I come from a gypsy / travelling family AMA

[TowerTumble]

I have name changed for this. I see so much misconception and ignorance around the travelling community and towards families like mine. I've started an AMA so if you have any questions to try and stop this misconception I'll answer everything I can!

I see so much misconception and ignorance around the travelling community and towards families like mine. I've started an AMA so if you have any questions to try and stop this misconception

What misconceptions do you see the most?

No, many experiences over the years. And ‘you’ is meant as the wider traveller community, but you knew that, you’re being pedantic.

In my community we are very strict on our children and teach respect and manners from day 1. There are groups in the travelling community who behave like this. If this happened in my community they would be made to return the items and apologise and risk being shunned from the community due to misrepresentation of our culture.

The programmes don't show a true reflection of our community. I've only watched a couple of episodes of the programme and the only thing they show which is accurate is how clean our homes are

Do you think you can do anything you like and just pass it off as "cultural" if people dont like it?

I don't have too much time for hobbies as I work full time and have a young child. I am a single mum and enjoy cooking from scratch. Every evening I cook a hot meal, I make all my bread from scratch and really enjoy cooking

You missed my question OP albeit you did respond to other points I made in my post.
I had asked;

"My question is, are there rival fights among men? I know a friend of mine who was dating a young man years ago said he was 'gearing up for a fight' with a cousin who had fallen out with him, and there was to be a large audience for it, a properly organised thing in a field somewhere. But this was a good 15 years ago! And I am not sure if he was the same culture as you, albeit he did refer to himself as a gypsy".

Who do you support in the football 😄

What prejudices do you experience with the NHS that leads to distrust?

Yes I have witnessed all of this too with travellers

Unfortunately the last sets of travellers in my area ruined two local sports grounds, destroyed the community centre toilets, left tons of rubbish and human excrement which cost a fortune to put right. Do the decent travellers try to reign these types in as this is why travellers get a bad name and we dread their arrival.

How does the community deal with/respond to the families who send their DC out thieving and shop lifting?

DS works in a small supermarket. Traveller kids are in there every day and there's a perception that nothing can be done.

I wouldn't dream of saying all families do it or are aware of what the DC are doing, but it is a significant number, having a significant impact, and partly responsible for the negative PR traveller communities receive. I wonder how the community deals with it?

We believe that weddings are the most importance social event for travellers. Outfits can indicate a families wealth and reputation. Being under dressed isn't really an option for travelling women, we always have our nails done and our hair.
However I don't personally always live like this and my daughter is always dressed modestly. I am not a fan of children being exposed in the ways they are sometimes in our community.

We will always do what we can for the outside community and we will always come together. Glad it was all okay for you in the end ❤️

What do you feel about the way many people lump all gysy cultures together and do not distingush beween Romany, Irish and Roma/Romani gypsies? .

Oh right. I know there is a lady (Thelma?) who comes from Liverpool I think who made the enormous wedding dresses!

Yes it's very common in gypsy families do name children after relatives. It's very common for the first son to be named after their dads. We have 7 cousin Elizabeth's in my family, all named after immediate relatives.

Two wrongs don’t make a right. Disappointing I got deflection rather than an answer.

I said a lot of people’s opinion is based on this experience rather than based on ignorance.

If any festival goers to do an AMA I’ll ask them if they litterbug.

I think, for a lot of people, it would be similar with the common MN feeling about certain crimes and deeply negative behaviours: "It's not all men... but it is always men".

Many of us see appalling behaviours that seem exclusive to (or at least extremely common amongst) members of the Travelling community; yet we know that you absolutely can't begin to judge all Travellers for this, upsetting and damaging though it usually is.

It's more so the elder members of the community who can speak Pavee (Shelta) but most people know a few works.
Mash means hello, Tav means father and Gorja means settled person 😊

I don't speak it but some elders of the community to still use phrases regularly

Is it offensive to describe travellers as 'gypsies'? I don't as I have heard it is a slur, but unsure as you have used it (obviously you can describe yourself however you'd like, but just wondering!)

I hate the litter that is left by festival goers and think they should be ashamed of themselves, however, the festival organisers do clear it up. Most concerns are about parts of the travelling community are based on how members of the community left our towns when them came last time. Not all clearly I don't think I've ever seen a mess left by the circus community.

There were a couple of questions about what you would have experienced from the NHS.

Just wanted to add - we could all give a hundred examples of assumptions made about class, household situation, cultural background etc. NHS staff make assumptions about people's backgrounds all the time, even if it's not badly-intentioned.

NHS staff from ethnic minority backgrounds, and recent immigrants, are known to be given a worse time at work by their colleagues. They're more likely to be on the end of bullying, and get given the more unpleasant work, and fewer opportunities to progress. And that's within the NHS workforce.

Horses are still important and most travellers on settled sites have stables. Horses as a whole are treated like royalty and were all taught how to ride from a very young age

Many thanks ~ just wondering how you differentiate between all the Elizabeth's? I've read a lot about Amish communities and they also use the same names within families but refer to family members using their parents names e.g. "Sarah's Elizabeth" or "Mary's Elizabeth"