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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to be a handwriting snob

122 replies

GetOrfMoiLand · 10/06/2009 16:52

Yes, I probably am but this is my first AIBU (in 2 years!) so be gentle

Looking at DD's geography books she has started doing what I call bimbo handwriting - round circles instead of dots above the i's, big massive circle shaped a's, d's and p's etc (wish could articulate what I mean).

She used to have normal handwriting. God knows why she has decided to change it. AIBU to tell her to stop writing like this and go back to normal? (BTW DP has told me to leave her alone and stop being a fussy old mare)

OP posts:
Tinker · 10/06/2009 19:54

I wonder if the French kids practise English 1s

LovelyTinOfSpam · 10/06/2009 19:54

I do french 7's and have a physics degree. Easier to work with IMO.

So there

BitOfFun · 10/06/2009 19:58

It's only an 'l', not even a real number

Tinker · 10/06/2009 20:00

How are you doing it BoF?

Mrsdoasyouwouldbedoneby · 10/06/2009 20:15

I used to do that, or try... I mean my handwriting sucks even now. I had evil teachers who refused to mark stuff, and as help handed me a handwriting pen and a piece of that lined paper. I have a friend who writes only in capitals. I once had my handwriting assessed (as I was determined to get it neat), and he couldn't do anything with it, there was nothing technically wrong. I just have no flow/style because of co-ordination.

LOL, but I still did bubble titles and excessive (insane) exclamation marks.

Rite of passage for sure. If you can read it, then at this point, that is all that matters.

bicci · 10/06/2009 20:26

OMG- I used to know someone who writes in capitals, now that is strange.
And very slow and difficult too.
Not right.
Pure affectation.

apostrophe · 10/06/2009 20:26

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SweetEm · 10/06/2009 20:30

You can always tell who did maths/stats by the way they cross their z's!

LovelyTinOfSpam · 10/06/2009 20:32

Oooh yes I cross my z's through as well.

Is only right and proper

starlightexpress · 10/06/2009 20:43

It's known as 'Leisure and Tourism Handwriting' in my snobby nurturing and respectful of non-academic choices staffroom.

BitOfFun · 10/06/2009 20:51

L&T

Tinker, it's only the letter L in lower case!

poshwellies · 10/06/2009 20:54

People who so obviously write against a ruler are bloody odd,why would you do it?

Hate 'bubble' writing also.

LovelyTinOfSpam · 10/06/2009 21:07

I once worked with someone with ruler writing.

Only she didn't use a ruler

Twas a weird and incredible thing to watch...

She also held the paper not just a bit sideways, but almost upside-down. And held her pen in her fist...

you lot would have had a fit

BettyTurnip · 10/06/2009 21:16

I hate it when you see a clip of a character's handwriting on tv (a glimpse of a letter or a cheque for example), and it doesn't fit with the character at all, and it's obvious the lowliest member of staff on the production team has just scribbled it out during their tea break. Ken Barlow on Corrie wrote a Dear John letter to Deirdre and when the camera panned over it, I just thought "Noooooo! No way would Ken Barlow have handwriting like a teenage girl". I even paused it to have a good look. I clearly need to get a life .

etchasketch · 10/06/2009 21:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

etchasketch · 10/06/2009 21:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

duchesse · 10/06/2009 21:25

I do French 7s because I grew up in France and that's how I learned to write them. My husband is a mathematician and also does them- apparently it avoids confusion with 1s in sums/ equations. I'm not sure I'd describe them as bimboish especially.

TheBolter · 10/06/2009 21:26

I was thinking about this type of handwriting the other day, funnily enough. I went through a phase of it. It was rebellion mainly because it was seen as chavvy cool and was soooo anti everything my posh school was about.

I feel quite warm inside knowing it still goes on today! God knows why! Some things really never change.

(Poncy bore alert) As a marketing bod, I am very aware of the importance of typeface - this type of handwriting is marking out an identity and an image. Your dd is doing nothing more worrying than developing a 'brand identity' of her own.

She'll get over it. .

Tinker · 10/06/2009 21:28

But my lower case l looks (a bit) like a 1 when I type it in this box BoF. That's what put me off

Am laughing at BettyTurnip pausing Ken Barlow's "handwriting". I know exactly what you mean.

stealthsquiggle · 10/06/2009 21:34

I am most encouraged by the number of people who have waded in to cite their academic qualifications in defence of 7. I shall stop not start worrying about it. DH did try and tell me it was poncey once but even he acknowledges the awfulness of his own handwriting so he knew he was not arguing from a position of strength

glucose · 10/06/2009 21:34

Op- YABU and I expect if she was 4yo you would be on the anti Lelli Kelly posts

madlentileater · 10/06/2009 21:34

oooh, I do sympathise, OP, but have skipped to the end of the thread to defend 'crossed' sevens which I think of as vaguely european rather than french...we were TOLD to do these by our maths teacher (c.1972) to avoid confusion with 1s. Not an affectation at all, deffo not for bimbos.

Tinker · 10/06/2009 21:38

I love all the "French" Seveners getting all defensive It's cos u is cleva innit?

CMOTdibbler · 10/06/2009 21:42

Another physicist who does french 7's and zero with a line through. And z with a line too.

I have nice handwriting - but am daughter of a teacher with immaculate italic script so had no choice

oneforward20back · 10/06/2009 22:15

Zero with line through is used by programmers to distinguish between O and 0 they look very similar particularly when hand written so to avoid confusion they use the line. Love the line through zero by my z are curly more like those expected in german classes of old. but then again on the contient they use . when they mean , eg 3.000 would be 3,000 [confused emoticon] never got that.

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