Gransnet forums

Estrangement

Why are younger people on Gransnet now?

(140 Posts)
Peonyrose Sat 28-Sep-19 19:15:40

I wonder why young people are joining in Gransnet forums, when there are other sites more suited such as Mumsnet.

notanan2 Sun 29-Sep-19 19:30:30

I would also like to point ou that there isnt a gran generation

There are grans in their 30s and grans in their 90s and everything inbetween!

Some GNers can be a bit "them and us" as if "grans" = a homogenous demographic. It is not.

notanan2 Sun 29-Sep-19 18:59:14

The downside of GN is that if you empathise with milleniums, some posters assume you are one and talk down to you accordingly! (Even though you may even be older than said posters!)

notanan2 Sun 29-Sep-19 18:56:55

Grandchildren (which I dont have) aside, GN fits better:

The property threads arent full of first time buyers. I have bought and sold several times and the process has changed quite a lot in ways that other GNers are more likely to understand. GNers can also empathise better with things like leaving the home you raised your babies in, or downsizing a lifetime of memories

Financial threads: MN financial threads are either (immature) stealth boasts from go-getting 20 somethings that havent hit any bumps in the road yet, or compeditive poverty. GN is more pragmatic on financial topics.

Friendship threads: making and keeping friends is DIFFERENT as you get older! I may not have grandkids, but I am also not just a few years out of school or uni, so the dynamics are different!

Health: well your health doesnt care whether or not you have GCs (unless you do heavy childminding) so that is also not something I have in common with 20somethings!

Gonegirl Sun 29-Sep-19 18:55:41

I like that emoji.

Gonegirl Sun 29-Sep-19 18:55:23

Tbh, I don't actually care who comes on here and who doesn't.

I'm just a bad girl. ?

Gonegirl Sun 29-Sep-19 18:51:14

I used to be able to waste just as much time on Mumsnet as I now do on GN. Mind you, it's a different place now.

Kandinsky Sun 29-Sep-19 18:45:18

Maybe they’ve grown out of mumsnet?
It’s core audience are young mums, so when you’re in your 40’s you do start to feel a bit past it.

notanan2 Sun 29-Sep-19 18:37:57

P.s. AC are by definition adults. Not youngsters.

ayse Sun 29-Sep-19 18:33:43

I don’t mind who comes to this forum. Maybe they come here to get away from nastiness and see what older folk think of all sorts.

notanan2 Sun 29-Sep-19 18:33:03

P.s. I read MN as often news/events break there before mainstream media (e.g. Manchester attacks, Grenfell)

But I can't keep up with the chat threads they move too fast and get too long.

notanan2 Sun 29-Sep-19 18:30:11

Do you mean non grans like me?
I am gran aged having had my own children relatively late. My peers are grans.

I came to gransnet to lurk and learn on the menopause threads, then found that the financial threads were more appropriate to my stage in life than the typical ones on "younger" forums so stayed.

Or do you mean "adult children" who have problems with their parents? Whose to say theyre not grans? Plenty of grans own parents are still alive (making them the "AC"). Heck I know a gran whose own gran is still alive!

That doesn't make us green nippers!

Starblaze Sun 29-Sep-19 18:24:13

I will always be on the side of their mums/mils

How could anyone take the side of a stranger over the hurt human being in front of them without evidence they are out of line shock

Rufus2 Sun 29-Sep-19 15:09:43

I wonder why young people are joining in Gransnet forums
And a good thing too! smile As someone once wrote; "The old order changeth yielding place to new, etc and "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth"
I've been hereabouts for over a year so still a "newbie" but noticed a significant increase in new names and less so of what we called "the old guard". Wasn't there a mass migration from MN not long ago(? ); although some of them seem to have moved on also, including my Mam, "Rufussmum". sad

paddyann Sun 29-Sep-19 14:56:07

I/m on both too.I have a 10 year olf GD who has lived with us for half the week for 9 years ,The attitudes towards raising children is very different nwo to how some here raised theirs and I like to make sure I'm not too far in any direction with our girl .
I do find some on GN are very firmly stuck in the past on a few things so a modern perspective is very welcome .I'm happy to have younger folk here .

Summerlove Sun 29-Sep-19 13:44:21

I will always be on the side of their mums/mils's.
At least you own your ridiculous bias

geekesse Sun 29-Sep-19 13:41:53

Mmm. I didn’t know there was a lower age limit for GN. I have 10 grandchildren, but co-workers of my age have teenage children or younger. I kind of assumed that the whole point of GN was to share experiences of grandparenting, not to wallow in old age. Maybe I came to the wrong place...?

Esspee Sun 29-Sep-19 13:33:36

Interestingly, Peonyrose, if someone posted on Mumsnet "Why are old people joining Mumsnet?" that would be seen as ageist.
Similarly, I feel your post is discriminatory.

newnanny Sun 29-Sep-19 13:25:33

I am on Mumsnet as I am a Mum and I care for 13 year old child and also on Gransnet as I have 2 grandchildren. I did not know I could not be on both. Why would that be a problem. If you had your children when you were young you may also have grandchildren when you are still young.

EllaKeat Sun 29-Sep-19 13:16:03

Simpley? Simpley?

Guess I am about to be banned anyway ???

EllaKeat Sun 29-Sep-19 13:14:44

I dip into both forums. I am a gran, but also enjoy MN, sweary bits and all.
I genuinely do like gransnet, but Mumsnet is as lot less personal simpley because it is so much bigger. Therefore, i can read threads on MN and think ' what a plonker', but never 'see' them again, whereas on GN, it is much smaller, so names of particular posters stick - whether for good or bad?
@Gonegirl - no need to change name of forum at all? Lots of posters on MN are not mums, or parents. We all know that gransnet is simply aimed at an older demographic - I dare say a fair number here are neither grans, nor over 50.
So what?
I enjoy both forums for different reasons, but the day someone dictates the age, status or sex of those who participate is the day the forum dies.

What is the harm?

NfkDumpling Sun 29-Sep-19 13:10:08

Of course younger people want to come on Gransnet. We’re much older and wiser and have such reasoned arguments and wonderful advice.

Smileless2012 Sun 29-Sep-19 13:02:47

I can understand why someone who has estranged family may feel uncomfortable posting on a thread predominantly used by parents who have been estranged, but they are welcomed.

It's sometimes difficult for EP's and GP's too, as not all who post are themselves estranged and at times their accounts are questioned, especially if they once had a close and loving relationship with their estranging AC.

The 'Support for those living with Estrangement' thread has over the years had posters who have estranged family members and like Chewbacca have had a positive experience.

Gonegirl Sun 29-Sep-19 12:21:39

Also, I, for one, cannot find it in myself to proffer a comforting bosom to any wayward daughters/daughters-in-law. However much they regard themselves to be not in the least little bit wayward.

I will always be on the side of their mums/mils's.

Gonegirl Sun 29-Sep-19 12:18:33

I just would prefer this GN to be more older people centred.

Where we all chivvy, and cheer, each other up.

I think it's cheating that it's been allowed to drift off-source (if that is a phrase) just to attract more posters and, therefore, advertisers.

Iam64 Sun 29-Sep-19 11:57:49

Also, why post negative comments about mumsnet if you’ve never visited the site?