Is this a middle class saying?

Yes bog can be very upper middle class. My parents would talk about bog and so would real upper class people I've met. It's the kind of 'I'm not a lower middle class person who uses twee words like toilet'. Some poshos can be very crude/vulgar in the way they talk.

Mind you I don't think anyone cares about all that stuff now apart from people of my parents age. And to be fair my parents don't care either; they just happen to use the more 'smart' (posh people don't say 'posh' 😀) words normally.

loo is standard middle class
Toilet is generally regarded as WC/LMC

Bog is the sort of thing you generally hear in a public school, so I see where your husband is coming from - it’s an unusual thing to say to a small child though! I’m guessing she was a little eccentric.

What does everyone say instead of pardon then?

Lavatory still in use where I live! Does sound very old school though. 😊

@marquislafayette

Some of the replies seem to suggest toilet= swear word, people saying their kids aren’t allowed to say it?? I’m very confused!

It wasn't forbidden because it was a swear word. It's because using it marks you out as lower middle class. It's all nonsense but for a certain sort of English person it's better to sound rude than sound lower middle class.

People get very hung up on whether its rude but the rudeness isn't the point. It's the class marker that matters (not to me but to the sort of people who care about this).

In this context, the word "heads" is, as noted above, a Navy term. I use " lavatory" myself.
I'm very posh . . .

yes

It’s a public schooly thing to say though, more than a home thing

What? (if its someone you know well). Otherwise sorry? or say again?

You won't actually change your socioeconomic background by using different words, and nobody who likes you for you and is worth knowing will give a shit anyway. Why do people care about this? Why is MN so obsessed?

Sorry?, what? or I beg your pardon?

Sorry used to be a bit less smart than the other two but IBYP is a bit archaic now

You are absolutely right and its ridiculous to care about this sort of thing.

On the other hand it's interesting because of what it tells you about the English class system and its utter lack of logic.

Also it has to be said there's a certain irony in people drumming into their kids that they need to use words which they think are more "polite" (eg "toilet" and "pardon") and clutching their pearls about the use of the word "bog" (as a couple of people have on here) when in fact the sorts of people they aspire to be like would find "toilet" more offensive than "bog".

It's fairly ridiculous to be so fastidious about the word "bog" that you go off on one about how disgusting it is.

I'd say "what?"

DD says "what" at home, but will generally say "sorry?" at school. I may have lost the fight on 'toilet' but 'pardon' is like nails on a chalk board.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow

I may have lost the fight on 'toilet' but 'pardon' is like nails on a chalk board.

I couldn't care less about toilet but I agree about pardon. It's horrendously twee.

I normally use the word toilet, because everyone knows what it means, public signs in England almost always direct you to the toilet, not “bog, “loo,” “lavatory,” or “bathroom,” and normally not “WC,” and I’m not going to waste my time being a pretentious twat.

It’s all about coded language, signifier words/terms. Tbh it’s a load of cobblers.

I say what but I don’t have an allergic reaction to people saying pardon, it’s just not a word I would think to use. Nor do I think people saying toilet it anything to get worked up about.

Missing out "the" from a sentence combined with the word bog I'd assume Northern working class, not in a judgemental way at all though.

The only people I've ever heard say 'use the bog' are men on construction sites

Any word will do when you actually need to go. Something we all need whatever 'class' we fall into.

Toilet isn't rude at all, it's the standard term in most English-speaking countries. It's only in sad old England that it has supposed "class" connotations.

In contrast, loo and bog are regarded as slang in most places, while lavatory is a (needlessly) genteel euphemism, like washroom or restroom.

I'm confused that toilet is a bad word.

Always 'loo' along with 'sofa' 'napkins'. Bogs was for the school loos only.

Never ever ever 'toilet'

'Bog' is a public school term used between peers, because it's counter-cultural; an affectation of smart kids pretending not to be- the verbal equivalent of a mullet.It's a little more unexpected to hear it from a parent to a young child. At my DS's prep school the approved terms is to 'go round the corner' as in ' I'm just going round the corner'. 'Going for a pee' is also OK.

Here in Ireland my adult sons announce they're going 'to take a piss'

I'm English and middle class and I pretend they're not related to me. I say I'm going to the loo or for a wee. I wouldn't say bog.