To want to knock sense into family over local area....

[woolythoughts]

I grew up in a city well known for jokes about stealing car wheels etc. I always felt as though I didn’t fit in and left as soon as I could. I couldn’t deal with the chip on shoulder attitude of a lot of residents - we’d be such a great city again if it wasn’t for or near neighbour city sucking everything up.

My family still live there so I come back and visit regularly. When I point out that:

1. Every supermarket I’ve been in won’t take the security tag off at the self service until you’ve actually paid is something I’ve only see here - most other places will do it after they’ve approved it or as you are scanning

1. A lot of the local petroleum stations and convenience stores won’t take contactless due to fraud

1. Virtually every petrol station limits fuelling to 50 litres - you have to pay then go back and filll the rest of the tank!

There are many other small things which when added together don’t make for a good environment.

I point this out and I get told everywhere is like this these days.

No it isn’t !

It’s only to be expected a

No it isn’t!

But god forbid I suggest there is actually a problem and I get told not to slag off my home town.

I guess the reason I’m angry is we came up in a new car this weekend which promptly got keyed when parked up.

Family are obviously sympathetic but in general there is a view that what do you expect driving a car like that here and if you can afford said car you can afford to fix it.

Hat sort of attitude is prevalent and I’ve hated it since I was old enough to realise it existed!

I just want to shake the family and make them realise it’s not like that everywhere!

Oh op I knew you where talking about Liverpool as soon As you mentioned car wheels. Never been but the reputation it has is definitely known about all over. None of those things you’ve listed are the norm here and would be rather odd to see.

@BartholomesCat a lot of schools have been knocked down, combined and rebuilt under different names. Most of Elmers green has been covered in new builds over the last 5-10 years. Skem is slowly losing its green spaces and it is one of the things that pisses me off the most. I am just glad I live next to the Tawd, as long as we keep that and the beacon it will still be a lovely green place to live. There is still very little in the way of work. Mostly low skilled factory jobs but despite being from Skem, having lived all over the north west and come back here, both my sister and I have recently gained our MA from Edge Hill uni and I am hopefully doing my PhD next year. I love this place. But I prefer to see the glass as half full and take my blessings where I can.

Honestly OP, has it not occurred to you that the reason they’re getting so defensive of where they live is because you’re essentially slagging off the people that live there, ie them?

Personally I love Liverpool (and surrounding areas) generally speaking, scousers are friendly, helpful people in my experience.

AuntLydiasSteelyArmPitHair
Thanks - good to know. I lived next to the Tawd, council house right on the edge of the estate.
Congrats on the MA - Im halfway through mine so I know what a bloody big achievement it is :)

I used to work for an organisation that had an office in Bootle, I have fond memories of getting off at Oriel Road and taking a short cut through the underpass which my colleagues were always aghast at. But I am a lazy fucker and, especially when I was heavily pregnant and resentful of having to go to that office at all, would see 10 minutes less walking as worth an awful lot of risk.
Not that I had any scary moments anyway, plus the graffiti was often very, very funny.

More trivially, shell suits with white socks in not normal outside of Liverpool
Or in Liverpool either. Not that bootle is Liverpool but even there I've not in 16 years seen a shell suit
Generally especially on a night out people are very dressed up and make alot of effort

When my dear late husband was a lorry driver Liverpool was the only place where they had to work in pairs - one person to stay in the cab while the other unloaded because of the problem of theft, especially in the dock area. What a shame - Liverpool gave us the Beatles, after all but it has a reputation.

Seriously morning! Have you been to Liverpool at all? Do you mean bootle docks or Liverpool? Because you do know the Liverpool docks were regenerated some point in the late 80s/90s and have some very fancy bars and restaurants and apartments not a load of scallys robbing lorrys
It's ridiculous 'anecdotes' from a friend of a friends cousins sisters brother once went there and said it was shit from over 30years ago that upsets so many people trying to make the area nice and wouldn't dream of acting like that
Ffs

More trivially, shell suits with white socks in not normal outside of Liverpool.

😂 I don’t think I’ve ever seen a scouser wear anything of the sort since living up here! Certainly none of the ones I know!

Hey hold on a wee minute!!! Shell suits & white socks are not stylish? omg I've got it sooo wrong! I wear them most days!!!!!

Me on my lunch break today!

Go on you goady snobs insult my she'll suit, I dare ya's

My union occasionally runs day coach trips for members.

To fairly random places.

We've been to Norwich, Manchester, Oxford, London and Liverpool before now.

I'm a fan of vintage and charity shopping and found a vintage shop in Liverpool.

They had racks of shell suits in the 1980s section.

Racks and racks of them.

I could feel the static at 10 paces.

The responses on this thread making out that the OP is the problem are testament to the fact that lots of people in this country would rather put up with and normalise shit behaviour and tolerate living in shitholes than do anything to challenge or improve it.

OP berating her relatives into agreeing with her isn't actually going to do anything to address any of the social problems in Bootle, though. Unless they're responsible for the bulk of them, which does seem quite unlikely.

It still remains to be seen what exactly OP hopes to achieve, and why it's so important to her that her relatives agree with her about the problems in the area. They may well be in a no choice situation: it's all very well to talk of tolerating if their options are limited.

Anyway OP, you posted in AIBU coz you wanted to “knock sense” into your family for being proud and liking where they come from/live....

You can take the girl out of Bootle but you can’t “knock” the Bootle out the girl

Most scousers love Manchester (city not football teams might I add) it sounds like YOU have a chip on your shoulder HUN

You don't live there any more, you only visit. Why bother to point out the obvious to people who will not see your pov and probably think you're being sniffy about where they live because you've moved somewhere nicer?

You're flogging a dead horse.