In honor ofnit nearly being Independence Day, wibu to tell you

[PratStick]

That Bleu is not a common American name?

That we do have required biology lessons. (Obviously)

Baby showers were never meant to be massive affairs with enterence fees and that I never heard of such a thing before MN. Your mate threw a party, invited your other friends, you ate brownies and were given diapers artfully formed in to a cake.

We also didn't invent "destination weddings" if we did had done, no one would go as we get far less time off than you do. It's also the reason many Americans don't have a passport, nothing to with America being too awesome to bother leaving.

Only a third of us have guns.

I was never taught creationalism in school. It is illegal to mix church and state and we I never took any form of RE. We do not have state funded religious schools. Your nearest school will be a non religious state school.

Any Americans have anything else to add?

Trick or treating started in Ireland I believe

I have never heard of bleu or sir as names

1/3 is a lot of people. I presume they own several guns each to make the numbers add up?

I love the US. Sure, there are some aspects of its social and political landscape that I find strange. But I'm fairly sure I could say that about any country in the world, including the UK. And anyway the USA's diversity is one of the things I love the most about it. That - and the national parks (which by the way were an American idea and have been copied all over the world, including in the UK).

Happy 4th July!!

Dig your heels in some more and explain how that means "Americans love guns" more than Canadians own guns

Americans love killing people with their guns more than Canadians do.

There. Fixed it.

Moved to the States five years ago and thought I'd be moving back to the UK pretty quickly.

I'll never leave.

We have a big house and garden with farm animals and are pretty self sufficient. I wouldn't be able to afford a flat in the UK.

Of all the people I know only one family owns a gun.

I've lived all over the UK and never have I lived anywhere with such a sense of community and pride. We all have get together frequently, I'm friends with the postman, ambulance people, local police, teachers, etc.

Barter is getting more and more common here, we have eggs and vegetables and lobsters which we swap with all kinds of stuff. Dh builds and we get services in return.

Pretty much all the food we eat is very local, meat and fish too.

Most people I know are active in their local schools, emergency services, fund raise for local pet shelters, old people's home etc.

Pretty much every woman I know (and a lot of men) went to the million woman march.

I hate the anti American sentiment in Britain. It makes me so sad to see such a huge and diverse country so ignorantly slagged off so much.

Only a third of us have guns.

That's over a 100 million people with guns. That is fucking frightening.

I remember watching some of the hicks at Trump rallies whooping and hollering at his vile rhetoric, openly racist proposals and inciting hatred against his proposal , who thinks it is a good idea to offer these mouth breathers unfettered access to firearms.

Loopy That's great. I live in a similar community in the UK.
However, I don't go online and start telling folk that they've got it all wrong, as the op has done.
I admit there are prejudices about the USA, but as with everywhere else in the world, some are justified, some are not.

who thinks it is a good idea to offer these mouth breathers unfettered access to firearms.

I was with you until you found it appropriate to insult the mouth breathers of the 🌎 , a much maligned, misunderstood minority.

Just because our nasal passages are narrow, does not mean we worship guns or Trump(et).

😡😭💔

I think it's down to the anti US sentiment on here (and elsewhere). You don't hear Americans talking so nastily about Brits. You just don't.

And my American husband has encountered some really nasty comments and attitudes towards him in Britain.

I'm just trying to point out not all of America are gun toting racist hicks like a lot of the UK seems to think they are. And mumsnet slags off the US I think way more than any other nation. And it's generally allowed.

I've worked in several states across the US and I'd suggest that any generalisation is wrong - the place is big - every possible belief whether whacky or mainstream exists somewhere

My approach has been to treat US states and sometimes cities as different countries

Another reason why many US citizens don't have passports is that they don't need them the place is big enough to spend a lifetime travelling and still have plenty to experience

Oh OP! Happy 4th of July to my fellow American. I'm African American, living in the UK. Like many other African Americans, I don't really celebrate July 4th, as the African American Independence Day is Juneteenth Day.

African Americans were not all free on the 4th of July, in fact the Brits used some of us to help win the Revolutionary War, and then just left us there when they lost without any help. The colonies promised slaves who fought on their side freedom, and then, like their treatment of the Native Americans, completed reneged on the deal. Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19th, and represents the day in 1865 when the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation made it to the furthest colony from the rest of the Union (during the Civil War), Texas. Its a celebration of the day that ALL African Americans were free. Most African Americans are descendants of slaves (I'd say, as a semi-educated guess, about 95%). There's some talk about, if the Brits had won, would the Brits would have outlawed slavery earlier in the States, as they had done in England, or if they would have just outlawed it in the England and left their largest colony to keep their slaves. I have a feeling if they had tried to outlaw it, it would have spurred yet another War. Because ya know, must fight to keep humans as cattle.

So for many African Americans, and to an extent other Native Americans and other minority groups in the US, 4th of July doesn't really mean much to them. Native Americans were still being persecuted and executed by the new Union. AA were still slaves, and would be for almost another 100 years. Some AA celebrate many other holidays in the US as their independence day, and some don't celebrate at all. They recognise that many AA are not free in the US, as long as systematic racism and abuse continues.

My future British, Irish, and African American daughter will understand her rich history on both sides of the pond, as well as on the enormous continent of Africa. There are serious stereotypes of both countries, yet the vitriol seen on both sides of the pond is silly. I don't want to be controversial, but I'm currently unsure how anyone in the UK can openly speak so nastily about the US, given their own sordid and (at times) disgusting history, and given the current Tory-DUP alliance in Parliament. I'm not here to start a fight, but the truth is the truth. I don't like how things are going in the US, but I'm unsure if there's really any country that can speak from a moral high ground. That includes the US and the UK.

Well BoysofMelody I have just two words to say to you:- deviated septum.

Amd724 Brilliant post.

I love living in America, but I definitely want to go back to the UK (good job given my visa says I have to eventually).

They still do the pledge at school, but one can opt out.

There are definitely pockets of Americans in the UK but outside of London

Yes we voted for Brexit and we have a stupid coalition with the DUP but at least we don't have Donald Trump as our leader, now that's stupid! Every thing you sling at us Brits I'm afraid we only have to reply with TRUMP and its a point won.

Oh and a third of people owning guns is still far too many, hard to excuse for a civilised nation.

Pumpkins are much better for carving than turnips.

Catinthecorner, I'm an American outside of London! I'm one of the few living up in York. Its so interesting, I am in a group for American ex-pat women in the UK. Most of the women in the group hate living here, as they fell in love with a Brit and moved to the UK to be with them. Most of them live near London. There's nothing against London at all, I actually want to live down there. But, many of these women are from all over the US, and I could see London being a culture shock.

I don't face nearly as bad of the anti-American vitriol, at least to my face. I also have a feeling that people don't believe me when I say I'm American, because I'm black. I'm first asked where in Africa I'm from, because ya know, clearly I cannot be Black British living in the North, and so I must explain where in a continent I come from. But, as I don't experience as much of the nasty anti-American behaviour, I think I enjoy living here more. I also enjoy living here more because I didn't come here for my hubby. He's just a bonus. I came here for my MSc and PhD. He just kind of tagged along. :P

There are definitely pockets of Americans in the UK but outside of London

We'll be hearing the fireworks tomorrow (somewhere) in Brum .

However, I'm originally from Chicago, so my experience as an American is significantly different than most Americans. As theirs would be from my experience. If you add race, sex, social status, education, and wealth into this, all of Americans have a substantially different attitude and culture than our fellow Americans. I personally think this is a beautiful aspect of home. But I also see this here.

Do I think a third of my country should own guns? In a way, I don't care, as long as they've been properly kept safely, background checked, and have the best training to actually use the weapons. I think you'd find that many Americans (in the latest polls), agree.

I ran a search to see if this is a popular theme on here and noticed this thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/baby_names/2969110-Does-Dashiell-sound-American-to-you

Is that what has inspired this thread?

it must certainly be enervating to read ignorant posts about your country by people who think they know it all

It's unlikely that anything could ever be posted, factual or otherwise to change a mind that's made up- if the last couple of years in the UK have taught us anything, surely it's that

I wouldn't bother, tbh

150 years on stolen indigenous land, though, maybe it's the best they could do

land was "stolen" by english spanish french etc
who proceeded to destroy the cultures and murder millions.
all across the americas(north central and south)
good thing all those guns don't go off at once.
on the lighter side
some people call it pop not soda.
who gives a crap what people name their kids/
all hallows eve is a pagan practice/
pagans have been around alot longer than america
prefer to make my own coffee ,but when there 3 ft of snow and miles to go timmys is alright!
and none (usa) americans celebrating the 4th is ridiculous.especially brits. unless of course you are very pro U.S.A/in that case thanks.

being half 1st nation and the other half scots dutch.
i find all this hilarious

MadgeMidgerson That's exactly what I wanted to say only not so succinctly - it would have taken me several more pages that no one would read.
I am a Brit living in the USA, just over 10 years now, and, love the place, mostly love the people with a few exceptions. Like the OP, I do get irritated by the grossly exaggerated misconceptions some have about the USA and its people but, as I said before, rebutting every uninformed generalization made about firearms/rednecks/showers/Creationism/ would take up far too much bandwidth and far too much of my headspace for what would never be more than an exercise in futility. I might as well try to convince the occasional American I meet who is under the impression that the UK is actually a rather large village called London - I don't know everyone who lives there, so no, I've never met their 4th cousin twice removed who lives right down the road in a place called Darby-shyre - as try to convince UKers who don't want to be convinced that my daily commute here in Silicon Valley isn't spent dodging bullets on the interstate.

I'm afraid we're adding to the American belief all Brits know each other. Because we live in suburbia, and pretty much every Brit here works for the same place and thus is introduced to the other Brits via work. We all also all use the local shops/schools/gym/etc. So when an American here knows another Brit we probably do too. The fact we know that Brit from our shared time in America is irrelevant to them. All Brits know one another and we are proof of it.

Hahahaha catinthecorner I get the question all the time, "oh you're from Chicago? Are you escaping because its so dangerous?" I'm like, da fuck? No, the entire city isn't under siege. And its not even the most violent city in America (by far!). Or even better, you've done so well to escape your bad childhood living in Chicago, and a bad background. Again I'm like, da fuck?? My mom's an accountant and my dad's a project estimator. I went to private Catholic schools!

even in the states if you say you are from ny
the automatic assumption is nyc{confused)
and the" new york city"jokes start
was 18 before i ever set eyes on the place...
or the other one i encountered was the fun of living in new mexico
no we don't need a passport or visa
yes we are part of the states
and no we don't have to learn spanish to live there.