Which "class" - Lighthearted!

[dingdongdahlia]

So, my dh is very proud of his roots and is quite happy to tell everybody and anybody about how we're a working class family. Personally, I think class is quite an outdated concept but definitely think there are some things that are still considered wc/mc/us.

I've explained to dh that it's not as clear cut anymore and while he works a blue collar job, it's as much about lifestyle nowadays as your employment.

I say to my husband he's probably closer to middle class now because of tiny little things that make up our lifestyle but he denies it vehemently. I come from a very traditionally middle class family and he says he "dragged me down" (with a cheeky smile).

So, in the most lighthearted way possible, what do you think?

Dh works a very skilled manual job, he has an element of responsibility and although he achieved his role through an apprenticeship I would say his level of knowledge is pretty close to a masters in engineering. He calls himself a spanner monkey.

I have a professional role that is traditionally a middle class career.

We own our own home in a suburb of a city in the south coast. Four bed with garage, almost paid off (we're early 30s).

We eat out at least 10x a month at naice places and stay in nice hotels frequently as a couple (disclaimer: directly linked to my job).

We shop at Ocado and local independent butchers, greengrocers etc. Christmas meat is always bought from the butcher.

We have at least one foreign holiday a year with several other UK breaks throughout the year.

We have a cleaner (he hates this but hates a messy house more).

We have a bean to carafe coffee machine.

Our kids are young but it's looking like we will potentially send them to private school for secondary.

He snowboards and skis. Trying to convince me to take the kids on a skiing holiday (I'm not keen).

We own Barbour jackets (the wax variety that don't have the logo emblazoned all over it).

He's voted Tory in the past.

Obviously this is very lighthearted and a bit of a family joke. Just wanted to see what people think.

American parents? That’s you out of the MC OP. 😂

Indeed hollow, i doubt design proposals to manufacture a handleless jug to hold boiling liquid would get very far past the h&s risk assessment.

Settee and grandma? Is LMC at best.

Ahh that's not what I was thinking of. DM has a 'coffee infuser' apparently. (I drink instant!)

@Camomila cafetière

One of my parents is from North America (didn't say American though).

My mum called it a Chesterfield... even when it wasn't one.

What do you call your evening meal: tea, but isn't this regional, rather than class based?

the thing you sit on to watch TV: sofa

and the thing you pee into: toilet

and what do your children call your mother: No DCs here but we called ours Nanna and Grandma, to distinguish, or it was their preference, I don't remember how it came about. Mothers of both parents definitely working class though, wives of miners who were barmaids, factory workers, cleaners etc.

The fact that no-one can agree and there's no set definition suggests to me that it's nowhere near clear cut as some make out. Both DP and I were brought up in families where education was considered very important. I went to university, he had music lessons for years. The argument that interest in education is a preserve of the middle classes does not ring true in our experience.

Another good class indicator is what class you think Hyacinth Bucket is.....

I don't think it matters which class you are to be perfectly honest.
What is telling is your sense of superiority over your DH.

We shop at Ocado and local independent butchers, greengrocers etc. Christmas meat is always bought from the butcher.

This made me cringe

I consider myself very lower MC and you have a much more MC lifestyle than me! DH and I are both teachers though. I think most teachers think of themselves as MC but don't really have the income to go with it.

@BertrandRussell Oooh! Interesting. I'd call her lower middle class with aspirations. She could me solidly middle class but her behaviour towards her family definitely drags her down Richard cgaf.

I think if you are shopping with Ocado and eating croissant in your garden and thinking gosh how MC am I, then you are lower middle class🙃

I worked with someone who thought she was middle class because she drank red wine and ate bruschetta! Her husband was "in banking". We're not in London love, he works in a bank. He's not a banker.

@Science9

@hopeishere I can't stand red wine myself.

Erm...

Lower middle class with a dash of social climbing desperation?

Sorry.

I'm Irish living in ireland where we have no class system. I did the test and it told me I was elite. I'm really not.

Yes cafetiere.
I don't think any of the ops list gives a class indication. Even greggs sell lattes and croissant

I drink red wine and eat bruscetta. Some of my relatives were actual peasants

(Aah, need to get off mumsnet and do literally anything more productive)

Even greggs sell lattes and croissant

And you can sit outside at some of them!

Or should I say Arl-fresh-cor.

@AngelaSchrute very continental.

I am working class...... my OH is middle class and very well educated to PHD level and in one of the traditional professions. We live in a very wealthy area of London and my DC are in private education too. However I am working class and no amount of nice holidays, salmon and scrambled egg and bubbly for breakfast at Xmas will change that 😂 😂

The problem is that I'm not sure it is lighthearted. The class system itself however is not lighthearted and instead serves as a tool to oppress the vast majority of our citizens. It also makes people feel like shit.

Totally agree with Idrunthroughanairportforyou on this.

I think it's easy to go on Mumsnet and get the idea that class is fluid and/or unimportant. And that the world is populated by millionaire scrap metal merchants, footballers and academics who's Dad's were miners. All sitting about at dinner parties trying to figure out what class they are.

In the meantime...there is less class mobility now than at any time in the recent past.
And financial security for working class people has been absolutely decimated by casualisation and austerity.
Where I live its very common for people not to afford heating. It's very common to be at the food bank at some point in the month.
If you take the kids to a youth club around here they will receive a "snack" that's equivalent calories to a main meal. Enough kids need that, to make it a priority.

Noone is in any doubt where they stand in the class system.

'Another good class indicator is what class you think Hyacinth Bucket is.....'

I would say she is a working class matriarch.
Brought up on a council estate, in industrial Nottingham?. Probably left school at 15. Dresses smartly. Married to an office clerk. Sees herself as being the one who sorts out local issues, . Dearly loves her family but tends to boss them, and other people, about quite a bit.

I'm glad you are taking this all in good spirits OP. Well, I hope you are. :o

It's all just a pile of bullshit in the end and your husband sounds very content with his place in the world.

That's a wonderful thing.