I believe that’s what Hal Bristan was saying in post #8 here.
As for alternatives, lots of times you don’t really need any. You can just say, “You need to move back in your chair so you don’t fall . . .” etc.
Silentgoldfish : Okay, bum is out I guess.
However! No one’s given me any monosyllabic nonoffensive alternatives other than “ass” and “can.”
___________________Suggestions?
Hey goldfish, take a cue from the decadent french back in the late sixties . When a haute couture Parisian salon of that time gave a house showing for Elizabeth Taylor and her consort Richard Burton, in order to stimulate the sales of their overpriced factions their models were instructed to…
" Shake your Bun at Burton "
I have always held the opinion that the french are affected phonies, but in the case of the term** bun** over bum I think that bun is more tasteful and appropriate.
French rolls are nice too. 
Bum isn’t offensive to me. But then I’m 25. My grandma would be horrified, however. But she’s a woman that won’t let anybody under 60 call her anything except Mrs c308 and never by her first name.
I reckon you’re fine with bum unless they’re old and then it’s bottom. That’s just me though.
Yes, I too assumed you were talking about referring to a homeless person as a “bum” because THAT use of the term could be offensive. I would never perceive bum as being an offensive word in the context of talking about the rear end.
But, then, I’m a 20 something American (and it does seem like terms like “bloody”, “wanker”, etc. are treated more likely here than in the UK at least)…to be on the safe side, you might want to try use “bottom” from now on.
Use ‘blot’ or ‘freckle’.
Hope this helps.
That’s from the Outback Steakhouse Mother’s Day commercials.
There are some things I’m a bit sad at myself for knowing…
You forgot “Please fondle my bum” from Monty Python. 
Try listening to that nurse and see if she refers to her patients as “honey” or “sweetie” or something like that, then tell her that’s far more offensive than “bum”. A lot of nurses have a very bad habit of using “honey”, “sweetie”, etc when speaking to elderly patients; it’s very condescending and one of the first things they teach you in nursing school NOT to do. (But as anyone who’s ever been in the hospital knows, is commonplace.)
Isn’t the proper medical term “badonka-donk”?
Actually the nurse was pretty nice about it, she didn’t actually tell me to stop, just that she was getting the giggles imagining all the old ladies getting indignant over what was probably a cultural difference - I use half Canadian half Australian slang and as people have pointed out different word are offensive to different countries. There’s no way I could get away with calling a patient a wanker to their face here! I did tell her that she sounded Jamaican when she kept calling a lady named Monica Mon, however.
There’s a frequently shown TV ad. for toilet paper here at the moment - and the slogan is “Love your bum”.
As for the OP “is bum offensive?” though - it depends who the bum is attached to - some bums are very sexy!
I don’t think ‘bum’ is offensive. But I can’t speak for the elderly folk.
Robin, be a dear, would you, and ask your sweet grannie what she would consider the proper term.
Hmmm. Reading the SDMB at work is always a hit and miss affair because the content filter at the school where I work is permanently set to ruthless. I can very seldom see the opening page for the pit, about 50:50 on the MPSIMS opening page. Threadspotting scores maybe 40%.
That said, I am reading this thread at work, so I guess all the “bums” are passing through the filter ok.
Update. Right now I can’t even get to the page where the forums are listed.
It seems that I can talk about bums all I like (bum tiddly bum bum), but because the most recent poster to one of the forums was to a thread with a suspect title, I can’t even see the table of contents.
Only one thing to say.
Bummer!!
How about the good old Aussie expression, “Shift yer arse”?
Why, surely the perfect term to use would be “fanny”.
Just not for anyone British.
That kinda was the joke.
Meanings aside, the word “prig” falls more harshly on my ear than “bum”.
I seem to recall an ad on BBC (for what, exactly, I can’t recall) that had singers “bumming” Pomp and Circumstance. You know…“bummm-bumbumbum-bummm-bummm”. Musta been for toilet paper or sumpin.
slight hijack…
OMG, can’t believe there’s another F&S fan here! 
Though that number is not a good example of their funniest work, of course. (sigh.)