Gin night ruined by my son?

[Becc91]

So my DS came back from Bristol Uni (with a mullet no less 😣) and told me off in front of my girl friends - all for singing Do They Know It's Christmas?
Apparently one term of a politics degree makes him qualified to tell me what I can and can't sing in my own home after a few gins. Feeling quite hurt and embarrassed as this all happened in front of my friends.

I don't see what I've done wrong but I don't want to be ignorant, is it just me??
Opinions wanted , thanks xx and merry christmas

Well, the goat definitely won’t know it’s Christmas time.

And there won't be snow in a very diverse continent of people, regions, cultures and climate this Christmas time doesn't scan.

Part of being an adult is recognising there is a time and a place for your super important opinions.

Telling off your mother in her own house, in front of her friends, at her own Christmas party, for singing along to an old Christmas song, is not appropriate in the slightest.

The sanctimonious, immature, arrogant, mulleted little know it all should indeed sit down and shut up, and recipients of his sermons have every right to tell him that.

God almighty how do some people manage to get out of bed in the morning?

Never mind the DS, you should be ashamed of yourself for having a designated gin night. Makes you sound like a knacker.

It's so strange to me the whole song.

I've lived in Ethiopia. There is a huge Christian population.

Why would they not know it's Christmas?

Watching a bunch of white people asking if the black people in Africa know it's Christmas is beyond condescending.

OP it's bloody hilarious that your know it all son with his do it yourself mullet has returned from the his first term at the sausage factory. How typical, so he feels he can school you.

Be loud and be proud that you were having a gin night with the gels and laugh in face of his newly acquired pouter pigeon politics. Sing your heart out in you own home - you weren't singing 'Spring Time for Hitler'. So 'Do They Know it's Christmas' has aged little, so what, so has Fairytale of New York.

Please remember this Christmas and in 5, 10 and 20 remind the little darling of his ridiculous and embarrassing behaviour. It will be the gift hat keeps giving.

This is the perfect response!!

Great inflammatory comment. Amazing.

oh dear. I forgot MN only has black/white and no other way of looking at things.

It is piffle to harp on about how racist a 40 year old song is when we have all clearly moved on to trying to find solutions and give aid in much better, way less white-saviour-paternilistic ways.

It was not piffle for that arse of a singer to start the ball rolling on making the movement to forgive third world debt on a much bigger stage than previously. And he also talks about saving the planet while flying his hat half way round the world because he forgot to pack it. humans can be hypocritical, it is the nature of the beast. But learning and growing is never wrong.

The fact that they were white (male pop stars) sort of reflects the music biz of that time and highly likely the kind of people Geldof and Ure could call and say "do this with us". My about 70% of my friends look like me (white) because - shock! horror! - i grew up in Northern Europe and most people in the small towns i grew up in look like that too.

As for the OP: the correct way for a know-it--all 1st year student is to come in - cringe at the drunk singing. And then, possibly the next day, say "morning mum, here's a paracetemol and a coffee. I bet you have a banging hangover." and maybe only then "we've been talking about how badly the attitudes manifested in DTKIC have aged..."

Shouting at people never changes their minds, it is more likely to entrench a position.

Except it does snow in Africa.
Ethiopian in midst of a famine does not represent an entire continent.

People in this country get upset if the home nations are collectively referred to as England. Or if London is considered representative of England. So much tamer in terms of its sweeping generalisation.

Whether it makes the lyrics sound better or not, the song has aged very badly. For an 18 year old, who didn’t grow up in the 80’s watching the news reels of the famine, the song will seem wildly inappropriate and yes, racist.

It was a well intentioned song and of that time and should stay there. Although I remember my dad ranting about the idiocy of the lyrics back then (we are not African).

(There was an autocorrect/typo in my original post and regions was meant to be religions.)

I may be wrong but I think the phrase “Do they know it’s Christmas” was more a reference to them not being able to celebrate Christmas due to the fact they were starving rather than not knowing what Christmas was.

If your son wants to point score then he be better off pointing out that in Ethiopia it’s Christmas in January so it isn’t Christmas for them in December anyway.

It is piffle to harp on about how racist a 40 year old song is when we have all clearly moved on

Er, isn't the whole point Geldof ignored huge stars (Like Ed ) and politicians in Africa and re-released the song this Christmas?? Clearly we have certainly not all 'moved on' FFS.

It was not piffle for that arse of a singer to start the ball rolling on making the movement to forgive third world debt

Bono and Geldof publicised it, but isn't the whole point that Africans themselves have been banging on about this long before they arrived on the scene?

The fact you think they 'started the ball rolling' reflects your own views that black people are incapable of organizing their own movements and protests without Western help. Scratch the surface of someone who criticises attacks on Band Aid and all the old tropes of 'being grateful' 'lets take the money back' all come back, which all stem through white supremacy - we are better than these uncivillised people and only we can help them.

The fact that they were white (male pop stars) sort of reflects the music biz of that time

@Brefugee are you seriously saying the music biz is all equal now, 😂Methinks you better educate yourself on that one.

Shouting at people never changes their minds, it is more likely to entrench a position.

He's a bloody child back from Uni for gods sake, he's figuring out who the hell he is.

By definition if he's finished his first term at university he is an adult, not a child. When I was 18 I would have been furious to be described as a child. For that matter, I'd have been pretty pissed off with it when I was 13. 'Immature', 'still has a lot to learn' and so on would have been annoying too but I'd have recognised they were merited.

This whole thread has reminded me of a conversation I still think of sometimes. Way back at the start of the 1980s I was in the Student Union bar one night when the barman, an older chap, came round with the charity collecting box he kept on the bar. Most of us put in some loose change but then he came to R, a postgraduate perpetual student, probably in his 30s then, heavily involved in left-wing student politics (possibly the Socialist Workers Party). R said no, I don't give to charity, because it's patronising and a symbol of all that's wrong with our capitalist society etc etc. The barman was stupefied. 'But it's for the kiddies' he kept saying. There was no meeting of minds there.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I think I may have met that post grad student too, circa 1985 at UEA, then a SWP hotbed. Very annoying man child!

Different one, probably (horrifyingly!). Mine was at UCL in 1980/1. I googled him a while back and found out he'd ended up in local politics and done all sorts of community worker jobs. Possibly a Green Party activist, which would have fitted. It was an obituary I found, so not with us any more. When I first went off to university I was interested in politics but Student Union debates and the tactics of Militant Tendency, then busy infiltrating the Labour Party with a view to taking over, put me right off.

no @pinkrawwbit if you're not going to read properly I'm out. Are you a first year student

bloody norah are you not reading ANYTHING? I am talking about Bono really getting the public to get behind the developed nations forgiving third world debt. Nothing to do with what those nations with the debt are doing.

As i said: Black and white with you. No room for nuance or growth.

It's easy to see the people who don't like being called out on their behaviour out in force on this thread!

The time and place to call out offensive bullshit is when it is happening.

Insulting your adult children and telling them to sit down and shut up is a surefire way to ensure they don't visit you very often anymore.

You seem to miss the point entirely that I and many others don't give a fuck what pop stars do , they are the worst people to get involved in complex, intertwined issues like global debt or poverty, they sing songs and should stick to that and shut the fuck up. They do far more damage than good.

They aren't educated enough to understand the issue....er, like a lot of people.😂

FFS I did before you had even asked.
Look at 26 Dec 18:07 on the thread.

I did yesterday at 18:07
Other posters also explained.

Duplicate

I’m not quite understanding how drunk on gin and racist=mature?

If he doesn't like being in your home he can sod off back to university accommodation - which given his high principals and ethical stance, I sincerely hope he refuses to accept any subsidies from you for.

The time and place to call out offensive bullshit is when it is happening.

Preach sister! Exactly right.