Why do young non-grandparents frequent Gransnet?

Callistemon21

^Ageism is rife on Mumsnet and is getting worse on here, and is not picked up on often enough IMO. Comments about people thinking as they do because they are old, or that a point of view is held by younger people so must be more valuable just because of that are lazy and reductive, whether they are said by older or younger people^

I should have RTWT first because this is what I am trying to say, but Doodledog puts it more succinctly.

Ageism can be rife on MN, I particularly remember this post, apropos of a thread about shopping I think. It went something along the lines of "Why on earth do retired people insist on cluttering up the high street on Saturdays when they've got all the week to do whatever they need to do"

I remember people online saying the same about mothers with prams years ago . People can be very blinkered, and only see the point of view of their own circumstances.

Not the forums but in RL. Overheard on the bus are older people with bus passes complaining about the noisy school kids and teens who now also have bus passes and sit downstairs when they could easily climb the stairs and don't give up their seats to older folk.
We all complain silently about the enormous prams/buggies which take up half the bus.
Human nature I fear.

TerriBull

Callistemon21

Ageism is rife on Mumsnet and is getting worse on here, and is not picked up on often enough IMO. Comments about people thinking as they do because they are old, or that a point of view is held by younger people so must be more valuable just because of that are lazy and reductive, whether they are said by older or younger people

I should have RTWT first because this is what I am trying to say, but Doodledog puts it more succinctly.

Ageism can be rife on MN, I particularly remember this post, apropos of a thread about shopping I think. It went something along the lines of "Why on earth do retired people insist on cluttering up the high street on Saturdays when they've got all the week to do whatever they need to do"

cluttering up the High Street 😂😂😂

I can remember when I was in my 20s, rushing around in my lunch hour to do some shopping, complaining about the "Plastic Mac and Sandals Brigade" that came into our seaside town on wet weekdays.
They weren't necessarily old, though.
Just meandering slowly, gazing at things in the shops.

When I was a child it was children who were supposed to leave buses for older people to use, or at least stand up to let them sit down.

When I was a young mum, we were supposed to avoid shops, banks and the Post Office during lunch hours and rush hours when working people might want to use them.

Now I am retired it is pensioners who are taking up houses and living lives of luxury at the expense of the young.

It seems I have always been on the wrong side of history

I’m over 50 and have grandkids but I read Mumsnet more than Gransnet, not sure why it just seems to have more posts. I know there are people on both sites who don’t have kids and a few men too. It’s just where you feel you connect I suppose.

Well said Buttonjugs. We go where we feel most comfortable

Buttonjugs

I’m over 50 and have grandkids but I read Mumsnet more than Gransnet, not sure why it just seems to have more posts. I know there are people on both sites who don’t have kids and a few men too. It’s just where you feel you connect I suppose.

I look occasionally and it makes me laugh.
Not as serious as GN!

I think that perhaps younger grandmothers might just be so excited about becoming grandparents that they want to be part of the granny conversation and possibly learn useful tips about what and what not to do as new grandmothers. Where else would you find such useful help than from a site that is specifically for grandmothers?

Wonder if they might start a great gransnet? We’ve got 5 of those as well as all the grandchildren. I’m not that old, some of my lot started young ! I was a great grandma by the time I was 63, grandma at 45.

Well, Teribull - regarding the why do retired people insist on shopping on Saturdays when they've got all the week to do whatever they need to do thoughts, I do wonder that myself about my 99 year old mother-in-law who has always shopped on a Saturday - from before I met her in 1976!

Obviously it's habit- but it does seem ridiculous to then complain about the queues!

I don't think she is "cluttering the place up" but I do regularly wonder why she continues to do it!

NotSpaghetti

Why do some Gransnet members (whose children are now adults) go on Mumsnnet? And mums go on sites for children?

Maybe because lives aren't in boxes and our thoughts and ideas straddle different things. We want to know what the "other side" thinks or ask what the other age group used to do - or discover if they all have similar thoughts on something - and what the concensus might be...

They may want to put an alternative view. They may think their insight can help someone older understand something.

Our life experience as mothers 30 plus years ago is different to mums now - and as M0nica says they may want the opinion of 'grandparents and the over 50s' on problems in their lives.

I think you may as well ask why do any of us use the site.

Those Gnetters on Mumsnet are also mothers, so do fit the profile. The Mumsnetters who seem to have drifted over often don't seem to.

I’m not a Gran, but have adult children and am over 50. Obviously that makes me a mum, so I fit the profile of both boards. I have no issue with people of any age using either, other than when people suggest that being older is equivalent to being closed-minded or behind the times. There are those on both boards who are guilty of that, but equally there are plenty of posters (again on both boards) who are neither.

Why not?

They want to sample the wisdom that comes with age. Of course, in some cases, age just comes along on its own!

I don't mind what age people are posting on Gransnet. I just get a little fed up with all the world's woes being blamed on The Boomers. Its unfair. We did the best we could for our families at the time. We weren't aware that it would seem u fair to future generations. No one knows what today's adults grandchildren are going to feel. Angry at advantages they had or angry that they didn't do more. Each generation does what they feel is right at the time.

The Boomers grew up with post war austerity, hardly any furniture, no tvs, no fridges and no instant meals so they can just put that in their pipes and smoke it !

MaggsMcG, such optimism, wondering what 'today's adults grandchildren' will feel or think. Will they survive?

I believe we (mostly) were only too well aware of the damage we caused - yet simply didn't care back then. We knew a lot about pollution back in the 1970s.

Human nature, generally, is greedy, lazy, self indulgent and destructive. We don't care about future generations or we wouldn't behave as we do.

Human nature, generally, is greedy, lazy, self indulgent and destructive. We don't care about future generations or we wouldn't behave as we do

I am not sure I agree. Very little we do is all good or all bad and what happens is that people balance the good and bad of the results of changes in technology or whatever and decide the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, or else they do not find the downsides until it is very late or difficult to change.

The first plastic, bakelite, was launched in 1907, nobody then could possibly imagine what a pollutant it would be a century later. In fact I doubt it was realised in 1950 either, and that is within my lifetime.

kwest

I think that perhaps younger grandmothers might just be so excited about becoming grandparents that they want to be part of the granny conversation and possibly learn useful tips about what and what not to do as new grandmothers. Where else would you find such useful help than from a site that is specifically for grandmothers?

I think that the opening poster was referring to non grandmothers - such as me.

I joined when I was 48 simply because GN looked full of friendly, welcoming, interesting and funny women.

Oh, and I’m not a mother too.
So by going the op’s logic, I should not be on MN either! 🤷‍♀️

"Human nature, generally, is greedy, lazy, self indulgent and destructive. We don't care about future generations or we wouldn't behave as we do."

A loaded supertanker would require about 5 to 8 kilometres and roughly 15 to 20 minutes to come to a complete halt. They have a turning diameter of nearly 2 kilometres. www.marineinsight.com

Supertankers are very hard to maneuver. For example, stopping a supertanker that is under way at its cruising speed can take about 10 miles in an emergency situation. thesouthern.com

A global population of billions of people in hundreds of different cultures, each with its own traditions and lifestyles and varying knowledge of other countries, moves forward under more inertia than the biggest supertanker. Added to that, new advances in materials and technology don't arrive in the world complete with warnings on each example - (on each plastic spoon, each nappy liner) - of all the side-effects that have not yet been discovered, to be read and understood by each user.

By the time it has been shown, for instance, that plastic breaks down into tiny fragments and is washed down drains and into the sea, most people have thrown away their enamel mugs and washing-up bowls and the layers of terry nappies and knitted soakers that their incontinent babies used to be wrapped in, manufacturers are packing their products in this wonderful light waterproof material, and the global economy has become dependent on using plastic. Replacing it is a slow and expensive business. It doesn't happen overnight.

I like MN because posters there aren’t so prickly when you give a straight answer 😉

Human nature, generally, is greedy, lazy, self indulgent and destructive. We don't care about future generations or we wouldn't behave as we do. Hetty58

I am really sad that you have such an awful life that it has brought you to thus conclusion. I realise I should be very grateful that, with a couple of exceptions, during my lifetime that is far from how I have found people. And thst is in all walks of life.

I can't agree with that statement either. Believing that to be true must sour relationships with other people whether online or off, and whichever age group you fall into.