To get annoyed that a middle class life style is not "real life"?

[Roseflower]

I don't get- why is trying to move to a nice, safe and quiet area with a good school not "real life" as some people like to tell me?

How is this any less "real" that living in a crime ridden, ugly area with an unsafe school?

Seems its only real life if your let your child actually live in the middle of all sorts...

Does anyone else get this attitude sometimes?

I have just baked a sponge, and rather fittingly filled it with HM blackberry jam. Should I hurl it or eat it?

I wouldn't say anything blanket about any so-called class, tbh, (eg I am fairly sure that most people read books! But discussing them is more taboo in some groups) but I feel I can talk about my own experiences - or can't I?

Funnily enough I've just baked an apple cake. But no, I think we should leave the hurling to LeQueen et al

Aw thanks PM.

Prune, where do you live?

(if it's outside EH10 I'll send a rescue party :) )

I prefer living in a 'gritty' area to the type of tiny-minded, monocultural gardenscape BoojaB described. There's gritty and there's grimy, though.

My sister lived in a lovely house in a beautiful Birmingham street that was full of crack houses, dealers & downmarket brothels. After her kids came home with a used syringe and witnessed a drive-by shooting - on the same day! - they moved to a smaller house in the countryside.

I loved living in Tooting & Streatham, but once made the mistake of moving to a tower block in Bow. The flat was gorgeous, but I hated going in & out because of the overall despair in the development. Everything was filthy, kids were excessively cynical for their age and, at any time, anywhere, you heard people having awful rows. It opened my eyes to how dismal 'real life' is for some, but I couldn't stand living amongst it.

I'm in the country now, too. It bores me shitless.

Lovely. I'll make a pot of tea and we can all share

EH6
Someone had written something recently about not leaving babies in prams outside shops here because lunchtime drunks would try and feed them chips.
I SNORTED at that. It's funny 'cos it's true.

Ooh I used to live in EH6. 'nuff said.

Loads of people love it there and indeed wear t-shirts to say so. Decent schools too they tell me.

I just don't see why you expect me to use moronic language because I don't live in a country pile now. I have an EMBA from the LSE so I don't see why I can't use a (big hard) word like Societal .... lol

Alot of my family live in Erdington and they don't have problems with drive by shootings etc. Birmingham is a very diverse city (as are all our major cities) and of course places are not so nice, Lozells springs to mind (though I am sure some parts are nice). But Lozells is not typical of the whole of Birmingham, nor is it a proper reflection of the West Midlands. Mind you, it has been a while since I lived there so things may of changed. On the whole, brummies are lovely though

It's, ahem, very mixed!
Happy with school so far.
Big Scotmid closed down and DH reckons Waitrose lost their chance....
I pressed him on this and it turns out he was serious. He seems able to block out a lot....

You don't know you're born with the lunchtime drunks UnePrune

I was at our local shopping centre at half nine this morning and there were children hanging around the pub door where their parents had just gone in there not to be seen until closing. Very sad.

I'm a Brummie by origin, too! Sister's street went downhill after they'd bought the house - they swear it didn't happen because they moved in There's a very, very bad problem with violent crime in the city now. I still love visiting, though. I really don't feel judgey about the bad stuff, because it's blindingly obvious it's born out of poverty + hoplessness. Brixton, on the other hand, was unsafe but pulsating with life & community spirit: I loved it!

IseeGraceAhead - "the bad stuff is born out of poverty and hopelessness". Is it though?

Or is the poverty and hopelessness actually a result of the type of people that live there?

I think the commonly-held view that poverty = crime is rather patronising to those that are poor but nevertheless do not turn to crime.

I think a certain type of person becomes a criminal.

PawMum: as I said further up the thread, as a student I lived in Balsall Heath. Beautiful redbrick houses but my goodness it was rough. This was in the mid 90s, when they were trying to clear the prostitutes out (who would sit semi naked in the windows to advertise their "businesses"!). There were a lot of gangs, and a lot of fighting on the streets. We were warned by the students union that we shouldn't really live there, but it was cheap...

Nice and close to Edgbaston cricket ground and the MAC though

Birmingham doesn't exist to me, of course.

I refer to it as Rummidge.

I know! I love it!

(big grin)

I could never get into David Lodge, I always felt I should though :(

Each to their own, slut. Loads of books I should love but don't too. Plenty of them I can't even be arsed trying.

Good thing about Lodge is how wonderfully available his entire works are in any charity or second hand shop. I regularly replace my worn out copies!

Therapy is my absolute fave. It's in my hospital bag as we speak. It's about a fat sitcom writer.