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 Personally, I think class is quite an outdated concept but definitely think there are some things that are still considered wc/mc/us.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.

How is eating out with your family a tax deductible business expense? I was thinking exactly the same thing Natural I'm not sure your employer would be thrilled about that OP.

I just did that wanky test and got elite! 😂

I can assure you that I’m not.

I’m Irish and dh is English. I would say I had a middle class upbringing in terms of British class though it’s not really something that’s as noticeable in Ireland, and he had a definite working class one.

He is, however, a high earner. We have foreign holidays, own our property, children in a very good school, horse-riding, skiing, blah, blah, blah.

I would say we’re probably quite firmly entrenched in the middle class sector but clawed our way into it! 😂

@DameDoom it's a bit of an unusual, very outing, situation that isn't as straightforward as you'd think. It's all legal, above board and I pay my taxes like everybody else.

It's ridiculous to say because you work you are working class. I work, DH works, our cleaner works. But DH and I have a much higher income than our cleaner and that gives us options and gives our children opportunities she and her children do not have (e.g. one of us could stop working and we'd still have an income well above average, we can afford to save significant amounts of money which gives us security she could only dream of). It's actually quite insulting to those that are actually at the bottom of society to pretend that because you have a job that makes you lower class. Very few people don't work, even the aristocracy work hard running their estates as a business.

I do find the whole thing fascinating especially when people start asking not only what your parents did but what your grandparents did and even your great grandparents. At what point do you stop looking back?

Duchess of Cambridge is a great example. The media and possibly some people sneer at Carole Middleton in particular for being an ex air hostess. But the middletons are obviously loaded via their business, they sent the kids to a good public school. Would you call the middletons working class though? In which case is Catherine working class? Or is she now middle class by virtue of her public school education and university degree.

I'd consider myself middle class I guess. Both myself and dh are degree educated, ive got post grad qualifications. Very middle class jobs, good disposable income, ski, Waitrose, etc. My parents were teachers, but one grandmother was a secretary, the other a housewife, one grand father was a college tutor, the other owned a corner shop. So maybe I'm working class!

@NicoAndTheNiners good point. I come from half that we're miners and domestic service and the other half were decorated military officers, financiers and just plain rich enough to not work (there's even university buildings and scholarships named after them type thing).

'Fully expecting to get ripped for this thread but, as I said, it's a bit of a family joke as he's so passionate about it. I mainly just giggle about it.'

Really

I think it sounds rather like you are the passionate one.

I think your descriptions of 'middle class' living is what I'd certainly describe in the day as working class.

A woman I work with told us all her new boyfriend is clearly punching as she is 'middle class' as she 'has an Audi and owns her own flat'

"I think your descriptions of 'middle class' living is what I'd certainly describe in the day as working class."

Seriously? How would you define middle class?

For anyone approaching 60 or older degrees have very little to do with it. My grandmother was landed gentry - her formal academic education stopped at about 12/13. She played the piano, drew, was well read and well travelled, up to date with current and foreign affairs. Shot, rode, drove a tractor and managed a farm, including POW's during the war. Could manage the household, farm accounts and her business accounts, liaised with people from all walks of life and wrote beautifully in style, grammar and syntax.

She was impeccably educated but had no formal qualifications. That is where our education system has gone wrong.

I find these threads / topic utterly bewildering.

“Would you call the middletons working class though?”
I would call them, if forced to call them anything, lower middle class. Stockbroker Tudor!

OhTheRoses is right. Unfortunately 40 acres of grouse moor doesn't pay the bills. And writing is not a reliable source of income these days; I mean, anyone can do it, Amazon Kindle saw to that.

If you were lucky, your 'landed gentry' childhood was polished off with a short Cordon Bleu cookery course, preferably somewhere on the continent. You came back 'finished', and ready for 'society'.

Some of today's aspiring middle classes have got the whole thing upside down. They just don't understand that today's posh people are frugal, and eschew fancy in all its forms. The notion of the 'Ocado shop' as some sort of emblem is frankly hilarious.

Today's 'posh-sounding' people had to sell the family home they couldn't afford to maintain; sell the threadbare inherited furniture which they couldn't afford to replace unless they sold the family home. They spend their weekends trudging round Ikea eyeing up the bookcases because the one thing they couldn't bear to part with was the family library, especially as so many of their collection were written by dead family members.

Today they have mortgages and jobs and are probably working all hours which is hard because their chosen professions of museum curator, archeologist, nanny or writer doesn't pay very well. Which leads some of them into politics...

Michael and Carol Middleton are always referred to as middle class but carols roots are working class

If we ever do anything like book a holiday or redecorate they'll make a snarky "Oh, can't be doing too badly then. No pleading poverty from you!" then whinges they has to shop at Lidl and how expensive things are, how lucky we are to be so comfortable (usually from dh working lots and lots of overtime). Then in the same breath says how they've just bought one of their dcs a brand new car, taxed and insured it (for context the dcs are a similar age to me)

I should have expected better manners from a "middle-class" conversation. Very tacky to discuss money and pry into other's financial affairs. They should be discussing the play they saw at the theatre or art or literature, surely? Squabbling about money and who can afford what is very Facebook/reality show stuff, isn't it?

Money talks

Wealth whispers

Ssshhhhhhhhh

We have a bean to carafe coffee machine

Pardon ! WTF does that have to do with ANYTHING

'I say to my husband he's probably closer to middle class now because of tiny little things that make up our lifestyle'

You seem to really care

Why do you care that his 'apprenticeship' and skill practically gives him a degree in your eyes.

And a fancy few kitchen gadgets and the Occado van dropping by....well.

And MC rarely wear a Barbour Wax

Even an understated one

Insisting that he practically has a masters kind of seems like you’re embarrassed that he’s not degree educated?

Our yearly income in a good bit in excess of £100k and we shop at Aldi!

And today I’m in Gucci jeans and a primark jumper!

I don’t see what coats/food shopping/coffee has to do with anything!

Yes you'd be very lucky to get [private] secondary for £20k per annum!

Depends on where you are in the country. Round here is works out at around £1k a month.

We have a bean to carafe coffee machine

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I love that this has made it to the list

My DH and I had the same argument, many times, and could not agree. I asked our cleaner, gardener and ironing lady to settle it for us!!

it's a bit of an unusual, very outing, situation that isn't as straightforward as you'd think. It's all legal, above board and I pay my taxes like everybody else. well nevertheless one minute you're saying you eat out 10 times a month as if that somehow affects what class you are, next you're saying it's all on expenses... all sounds like bollocks to me.

Anyway your husband is a blue collar worker so you're working class. And an obsessed social climber by the sounds of it.

Unfortunately 40 acres of grouse moor doesn't pay the bills.

40 acres of rural land would only make a living if it was in Bordeaux, no-one has 40 acres of moorland. You have thousands of acres or nothing.

Dahhhrling, please.

What are your values, OP? What type of literature do you enjoy reading? What type of programmes do you prefer to watch and how frequently? How often do you visit the theatre or ballet? What topics do you discuss as a family over dinner?

MC is not just the Ocado delivery.