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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To absolutely hate living in Surrey

312 replies

Bestofthebest · 15/09/2016 23:47

I guess I have been here too long. Am 4 weeks away from escape to a very different part of the British Isles. All anyone seems to do here is go on about their sodding house price, how important their job is, the same one that has them getting the 0605 train like lemmings everyday. Socially people I habe found unfriendly and insular. It is practically a crime to be anything other than a Tory, but you can't show any interest in politics. The only acceptable subjects of conversation are how great you are, your job, Southern Rail and rugby. I hate it so very much I just hope there is a different world out there.

OP posts:
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5
2StripedSocks · 17/09/2016 18:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PapaverSomniferum · 17/09/2016 18:56

Lozza you named the 'Ming! A good friend of mine is a veteran MNer and lives in the 'Ming too. We're infiltrating the area... Wink

MargaretCavendish · 17/09/2016 19:00

Sandy since your main complaint is the people I can't imagine how you could possibly be expressing that in a way that wouldn't upset most people no matter where in the country you were. To be honest you've made me dislike you and I've never even been to Surrey.

SandyPantz · 17/09/2016 19:03

oh yes the bad driving/road rage is almost standard there which is scary, but it's just a symptom of general attitudes - it's the same in supermarkets, I usually enjoy grocery shopping, but people are just nasty to each other in Surrey. You can go WEEKS there with nobody every smiling back at you.

I aggree that healthcare is poor, my healthvisitor was non existant, my GP was dismissive.

BendydickCuminsnatch · 17/09/2016 19:03

We need a 'Combe/'Ming spinoff thread Grin

somekindofmother · 17/09/2016 19:27

I love living in Surrey. I lived in Manchester for 10 years and hated it. Surrey is awesome. I moved back here so my children could grow up in Surrey.

good luck in your new home OP :)

Shurelyshomemistake · 17/09/2016 19:30

I live in east surrey and had a bizarre dream last night that we'd sold up and bought a house near Swindon. I was so upset in this dream. It must be a sign although the swishy hair is annoying

StStrattersOfMN · 17/09/2016 19:47

The driving is scary and the schools were shocking.

I'll second both of those, I've never lost so many wing mirrors, or been reversed into so many times, and I was driving a ducking Discovery. I developed a habit of driving with my lights on in daytime, as I actually felt invisible. Horrific driving.

Schools. Appalling. The reason we moved. Couldn't afford private, and the state schools were truly dismal. DD1 got E E D U in her AS levels we moved up here, she repeats the year and ended up with straight Bs. That's a HELL of a difference, and solely down to the teaching. In Surrey they had teachers consistently not turning up, no text books, Geography they just watched Coast on a loop. They were basically self teaching, with no guidance.

Gwenhwyfar · 17/09/2016 19:58

What didn't you like about Manchester some?

BurnTheBlackSuit · 17/09/2016 20:12

What a nasty bigoted thread.

StStrattersOfMN · 17/09/2016 20:18

Poor, poor Suwwey. Poor Suwwey.

Nasty, nasty bigoted MNers.

:(

PapaverSomniferum · 17/09/2016 21:48

I'll second both of those, I've never lost so many wing mirrors, or been reversed into so many times, and I was driving a ducking discovery

Really? Because my year-old (to me) but +10 year old ford mondeo, which I adored, was written off by a fecking Discovery that reversed into me when I was stationery. Hmm The ones in the 4x4s are the fecking numpties, ime.

Defo need a 'Ming/'Combe spinoff thread. I shall give this some thought. Grin

PapaverSomniferum · 17/09/2016 21:50

Stationary! FFS! I was not sitting in my car writing letters when she reversed into me...

afatalflaw · 17/09/2016 21:57

I was born and still live in Surrey and have to say I have not always got along with everyone I have met but I think that would be true of anywhere.

I just don't recognise the issues other posters have raised to be a solely Surrey phenomenon. As an area of higher than average earners if is going to develop/ attract those kind of people who believe their own hype in terms of money = power/ influence. There are plenty of real people here who drive smaller cars to navigate the country lanes.

The blanket comments about schools are so ridiculous as to warrant no further than this- maybe you should have done your homework better researching schools, or if you moved here before having children at least be aware that you are talking about a tiny number of schools within a very large county.

On a more personal note, we have some friends we met through NCT who recently moved away. I had always assumed they tolerated us for the sake of our childrens' friendship. They seemed prickly, unsociable and distant - until they moved. Now when we see them they are open, welcoming and basically just plain happy. Perhaps all the disgruntled locals people are meeting are those yearning to leave, in which case I am not surprised they are unhappy. I would be too if I was living in a place I didn't like, but I like living here and I love my down to earth, kind and irreverent friends too.

StStrattersOfMN · 17/09/2016 23:09

It definitely wasn't me who reversed into you Hmm

And I drove a Disco because I had 2 horses and it a) towed, b) had enough room in the boot for bales of hay and sacks of feed, and c) I could fit all 4 dogs in the boot. Some of us do have legit reasons for driving a 4x4, and I didn't get any complaints about it in the winter of 2009 when it snowed like crazy, and I towed 10+ cars up hills and out of ditches.

I had no choice where I moved, it was a job move for DH. We lived in a v nice part, and I naively thought it would be best if the DDs just went to the local school so they made friends with neighbouring children.

Interestingly, I don't think I've ever seen a similar thread on here about any other county. Only Surrey seems to attract threads like this.

Lindy2 · 17/09/2016 23:21

I think mumsnet is Surreyist.
I've lived here 15 years and have never lost a wing mirror. I also smile and chat to random people in the supermarket. I don't feel that I am particularly unusual.
The county is however densely populated so if anyone is here and doesn't like it, please do go ahead and move on. Release some of that much talked about property equity and free up some space for the rest of us who are quite happy.

LikeDylanInTheMovies · 18/09/2016 00:54

I think mumsnet is Surreyist

Yes, because wealthy, white middle-class people living in the southeast of England are definitely an oppressed minority. Smile

LozzaChops · 18/09/2016 01:03

PapaverSomniferum My mistake! I thought I had outed myself as the 'Comber I am these days. I am an exotic blow in from the far side (Eashing) Wink

If you shout out of the back door right now I'd probably hear you haha!

bumbleclat · 18/09/2016 01:44

Aww my dear granny has lived in Farnham all her life since 1921 and she is absolutely lovely in every possible way.
Surrey has got some vacuous rich people but I've lived in Cornwall which was the same and rural Northamptonshire's even worse!!

SoupDragon · 18/09/2016 08:49

Nope it's different in Surrey, because people don't just say "yeah, I like it" (which isn't dependant on others agreeing or disagreeing), they say what a good area is it (which IS dependant on others living there confirming it), and want everyone to aggree

Which is exactly the same as everywhere else.

making sweeping generalisations about areas and writing them off is pointless and ridiculous.

moodykingfisher · 18/09/2016 09:15

Family in Surrey all drive BMWs and Audis as they seem to need to compete with each other and the Jones' for the best car/ house. I moved away because that isn't for me. I'm sure there are people like that in lots of places though.

ShelaghTurner · 18/09/2016 10:05

Fucksake! Why didn't anyone ever tell me I was wealthy? And all this time I've thought we were skint. I must have dreamt DH being made redundant 3 times in 4 years (and still is), the tiny shoebox house that's falling down around our ears, the fact that the dds can't have anyone to play because I'm so ashamed of the state of it...

I'm just off to rightmove to find a fuckoff big house to move to. Oh and a Land Rover. I'd like one of those.

OhTheRoses · 18/09/2016 14:07

We moved to Surrey 15 months ago. There are no more BMW and Audis than in SW London. We have neither. The schools are much better. The supermarkets and shops are a zillion times better and we have twice as much house and half an acre more garden/land for less than half the price. Not anywhere swanky though.

Healthcare however is truly shocking. Both local hospitals and Surrey and Borders require improvement and GP care is variable.

Capricorn76 · 18/09/2016 16:10

Lol at those claiming that only Surrey gets slagged off. There's an anti-London thread every week. I can almost set my watch by them.

Nevertheless it is strange that it seems okay to slag off parts of the South East. If you wrote a thread like this about a Northern city or town you'd be slaughtered or by page 2 the thread would morph into an anti-whole of the South East i.e. London thread.

I really don't like when whole cities/counties are written off (apart from Kent where I've genuinely never had a positive experience!!😄)

Chikara · 18/09/2016 22:08

I don't live in Surrey - just don't like nasty people slagging off whole counties. Talk about bigotry. Writing off over a million people, (including the kids?).

Good luck in the new place OP but it might take some re-adjusting on your part. You clearly think that you are better than all the people in the county - why would you think that?? Maybe in the next place the people will be more like you - in which case they may judge you as harshly as you have judged Surrey.