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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To say it’s “because my parents were professionals”?

83 replies

seegulle · 27/09/2025 17:34

Ok yes - it is generally BU.

But what do you say when someone asks you why you don’t have a regional accent?

Where I grew up, there was a strong regional accent. Not everyone had it, but most did. Unfortunately it was drilled into people of a certain generation that speaking like that was not proper.

And so, despite my family having lived in the area for time immemorial, with my parents having gone to university in the 1950s/1960s, they had no strong regional accent. Perhaps a bit of a twinge but most people wouldn’t tell.

Recently I was chatting to a stranger in the pub who asked where I was from. I told him I was from the next town over. But he wouldn’t have it.

He kept asking me why I didn’t sound like everyone else. I told him that maybe it’s because I went away for uni. That wasn’t enough. He suggested maybe I moved here as a child. I told him no, I was from here. Then he kept asking why I or my family didn’t sound local if we were local. So the best I could come up with was “well I guess it’s because my parents were professionals”. Then queue all the lah di dah comments.

OP posts:
Gallowayan · 27/09/2025 17:49

The "because my parents were professionals" was perhaps a little unfortunate and does not sit well with me. It could come accross as snobby and is inaccurate because doctors and the like often have regional accents, sometimes pronounced ones.

You were a bit under pressure though. It does sound as though you were cornered by someone who was strangely persistent, to the point of being unpleasant, so l would not judge you. You are entitled to speak the way you speak without having to explain yourself. HTH

DisplayPurposesOnly · 27/09/2025 17:46

He was being a bit of a dick, wasn't he. No doubt whatever you said, you'd've been wrong.

LordEmsworth · 27/09/2025 17:46

Erm, well, I don't have an accent or professional parents 😂. Not only that, I have (had) parents with fairly strong regional accents; and 2 of my siblings have mild accents; but neither I nor my other brother do. So NB to say it to shut the twat up, but I don't think it's the entire answer...

coffeetasteslikeshit · 27/09/2025 17:46

I'd have just said that my parents didn't have an accent so I guess I picked up my non accent from them. Saying that it's because they were professionals does sound a bit up your own arse!

Mumstheword1983 · 27/09/2025 17:43

I don't think there's anything upsetting about what you said however I and my husband are professionals and we both definitely have a regional accent as do the children as I think it's picked up from school/friends as well as parents. I don't think them being professionals is the reason. One of my children has quite a proper accent and less of a regional one and I've no idea why 😄

FrodoBiggins · 27/09/2025 17:40

Did you go to a posh school? Children don't really get their accent from their parents, they much more closely emulate their age peers.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 27/09/2025 17:38

He was rude to keep pressing you but I do know what you mean. I live in an area with a strong regional accent and know/knew people whose parents actively discouraged the accent so they don’t have it.

DashboardConfession · 27/09/2025 17:37

YANBU. I'm from Yorkshire and so is my best friend. She has no discernable accent and neither does her mother - who was a very neutrally-accented teacher before she retired. No dad on the scene.

I'm not sure if I would say "professionals" though. I would just say my parents didn't have strong accents either.