UK and America are two countries separated by a common language, UK and US Q&A

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Continuation of the previous thread where posters from the UK ask questions like 'what the hell is going on with the gaps in US toilet doors'; and posters fro the US ask things like 'what is with wearing stripes'

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a2149133-to-think-there-is-something-wrong-with-Americans?msgid=48969042#48969042

I used to live in a terrace and looked it up on the 1901 census. There used to be a family with 5 children live in my house.

bad grammar. we live in texas, in the biggest house we'll ever probably live in pip We only use half of it! We could have bought a 2 bed apartment and been happy (Family of 4)

Tether it depends on the regional culture, as so much does. DH was 27 and I was 24 when we married in 2006; I'm not sure if that's "young" or not but it wasn't seen as all that unusual to anyone where we live. We had our first DC nine months and 4 days later, right after I'd turned 25, and again didn't feel young.

My uncle lives in Mnahattan and is very of that culture now. He was married at 40 and he and his wife have one DD, who is a year older than my DS. He remarks on my getting married and having children so young often.

It is interesting to compare and contrast our lives (mine and my uncles) as we have children the same age and live in such different worlds.

He and his wife were very concerned with school choice (ended up at a Steiner school; it is her third school as the others weren't "a good fit") whereas we have only one school, so that's it. I accept that I will have to adress gaps in my son's education myself.

Also they allow their dd to behave on ways that I find plain rude...they do not require her to answer when someone asks how she is because she is "an introvert", for example. And when I've visited them it seems that most of their circle parents this way.

....and I should say, the people we bought it off were in their early 60s, one grown daughter who lives in NYC, no grandkids. They were selling as they felt the house was toooooo small . They'd previously moved from Canada where their house was about 6000sqft. That's for a family of 3. Madness!

If we move back to the UK, I will find it very difficult adjusting to living in our smaller house again.

tethers i can't speak for the godforsaken places but in most of the US you can get any kind of cheese you want -- new york state actually makes a huge range of gorgeous cheeses, similar to english artisanal cheeses, and in the cities obviously they import everything

I could buy Borough Market cheddar in my local shop in DC

day-glo cheese is SO good when you're drunk though. so melty. mmmm.

A terraced house like those shown is about 900 sq ft by the way.

I love good cheese. You can get decent cheese in the US, but there's a lot of the nasty stuff as well.

I have friends who actually checked out of a B&B (I think it was in Virginia) because of all the furniture that had Please Do Not Sit Here signs on. And decorative soap in the bathroom that they were not supposed to use.

Ha! So true, dreamingbohemian, though in our case it was an annexe room for DS1 where the soft toys freaked him out so much up he ended up sharing our bed.

I think most people would support a drinking age at 18 for those reasons, but it's too tricky to implement. The biggest barrier is the projected increase in car accidents within the age group affected. It's not that people agree with 21 necessarily, but it's too difficult to change now.

It was 18 in a lot of states a generation ago. Then there was a scheme where the federal government would only agree to pay for road repairs in states that increased to 21. I remember when I went to visit my relatives in Chicago age 18ish, my dad advising me to go across the border to Wisconsin to drink. It'd actually been changed years before, but I think Wisconsin was one of the last.

Also... lots of teenagers drink. Sometimes I'm confused on threads here, where posters DC are visiting/going to uni in the US age 18 or 19. They're always advised to tell the dc that the drinking age is VERY STRICT, to never accept a beer in a private home, to not even hold one for a friend for a moment. Unless they go driving, or something extremely dodgy happens at a party, teens aren't going to get in much trouble just for drinking itself. In my state and others it is legal to have a drink in a private residence under your parent's supervision, as well.

new york state actually makes a huge range of gorgeous cheeses

Oh, yes. My husband is from one of the main cheese producing areas of NYS. We always get orders from our friends of what to bring back when we go.

I've just remembered being served pop-overs for breakfast in a Vermont B&B. Or Yorkshire puddings as we know them....

The plastic American cheese is horrible, isn't it?! It's all we had growing up but I bought some recently (was in a hurry and they had some at the butchers and I thought I could make some quick sandwiches for the kids) and it is awful!

Seriously, B&B people are WEIRD

Your poor DS Dust!

I hate plastic cheese. It's why I never order a cheeseburger in a restaurant; you never know what you're going to get.

Mmm we have so many good cheeses! Especially since the California dairy board really ramped up support for California farms selling dairy products within the state/consumers eating local cheese. I love cheese.

The whole put down the knife thing dates back to Americans copying the French - it gained in popularity because it was considered rude to hold your knife through your dinner as it was at hand if you wanted to stab someone (there's a great article in slate about this)

In America, there is a benefit for expecting mums, mums of young children, and children under 5 calledWomen Infants and Chikdren(WIC). This offers means tested vouchers to buy milk, cereals, vegetables and fruits, milk, and baby formula.

Actually cheese was one of my few culture shocks when I moved to the UK 10 years ago... I went to my local Tesco and the cheese aisle was, literally, 90% cheddar varieties. Seemed a bit crazy! Has changed a lot since then though.

A cheese question for the Brits: have any of you ever heard of provolone?

It was a really popular cheese on the east coast US and I never managed to find any in the UK. An enduring mystery.

When I was 19 the drinking age in my state went back up to 21 (it had been 18)

18, 19 and 20 year olds were allowed to continue drinking legally - grandfather laws it was called.

A cheese question for the Brits: have any of you ever heard of provolone

Yes, but I'm not sure I've ever had it.

To join most college sororities, one takes part in rush week at the start of the semester. One attends parties, then receives an invitation to take part in hazing, whereby is forced to do stupid and occasionally ribald and abusive tasks. If one fails or is found unsuitable, one us blackballed. After the testing/hazing is over, one is invested into the sorority in a silly faux-Masonic ceremony. Sorority students tend to drink seriously,and cheat academically. They to think very well of themselves. Sorority girls also wear matching outfits several days a week.

Ugh. Sororities sound so not my thing and disappointingly stupid too. What a missed opportunity.

Plastic cheese isn't confined to the US. I have flashbacks to Calvita occasionally.

That's the stereotype of sororities, they aren't all like that :)

I wouldn't say that's "most" sororities, but the ones at older, 'prestigious' schools, ones in areas with a Southern Debutante type tradition, and not so prevalent today. I think it came to a head about ten years ago, when a LOT of the hazing and ritual came under fire and colleges adopted strict policies against it.

At my school, they're culturally or community based, and all must have some element of community service. The only "matching" clothes would be something like a hoodie with the sorority's name on it that they have printed up. They might wear them when out doing a community service project to identify themselves and spread the word about their works.

They're not for me, but different schools do have very different types of sororities. They're not all bad/extreme, and I feel bad for the nice ones that there's a huge stigma against them.