Things that baffle you about another country

[Soubriquet]

America:-

Why are the gaps in the toilet doors so wide? Do you really enjoy an audience?

Why can’t tax be included in the price? If I want to buy something for a dollar it should be a dollar! Not dollar plus tax!

Australia:-

Still weird that you have Christmas in summer.

Wonder if they have different Christmas songs there.

Can’t see walking in a winter land being a big hit.

More like hiding from a hot heatwave

Americas - why are you so obsessed with your heritage? Claiming to be Scottish when your ancestor from 8 generations ago came from Scotland does not make you Scottish, especially if you have an American passport.

@LaceyBetty

I'm obsessed with the washing bowl. I would love someone to explain how it is actually used and better than just the sink. Really not being goady, I don't get it. Also it was a huge shock moving here and having the washing machine and tumble dryer (if lucky) in the kitchen!

I think it's a combination of only having one sink instead of two, and not having decent mixer taps. And maybe being on a water meter. Ideally you would scrape all the dishes first and throw out any half drunk cups of tea. But inevitably half way through the washing up someone hands you another mug and it has cold tea in it. With a basin you tip it down the side, without disturbing the bowl of soapy water. And the reason you need the bowl of soapy water is because you'd burn the skin off your hands trying to wash things under a running tap, unless you use cold water. I have a mixer tap, as is common these days but it doesn't mix particularly well and I can really only have boiling hot or freezing cold. My last mixer tap was the same, my old house was the same, my mum's house is the same etc etc.

Having said all that, I don't have a washing up bowl but if I didn't have a dishwasher I almost definitely would have one because I don't know how else I could realistically get the dishes washed.

I meant to add, we were marked on washing up at school in Home Economics. Not using a washing up bowl was an immediate fail, as was not washing in the right order (glasses first, then cups, then plates, then cutlery) because it was deemed unhygienic.

Things I've met people not from here have found weird about UK:
Why we eat the same thing for breakfast everyday (from parts of Asia)
Our obsession with animals/pets, the fact dogs sleep in our houses and we take them for walks (bits of eastern africa).

Things I find weird about other countries;
Germany: loving a British comedy sketch from the 1950s on NYE. Mental fireworks used by everyone on NYE.
Poland: spoon feeding children until they are 4.
Italy: having to wear make up to get milk
Cuba: the refreshing love of fat women and a very interesting like for hairy legs above the knee but not below
Belize: lots of 6'plus" transvesites in the 1990s

@airedailleurs

Flachspüler went out of fashion in the 1990. But nobody in his senses throws out a totally functional toilet bowl just bc. they try to sell new ones, wether they are Hungarian or German.
Nothing to do with pork consumption and worms.

Though GPs think at least one toilet in a house should be flat for health reasons. A bladder tumor was discovered by the colour of the urine on the flat bit (great aunt of mine).

@AdditionalCharacter

Americas - why are you so obsessed with your heritage? Claiming to be Scottish when your ancestor from 8 generations ago came from Scotland does not make you Scottish, especially if you have an American passport.

Why are Brits so uptight about this? We've had a gazillion threads about it.

Everyone else in Europe might think it's a bit silly but they're generally good-natured about it. It's only in the UK that I've seen people really object to it.

Doesn't answer my question though does it?

Do people not using bowls or plugging the sink actually turn on the tap and waste an incredible amount of water and energy washing up?

medebourne I think the snow / Christmas thing is Victorian. Apparently that’s what the climate was doing then, and that’s when Christmas cards were invented, so we got lots of imagery from that era.

I’m British:

I have a stove top kettle because plastic electric ones are rank and pointless when there is a perfectly functional hob.

I don’t have a washing up bowl - because they too are rank.

I don’t have a washing line because I have better things to do than faff about taking clothes in and out. Our washer and dryer are in our utility although I realise we are fortunate to have enough space.

I don’t think bidets are funny and wash my arse after a poo at home because just dry wiping is also rank.

I think I was born in the wrong country. 😃

Some of these comments about the European countries are ignorant/generalisations. I find them funny, it would take too long to explain/correct them though.

I loathe washing up bowls but I agree that they're mainly a hangover from when people only had single sinks. DH was brought up with a washing up bowl - this habit did not survive long once we were living together. But I concede that they are pretty much essential if you don't have a double sink (unless you wash up under running water, but I've never heard of that before!). You tip out coffee or rinse gunge off the plate next to the bowl, so that the water in the bowl stays fairly clean. But the thing that gives me the horrors is the gunk on the (outside) bottom of the bowl afterwards.

@StepOutOfLine

To the UK (or, in fairness, Mumsnetters)

What's with the pride at having a dirty house and only washing your bedding and cleaning your bog about once a fortnight?

Would you get a bit of loo roll and wipe poo off your arm/knee/face and think that was adequate? Hopefully not, so why do you find bidets so hilarious?

Why do you think the sky will fall in if your child isn't in bed by 6pm and has had 4 naps?

I think being over clean is seen as a bit lower class. All that cleaning your doorstep competitively. We all know a bit of dirt is healthier and frankly we don’t want to be seen as try hard. ( disclaimer; everyone I know has a lovely clean house).

Oh come on bidets are just too “obvious”. No one sees our bits anyway. PJ O Rouke might have commented that if Europeans washed properly and not just their bottoms ....I’ve leave it there..

We over parent because want our kids to leave home. We are saddened that many now return after Uni. They can have the stately pile once we’ve gone but no way are they staying with mama until they’re 30. Goes for you too Nonna too. Fend for yourself everyone.

I think it's a combination of only having one sink instead of two, and not having decent mixer taps.

I'm in NZ and many houses have only one sink and no mixer taps, but we don't use washing up bowls, we just use the sink. If someone hands you a cup with liquid still in it while you are washing you either leave it until the next wash, or tip the liquid out somewhere else.

@LizzieMacQueen

American houses don't seem to have very well fitted kitchens on any home show I've seen on TV. The ovens (stoves usually) look so old fashioned.

You need to stop watching Little House on the Prairie.. my kitchen is very modern and I have a maasive aga style cooker 🤣 I am in the USA right now 🌺

@AdditionalCharacter

Doesn't answer my question though does it?

Well if you're genuinely interested, look at this recent thread, it explains it well

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4081223-to-be-proud-to-be-Irish-Biden-reportedly-wants-The-Chieftains-for-his-inauguration

Everyone in the US, except for Native Americans, have roots elsewhere in the world. A huge number of us are only second or third generation American. When we say we're Scottish or Polish or Italian, we all know we mean Scottish-American, Polish-American etc, we just don't bother saying the whole thing. People don't think they're literally 100% Scottish.

@Bookridden

Is it true that Americans don't have kettles?

When I lived in the US in 2008 it was definitely true. I hunted for weeks for a kettle and eventually found one in a chemist (presumably for making up lemsip). All my American friends who I introduced to the idea of kettles loved it though and were fighting over my kettle when I moved back to the UK.

When I was in America I’m sure the toilets looked like they were about to over flow? I remember thinking ‘if I flush that, it’s going to flood the place’

Is that a ‘thing’?

There’s hardly any water in British toilets.

I don’t think bidets are funny and wash my arse after a poo at home because just dry wiping is also rank.

I would love a bidet or one of those amazing Japanese spray toilets. I can't time my movements to showers, so would feel lovely and fresh with a good splash down below at any time of the day.

Spain - why do you eat out so late? When we were on holiday we held out until 9.30 to arrive, but were still often the only people in the restaurant. It can't just be a hot weather thing, because other southern European countries don't seem to do it.

The UK - WHY do you not extend a reasonable level of trust to your citizens by allowing them to have sockets in bathrooms?

I'm Scottish, but lived in SE Asia for a long time, and coming home to bathrooms without plug points in them was a bizarre reverse culture shock.

UK not washing bum after a poo, was really horrified when I first arrived here and knowing about this

No space for utility room, where do you put all your washing to dry?!

@LadyJaye And yet we DO trust people to cross the road where and when they like, without arresting them. Weird, innit?

@dreamingbohemian

Why don't Europeans have screen windows?? Every summer I go mad with flies and mosquitoes in the flat. In the US we have a sort of second mesh window so you can open your window for air but no bugs get in.

I would love these.

@LadyJaye

The UK - WHY do you not extend a reasonable level of trust to your citizens by allowing them to have sockets in bathrooms?

I'm Scottish, but lived in SE Asia for a long time, and coming home to bathrooms without plug points in them was a bizarre reverse culture shock.

Because we’ve all seen that scene in Six Feet Under where the woman’s cat knocks her electric rollers in the bath while she’s having a soak. 😬