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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think I must be a chav, as MN has deemed me so?

286 replies

Heartbrokenmum73 · 23/12/2013 21:47

According to threads I've been reading lately, most things I do seem to be marking me (and my family) out as chavs.

I fed my children formula and jarred food - this is chavvy
My Mum likes cards that say Nanny and she sends relative-specific cards - chavvy
My children like to wear character clothing - chavvy
I shop at Tesco and sometimes even Asda - chavvy

AIBU to be a bit tired of seeing the word 'chav' on here lately? I've challenged it and said that it's offensive, but just get the 'well, it's only online, why are you bothered', as if that makes it ok.

Yes, I realise I'm being over-sensitive, but me and my family aren't 'chavs' and I'm tired of it being bandied about (along with 'common') to describe things that people see as beneath them.

OP posts:
Original poster
Heartbrokenmum73 · 23/12/2013 23:00

I used to be partial to orange Bacardi Breezers.

Crap, I am a chav, aren't I?

OP posts:
JRmumma · 23/12/2013 23:00

Yes lumpy chav used to mean child. We used to say it but had to stop 10 years or so ago when it took on a different meaning.

Nowadays i believe it means a Burberry wearing, cheap gold sporting teenage mother who smokes a fag whilst pushing a buggy Grin

SPsWantsCliffInHerStocking · 23/12/2013 23:02

I also have a Burberry bag in the house. It is likely a fake so... Grin

LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob · 23/12/2013 23:03

Oh Yeah

Annunziata · 23/12/2013 23:04

I am too! The baby has hoop earrings, DH has a 4x4 and various other sins :)

lanbro · 23/12/2013 23:04

Back in the day a chav started of as a charver, also known previously as a sharon/tracy/trevor. If I recall it referred to people with huge hairsprayed fringes who wore Adidas tracksuits, a delightful fashion trend of the 90s. My sister will happily admit she went through a charver stage, I on the other hand was too much of a geek! These days it seems to have become something much more offensive for whatever reason, but who really cares where you shop, what type of Xmas cards you send, what your kids wear etc? I don't!

FreudiansSlipper · 23/12/2013 23:07

the word chav it is bounded around on here often mn is full of those that are desperate to be seen as mc and this is one way of telling us Hmm they are

what is the need other than to make yourself feel better than those you think you are better than

LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob · 23/12/2013 23:07

Back in the day the eighties we called them the casuals.

PrincessWellington · 23/12/2013 23:07

Well I get the piss taken because I'm 'posh' just because I can phrase an email professionally and type all words in a text message.
I also make colleagues feel 'inferior' due to the language I use and my life choices (for example, refusing to stay in a Travelodge on a weekend away with DH and spending £250 on ourselves rather than as a family)
No matter what you do, someone will judge you. I'm slowly learning that you just need to be happy with the decisions you make and the life you lead.
I think WTF to a lot of my colleagues' decisions but I'm learning to smile and nod.

LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob · 23/12/2013 23:10

No matter what you, or what you do.

Someone's always judging you.

grumpyoldbat · 23/12/2013 23:11

lanbro it more people who use to make people like me feel guilty for being alive. They use it when telling us we're scum, scroungers, lazy, not proper human beings, that we're people who don't deserve to be alive that our children shouldn't have been born, that our existence ruins people's lives. That's why it becomes offensive.

Btw I don't care where people shop either. I judge people on how they treat others, their manners etc.

LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob · 23/12/2013 23:12

No mater what you say, or what you do.

Someone's always judging you.

LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob · 23/12/2013 23:12

Matter. I. Give up.

MincedMuffPies · 23/12/2013 23:13

I loved my Adidas poppers trackies back in the days... And my dolly chain and chops Wink 20/20 green was the ish to..

Teenagers nowadays look to nice Grin

FunnysInLaJardin · 23/12/2013 23:14

not chavvy just horribly lower MC OP. HTH

Mind you I am dead posh and I FF so you can never tell

southeastastra · 23/12/2013 23:15

we had loads of casuals at school, lots of branded sportswear, that's sort of what i think 'chavs' are equalivant to now. it's just fun really, people mis-interpret it and write books about 'chavs' which seem to think 'chav' is a word that's offensive when i don't think it started out to be at all.

MurderOfGoths · 23/12/2013 23:15

lanbro I'd heard of charver being used, can see how that would shorten to chav. Have also hearda theory that it originally referred to townies from Chatham, which also got shortened to chav. Be interested to know where the word actually started, and why it gained prominence where townie/ned/etc didn't?

TheChineseLady · 23/12/2013 23:30

I'm pretty sure that 'townie' began as a way to distinguish between university students and locals in most university towns.

Purplepoodle · 23/12/2013 23:35

Kids are only young for a short time - embrace the tack

FreudiansSlipper · 23/12/2013 23:35

having the piss taken out of you is not the same as being called a chav one is derogatory the other is not

one is considered more superior than the other something to aspire to or certainly a lifestyle to aspire to (not suggesting everyone wants to forget their background), there could be many reasons why someone may take the piss out of someone being posh it is not necessarily because others feel inferior it might in itself be a piss take, you know desperately wanting to come across as something you want to be but maybe are not

MissWinter01 · 23/12/2013 23:41

Well I'm a chav as a couple of the statements apply to me and damn proud of it Heartbrokenmummy

Pay no attention. It's internet snobbery. Really not worth even giving it a second thought hun.

What must they think of me, I bought DD a Minnie Mouse table a chair set for Christmas Shock how scandalous Wink

MudCity · 24/12/2013 00:05

You sound normal.

I find people who put others down for their choices are generally trying to make themselves feel better for who they are.

I too am eclectic in my tastes. I shop everywhere and wear everything.

I was once put down by a colleague for buying someone who looked after my pets a substantial Argos voucher to say thank you. They thought that was terribly chavvy. I saw it as practical. Get what you want, nearby, at a decent price! A Sony television is a Sony television whether you buy it from John Lewis, Currys or Argos!

TheBigJessie · 24/12/2013 00:22

I still have some adidas tracksuit bottoms in the wardrobe! Yes, I used to wear sportswear. They were comfortable! I stopped because I have a very youthful appearance, and youthful appearance + sportswear + baby do not get you good treatment.

I also send personalised dear aunt/nanna cards.

I shop with Ocado, Tesco, Aldi, and Co-op, although not simultaneously. Can't get the staff for that, daaaah-ling!

I have a name which earmarks my social origins with precision. We're talking worse than beginning with a K, here Grin it's more of a Dayyry (like Dairy) or something.

I breastfed.

I have a flat-screen TV and six bookcases. some of which house a magnificent DVD collection

And yet, acquaintances put me firmly in the middle-class box, and tell me that I speak poshly.

Perhaps it's because I read the Guardian?

MillyChristmas · 24/12/2013 00:48

Chinese As far as I'm aware Townie refers to people who live in the town when the rest of us lived in the country Confused

Mimishimi · 24/12/2013 02:03

Chavale - means brother, boy etc. i wouldn't take it as an insult personally. :)