{"id":102898,"date":"2026-09-16T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=102898"},"modified":"2026-09-15T17:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T21:45:13","slug":"qotd-squeaky-bum-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/qotd-squeaky-bum-time\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: Squeaky bum time"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QotD-thumbnail-400x400.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right; padding: 0px 0px 10px 25px\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QotD-thumbnail-400x400.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-48672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QotD-thumbnail-400x400.png 400w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QotD-thumbnail-400x400-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/QotD-thumbnail-400x400-50x50.png 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>We were watching the Women&#8217;s Euros final, and it had gone to penalties when my spouse suddenly gripped the couch cushion with white knuckles and announced, &#8220;Right, we&#8217;ve entered squeaky bum time&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>I blinked at them. &#8220;We&#8217;ve entered &#8230; what?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Squeaky bum time&#8221;, they repeated, as if this was a perfectly normal phrase that everyone uses. &#8220;You know, when it&#8217;s so tense you&#8217;re clenching.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The first time I heard this phrase, I nearly fell off the couch laughing.<\/p>\n<p>But now?<\/p>\n<p>Now I find myself using it during American sports, muttering it to myself during tense moments, while my American family would have no idea what I&#8217;m on about.<\/p>\n<p>This is what happens when you live in a British-American household. Your vocabulary becomes a delightful jumble that sounds slightly off to everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Marianne Jennings, <a href=\"https:\/\/anamericansguidetobritishlife.substack.com\/p\/squeaky-bum-time-and-other-british\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Squeaky Bum Time and Other British Phrases I Never Knew I Needed&#8221;, <em>An American&#8217;s Guide to British Life<\/em><\/a>, 2025-10-05.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We were watching the Women&#8217;s Euros final, and it had gone to penalties when my spouse suddenly gripped the couch cushion with white knuckles and announced, &#8220;Right, we&#8217;ve entered squeaky bum time&#8221;. I blinked at them. &#8220;We&#8217;ve entered &#8230; what?&#8221; &#8220;Squeaky bum time&#8221;, they repeated, as if this was a perfectly normal phrase that everyone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,57,41,18],"tags":[262,400],"class_list":["post-102898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-humour","category-quotations","category-sports","tag-culture","tag-language"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-qLE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104817,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102898\/revisions\/104817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}