To hate the term Playdate, aghhhhhh

[pigletmania]

That's it really, its so American, so aghghhhhh. Why cant it be like it was, going round to play! If I hear of that term again I will spontaniously combust .

I agree with the 'i'm good' instead of fine. Aargh. It's as though people can't remember that last week they said 'I'm fine' and have to change - because???
also pants to pants and hello trousers. why risk confusing your greying knickers with your brand new Gaps?

I'm American, but I don't let my kids say, "My Bad." I hate that--way too slangy. But "my bad" is creeping in everywhere, so I'm probably fighting a losing battle. I have no idea what a School Run is.

Playdate is relatively new... certainly wasn't used when I was growing up in Chicago. I agree that it seems to conjur up big expectations. But my sons live too far out of town to just meet up with their friends, and so I've been reduced to using the term (or hearing the other parent use the term) to get some playing scheduled.

I am English but have been living in Canada for 9 years and am married to a Canadian. My two children are both Canadian-born, and I am striving for bi-lingualism. And that's not English and French, the usual assumption when I make that joke here, but English and Canadian-English. We trained the daycare to understand words like jumper, nappy and knickers ('pants' is too confusing - does it mean underwear or trousers?), and my boys know that Mummy gets cross if they call her Mom. I get confused in the middle of the night when my 3-yr old asks to go to the bathroom...why would he want to go to that room in the middle of the night? I need to hear something less oblique to understand that it's the toilet part of the bathroom that he's interested in.
Canadian English spelling and vocabulary is offically more like English, but no-one, not even the schools teaching children to read and spell, cares about that. American-English is everywhere. Rage against the invasion of play-dates into English culture! Give your children breakfast before they leave the house in the morning! Don't always call them kids - they are not goats! And "look it" (which sets my teeth on edge when I hear it) just isn't English, even if it is marginally easier to say than "look at that".
Right then, rant over. Time to be polite to polite Canadians until it makes me want to explode again...

people say "look it" with no preposition?

ye gods what's that about?

So do Canadians write neighboUr etc or neighbor?

I confess to using "can I get.." but it's an expression I learned from Glaswegians when I lived in Scotland. I don't see me EVER using playdate but (and this is probably deeply anal) on of the the americanismd which winds me up most if "different than". My MiL uses it; the BBC uses it but its wrong. Just loke "bored of" and "10 items or less". tbh I also have a problem with tragedy meaning sad event but my DH tells me that it hs meant something sad for the last 2500 years and I really ought to get more up to date.

As one of those Americans who is part of Mumsnet, I have to say I don't like "playdate" either. When I was a kid it was "can so and so come over to play?" But it doesn't feel too good have the phrase be put down BECAUSE IT IS AMERICAN. I lived in London for 3 years and had to keep my mouth shut (as a good "American Ambassdor") while person after person put down "Americans" to my face - for 3 years. Please remember there are Americans on mumsnet who enjoy this space but don't want to be insulted. Thanks for listening (oops - is that another bad American phrase?)

Mineola - I love you, I really do

Seriously, I been to Florida, Boston, New York, Seattle, Cape Cod and perhaps with the exception of some of those from NY, I find Americans more personable, helpful and polite than surly Brits

"If I had a lot of time, I'd want to look up the origin of the term "play date" (or playdate--I'm not sure of the spelling). I'd also research the first usage of that word, which probably comes from an article or book about parenting.

When I was young and played with other kids, we never called such times "play dates"--we just went to kids' houses to play. Now when I talk with parents or kids, they'll tell me that they have a play date with someone instead of saying that they're going to play with their friend.

When I looked it up in Wikipedia, there was one sentence that was a sad commentary on modern life (they said "Playdates are a late 20th century innovation"):

the work schedules for busy parents, along with media warnings about leaving children unattended, prevent the kind of play that children of other generations participated in.

It reminds me of a recent conversation I had with a mother, who said she and her husband chose to live in a small town far away from because their kids can ride bikes and do other things without worrying about bad things happening. It's just sad that the sickos have to ruin kids' play time and some people are so busy they have to provide a formal word for something that kids naturally do."
written by an american
so you see we dont even condone the word.

also if you dont want your children picking up these phrases then dont let them watch the programs?

piratesmom exactly... I am American too and we NEVER said 'playdate' - it's being put down as a creeping 'Americanism" but it's not an Americanism if the Americans don't use it, surely? (DH and I use 'awesome' all the time, sarcastically, when things are most definitely NOT awesome) I always thought it was one of those 80's, power-suit, "do lunch", sort of yuppie words. No one I know, past or present, uses it. We also call each other 'babe' because calling each other darling or whatnot feels unbelievably pretentious to these Californians.

And Mineola that was my experience exactly. Sit quietly and avoid opening my mouth because the accent will give me away. Of COURSE no one would have said this to my face, but hey, it's threads like this that definitely make you wonder if that's what everyone is thinking while they smile politely. It went doubly for me because I was working for a Canadian company, so all the North Americans around WERE Canadian and quite concerned about being mistaken for Americans.

We are living in the US and DS(3) goes to creche ( daycare ) here so there is little hope for him.

FWIW though, most people here don't use "we're pregnant" ( at least not to my face!!)

"Playdate" is ubiquitous. No point in resisting.

I had tried to get DS to use the UK/Irish english for things like biscuit/nappy etc. It just confused him though.He calls me "Mommy" which isn't unheard of in Ireland either.

So most of the time I just accept his American English for what it is. Another language.

That said we hit a new low this week when he started referring to us ( his parents) as "You Guys".....

Thanks Mineola. I have been in the UK for 13 years now and my accent has actually changed now. So much so British people ask if I'm Irish... go figure. There are good and bad phrases from every culture.

Living in Canada, what is the alternative to breakfast? I'm trying to imagine what it could be: morning lunch, early snack?

I'm feeling bad on behalf of the Americans on here and would like to redress this by declaring that I love lots of American expressions.
I think 'Friends' was single-handedly responsible for the adoption of 'like', 'totally', 'get over it', 'loser', 'whatever' and loads of other phrases and terms used freely by all and sundry these days. I would miss them.
Who doesn't like to call their mates 'homes' for a laugh, it's funny isn't it! Well I think it is [shuffles off to corner]

Heard at preschool: 'does X need a ride to the playdate'. 'No, we're good'.

"Seriously, I been to Florida, Boston, New York, Seattle, Cape Cod and perhaps with the exception of some of those from NY, I find Americans more personable, helpful and polite than surly Brits" - could not agree with you more

lol -I thought of this thread when I just used 'playdate' in a thread title.

Sorry, but I couldn't resist it think of a concise alternative

I use playdate - don't see the problem, what I really object to is being called a "Yummy mummy" that is my personal fave most hated word.

as an american in britain I am cracking up over this thread... I never knew!!

cracking up is an americanism that means laughing very hard... not mentally falling apart over the thread!

Livingincanada... Insisting on Jumper, Nappy and Knickers, after having chosen a new life in another country where you knew they had a different dialect, is preposterous. What if I moved from the south to the Black Country and insisted DS never be referred to as "lover" as it's a bit paedo, should never say "aye-up", or should not call chickens "chooks"? I'd be making a right tit of myself.

With so many dialects in the UK, choosing the one true way of speaking English properly, and deriding all others, is a dangerous game. Innit?

Having moved to the UK from Australia, I could have persisted with phrases such as "give it a burl", or use perfectly sensible words such as "wowser", "paddock" or "creek". I might have kept up a lifelong habit of saying "fair dinkum" to mean "genuine", and continued to greet people with a warm "G'day" rather than "awwright?" or "How do you do?". Sensibly I leave such colloquialisms for conversations with my compatriots.

Not wanting to appear a recalcitrant nationalist or a caricature, I soon learned to speak in such a way as to make myself understood. I suggest Brits abroad, or indeed anyone abroad take the same medicine.

That said, I still can't accept playdate.

Oh I forgot to mention, I love "my bad". It's terribly poor grammar, but it says a lot in one short phrase. Since "my bad" has entered the lexicon in the US, I feel co-workers there have been liberated by the phrase, and can say, "If you're looking for the person who created that cock-up, it's me. I accept full responsibility for it, however it was not my intention to neglect or otherwise bungle my duties. Mea culpa and all that. Let's move on", with brevity and without unnecessary gravitas.

People who otherwise may have tried to hide their error are now coming forward with "my bad", in a new spirit of honesty and forgiveness. Or so it seems.

I hate it, always got to think of food and drink and treats and anything else they may want when they are here. One child asked me for a drink, I felt guilty I hadn't offered and then when I offered everything I'd got, he refused every one of them!!!! He confessed his mom forces him to drink at home even if he doesn't want to, he had a glass of tap water in the finish!! And then you get the kid who won't leave the dog alone, or the one who stands on chairs cos he dont like dogs. I could go on and on here! And then you get the one that doesn't talk to you and then one who doesn't stop saying thank you!!

I'm so sorry, I seem to be going off at a tangent here!

ah yes, time for the been-done-a-million-times American-hating thread. Are we on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule now?

To be fair, I am not sure that it follows that the posters who dislike linguistic Americanisms (I'm not one of them - I am not bothered!) actually dislike Americans. Reading the responses it is more about wanting to keep English, when spoken in Britain, - Anglicized, i.e. not have a kind of cultural dilution.

yanbu

we have friend round for tea, or come over to play, or we go over to X house.
DS 'stays' at hsi grandparents and if he sleep at a friends house he will be 'staying at James house overnight'

I ask children if they need to use the toilet, and we walk on the pavement.

However I do call my mother mom, she's from the west midlands!

DH drives me up the wall by refering to any children we meet as 'you guys' or 'hi guys', you KNOW Them fgs whats wrong with Hello James?