Email to my father and his response - Reasonable?

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I sent this email to my father:

Glad you enjoyed it. Pissing down here. Might get a takeaway pizza later as can't really be arsed cooking.

Paul x

And this was his response:

Paul. Don’t ever send me an email like that again when you have clearly been drinking. I’ve binned it.

Do you think he's being reasonable or overeacting? I'm a bit upset by it TBH.

I don't see why he assumes you've been drinking.

Use of crude language if you and he are not in the habit of using such in emails?

Not asking how he's doing and if he's arranged any supper for himself? People like it if you give them a chance to talk about their side of things.

However I can't detect any reason to suspect you'd been drinking. Maybe the tone of your email is insensitive and the use of mildly strong language offended him if he's not used to you speaking that way..

I'm sure he'll get over it.

I don't understand the slang, I assume "take away" means carryout or delivery? " Arsed cooking?"

" Pissing down here" Raining?

Takeaway is delivery.

Arsed cooking means bothered cooking.

Pissing down here means raining heavily.

In the US if you say "its pissing down here" no one would know WTF you're talking about (ie not know that that meant "it's raining").

In the US if you say "Im pissed" it means "I'm angry".

In Australia, and in the UK, "I'm pissed" means "I'm drunk".

So he might have thought that "Pissing down here" meant "I am getting drunk right now".

Last edited by naturalplastic on 24 Sep 2024, 10:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

It's a pretty obvious and intuitive phrase. It's not part of the local vernacular here but I never needed anyone to explain what it means to understand what was meant.

Irrelevant.

Doesnt change the fact that Americans dont use the term "pissing" for rain.

Second: he and his dad speak the same "local vernacular"...which is apparently Manchester British English...and precisely because of that his phrase could be taken either way by folks who speak that vernacular because they use "piss" to mean two different things "drunk", or "its raining". Neither of which Americans mean by 'pissed').

Last edited by naturalplastic on 24 Sep 2024, 11:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

You're missing the point, possibly intentionally.

If even outsiders can understand Rossall's slang it's unlikely his father (who is almost certainly familiar with the same vernacular) failed to understand what Rossall meant.

Further, it's completely irrelevant what slang Americans use given that Rossall is a Brit.

Your father's response seems unreasonable and puzzling. Have you followed up with him to try to clear things up?

@Funeral

you're the one twisting words.

Why are you doing that?

I was making the point that (a) this topic involves dialects of the English language, (b) that "pissed" DOES have a certain slang meaning in my American dialect but it isnt the same as the TWO slang meanings in Brit/Aussie (i HAD to make that aside to address the general audience of WP and get it out of the way to avoid confusion), and (c) that his dad could have taken it the wrong way precisely because he speaks that same Brit dialect. In other words: a local would be smart enough to be confused, but a North American would be too dumb to be confused.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 24 Sep 2024, 11:37 am, edited 2 times in total.

Welcome back, why the new account?

I feel like I want to say that he's overreacting for some reason but I don't know what your relationship is usually like with him

Is he normally like that

Yes. It sounds like he is over reacting. Not sure why he thinks you were drunk. And even if you were its not obvious why that would be such an issue with him.

"It's pissing it down" or "It's right pissing weather today" is very common across the UK to refer to heavy rain. We have so many different words and phrases to describe different types of rain since it happens a lot.

If we were to talk about getting drunk, we'd say "I plan on getting pissed tonight" or angry then you'd say "you've pissed me off now". It's often very clear depending on the context as to what the speaker is referring to. Or it is to me, at least, as a Brit.

I can only assume that the casual, non-formal approach that the OP used to speak to his dad is what irked him and made him accuse the OP of being drunk. Personally I tend to be a little more formal with my parents. The OP's message is closer to how I'd talk to my sister or my friends rather than my parents but I don't know the exact type of dynamic that the OP has with his dad, so I'm just speculating here.

Edit: There’s also "You've got to be taking the piss" (You can't be serious, you've got to be joking with me) not to be confused with "I'm taking a piss" (I'm going to the toilet).

Last edited by Lost_dragon on 24 Sep 2024, 12:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks for clearing that up!