Utterly bored and frustrated by living in a small town

[saltnpepa]

We live in a small town and I am so bored and frustrated by the mundaneness of it. I'm from inner London and here I am in the middle of effing nowhere and all the families are white and middle class and wear Boden. There is no crime and no bad behaviour from anyone at anytime. Nobody swears or cracks jokes, there's no vibrancy or creativity, everyone is the bloody same. The mothers are polite and very decent and the husbands are all doing the right things and I only know of one single mum. I stick out like a sore thumb and am sick of rubbing people up the wrong way unintentionally just because I'm different. My kids love it here as does my rather conservative husband, I feel like running down the street naked covered in talcum powder and jam just to cause a stir. It is a 'nice' life but unstimulating and I worry that my kids will grow up to be just like the locals.

Oh god I know the feeling! I feel like smoking a crack pipe on the school run just for shock value.

I would think the low crime rates would be a positive?

Of course they are. But even naice can seem like a short stride from Stepford.

I don't blame you.

You might be able to find some other like minded souls through a club, activity or work? The more people you meet, the more likely you are to find people utterly bored to tears to the tedium of it all who you can have a laugh with about it.

The Londoners that I know who have thrived outside London have managed to do so by finding a social circle of other ex-Londoners, or at least ex-city dwellers.

Not bashing small town living by the way - sure that it feels similar to more rural folk moving to the city.

Doesn't it have a 'rough bit' where you can go and sit on a wall with everyone else and chug cans of Stella whilst the kids play footie in the road?

Yep, just don't over-romanticise the 'gritty, urban' thing either. They each have pros and cons.

No one cracks jokes??? Really?

You sound like you're judging them. All at once. With a giant tarring brush.

Haha my partner is from somewhere like this. I don't do small towns, I'm a city girl. You have my sympathies, I'd have annoyed them all long ago with my dramatic fashion sense or by saying something vaguely left wing..

Sorry, my reply was tostubble the later replies appeared whilst I was typing.

I can't decide whether you are being ironic. Just this bit: there's no vibrancy or creativity sounds sneery and superior (as does much of the rest, tbh). Possibly more importantly, it doesn't reflect any rural area or small town I've ever lived in. Maybe stop being so superior about coming from London and try to find out what's going on?

Are you in the Home Cunties, OP?

I very much hope this a joke?

Maybe you picked the wrong small town.

Yanbu, I feel for you. Small town, villages, rural and the like are my idea of a nightmare. Dh and I are both city people. I guess if the kids are happy there, there's not much you can do.

Stubble, I actually just wet my self a little! So funny hahahaha ????

Start a subversive youth group?

Stand for election to the local council? Enough nastiness for anyone.

Or stand for parliamentary election - you could have a job in central London within 5 years

Lashes I'm very left wing. Never shocked anyone yet - and I work in an independent school in a small town..?
OP I have the vocabulary of a highly educated sailor and joke loads. As do all my friends. You are talking nonsense, frankly, in an effort to seem all exotic and clever for being a 'city' person. I accept some people prefer cities and some countryside, but please don't suggest you are massively more open minded, creative and just damn funny just because you lived in London.

I think you would find, if you knew these people better, that looks can be deceptive. You can get interesting people anywhere, IME, but if you are dismissive of everyone on superficialities, you won't get to know anyone well enough to get beneath the surface. How involved are you with the community? Do you have an activity you could do locally to get to know people? It seems a bit unfair to dismiss anyone who is wearing Boden as automatically too dull to know. have some very old Boden clothes from at least 10 years ago which I still wear sometimes

Are you me Salt?

has a trip down memory lane singing "Ah push it! Pppush it real good!"

I am from a v small inbred town and after a spell in London have moved to breed in an even smaller one, in the commuter belt. Happily I have sniffed out some filthy and ill-advised friends but it's hard not to slide down the Kate Middleton clone route.

Cardibach you're lucky you live in a tolerant village then! I've been to some very...traditional...rural places that are how OP describes. If people like it fine, would drive me up the wall personally