someone who can be discarded for the smallest things. Is it because they don't value sex, having had so much in their youth?
I am afraid I see it differently I women who just arent prepared to tolerate what was tolerated in the past. A man who doesnt do his share.of the housework is showing no respect, why would women be expected to tolerate that. I think the view of men as helpless children who need a list to help them do the chores is worse.
It's up to the individual what they do. It does make me wonder though if this why marriages don't last and no one seems to value commitment or marriage any more. Mumsnet has it's fair share of posters who say men will not commit to them. If you can get sex anywhere and everywhere, why commit to one person. Do others think this correct? For myself, I feel nothing is private anymore and I certainly won't be posting personal things on a public forum, for a certain newspaper to then splatter it all over the country. I don't post on Mumsnet for that reason.
Apparently not Trisher?♀️
Exactly, Exdancer Sex is an important part of a relationship, but it is is only a part, not the whole. There is also companionship, a shared view of the rights and responsibilities of the individual and attitudes to each other and children, and a balance of power, plus expectations for the relationship, which come with the different past experiences of family life that each partner has in their memory.
All my 4 sons understand about consent, and the correct (and fair) way to treat women, so I'm happy with that, & that i brought them up the right way..same also for my 3 daughters.?
Galaxy
I am afraid I see it differently I women who just arent prepared to tolerate what was tolerated in the past. A man who doesnt do his share.of the housework is showing no respect, why would women be expected to tolerate that. I think the view of men as helpless children who need a list to help them do the chores is worse.
It will come as no surprise that I agree with you.
Pepper59 The old saying "Why buy the book when you can have a library ticket and read them all?" is illustrative of the age-old attitude to sex. That is fine when both men and women are young and fancy-free without dependent children, but a child whose parent vanishes from the scene, to be replaced by someone else to be called "Mummy" or "Daddy" is likely to be insecure for a long time, and repeat his/her parents' way of life for his/her own family.
On other threads, there is a lot of blame on Prince Charles for Harry's emotional difficulties - but parents in less public roles across the country are damaging the mental health of their children just as much when they continue to live like teenagers who have just discovered the joys of sex.
Every age has it's fair share of promiscuity whether practised by male or female. Sex addiction and nymphomania is always a constant in adult life.
I'm not in a position to judge anyone but I do know I was always afraid of getting pregnant or getting STI's, being the subject of gossip etc as were all the people I knew in the 60's. I've been single as a divorced woman since but have been very choosy! Sex without love isn't pleasant.
Anyone who slept around in the 60's where I lived lost respect and the word went round like wildfire so men knew who to head to. Those men also lost respect as being no better, so they gained a reputation too.
In the present day everything and anything is seen as acceptable and has become worrying normalised. 'Anything goes' has been taken to the extreme and not a good thing when worrying/seedy behaviour is not identified amongst the morass which is 'sexual liberation'....and now men and women thinking sex with anyone, anywhere, anytime is something to aspire to.
What I personally find objectionable is the bragging...and the now long standing practice of having sex in the toilets [nightclubs/pubs etc]. That, to me, is the pits.
This is nothing new, consensual sex between adults.
I am glad we live in a world where women are allowed to talk about their sexual needs, same as men.
Sadly, there is still a double standard but getting better.
I didn't - sometimes I wish I had - but only fleetingly!
ExDancer you exaggerate.
The Mumsnet posters who are told, in seriousness, to dump their partners may have started by posting about housework or lack of attention or suchlike but as the thread goes on it becomes clear that the man is no good at all, as a partner.
It is not easy to just dump a partner if, as there often is, children are involved and/or property.
There's a lot of good advice on Mumsnet for people who are struggling.
(I have seen men post there and get good advice too.)
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