Not so much AIBU as I Know I'm Being Ridiculous But It Really Bothers Me

[Nonicknamesleft]

I've added my little turmoil to this thread elsewhere on MN, but it strikes me that it sits better here in AIBU. Please see below and tell me what on earth I should do. Fanks, as we say around here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/1031197-Well-spoken-areas-Accents/AllOnOnePage#25225894

(Oops. let's make the URL do something....)

I've added my little turmoil to this thread elsewhere on MN, but it strikes me that it sits better here in AIBU. Please see below and tell me what on earth I should do. Fanks, as we say around here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/1031197-Well-spoken-areas-Accents/AllOnOnePage#25225894

if its the areas i'm thinking of then i couldnt do it......i dont like that accent either

Sorry, not being at all clear here. My posting is the very last one. I could start it again here but I believe that's not the done thing here. Sorry, bit of an amateur. It's from Nonicknamesleft Sat 07-May-11 09:51:40.

I'll go now.

You could always do your own elocution lessons with your DC's nightly. I don't speak my regional accent because my family don't and i spent my free time out of the city i was born in (with distant family). It is there to use if i want it, oddly enough i sing in a strong accent. I like the diversity of accents but it is better to speak standard English if communication is part of your job in adulthood, so accents do make a difference.

Sorry for my incorrect grammar.

My father was from the Black Country and had a very strong accent. I lived in Herefordshire where the accent was yokel meets brummie. Then we moved to Wales. I never picked up an accent. It is not inevitable.

Actually I love the brummie accent but we used to tease my father.

'Who needs jacuzzi when thou has had faggits and peas for thy tea.....' (a brummie joke)

I have a southern accent having grown up in Herts (well, Stevenage innit), we live in Smethwick have done for years so my son calls me mommy with a wee black country accent which he's picked up. It doesn't bother me. Manners matter more than accent I reckon, that's what people notice most with children.

Yes, I know it's what's inside that counts, and their manners, behaviour etc, hence my embarrassment at even thinking this way. I don't have a problem at all with accents per se, I just have an irrational dislike of this one. In the same way that you can just dislike a particular style of music or literary genre, etc etc.

But..... there are good reasons for moving there. I just really love where I live now, even though I am too poor to ever be anything more than an imposter, or a stressed-out wage slave with children in the full time care of paid others.

Nonicknames - i know where you're coming from.
I coem from elsewhere in the country, and I worry that my children will speak in the local accent (DH does, and it's awful) - mainly because I have a friend whose child speaks with quite a strong local accent, and she's from a town not that far away from where I grew up.

The only thing you can do to prevent it, is to have lots of friends with non-regional accents, or send them to a school that has children who don't speak that accent (it might have to be independent, though)

I'm from Hertfordshire, and I speak well, that is due to my father having had elocution lessons prior to becoming a vicar because he had a strong London accent.

The locals here are a real mishmash so DD could pick up any accent, I will correct her I figure if needs be, I would prefer if she was well spoken, but that's her own choice I guess.

It really does boil down to manners and what's inside, but I think it nice to have a 'telephone voice' as well call it when interviewing or so forth.

I am from Surrey and privately educated so I have the Surrey plumby accident. I have married a man who sounds like Hagrid (or the Worzles depending upon your age group). Sadly, people are judged on face value and accents are one of those small minded things.

Strange, but the Scottish, Irish (southern and norther) and Welsh seem to be more acceptable than the various English dialects.

I would rather have a West country or North East accent over a Midlands or North West accent! (Mr Pingu is reading!)

Yes you are being ridiculous. And a bit snobby.

I'm from Essex, I can assure I speak quite nicely thank you!

Currently live in North Yorkshire, I don't mind if DS picks up the local accent, at least it means he won't get bullied by his school friends for talking funny!

Yes Pingu, I could totally live with them becoming Geordies or Bristolians for eg. We'll never afford private education and I don't want the poor loves having the shite kicked out of them at school because of my successful attempts to elocute them.

I think some people pick up accents and others don't. My mate's daughter, living in Cheshire, parents from Herts/Essex (but neither with an accent) and going to a Cheshire born and bred child minder has come out with a brummy accent. No idea why. Or how!

I'm with you on not wanting to relocate for accents though. My husband (an accent-less west country boy) is happy in the west midlands but wouldn't move to the black country for love nor money and I absolutely would not move to the south east. Even overhearing accents when I'm shopping down there makes my toes curl. Horses for courses I guess. And besides, I'd hate to have to share my beautiful bit of the west midlands with too many other people!

I know it doesn't solve my problem but I am massively heartened by all the responses here. Thank you so much - I'm extremely grateful that everyone has made me feel as though I am not, in fact, mad.