Why are younger people on Gransnet now?

I have never been on mumsnet. I found this forum by chance when googling for something and have stayed here. I had been a DGP for ages. The only thing that bothers me a bit, and it's the very reason I found it, is that it's so public.
I don't feel I can share anything personal although I can give plenty of advice
Why is this on estrangement thread BTW?

Peonyrose
Your mindset should not be one that wants to make the valuable resource at a human connection level of Gransnet into an exclusive club for "golden oldies."

You say why and l say WHY NOT.

There is enough of that old exclusionary nonsense to be dealing with in life without you adding to it.

Dawn.

Probably - although it is advertised as the social networking site for grandparents AND the over fifties. Remember that the chat forum is only one part of Gransnet, and topics discussed aren’t limited to grandchildren (which kind of defines the grans bit)

Whilst it is, obviously, fine to welcome posters who are not grans if that's what the owners want, shouldn't the name be changed? Doesn't that make it just a general purpose, "any old talk forum"?

I would rather learn from perspectives of people of all ages and backgrounds than stay in a bubble of 'people like me'
Doodledog: Is this old (Grandad) codger "like you!? "
. We pick up all sorts of interesting perspectives along life's journey and "there is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees" especially those in bubbles or cliques!
My current perspective is focussed on my need to get "dinner for one"; reminds me of a very funny Freddie Frinton TV sketch shown traditionally here every New Year's Eve.
You've got to laugh!
Cheers

I think there are a variety of people on Gransnet, there are grannies and grandads, mums both young and old, all seeking advice about their problems or just airing their views on this or that. The majority seen to be grandparents but some have no children. The estrangement thread is for anyone who is estranged and seeking support. I'm not sure about the estrangers, they may not feel so welcome, but most acknowledge that occasionally there are good reasons to estrange.

Iam64 - if your post was in response to my earlier one about not being interested in posts about younger child development, I’m sure MN is of interest to people who have DGC for that reason. I don’t have grandchildren, which is why it’s of no interest to me and I suspect there are others on here who feel the same

I look at both. MN has far more subscribers, I think, so threads seem to move much more quickly. If you go onto AIBU, you will find some quite aggressive and unpleasant posters, but a lot of the topics, such as Property, Chat, Style & Beauty etc are very informative. You can set filters, I believe, to screen out topics you are not interested in, such as parking threads - there are a lot of those, for some reason. A lot of people on MN do not have children but join for the other topics.

I think it's great that there are more younger people joining GN, whether they are grandparents or not. It's good to have a cross-section of views and liven up the site a bit. Welcome everybody, young, old, or in the middle!

Maybe the younger generation have seen the benefits from associating with wise old birds ????

I was a very young grandma and worked full time. No objection to anyone being here, just wondered. I have never looked at Mumsnet and it sounds so negative and full of bad language, I wouldn't want to be on it either.

SqueezedMiddleNet

I remember those days!
Or 'StretchedLikeaPieceofElasticNet'!

I do t understand why gransnet should be seen as exclusively for older people. Why wouldn’t we want contributions from younger women ?
Mumsnet is a great site. There are some very well informed posters. As for not being interested in dis ussiobs on young children (as someone posted earlier) many gransneters have young grandchildren. Lots of us are involved in grannie day care. How can discussions on food, play, development etc not be interesting to us.

I think if I was a young Mum I would prefer Gransnet too! Maybe it is a generation thing, but I just find some members of Mumsnet so hostile. The language is also very ripe. On the whole, I find Gransneters more polite, (bar one or two members) which suits me better, as I can't bear confrontation!

Like Loulelady I’m not a gran but am over 50 (which is what GN is advertised as) and feel there’s more for me on here. MN was great when I first joined but it’s become increasingly bitchy (shockingly so in many cases) and as my older 2 children are now adults I’m not interested in all of the posts on there about raising younger children.

There should really be a SqueezedMiddleNet for us middle aged people.

I’m on Mumsnet and here, I’m not yet a grandma but I’m aware I’m much closer in age to most grandmas than I am to most new mums. I have adult children and a very frail, elderly mum. A situation shared by many late 40s and older and others on this site.

I can understand that you might not feel ready to share your story yet Starblaze; it took me a long, long time before I felt ready to. Like you, I also felt that, as most of the other contributors to the estrangement threads were the parents of estranged adult children, that I would receive a somewhat frosty reception. In fact I was welcomed immediately and I became more comfortable in explaining estrangement "from the other perspective". I've never given the actual reasons as to why I walked away from my birth family, but I've been quite open that it's been a decision that I had to take for my own sanity and wellbeing and is something that I've never regretted.
We all have our own journey to make, whichever side of estrangement we're coming from. I do hope you keep posting. Best wishes.

Starblaze Me either. Such a shame. So many times I have wanted to say something and stopped myself.

Chewbacca Yes I have noticed you show up and say so any time an estranged child says they feel unwelcome. I will keep reading and see how it goes. Not sure I feel comfy sharing my story here though x

starblaze, I just don’t get it.

I thought the only requirement on Gransnet was to be a granny.

I have to admit, it isn't what I thought it would be. I thought we'd all be overjoyed to be grannies, but it seems to be more of a bitchfest at times.

Estranged children aren't wanted on the estrangement threads.

Eh? In my own personal experience, that's not the case; in fact, quite the reverse.

To be fair, I lurked on MN for a bit (before Brexit though when I still had an AC at home) and thought it was very judgemental towards some posters so I came here. The massive difference here is that there seemed to be a big boozing culture on MN and I can't recall seeing any mention of alcohol on here. Not that I've been here long.

There's a lot of bitchiness on here unfortunately, also too many 'know it alls' who think that the only right way is their way. Still, it's very easy to ignore any troublesome posters. You soon get to recognise their names so can just skip their contributions. Nobody should allow themselves to be 'driven out' or Gransnet will die of boredom!

Gransnet is advertised on mumsnet.

It's a smaller pond.

My best friend when I was a young mum, was my elderly neighbour. We had coffee together most mornings - she was a widow. I confided in her. She accompanied me to GP/hospital appointments, for myself and when I had to take the children. Sadly, she is no more.