Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

999 replies

Pipbin · 18/08/2014 20:23

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
15
tinyshinyanddon · 30/08/2014 12:42

pipbin we don't own the road just to the edge of the front yard like in the uk. But we are all responsible for clearing snow off the sidewalk around the property. The plows (or ploughs) do the street. After a storm everyone is out there with a shovel doing their bit. Enterprising teenagers often stop by and will often to dig you out (for about $10-20).

Snafflepants · 30/08/2014 17:31

Epic thread! Love the USA and and been fascinated with it since I grew up on Judy Blume and Sweet Valley High books...in fact I'm nursing jet lag from landing back home from our latest three week tour of Florida (I have withdrawals from The Cheesecake Factory Red Velvet Cake already)

Can someone tell me about summer camps? I mean the ones where the kids go and stay in log cabins and usually have themes like Music or Cheerleading? Do they actually exist? Are they really expensive? Do most children go on them?

We had a villa for a portion of our stay and for the first time actually cooked at home a bit rather than eating out all the time. I was surprised at how expensive some items were - like fruit and veg? Was baffled by the lack of squash/ cordial - eventually found some Robinsons in Publix! Was also amazed there is so many different types of Potato Salad available...

AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore · 30/08/2014 17:38

Yes, there are camps. Some children go, I suppose. Very few that I ever knew went, to be honest. I would say that yes, they're pretty expensive. Consider that they are taking complete care of your child, including activities, food, and liability insurance as well as maintenance and so on, for a number of weeks. Yep, pretty pricey.

I never saw squash/cordial until I moved to the UK. Was baffled by it. Most kids drank pop or sugar free koolaid (or regular sugarloaded koolaid).

Potato salad. Sigh. I really need to make some soon. It sounds good. Smile

steff13 · 30/08/2014 17:45

When I was in high school, the band kids went to band camp every summer, and the cheerleaders went to cheerleading camp. Those were required for the kids who were participating.

There are other camps, too, my local YMCA has a summer sleep-away camp that you can send kids to. I have a friend here in Ohio who sent her son to a camp in Maine this summer.

SconeRhymesWithGone · 30/08/2014 17:51

My children went to sports camps; DD was on the track team and went to running camp; DS went to water ski camp several summers.

eatscakefornoreasonwhatsoever · 30/08/2014 17:56

Sunny D - that's not juice from actual fruit, is it? What exactly is it?

mathanxiety · 30/08/2014 18:14

I only know one child who regularly went to camps all summer from an early age, and she was pretty much an extreme example. She was a friend of DD4's but naturally they drifted apart as she was away for almost three months straight every year. She started out in local daycamp (YMCA and Park District) and then graduated to sleep away camps (Girl Scouts and camps concentrating on various activities) and now for three years running (lots of running) to back-to-back soccer camps at a university that takes sports very seriously, as well as several other soccer camps. She is an only child and her parents both work, one in her own business with little or no time off in the summer when the business has its crazy busy time.

I know a musically gifted family whose two children went to Interlochen Center for the Arts several summers in a row.

DD1 and DD2 did a day camp with a three-week session two years in a row. The day was 9 to 3. DD1 focused on chess and DD2's theme was Harry Potter-based. Needless to say, they met lots of fellow nerds and found themselves in class with several of them when they got to high school..

There are lots of camp-like summer enrichment opportunities around here and the spots fill up fast. DS, DD3 and DD4 never wanted to go anywhere so they hung out at the local pool.

Where I live there is a grassy parkway planted with trees between the footpaths and the streets, in the residential parts anyway. You are responsible for mowing the grass in the parkway but the parkway trees are a municipal responsibility you can't trim them or have them cut down. There is actually a forestry department that monitors trees but regular work on them is farmed out to private contractors who come around and trim trees annually. If a branch falls, you drag it to the curb and the city sends a chipper out, and they will perform a little work to even out a jagged spot on the tree where the branch was. After severe storms you hear the roar of the chipper almost as soon as the wind dies down. The forestry department replaces trees that are cut down lots of this happening at the moment because all the ash trees are being removed thanks to the emerald ash borer. A few decades ago Dutch Elm disease claimed hundreds of elms. One of the last remaining elms was in front of my old house.

People also dig out sidewalks very religiously after a snowfall but the city ploughs the streets and very annoyingly the alleys, so you get a nice big berm of packed ice and snow up against your garage door that the average snow shovel can't handle.

mathanxiety · 30/08/2014 18:24

And the local high schools have sports camps, but they are only for a few hours each day. They run several sessions in pretty much all sports, and are geared for children aged 10/11 to 14. DD2 did field hockey one summer. The ice rink does year round hockey and camps in summer for kids from age 4 and up. Hockey is really popular here. The mothers tend to be a bit rabid however. There is also summer baseball, Tball and softball.

The HS football teams practice from midsummer onwards (there are regulations as to how early they can get started) since their season starts as soon as the school year gets under way in late August, and the band tryouts and practices also take place in summer as they are part of the football experience.

Tryouts for fall sports take place in the two weeks before school starts, and you see hopeful athletes doing some serious running to get in shape a few weeks beforehand.

I think it's best not to look too closely at "Sunny D" Smile

Snafflepants · 30/08/2014 18:30

Three months - long time to be away when they can be quite young (same as prep and boarding school here though I guess).

As the summer break is so long, do the kids get any other long breaks throughout the year? (Apologies if I've missed this one before)

Also, I can't get my head around indicators on cars being red as opposed to white over here - they seem to merge with brake lights a bit...having said that the lack of indicating we came across (especially in California) terrified me!

steff13 · 30/08/2014 18:38

My kids get a week off at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas/New Year's, and a week at Easter. They also have various holidays off, Martin Luther King Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Veteran's Day. Plus Teacher's Inservice days every month.

I like Sunny D, but I think it might be citrus flavored anti-freeze. Wink

steff13 · 30/08/2014 18:40

The turn signals on both of our cars are orange. I, too, hate when people don't use their turn signals. Usually it's not a big deal, but it can be dangerous, especially on the highway.

BertieBotts · 30/08/2014 19:01

I used to love Sunny D until they healthy-ised it. The california style and the strawberry were divine. I don't know how they got it so smooth but it was amazing.

I'm sure it was turning my insides yellow and red, McDonald's shades, but it was sooooo good.

steff13 · 30/08/2014 19:05

The California Style was my favorite. I'm not much of a juice drinker (not that Sunny D is juice), but I could drink a whole bottle of it myself.

BertieBotts · 30/08/2014 19:06

It was really stupid the reason why they reformulated it, anyway. Some idiot parents let their 4 year old drink 1.5 litres of it every day, were told that the discolouration was harmless, would have occurred from drinking carrot juice and also was because they let her have twice the adult daily recommended amount. Pah! Thanks for ruining my favourite drink :(

tinyshinyanddon · 30/08/2014 19:23

My kids get 2.5 days at Thanksgiving, around 7 days at Christmas, Feb vacation week, April vacation week and then summer! I believe they are in school 180 days of the year and school runs til whenever in June until they have reached that number (for example if school is closed 5 days for snow, those 5 days get added on to June to make 180 days total).

eatscakefornoreasonwhatsoever · 30/08/2014 19:28

It always makes me cringe when I watch the opening scenes of Juno and she's drinking gallons of Sunny D when she's pregnant... and those luminous blue slushies. Yikes!

Mind you, I'm pg now and have mostly been surviving on white sliced bread and biscuits. Eurk.

Suefla62 · 30/08/2014 19:29

All children in the USA are required to be in school 180 days. States and even counties within the states, can decide their own calendar.

Shakshuka · 30/08/2014 20:39

My kids only get 170 school days. I wish they got 180! Summer vacation this year has been 12 June to 2 September - roll on Tuesday!!

Comito · 30/08/2014 20:44

Has anyone asked yet why all apartments/houses in the US seem to be painted an odd shade of brown? Going on films here so I totally accept my perception may not be aligned to reality.

wobblyweebles · 30/08/2014 20:45

We don't have to dig out our sidewalks in my town. They have a special plough for ploughing them. It's really cute.

I think in the US children are in school for fewer days than in the UK, but they are slightly longer days. In the UK my daughter did 8:50 to 3:10. Here she does 7:30 to 2:30.

We're coming to the end of a 12-week summer holiday. It's usually more like 11 weeks because we lose approx 5 days a year as snow days, but last winter somehow almost all our snow fell at weekends so they didn't have to close school much.

Near where I live there are loads of sleepaway camps. They go in huge groups to the local waterparks/theme parks which can be a fecking nightmare if you go on the wrong day and there are 500 of them there.

wobblyweebles · 30/08/2014 20:46

Has anyone asked yet why all apartments/houses in the US seem to be painted an odd shade of brown? Going on films here so I totally accept my perception may not be aligned to reality

Um, maybe no one asked because they're not?

My house is red and grey with a green roof.

steff13 · 30/08/2014 21:11

Look what I found at my local international market! I'll try them and report back.

Oh, and our house is blue.

UK and America are two countries separated by a common language, UK and US Q&A
oneflewoutofthecrazynest · 30/08/2014 21:26

998 posts and i am still loving this thread. can someone start a new one and give us a link. Sorry i do not know how to do it. Smile

WandaFuca · 30/08/2014 21:35

Oh, yes, someone, pipbin? start a new thread, please. I have some more questions!

New posts on this thread. Refresh page