MY CAR JOURNEY WITH THE CHAVS

A chav is a pejorative English term referring to an anti-social young man often wearing sportswear or a hoodie. The term is particularly aimed at young men from a working (or more likely non-working) class families and with very few school qualifications. The term, chavette, is used to refer to a chavvish young woman. I'm sure other countries have similarly pejorative terms for these groups of young people.

Though often called a snob by many in my wife's family, I see my wife's family as distinctly chavvish.

Yesterday was one of those days when I realised I'm hanging out with chavs. My wife was driving her son, two grandchildren and myself to a restaurant for a Sunday lunch. It was a hot day so all the windows of the car were open. My oldest grandson, aged 12, was sitting between me and my stepson in the back seat of the car. My youngest grandson, aged 6, always wants to sit in the front seat - to keep the peace, it's easier to let him take the front passenger seat.

My oldest grandson repeatedly leaned over me and my stepson to shout some random words at passing pedestrians. I told him that he was being rude as the people he's shouting at may presume he's shouting an insult at them. He replied that he wasn't shouting any obscenities out of the window; he was right, he wasn't. I then told him that the pedestrians probably cant hear what he says and may presume he's insulting them. I advised him that he should be more mindful of others and not get his kicks from unsuspecting pedestrians people minding their won business.

Predictably, my stepson spouted that my grandson, his nephew, was only having fun and that it's okay what he was doing. Realising I was outnumbered by chavs in the car, I just wound up my car window so there was one less window for my grandson to shout from.

My stepson then proceeded to shout random words at pedestrians which further encouraged my eldest grandson even more - after one shout, a woman shouted 'fuck off' back at him. All this then encouraged my youngest grandson sitting in the front of the car. He kept shouting Jerry to pedestrians, either a reference to his best friend at school or Jerry the mouse in the Tom and Jerry cartoons which he enjoys watching. I must admit I found my youngest grandson's shouts quite funny.

The whole episode made me think whether I'm a killjoy, which I was, and whether I like my youngest grandson more than my oldest grandson, which I do. But more than anything else it confirmed that I'm a snob amidst the chavs!