To find middle class parents insufferable?

What's wrong with a regional accent?

@Thechaseison71 the classes were for parents who had been identified as a potential concern from Health visitors but they weren't quite 'bad enough' for full SS involvement.
It was deemed as a kind of intervention. From what my mum said, the people who attended got a lot from them and turned it around so that SS didn't need to get involved - which was brilliant.
I don't think they were forced to attend but it was made clear that if their current situation continues SS may have to be involved.
My mum was a specialist health visitor so was aware of these types of courses.

Were they" forced" to be attend? And weren't there classes for normal parents to learn this stuff also rather than those with SS involvement '

DS was my third child and I was working full time e so wouldn't be attending this anyway so only know what I saw

@Thechaseison71
My mum worked in a job that worked with SS.
Yes I agree that some classes were populated with MC parents - baby massage and the like.
There were other classes where struggling parents were referred to attend. You probably didn't see these as you had to be invited to attend. Absolute 101 of parenting - all about structures in place to succeed, sleep routines, then diet and discipline etc
My mum said that these courses were transformational for the parents

I remember sure start centres. They were a good idea , trouble is the people that used them weren't generally the ones they were designed fore. Mtds went to a lovely sure start nursery that was new at the time. Many of the kids in there were from the surrounding areas not the town the SS was for, as they stuffed to fill places.

Same as the " classes".
I know there was baby .massage and stuff like that. It's wasn't attended by the parents who needed it to improve their lives. The ones who would've gained from it we still standing outside Greg's with a fag and sausage roll. There were even sure start people out in the streets promoting all the services ( how I knew about nursery) but uptake was better from people in surrounding areas ( less deprived) that from the deprived areas

@Dappy777
No political party, the 'left' or otherwise, condones this type of behaviour.

What 'the left' did was put in Sure Start centres to teach parents to be good role models for their children. Put plans and structures in place if they were struggling, generally helped them.

Unfortunately Sure Start centres were cut quite a while ago now (austerity cut?). This is what happens when services like this go.

And me. I’m sick the Left romanticising and defending people like that. They seem to think that ignorant people with filthy manners are ‘keepin it real ‘ and ‘fightin da system’. I’m also sick of the constant sneering at the middle-class. By ‘middle-class’ people seem to mean polite, refined, and well-educated. Well, if that’s what it means to be middle-class then I wish everyone was middle-class!!

How did we create a society in which people are ashamed to be polite and refined, whereas those with hideous accents, who can barely string a sentence together, are proud of it?!

And me. I’m sick the Left romanticising and defending people like that. They seem to think that ignorant people with filthy manners are ‘keepin it real ‘ and ‘fightin da system’. I’m also sick of the constant sneering at the middle-class. By ‘middle-class’ people seem to mean polite, refined, and well-educated. Well, if that’s what it means to be middle-class then I wish everyone was middle-class!!

How did we create a society in which people are ashamed to be polite and refined, whereas those with hideous accents, who can barely string a sentence together, are proud of it?!

A coke in one hand and a fag in the other in their PJs at school pick ups are exactly the sort of parents I find 'insufferable'.

I agree. I went to crap schools in bad areas. At least a third of my lessons were a joke. I remember kids throwing chairs, climbing out of windows, even groping female teachers. Many of them were from such f-ed up backgrounds that trying to teach them anything was a waste of time. The one thing that school did teach me is that violent, abusive people should be stopped from having kids.

I wouldn’t blame someone for not wanting to send their child to the schools I went to. And I wouldn’t blame them for not wanting their kids to mix with some of the kids I had to mix with. Presumably, they’d prefer their kids to be grow up polite, civilized and well-educated. GOOD FOR THEM. I wish more people thought like that.

I’m not going to throw my child like a sacrificial lamb into the bit of the most deprived children and families in the country if I can help it. I am going to make every effort and a lot of personal sacrifices to move to be near the best school in my community

In the 1980s the Minister of Education, Kenneth Baker, regularly eulogised about the superiority of German schools. We were in Germany working in Forces schools but I knew a lot of non-Forces families, some British most German, and they would tell me that they found his comparisons hilarious, one staff room had his picture on their dart board! Many of the German teachers of younger children would visit the Forces school and were very complimentary about what was going on, far better than their schools!

It would be interesting to see developments in German education now that their industry is being rapidly destroyed. Before, the country needed masses of skilled workforce so even their Realschule were much much better than British schools. It remains to be seen how they are going to fund excellent free education for the masses when there won't be much for the blue collar to do...
They also have a completely different attitude to discipline, of course.

Lol a person with a title and family wealth is not middle class. They’re usually upper class or an aristocrat (at least someone with a title is) I’m sure they’d be either horrified or delighted at being called middle class depending on how they view their own poshness, but they definitely wouldn’t think it was accurate! Middle class is detached home in nice area or cottage in the countryside, no strong regional accent, calling a toilet a loo, calling dinner supper, maybe sending their kids to private school (not boarding though), maybe being into horses

Lol a person with a title and family wealth is not middle class. They’re usually upper class or an aristocrat (at least someone with a title is) I’m sure they’d be either horrified or delighted at being called middle class depending on how they view their own poshness, but they definitely wouldn’t think it was accurate! Middle class is detached home in nice area or cottage in the countryside, no strong regional accent, calling a toilet a loo, calling dinner supper, maybe sending their kids to private school (not boarding though), maybe being into horses

What makes u think youre middle class and not working class like the rest of us?
Do you not work?
Are you titled? Family wealth, that's what I interpret as middle class.
I think youre slightly above your station!

Sorry rant incoming! I'm so sick of how since becoming a parent half the people I speak to seem to be insufferable snobs about the area we live in (in a big city). Schools are "terrible" despite good ratings, couldn't possibly be good enough for their children, and are upset they don't live in a posher area, too many undesirables round where we live, complaining about drugs etc when this is an issue that 100% doesn't affect their demographic. I've recently had someone say they had to move to the suburbs because at their local school all the parents had "a can of coke in one hand, a fag in the other and 10 kids" and another saying a nursery wasn't good enough as they didn't want their child looked after by someone with a speech impediment. Both of these left me with my jaw on the floor shocked someone would think it's OK to say that but they seem to have no embarrassment about saying it to me, a casual acquaintance. And the area we live in is full of creative types, ostensibly left wing etc but also seem to hold these reactionary views when it comes to their kids.

The thing about schools drives me mad as I guarantee most of these people have zero experience of attending or their kids attending a challenging city comprehensive. It's just this perceived bias that their kids will get bullied or become drug dealers or other crap that they heard from their parents as to why they went to private school and are now parroting but can't afford private school or a posh area themselves. I went to a pretty crap school but I came out with good grades and went to a prestigious uni. It wasn't all great but it was a realistic cross section of society and arguably gives you good expectations of the real world and that fact that not everyone in your community is privileged etc. But no one seems to care about that and just wants to look out for themselves and everyone else be damned.

I am middle class myself lol. And my kid is going to have plenty of (unfair) social advantages anyway without us having to get them into "the best" school or only socialise with other middle class people. I just really don't get it. Am I alone in thinking like this??

But are you really middle-class if you can't use apostrophes? Im middle class.
In my head, what you wrote sounds like "In middle class."

See, that's the trouble with being a snob, as you say you are sometimes. There's always someone snobbing back at you!

Maybe snobbing at each other keeps us Brits going...

🤪

There are areas where there is only one school for a big catchment. Google Tavistock in west Devon, or Exmouth. Tavistock is big. 10 form entry so 200-300 pupils each year cohort. Exmouth used to be the biggest secondary school in Europe. I did some of my ITT there.