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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate being from Essex sometimes?!

171 replies

PixiNanny · 15/10/2009 13:01

I move around a lot and meet a hell of a lot of people. Therefore it undoubtably comes to the "So, where are you from?" bit. I'm honest about being from Essex and will admit it happily. However on occasion (a quite regular occasion...) I will get the "Ooh... Essex then? You're an Essex Bird?" I grudgingly repeat myself only to get "Well, you don't speak like one. Do you act like one? winkwink" No, I don't. "Oh. ... Is that because you're a Mum already?" Do you see a child with me? No.

I hate it. Yes I know that Essex has a stereotype and that in quite a few cases that it is true, however I am not included in those cases! Wherever I go I have to put up with it, why should I lie about where I'm from to avoid the stereotypes?!

Maybe it's just stereotypes in general. I'm a bisexual, Middle Eastern, Essex girl. Therefore I must be a nymphomaniac, indecisive terrorist who sleeps around and has two kids at the age of twenty

OP posts:
champagnesupernova · 15/10/2009 22:50

LOL at this and big to JJ!
I'm on Herts/essex borders and on leaving Harlow you get the sign that says "welcome to Herts, county of opportunity" So the girls in Harlow obviously don't give it up that easily!

benfmsmum · 15/10/2009 22:53

Brigit - I lived in Gidea Park with my parents and then Harold Hill (!!) Harold Park and then Grays (!!!!!!!!)

honeybehappy · 15/10/2009 22:57

oooo im an essex girl . There was a thread a while back and someone wanted a nce hotel or b&b in Southend and people started slagging it off. i love living in Southend

when dd1 was born we brought a bib from the hospital that had "essex baby and proud" on it. i thought it would b nice for her baby box.

benfmsmum · 15/10/2009 23:02

Brigit - where are you from then? [nosey parker emoticon]!

startingagain · 15/10/2009 23:10

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YABU!!!!!

Be proud, be very proud!! I am an Essex girl and i love living here

The problem is with the people who look down on Essex so take no notice of them, think of a few one liners to throw back at em and flick your hair and off you go............(sorry!)

Yes, people say stuff but its water off a ducks back. Most people are really friendly in Essex, proper Essex people are anyway. I always think that the people who take the mick are the ones who are just a teensy weensy bit jealous of us!

startingagain · 15/10/2009 23:11

Chelmsford and Braintree.....working class i don't agree with that generalisation!

pipWereRabbit · 15/10/2009 23:13

Chelmsford is frightfully posh - got a cathedral, 2 grammar schools and everything...

BrigitBigKnickers · 15/10/2009 23:16

I also disagree that Chelmsford and Braintree are working class!
benfmsmum I am from Billericay

honeybehappy · 15/10/2009 23:19

Is chelmsford really posh????no way although SIL does live there so maybe. And thorpebay is very post according to my other SIL

benfmsmum · 15/10/2009 23:19

Don't think I know anyone from there! Wouldn't it be good if someone on here was someone that I used to know but have lost touch with?! Well good for me anyway!

purpleflower · 15/10/2009 23:19

I'm an essex girl

I was born in kent but lived in North essex since I was 2 so im essex bred.

I grew up in a tiny town with stunning surroundings and some very posh stuck up people.

Now though, I'm 23, single, 2 kids, just about to go on benefits and living in a really crappy area. Apart from the stilletos (can't walk in them) I fit right in, just need to get rid of the accent from the nicer area

My parents were from Romford and I still have an aunt there. XDP used to find it hilarious when I got annoyed with him calling Romford London.

DS could've been born in Suffolk but I chose a hospital in Essex instead

TheGreatScootini · 15/10/2009 23:21

I stayed in Braintree when we went to V festival and it was really nice and the hotel we were in was quite posh tbh.

V festival-another cracking thing about Essex.However I did raise a smile when Brandon Flowers from The Killers came on and said 'Chelmsford, Ive got a feelin about tonight' It didnt sound quite right with a Las Vegas twang somehow.Got a huge cheer though.

sb6699 · 15/10/2009 23:23

Neicie - can I be posh too (I am trying to buy a house in Little Dunmow).

Champagne - can you remember the sign that says "Welcome to Harlow", something about it being the home of electrical conductors or something equally uninteresting

pipWereRabbit · 15/10/2009 23:23

I used to live in Billericay but have moved one stop down the train line so I can afford a house.

Niecie · 15/10/2009 23:24

Chelmsford and Braintree posh!

You think?

Yes Chelmsford may have grammar schools but you only have to look around the town centre - there is no John Lewis's or House of Fraser. There aren't that many upmarket shops at all. It is surrounded by modern housing estates too. And it doesn't have a Waitrose!!

They are pretty bog standard towns, certainly not posh. In fact, Chelmsford is very much like where I live now and that is most definitely not posh either.

Have you been to Chelmsford cathedral? It is tiny. Our town church is as big as the cathedral there.

I'm not saying I didn't like it but it wasn't posh - probably why I did like actually. I don't fit in posh places.

I'd give you Colchester as posh though.

benfmsmum · 15/10/2009 23:25

What about Emerson Park?? Now thats what I call posh!!

TheGreatScootini · 15/10/2009 23:28

Im going to Harlow tomorrow-I am going to look at the sign carefully to see what it says about the electical conductors!
Actually you can wish me luck as I am going to Toys R us on the retail park and I have never had a good experience in there (though think that may be true on Toys R us's in general rather than Harlows specifically)

pipWereRabbit · 15/10/2009 23:29

I'm not sure I agree about Colchester being posh...

I don't think it's got a John Lewis or House of Fraser (and the Waitrose has only just opened).

By that count Southend is far posher as it has a fabby Waitrose/JohnLewis combined place.

But Billericay - well that's right posh. People put grecian porches on their sheds in Billericay.

BrigitBigKnickers · 15/10/2009 23:31

Hi Pip! Are you in Wickford? I was born and brought up in Billericay but couldn't afford to live there when I was first married so we lived in Wickford for five years and then moved back.
Neicie- Billericay has a Waitrose! (Does that mean we are posh then!)

sb6699 · 15/10/2009 23:32

Its bugging me now what that sign actually says but it is totally uninspiring. No hint of "Essex girl" about it!!

I actually had a lovely experience in Harlow Toysrus last month. Went to buy a pink Little Tykes car for DD2's birth day and of course none left. Young guy says I'll check these tickets for the stuff I'm about to put out to see if theres's any in the stock room (about 100 of them), then checked his computer to see where the nearest one was (I explained I couldnt go that far 'cos I had to be back for school run) so he phones "upstairs" and tells me theres a truck outside and to wait here. Comes back half an hour little with said LT car. Turns out him and the truck driver litterally emptied the truck to find them right at the back so I didnt have to wait for him to unload.

Now thats service.

Niecie · 15/10/2009 23:32

sb6699 - Yep, you can be posh.

Little Dunmow is nice. Are you trying to buy in the old bit or the newer bit? It is 8 yrs next week since we moved to Essex as we looked at what were the new houses back then in Little Dunmow but couldn't afford the one we liked.

Ended up in Barnston (on the main road to Chelmsford) in a bit of wreck which we did up, got looking nice and then left.

I loved that house too.

hatesponge · 15/10/2009 23:33

benfmsmum - my auntie lives in Emerson Park! she is not posh, but she is quite rich

As to the Chelmsford/Colchester debate, Colchester always had a bit of a poor rep as a garrison town - of the two I prefer Chelmsford (though I could never live there, it has no Primark....!)

benfmsmum · 15/10/2009 23:34

Hatesponge - she'd have to be!! Is that where you grew up too?

BrigitBigKnickers · 15/10/2009 23:34

LOL Pip!

pipWereRabbit · 15/10/2009 23:36

Yep Brigit, I'm from gorgeous Wickford. And people wonder why I think Chelmsford is posh .

I'm waiting for the Billericay effect to head our way and give us some fabby new eateries and such in the high street (we do have a new pie and eel shop, which is not quite what I was hoping for).