Having babies

[xeney]

Huh. I thought "chav" was sort of a counterpart to "ghetto" or "white trash," and I think that's about the most offensive reason for having babies that I've ever heard.

[Puffin]

SIGH


Dear All,
Do you know what Chav means in England? If you did, you would laugh at my comments not be upset or insulted.
I am a very tolerant person, who cares about all people, and my judgement is based on their actions and words, rather than colour of skin, health or wealth. I have friends from all backgrounds, who enjoy things from drinking beer to classic motorbikes. I do draw the line at antisocial behaviour like vandalism and foul-mouthing elderly people. I think that my sister is a bit of a Chav sometimes, and my husband calls me a Pikey because I take furniture out of skips to restore it for our house. I am also a manic-depressive so not very NORMAL to many.
I realise I have been in England so long that I am even beginning to use their same dry language.
I remember how difficult I found getting to know the English, but after a while you realise there's a warm glow inside. Their heart's in the right place, as one would say.
My brother never made it past that stage and moved to Thailand.

Emily

ps I am disappointed at the prudishness of this forum

[paigette]

ps I am disappointed at the prudishness of this forum

LOL, this site is ANYTHING but prudish. The issue here appears to be a communication/wording area. Just remember, this is a primarily(NOT ALL) American site, so some foreign humor will be lost on us. Not only that, but it is also a message board, which I always find are just TERRIBLE for expressing a sarcastic wit.

[Puffin]

Maybe I ought to use more Smilies in my messages so people could gather the tone of writing.
Otherwise I am going to have to be constantly apologising for being devil's advocate, painting a different picture, telling the other side of the story...

[wannaduacentury]

Hi Emily, I guess as far as having kids, make sure both of you are ready, if one of you is not, or both, then postpone for awhile. If the bio clock is ticking, well you may have to make a quicker choice, but if you do decide to have kids, make sure it what you both want so the child can have the best possible life. Your ? reminds of an American show called Frasier where Niles wants to be a dad and carries around this 5 lbs flour sack in a cuddly and pretends it's a baby, including falling into a tub of water, drying by the fireplace to catch on fire, then Eddy the jack russell destroys it. A good lesson I say. I also watch a lot of BBC shows(many on dvd) and some of the language quirks I miss and some I have to listen carefully to get their meaning. I guess you really do get into a culture if you stay for awhile. Jennifer

[paigette]

Well, on another board that, if I type something that I think people will see as mean, I generally put ((SARCASM)) after it. Just helps in others translation & takes 2 seconds to do.

[Puffin]

I LOVE Frazier!
When we went to Seattle last year, I looked everywhere for some Frazier parphenalia (spelling?) but couldn't find anything.

[Dianyla]

I have no opinion on the offensiveness of the term chav, but I still think it's at least a wee bit arrogant to want children for the purpose of outnumbering another group of people.

It doesn't matter whether "those other people" are different based on socioeconomic class, religion, ethnicity, or perceived intelligence. No matter how you slice or dice it, that statement means that you think your kind of people are better than those kind of people, therefore more of you ought to exist than more of them.

Just my $0.02.