I am a cliché

[ablutiions]

Standing on the service station forecourt doing a few yogic stretches on our drive to holiday, I realised that I'm a cliché:

Middle aged Londoner, heading for a West Country holiday in my small eco friendly(ish) car, wearing a Boden cardi, and 'trendy' mum trainers with a flowery real cotton face mask dangled from my wrist. having eaten sourdough toast for breakfast. Oh, and carrying a chilly water bottle, natch.

And usually I'd be in France, but you know, Covid and all that.

Anyone else a walking cliché?

All because they need everyone else to know that they're wearing, buying, using these brands. They want you to know they can afford it and are therefore superior to your Tesco leggings and tshrit gym gear, your Wilko paint and your Kingsmill loaf.

To them, there's no point having these things if they can't tell everyone about it.

I can't imagine being so insecure in who you are that you need to constantly try and prove how much better you are than others. It must be exhausting.

So I suppose I’m one of these middle class cliches but feel incredibly awkward about using the label and quite honestly don’t think about money / class etc (but that’s probably because I have the luxury of earning well and not having the stress about it)

I wear sweaty Betty leggings and eat sourdough toast but it’s absolutely not to be able to talk about it. I find the quality of SB leggings the best you can get, I went through many supermarket leggings which would go bobbly and baggy and see-through and prefer to buy fewer items which last better.

I like cheap white bread for bacon sarnies but like the taste of sourdough.

Some people buy this stuff because it’s decent quality and enjoyable. My friends are all very similar but we don’t talk about where our designer prams are from / how much you pay the nanny etc. We are just all normal people having normal conversations but buy the best quality stuff we can afford.

Not everyone who buys more expensive stuff is a pretentious wanker who’s out to brag about the label.

I love this thread. Trying to find my tribe. Definitely have the middle aged, spare tyre, beard, glasses thing.
Definitely with the eco warriors; bar soap, shampoo bars, Smol, use local green refill shop
Don’t wear Boden , Jules, Coast, Seasalt, Mint Velvet etc as can’t afford it.
University degree but state school education
Live in a flat
Have purple hair and one small tattoo

These threads is so cringe. No wonder the whole world thinks MN Is full of twats.

Why is Joules even considered special- I have a lot of Joules dresses and none have ever cost me more than £35. Isn't that quite similar to Zara pricing.

I buy joules because i like the floral prints and also because they have sleeves (and pockets). Also they are part of the Better Cotton initiative so hopefully the cotton they use are not made by Uyghur slave labour.

God this whole thread is embarrassing. I'm just assuming anyone who needs to boast about their lives like this is suffering from mental health issues and a bag of insecurity and anxiety inside. And probably has an Instagram account 'showcasing' their very unoriginal house. If I shopped in Boden I'd be changing my style instead of boasting about it.

@JaniieJones

'Gosh, I'm not sure Chanel can be considered tacky..'

True! Perhaps just seems tacky if grasping people go on and on about them, as if it makes them superior?

I think you need some be friends if that's how they are behaving

@Somuddled

I've always thought a good documentary maker could use this concept to film a few people in their normal lives over a reasonable time and make multiple documentaries which portrayed them in significantly different ways. By choosing just the bits that fit in with whatever cliché the director wanted to show, you could easily create 2 or 3 totally different 'people'.

Um, this was done many years ago, in the 'Up' series, revisiting kids from 7, at 7 year intervals, through to the last broadcast version when aged I think 56, last broadcast about 2010. (Seven Up, Fourteen Up etc)

On the one hand I'm a cliche; the nice London home, the 4x4, cleaner, but I have never bought anything from Joules, Boden, Seasalt etc & never will.

I’m currently wearing a top from Boden @Sassoon do I need to change my style? It’s a plain white tshirt

Why do you have to wear Boden and what's so good about it? Everyone seems to go on and on about Boden.

No idea, to me it's for people who are scared of fashion so it's very safe.

Why is buying local bread/local or organic fruit middle class?

Don't know, I buy it because it's often my closest option.

Why do you need Farrow & Ball when another brand would look the same? Or is it genuinely life changing quality?

Overrated I prefer Mylands & Little Greene

What's with the coffee machines, is there a pecking order of brands?

No idea, hate coffee

Where do you 'have' to go on holiday and what is the purpose of that?

Parents have a house in the south of france so usually there for me & like a UK seaside break. Went to Whitby a few wks ago.

What's the thing about different breads?

I love bread & sourdough is lovely but often shops serve it too hard.

Why the specific fitness brands if they don't give you more support than most you can buy anywhere?

I just wear Nike, Adidas & random joggers.

I remember people going on and on about Jo Malone candles. Is that still a big thing too?

I've always preferred Diptyque & Cire Trudon.

Not sure why I'm answering you as I'm not particularly into classes & have immigrant parents.

@catinboots21

These threads is so cringe. No wonder the whole world thinks MN Is full of twats.

I don't know why but this made me lol

I'm just me.. no desire to fit in OR stand out.. happy to be me! :-)
Thread was fun though. :-)

Oh that is interesting about Boden, Housemum. I used to love their stuff, stopped buying it for a few years whilst went through a bad financial patch, and since then I have tried buying from them several times but have given up on everything except the children’s clothes as the quality and style were not the same any more. And yes, I always liked the bits from the models in the catalogues, too!

@catinboots21

These threads is so cringe. No wonder the whole world thinks MN Is full of twats.

Wholeheartedly agree

Thank all you wankers for the really entertaining and uplifting 20 mins I’ve ever spent on MN. Tell me , do you have to have money to be a cliche?

Why do you have to wear Boden and what's so good about it?
Don’t own boden it’s like a cult, a middle class mismatched uniform

Why is buying local bread/local or organic fruit middle class?
Price primarily, a low key brag. Want people to know you’ve got disposable income but not so gauche as to conspicuously announce it

Why do you need Farrow & Ball when another brand would look the same?Or is it genuinely life changing quality?
Again primarily price (stealth announcing that you’re affluent) and being sheepy. Many mc buy F&B so it became a thing

What's with the coffee machines, is there a pecking order of brands?
I have a cafetière

Where do you 'have' to go on holiday and what is the purpose of that? No idea about have to, we chose what we

What's the thing about different breads? price and brand. And chuffing on if it’s authentic or artisan

Why the specific fitness brands if they don't give you more support than most you can buy anywhere?
I only wear gym attire in a gym

I remember people going on and on about Jo Malone candles. Is that still a big thing too? i buy from TKMax whatever is on an offer. If feeling flush Diptyque or Miller Harris

@bird definitely not. Cliches of all income levels are welcome here.

This thread is utterly excruciating to read and makes me want to quit Mumsnet.
All of you who are secretly enjoying thinking how posh you are (let’s be honest, that’s what this thread is actually about) while pretending to be embarrassed…you do realise that anyone genuinely posh wouldn’t post on a thread like this in a month of sundays?? It’s so unbelievably naff and nouveau. Yuck.

I'm oldish and dont care I like me

Fat old working class pensioner with bad teeth, creaky knees and no money. Shopping at Asda and occasionally Aldi. Clothes from supermarkets, cheap online shops, M&S as a luxury. Short caravan holidays after collecting vouchers in The Sun. (I don't read it - I may be a cliche but I am not that bad.) Likes fish and chips and Greggs pasties. Dining out means the local Indian restaurant on our birthdays.

Have often thought that I am too poor and common for Mumsnet. Now I'm sure.

This thread makes me realise how little I fit in here. Never heard of Boden, Farrow & Ball etc until I joined MN.

@allycat4

These threads are excruciating.

False self-deprecation.

Hahahaa yes 😲😲😲😲🙄

Isn't it weird how the working classes and upper classes both seem to hate the middle classes.

OP, like you I have just been standing in the service station car park. Instead of yogic stretches I just wanted to stand up. Also unlike you, I am in my pjamas, my posh ones though (Next own brand), a jumper and slippers. My DH has headed into the services, annoyed that Greggs was closed, so hoping to find something in M&S with a yellow sticker on as our travel budget doesn't usually cover those kind of luxuries!
We are returning home to the NW with our two boys after our annual camping holiday. We haven't been abroad since our honeymoon and neither of us have valid passports, so it's not been a staycation, it's been our usual summer holiday.
I do have a chillys water bottle though? And me and DH both have Keep Cups. I don't think we are much of a cliche, just muddling through with some nice things, but living within our means and feeling all the better for it.

In fact as I stand here wondering what's taking him so long, I have to ask, do they even do yellow stickers in M&S? Lol.