One of the more awkward aspects of writing books in American English when you were brought up in the U.K. is that you totally forget how to spell words like ‘pyjamas’, which my brain (and the Substack spellcheck) tries to persuade me to write as ‘pajamas’, but which my Britishness just won’t allow other than in a novel, so I’ve gone with the cop-out ‘PJs’ instead.
I too fail to understand how wearing pjs to school is a treat. My son’s class can choose between pjs and movie or bringing toys in to play with so he’s had about 3 pj days - but they tell them to wear pjs ALL DAY. We walk (15/20 minutes) to school (and of course back again) and at least one of these was mid winter.
First time he wasn’t sure about it and did pj top and joggers but after that I’ve just had to work out which are his least stretched/wash worn pjs and pretend it’s totally normal for him to wear them to school…
It boggles my mind - I just can't get my head around how it's supposed to be 'fun' to wear your nightclothes in public. I think the older kids at Max's school get to wear PJs all day - for some reason they decided his class should just wear them in the afternoon, which I think is the main reason he wasn't into it at first. He just couldn't be bothered having to get changed!
Oh and correct about Toy Story and same about the Kate video. Do people think people having chemo no longer have legs or something?! Sometimes the early rounds don’t knock people at all. (Also my sister knows someone whose kids go to school with George and unless they’re sending the double to do the school run then she’s definitely been doing that the past few weeks.)
The spelling thing is something I’m going to have to contend with. I’m not sure how because I already get a bit grumpy that British authors seem to write “fit” instead of “fitted” and “gotten” instead of “got” even in UK editions.And I really shouldn’t care because both are perfectly fine (gotten is what Irish* people say anyway and it’s what we used to say here too) and it really doesn’t matter. I need to get a grip and stop clinging to things that aren’t important. *And Scottish people too idk??
I don't *think* "gotten" is Scottish usage, but it's getting hard to tell these days.. I use the US spellings, but if the characters are British, I refuse to use other Americanisms, like "sidewalk" or "a couple days" etc, because it just sounds weird coming from people supposed to be from here! I still cringe at the memory of some of the scathing emails/comments I've had from Americans telling me they can't BELIEVE I call myself a writer when I can't even spell basic words, though, so I spend a LOT of time over-thinking this...
My dad spent his life pointing out Americanisms in our speech and now I do it to my poor kids. And I regret to inform you they both say "a couple days". They also call it "sports" ("She's good at sports"). Like I say, in theory it really doesn't matter, but I can't help feeling a little sad when things homogenise. Just like it's sad that Lancashire is losing the rhotic R.
I too fail to understand how wearing pjs to school is a treat. My son’s class can choose between pjs and movie or bringing toys in to play with so he’s had about 3 pj days - but they tell them to wear pjs ALL DAY. We walk (15/20 minutes) to school (and of course back again) and at least one of these was mid winter.
First time he wasn’t sure about it and did pj top and joggers but after that I’ve just had to work out which are his least stretched/wash worn pjs and pretend it’s totally normal for him to wear them to school…
It boggles my mind - I just can't get my head around how it's supposed to be 'fun' to wear your nightclothes in public. I think the older kids at Max's school get to wear PJs all day - for some reason they decided his class should just wear them in the afternoon, which I think is the main reason he wasn't into it at first. He just couldn't be bothered having to get changed!
Oh and correct about Toy Story and same about the Kate video. Do people think people having chemo no longer have legs or something?! Sometimes the early rounds don’t knock people at all. (Also my sister knows someone whose kids go to school with George and unless they’re sending the double to do the school run then she’s definitely been doing that the past few weeks.)
The spelling thing is something I’m going to have to contend with. I’m not sure how because I already get a bit grumpy that British authors seem to write “fit” instead of “fitted” and “gotten” instead of “got” even in UK editions.And I really shouldn’t care because both are perfectly fine (gotten is what Irish* people say anyway and it’s what we used to say here too) and it really doesn’t matter. I need to get a grip and stop clinging to things that aren’t important. *And Scottish people too idk??
I don't *think* "gotten" is Scottish usage, but it's getting hard to tell these days.. I use the US spellings, but if the characters are British, I refuse to use other Americanisms, like "sidewalk" or "a couple days" etc, because it just sounds weird coming from people supposed to be from here! I still cringe at the memory of some of the scathing emails/comments I've had from Americans telling me they can't BELIEVE I call myself a writer when I can't even spell basic words, though, so I spend a LOT of time over-thinking this...
My dad spent his life pointing out Americanisms in our speech and now I do it to my poor kids. And I regret to inform you they both say "a couple days". They also call it "sports" ("She's good at sports"). Like I say, in theory it really doesn't matter, but I can't help feeling a little sad when things homogenise. Just like it's sad that Lancashire is losing the rhotic R.