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AIBU?

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Original poster

To belive that my children are having a great childhood in London?

409 replies

mrsruffallo · 27/01/2010 13:36

Annoying woman at parent and toddler grouip today.
She was noisily proclaiming her intention to leave London before her child turned 5 as it's an awful place to grow up!
I said if not here, where?
There is so much to do, lovely green spaces, much better than being stuck in the middle of nowhere
Turned into quite a lively discussion

OP posts:
LEMhasgonetothedogs · 27/01/2010 21:14

lmao at "are you village"

I remember DP and i went into a pub in one of the small country towns around here - it was like a scene from the wicker man - everyone staring, put their drinks down - then if we tried to make eye contact suddenly felt the need to study their drink/shoes/paper/draughts/voodoo dolls

Kaloki · 27/01/2010 21:20

crowandalice are you living in Royston Vasey?? (please someone get the reference)

bibbitybobbityhat · 27/01/2010 21:22

I have the imagination of a gnat, clearly, but I can't begin to understand what are the advantages of living in the countryside. Or a small town. I would love to hear.

I am not wedded to a life in London, btw, but I am to big city life. And I happen to have been here for 25+ years so London is my city. Edinburgh, Manchester, Barcelona, New York, San Francisco, Seattle - would all be alright with me, so long as I had a load of friends there.

CrowAndAlice · 27/01/2010 21:22
  • feels like it sometimes Kal...
Kaloki · 27/01/2010 21:27

Just beware of the butchers special then

Oblomov · 27/01/2010 21:33

are you local. this is alocal store. for locals.

laff at this. laff at bibbity. i would hate to live in london. i grew up in the middle of dartmoor.

onebatmother · 27/01/2010 21:33

Oi see fishie gorn quoiet.

OrmRenewed · 27/01/2010 21:35

Isn't it strange the 'middle of nowhere' means where there aren't lots of people. See that is my idea of heaven - not having lots of people around me. But then I like empty windswept places and I am not averse to getting wet feet and messy hair.

Wereworm · 27/01/2010 21:39

I see that the point has been made that London isn't one undifferentiated mass. Has the same point been made about Not-London. It is quite varied, you know, not being in London.

CrowAndAlice · 27/01/2010 21:40

Ah you see i would love to live in the middle of nowhere - a small larkrise hamlet would be fab. But my 'local village' has a primary school, chippy and coop and 1000 nosey buggers.

Both Inner city and middle of nowhere afford the anonymity i'd like.

Oblomov · 27/01/2010 21:45

sorry, what does twocking mean ? greta word. and godalming ? that is down the road from me. what does that mean please.

i can't get your talk.
it be 'ansome, betten it ?

devon for: "it is lovely isn't it "

can we have translations please so londers and country folk can understand eachother.

fishie · 27/01/2010 21:45

oh i am back.

am in forest gate innit. plenty of windswept mud round here too.

and i left school at 16.

KERALA1 · 27/01/2010 21:51

twocking is a legal term for the offence of "taking without consent" usually a car I think. Everytime a boy racer raced past a crimial barrister friend of mine would roll his eyes and say "Tyler and Kyle out twocking I presume".

frecklyspeckly · 27/01/2010 21:53

IME: Bringing children up in the countryside can be wonderful.

BUT
It can also at times be isolating and bleak particularly in Winter. The locals can be hard to 'crack' whether a percieved issue in my head or not. Have spoken to other outsiders and they all agree.

My particular part not noted for it's culture or ethnic and cultural diversity which makes me feel dc's miss out a bit.
Feelings of always being that little bit different as you don't have twenty three generations of your family in the Churchyard.

DC's are now scared if they visit GP's big city clinging to each other 'in case those big buildings fall and squash us'

DC's think where we live great now however all the teenagers here leave to get jobs in the outside world if they have any academic or professional aspirations at all.Otherwise it is landwork or the canning factory.

Local market town becomes the wild west at 430pm policing minimal give me big city anyday with multiple police cars and police presence. Do not fancy ds on a night out there in a few years time.

Green spaces - well intensively farmed mostly unacessable. Fancy a shotgun pellet up your bottom for straying onto a private footpath? we are scared to walk the local fields. Few parks. IMHO all the cities we have been in have fantastic parks and green spaces and safe footpaths for dc's to ride their bikes on etc.
London would be a fabulous place to raise children if you want to. Beware of the idylic 'image' of the countryside life it is not all it is cracked up to be.

Did I mention I was selling up and moving to the city?

Oblomov · 27/01/2010 21:57

thank you kerala. oh yes, i do like a good bit of twocking then.
you want your kids to grow up where plenty of twocking goes on.
i suspect this goes on in london, countryside, and god forbid everyhwere in between aswell. so we're all fine there then !

midnightexpress · 27/01/2010 21:58

i do like a good bit of twocking then.

onebatmother · 27/01/2010 21:59

Taking Without Owner's Consent (wrt VeeHickles)

Ah you see i would love to live in the middle of nowhere - a small larkrise hamlet would be fab. But my 'local village' has a primary school, chippy and coop and 1000 nosey buggers.

Yeah that's what worries me. Quite badly don't want my children growing up 'pierced' by sons of village shop in a "yeahbutright he sez he'd doit if i never giv him a kickin" stylee.

onebatmother · 27/01/2010 22:03

By frecklyspeckly Wed 27-Jan-10 21:53:03

Well that was an astonishingly useful post for me, in terms of weighing up the pros and cons. Thanks frecklyspeckly.

Wereworm · 27/01/2010 22:05

But that is just one godforsaken place in the Fens.

There are nice bits of Not-London, with museums and that.

onebatmother · 27/01/2010 22:10

So. Convince me.

also must go to bed.

frecklyspeckly · 27/01/2010 22:11

Shit! wereworm you are on to me.. it is the fens..

Hope you don't know anymore like who I am in RL. Perhaps my description of the shitness of my surroundings betrayed me?

or else you have been reading my other posts and are the mother of one of the kid's in my dc's class I have posted about, in which case thats a wickerman in the schoolyard for me in the morning!

Wereworm · 27/01/2010 22:12

No I haven't read any of your other posts -- it was just the soul-destroying nature of your surroundings that gave you away.

onebatmother · 27/01/2010 22:14

mwa ha ha.

Shocking! that threadie could identify the fens. Freckly i;d like to CAT you as am thinking about moving to the Cambridge area.. whaddya reckon?

onebatmother · 27/01/2010 22:15

Fens=6 fingers

Wereworm · 27/01/2010 22:18

Where I live, the local men can do chatting. They are slightly feminine, in the best possible way, in that respect. Perhaps because they are close enough to the buisiness of sweated manual toil that they feel confident enough in their masculinity not to have to assert it all the time by treating women in a stereotypically macho way.

Not like those soft sly cockernee men.