My Australian MIL

[WS12]

So I just wondered AIBU to be peed off with my MIL, or am I just being precious...

I am from the UK, born and bred in northeast England. Met my DH there who is Australian and got married had kids, lived there together for 7 years. Then we moved to Aus in 2016.

I get so annoyed at the digs all the time from my Australian MIL (culture clash I think) about England (she always loved visiting us though and came regularly often twice a year!).

Yesterday she said she was concerned about my DHs health when we lived there as he was always ill with cold ... ummm 60 million people manage to live here just fine....

Tonight's digs are (she's staying with us for three nights). Out potato peeler is old fashioned and she will bring me a new one "I'm going to bring you a new peeler. This peeler is so old fashioned. This is from England" and I said it actually isn't it's from Woolworths...

Second dig. My son is receiving speech therapy to help his clairity and sounds. She asked if it was to help him learn to speak Australian. I could've punched her. She isn't saying it nastily, but it's like she just doesn't think of how offensive that actually is to me as a native English speaker.

My DH says she has no filter, like the rest of his family. She still also insists we have a ghost in our house.

👊👊👊👊 I feel like moving back to England just to piss her off.

the ones that give Aussies freedom to come and live and work here, while if a Brit is over 26 they can forget any kind of working visa.

Damn. I did it all wrong, if only I’d known that by virtue of being Australian I could swan into the U.K.

You’re talking rubbish - you literally have no clue what you’re on about.

Oh take it from me - I got dragged out to Australia as a child, couldn't wait to get back home that you sis?

Oh, and the weather in Australia is fine unless it's summer in which case you can't leave the house between the hours of 1 and three more often than not. I can't say I prefer English weather but I would say they both suck equally but in different ways. But the food here is enough to make me cry. And the absolute lack of basic manners in Australia pisses me off. Not such thing as a perfect country unless one is ignorant.

" Damn. I did it all wrong, if only I’d known that by virtue of being Australian I could swan into the U.K.

You’re talking rubbish - you literally have no clue what you’re on about."

London is crawling with Aussies, always has been, cant help noticing. If you couldnt 'swan in' you must have been doing something wrong.

NOt that i even care tbh, it's just by the by.
They do whinge though.

*London is crawling with Aussies, always has been, cant help noticing. If you couldnt 'swan in' you must have been doing something wrong.

NOt that i even care tbh, it's just by the by.
They do whinge though.*

Actually Australians are subject to the same immigration controls as all non-EU countries. There are very limited exceptions for ancestral visas (grandparents) and working holiday visas - which are only granted because Australians have a reciprocal program for Brits. In fact Australia is more generous, as we allow people of many nationalities under the age of 30 to take up working holidays, not just on a tit for tat basis like the Brits.

Again, you are talking total rubbish.

FFS I'm getting a bit tired of all the Aussie bashing threads on MN. I'm an Aussie, married to a Brit and have lived here for 11 years. I was brought up in country Victoria and recognise nothing of the 'Pom bashing' people are writing about - we'll, not in my childhood at any rate. An anti (UK) sentiment did arise in Oz in the early 70s when the uk joined the EEC, but to be fair it didn't do wonders for Australia's economy, and almost bankrupted NZ. You have a batshit MIL problem, that's all!

Oh and I went through hell visa wise to live here by the way!

Why do people think Aussies have chips on their shoulders about the English

This is classic British Empire thinking. Oh everyone wants to be us, just look at the big chip on their shoulder

Seriously it's not a chip if they just don't like you 😂

well in that case i apologise Degust., perhaps i just met too many negative Aussies in London.

no GreenEyedGoose, i dont suppose anyone 'wants to be us', particularly.

Thanks, Dull (feels a bit rude to call you that!) . It just grates a little when people start to Aussie bash, as I've always felt a strong affinity for the British isles. My maternal line is Scottish, my paternal line from Devon and Cornwall (so pretty much the extremes!), my history is the history of the (UK), if you get me (thanks for the pasty Scottish freckly skin though..... really.... )

yes a lot of Aussies did come from the British Isles originally...but didnt that mean that you got a Visa more easily, like patriality?

Sadly nope. Until 1948 all Aussies had British passports (eg my great uncle who flew short Stirling bombers out of Cambs and sadly lost his life in 1942, his sister who I knew and loved, who moved here in 1947 to work and live...). All of my ancestry is British but it means absolutely nothing when it came to me living here. (Not saying this is right or wrong, just the way it is)

I might add, most of my British ancestors same to oz pre gold rush so quite some time ago!

oh damn... how annoying.
seriously i have nothing against Aussies, a lot of what i say is leg pull, esp about the warm beer/cold beer thing...

There's loads of UK and Irish people in Oz too tbf

Dull

I know loads of Aussies and have a very few close friends from there. I don't remember any racism, but did come in for a lot of ribbing from them. It was just friendly banter though. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that they more they rib you, the more comfortable they feel with you. Just give them some back and don't take it too personally.

PS we deserve all the shit we get currently re cricket!

My DM, visiting Australia in the 1960s, was asked by the equivalent of the NT guide to the property she was visiting (an 1840s semi) why she wasn't wowed. She replied, I grew up in a house that was included in the Domesday book, so old in 1070. Not a claim to aristocracy; there was no plumbing, and no servant. Just an ancient farmhouse, continually inhabited.

Apparently Sweden invented everything and England is good for one thing only 'Midsomer Murders' which she and watches with Swedish subtitles.

Have you perfected the 'mmm, how interesting' accompanied by a nod of agreement. Whilst internally bellowing 'MEATBALLS TO YOU MIL'.

The Scandinavians are very patriotic in my experience. The Danes love nothing more than a chance to whip out their country's flag!

Sounds quite fun tbh OP. I'd start wearing an Aussie flag as a cape and adopt a lovely strong Aussie accent whenever she's around. You need to out-Aussie her.

sorry someknobend, the only accurate Aussie accent I've heard a Brit do is Kate Winslett in the Dressmaker. To be fair, Rebel Wilson's dreadful London accent in night at the museum 3 is fecking appalling

Out Aussie-Ing would be kinda funny.... you could go full bogan 😂

Afaik Aussies and NZers can come here for 2 years and it's very strict.
I get these comments all the time from friends from others countries who live here in the UK It's tedious and rude but I ignore it to their face although sometimes it upsets me. The constant meaning about the weather and temperature (especially from the Muscovite!) is a thinly veiled excuse to have a go. I sympathise, it's hard to be away from your own country but I can only take so much! I think the old trope of the whinging Pom was precisely because people had left their home country, usually for good, and there were no easy ways to communicate with home, I found Aussies the same in the 70s and 80s but I don't think they're too bad now compared to the others!!