To think it’s hard for a middle class child to attend a working class school?

I was bullied at primary for not having new clothes.

At secondary we had uniform - much to my relief. Then I was bullied for being posh and rich: "You think you're big because your dad has plenty money!"

"No, he hasn't! My dad's a coalminer!"

"No he's NOT!"

NB The primary and secondary bullies overlapped. One of them was the local Police Inspector's daughter.

Round my way the MC kids are the biggest pissheads because they have more money for booze. Also bigger houses so more likely to have the parties where the majority of the boozing goes on. The parents seem far more alert to the extent of vaping in the toilets in the local WC schools than they are of the fug of strawberry flavoured vap juice emanating from the cubicles of their own MC kids school. IME people tend to hear what they expect to hear.

My making them a 'better person' comment was about mixing in a school with working-class children, not the bullying.

Yes, I agree bullying is horrific. Teased for being middle class; however, not so much.

Nope. Being bullied for 5 formative years has not made me a better person. What is has done is given me a pretty misanthropic view of human nature in general since I’ve had a lot of exposure to the uglier side of it, discouraged me from having kids (since I just can’t bear the thought of potentially watching them go through what I went through), led to lasting low self-confidence and depression and a period of self-harm in my early 20s, slowed down career progression a lot despite stellar academic results since I had to deal with the depression first, which has had a knock on effect on gaining financial independence, being in a position to form relationships, buying a house, etc, and made forming relationships and friendships continuingly difficult since I don’t like myself and have the tendency to assume that other people won’t like me. So, on the whole, I wouldn’t say I recommend it.

FWIW I know several other people my age who were bullied for prolonged periods at school and they’ve all had periods of depression in adulthood (at best). I’m not saying it has to be that way, but I think the potential link is pretty well established.

Bullied for being financially stable, oh, the horrors. I'm sure they'll get over it.

The kids that bullied my son to the point he refused to go to school said it was just 'teasing' as well. It wasn't. It was bullying.

I guess all those on the thread who have said it happened to them are lying then.

We live in a small house with books and eat dinner at the table. Maybe that's why my DC were bullied for being posh. Mind you, they were also bullied for being poor, for being gay and because I'm fat.
Kids are weird.

So all the people on this thread who don't want their kids to go to WC schools have not assumed their kids will be bullied for being 'posh'?

Just because I said it would make them a better person doesn't mean I assume they are bad, either. Mixing with children of differing classes will give the middle-class child insights into the struggles of working-class families.

'Bullying' in the context I'm thinking about is just teasing. I find it hard to believe that someone would be truly bullied down to having more money.

Lives in a big house with books and eats dinner at the table apparently.

Who has assumed that? You’re just making things up on this thread 😁.

I think this is bollocks

Well it's assumed that all WC kids are bullies and bad people so what's the difference?

Wtf is a middle class child?!

Why would being bullied make anyone a better person? And why do you assume that they’re a bad person to start with?

Is it even legal?

That poor child must be terrified!

How will they communicate?

We moved to a predominantly wc, fishing port when I was a child and I was teased mercilessly for not having the same accent (I was called posh, even though we weren’t). My dad was a librarian and my mum a nurse. Other kids thought that was hilarious…

It happens!

@Jk987 I kind of see what you're getting at, but generally speaking there would be a noticeable difference between the children of a single teenage mum in temporary accommodation in Haringey and children being brought up by married parents in their 30s in Godalming.

Have you been watching The Inbetweeners?

It's better than being bullied for being poor. If anything it'll make them a better person

This is MN. Of course they think their kids are MC.

My DC has a friend who goes to a local private school who says everyone they know at the school gets extra time in exams. My DC knows a few people who get extra time at their own school (high levels of deprivation) but says the vast majority don’t. DC was astonished by the conversation.

There's no such thing as class anymore. I find it ridiculous that people think their children are middle class!

Yes my DC have been teased a lot, we’re in Scotland in a deprived WC area, both DH and I came from a deprived WC area, both moved away to go to uni (I was the first person in my family to stay on at school past 16, go to uni), we moved to London got professional jobs, had one DC then moved back home.

We live in a mixed area but my DC have been teased for not talking slang but more polite, for eating around a dinner table at night and for the kind of car DH drives.

During Covid DS still believed in Santa Claus and he asked for a PS5 it was the year they were so rare but as we had had a rubbish year, cancelled holiday, covid bereavement and all the covid stuff DH said sod it im going to get him one. His best friend didn’t get one and his Mum told him not to play with DS anymore (because of that and because of the fact DS had pets and he didn’t). Which I felt was unfair as they were our choices nothing to do with DS.