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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it's ok to call the toilet a bog?

173 replies

TambianLoco · 02/10/2012 18:09

I've called it the bog for as long as I can remember. When I met my ex he'd always called it the bog too so we brought the kids up saying bog. Even my new boyfriend calls it the bog!!

DS(11) has just received a detention today for telling his teacher that he was on his way to the bog. This follows a detention he got yesterday for leaving a bottle cap on his table.

AIBU to think both detentions were rather harsh??

OP posts:
TroublesomeEx · 02/10/2012 18:35

Yeah, he's ok at times Wink

HecateHarshPants · 02/10/2012 18:37

oh, did he get the detention for standing up in class, walking towards the door and saying "I'm goin to the bog" instead of asking to be excused. Because I can understand that. I think they're supposed to ask, aren't they?

It's a million years since I was at school. Back then they wouldn't let you go during class!

PorkyandBess · 02/10/2012 18:39

Bog is horrid - sounds vulgar and common.

Detention seems a bit ott though.

TroublesomeEx · 02/10/2012 18:42

I doubt he put his hand up and said

"please Miss, can I go to the bog"

because that wouldn't get a detention that would get a

"Bog, Tarquin?! Surely you don't say that at home"

"er Yes miss. Why?"

"Well it's not very polite. At school we tend to say [insert acceptable word]"

However,

"Tarquin? Where are you going"

"I'm going to the bog"

"no you're not, sit down"

"whatever" - exit Tarquin.

Probably would

HecateHarshPants · 02/10/2012 18:43

ooh, I like that. I did voices and everything.

redexpat · 02/10/2012 18:43

Your son's teacher is nuts.

PuffPants · 02/10/2012 18:46

I think it's gross. But you are free to speak as you wish. Hearing a child say he was off to the bog would put this look on my face Confused

FredFredGeorge · 02/10/2012 18:47

I thought Bog was Public School slang for toilet? So much the opposite of common surely? If it was purely for the use of the language then it's a highly inappropriate detention.

PuffPants · 02/10/2012 18:54

It is Fred - I remember my sister coming back from her first term at uni talking about the bog, she'd got in with a very "ra" crowd.

PorkyandBess · 02/10/2012 18:55

I find 'toilet' almost as offensive as 'bog'!

ClutchingPearls · 02/10/2012 18:57

I Hate the word bog but detention Hmm

When I was at school you had to try really hard to get detention. My best was for super glueing the board markers to the bottom of the board.

Or accidently setting light to the sugar paper on the wall of the science lab.

Or buying a watch that doubled as a VCR remote to speed up the boring bits all of the RE video.

Think I would have been I permanent detention if I went to that school.

bureni · 02/10/2012 19:03

The term bog relates to a waste system called a "tree bog" which was basically a tree that people used as a toilet to help the tree grow, some people call a toilet a crapper which came from one of the biggest british flush toilet designers and manufacturers Thomas Crapper so both are valid terms in a way .

Dawndonna · 02/10/2012 19:03

Lavatory or at a push, loo. Please.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 02/10/2012 19:05

Bog is rude?

Learn something new every day.

He should go and explain to the teacher he says it at home and didn't realize he'd offend the teacher.

thebody · 02/10/2012 19:07

Big is horrible. I susie t though your ds did some what more than simply say this.

In my school I correct slang and bad English as automatically as I would to my own children but not a detention.

Suspect you aren't getting the whole story here.

thebody · 02/10/2012 19:08

Bog not big!! Stupid I phone. Could try calling it the crapper maybe??

AnAssumedIdentity · 02/10/2012 19:16

My dad, very posh, wouldn't allow us ever to say toilet. He thought it was shockingly vulgar. So - it's got to be lavatory, lav, loo or bog. Probably lavatory for school purposes.

PedanticPanda · 02/10/2012 19:17

Yanbu, bog is fine, we all say it here.

StripyShoes · 02/10/2012 19:21

Ooh! I want one of those watches! Only it would need to control dvds now!

larks35 · 02/10/2012 19:29

I'm with folkgirl here, I imagine the detention isn't for the word "bog" but for the tone and manner in which he said it to the teacher.

I remember being corrected by a dinner lady at school because I said "lavetory" and she said "No, it's a toilet". I was very confused by that!

Loo is my favoured term, DP says toilet, DS just announces to everyone "I NEED A WEE/POO!"

Ilovedaintynuts · 02/10/2012 19:39

I think it's a horrible vulgar word and would expect my DS to be reprimanded at school for saying 'bog'.

I think it's in the same region of offensiveness as "fanny" "nuts" or "tits".

I had no idea people commonly used it so much.

complexnumber · 02/10/2012 19:48

I too am quite taken aback that people might find 'bog' unacceptable in their homes.

There are loads of euphemisims (sp?) for toilet. It had never occured to me that 'bog' was an offensive one.

IneedAsockamnesty · 02/10/2012 20:02

if anyone corrected my children and told them to say toilet i would think that the person doing the correcting was vulgar and would tell my children to ignore it.

Sparklingbrook · 02/10/2012 20:04

So you would tell your DC to ignore a teacher Sock? Confused

IneedAsockamnesty · 02/10/2012 20:15

no but i would tell them to ignore the instruction to use that word and to feel free to inform the teacher (not in front of other children) that there mother conciders the word to be very vulgar and they shouldnt use it.obviously i would make it clear that they do so politly.

i also teach my children that teachers are human beings the same as the rest of us and are not all powerful beings who are infallible.