To think that certain people should be banned from public parks

[ElleBing]

We have a really lovely park near where we live. It's really big, with lots of grassed areas for picnics etc then an enclosed play area.

DH and I took DS there yesterday for a quick run around before dinner time. I noticed that a group of chavs had set up camp next to the enclosed park whilst their kids ran amok inside. The chav parents were sitting on the grassy bit drinking cider, eating junk food and swearing. Two of their kids started fighting one another and rather than try and intervene, the person who I assume was the father sat in the kids' pushchair screeching at the LOs to stop fighting. They carried on drinking their cider before deciding they were going home to "watch Nanny McPhee on pirate wiv a bag ov chipz" then when the motehr of one of the LOs wanted the child to leave the play area she started shouting "come on will ya pooface" Eugh?

All of the other parents were doing cats bum mouth, not just me. I wanted to tell them to shut up with their common mouths and bad language but too middle class, you see? I'dlove to be able to stand up to these people who make life unpleasant for everyone else...

Anyway, DH were talking about them and I said that people like them shouldn't be allowed in parks. They should have an admissions policy. AIBU?

Junglist it's NOT personal because (I assume) you are NOT a chav. I have only bashed chavs. Some people have got defensive about it because thet think that by slating chavs, I am slating the working classes. I can distinguish between the two. I don't correlate being WC with being a chav. Simple.

My mum lives in a council house and she's about as WC as they come. She's not a chav though and she brought my bro and I to have some respect for others. The chav thing is about the way you are raised. I know plenty of WC people who haven't turned into chavs just because their dad was on benefits.

Efficiency and progress is ours once more,
now that we have the Neutron bomb
It's nice and quick and clean and gets things done.
Away with excess enemy.
But no less value to property.
No sense in war but perfect sense at home--

The sun beams down on a brand new day
No more welfare tax t' pay
Unsightly slums gone up in flashing light.
Jobless millions whisked away.
At last we have more room to play.
All systems go to kill the poor tonight.

Gonna
Kill kill kill kill kill the poor. kill kill kill Kill kill the poor kill kill kill Kill kill the poor?Tonight

[*chorus]
Tonight... tonight!
Behold the sparkle of champagne
The crime rate's gone
Feel free again
O' life's a dream with you, Miss Lily White.
Jane Fonda on the screen today
Convinced the liberals it's okay
So let's get dressed and dance away the night

While they?
Kill kill kill kill the poor 3x
Tonight... tonight!

[*chorus]

LOL @ electric soup, ScottishMummy. I'm having that.

Or "I'm teefing dat" See? Down with the chavs.

elle it was this phrase'Oh and if being "strangely satisfied" with being middle class ultimately means that I am "strangely satisfied" with not being a rough yobbo then I'm not going to argue against that. Am I supposed to be aspiring to be a bit rougher, a bit more uncouth? '

not arguing with poride at not being paek alcohol swearing sort btw, just what I saqid wrt to wc V uc

touch ma electric soup ah'll skelp yer bahookie

FWIW Junglist, I am a bit intolerant of the ones I've referred to on other threads as "the Boden mummies".

Why can't everyone just be, well, normal? Not chavvy, not Boden-y. Just a nice mix of the two, incorporating the good bits from both ends of the spectrum?

I look like a chav. If you saw me and heard my big gob you'd think chav. But I do have manners most of the time and read to the children etc. A lot of people on here do have awful attitudes towards "lower" classes. You may not be one then but some people do equate chav with appearance and benefits.
Could we have a proper definition of chav then MNHQ? Save me frothing on every thread that mentions the word

Teefin dat?? You aint middle class after all

Clarissimo, I couldn't make head nor tail of that last post, love. Have you been down the park swigging Mad Dog 20/20 with the proles? You sound a bit tipsy.

JOKE.

There is only so many times "chav" and "middle class" can be defined.

No spitting

No shell suits

No cheap purfume.

No strong accents, unless French.

No-one with a 2 year old should be smug about their parenting skills....

As I said above, I think it comes down to basic consideration for those around you. I don't want to sound like Granny Catsbum but I do feel that consideration for others and plain old good manners are generally being eroded from society, and unfortunately the lack of 'em is something which has pervaded ALL sections of society. This whole side issue of class is a red herring. It doesn't matter 'what sort of people' they were who were irking the OP. The fact is they were being pests and disturbing the people around them, and personally, I don't think it is something to be applauded. People are so obsessed with "my right to do as I please" that they don't give a stuff how this impacts on others. Puts me in mind of the annoying little turds you often get in cinemas these days, chucking popcorn and yammering on their mobiles and the like. And a lady was stabbed for remonstrating with them last year, wasn't she?

OK Junglist. IMO you must meet the following criteria to be a chav (this list is not exhaustive);

*Frequently walk around the streets clutching a can of super-strength lager.

*Hang around in packs intimidating anyone passing by the bus stop in which you have taken up residence for the evening.

*Drive around the streets in a ridiculous aunty car that's had bits attached to it, playing drum n bass out of the windows.

*Spitting on the pavement.

*Tattoos of bulldogs/St george crosses/football club name on neck.

*Floating baseball caps.

*Enjoy playing irritating music through mobile phone speakers when on buses/trains.

*Lifes' ambition to go on Jeremy Kyle. As a partcipant.

I have eaten junk food, drunk alcohol and ignored my kids fighting whilst in a park.

I fear that I may well be a chav.

But I do tend to shout out 'shitbag' rather than 'poohead'

I didn't say I was smug about my parenting skills. I said I think I do an OK job. I'm fairly confident that my LO won't grow into an aggressive tosspot with no manners but if in ten years it turns out I'm wrong, I'll come back and let you know then you can all tell me what a tit I am

The drum and bass thing, yep. I've got a tune called "Chav Riddim" on one CD
You didn't mention big hoops which I have, also McKenzie puffa jacket I'm enjoying this now

It is not WHO people are that we should judge, more what they do.

Don't mind what the hell people wear - tatoos or otherwise.

It's not a class issue. It's an unreasonable behaviour issue - whatever class someone is.

I also am a fan of the big hoop earrings. Nowt wrong wid dat.

I mean, with that.

Agreed. The OP made it a class issue.

Is eating junk food in public and saying the word 'poohead' unreasonable then?

I was at an RSC production once and accidentally sat in the wrong seat - a very posh lady called me a 'fathead' - should she be banned from parks?!!

There is an element on mn that reminds me of
this woman from witches of eastwick

www.google.co.uk/search?q=felicia+alden+witches&hl=en&rlz=1R2DSGI_en-GB&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=uwLCS-OnD p-I0wTFreSWCQ&sa=X&oi=videoresultgroup&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBEQqwQwAA

We all have our own standards but to me public parks are public parks - I live in a multicultural society and so I expect to see and witness all sorts. How the heck is my ds supposed to know right from wrong if he doesn't see any examples of it.

But having said that I don't go to a certain supermarket with ds as I've seen alot of proper violence in the queues and I don't want him thumped in the middle of a queue spat.

I've just returned from a very posh park full of very posh mothers in a very posh part of London - ds learnt lots of lessons in bad parental behaviour there actually but because they were well dressed and not a pot belly in sight I guess that's OK.

You can type joke after it if you want but every time someone does that it amkes me feel small and that my eyesight maybe should stop me posting on here.

What I meant was that bit of my last post that I copied ans pasted suggested to me you equated WC with those traits you find undesirable. Not so, those traits reflect a certain part of teh underclass.

And chav doesnt refer to the section you descroibed- its linked to a certain style of dress etc, a term for a subculture

The word chav is as pejorative as the words ngger and pk - but because it refers to 'class' rather than ethnicity it's acceptable.

Sorry, I meant n-gg-er and p-ki... I didn't intend to bold!!

If they had been sitting in teh park having a strawberry and champagne picnic and then left for the theatre, would have that have been more acceptable to you?
And let me tell you that NOBODY swears as much as some members of the aristocracy ,I have come across !!