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?

@super you need to come and infect us clones with some individualism. My god, we need it 😂

@moon and @BoardingSchoolMater your lives sound lovely. Love horses but couldn't live in the country. And I think the country is probably quite glad of it.

This is the kind of thread that makes me happy myself for not being able to afford to be the middle class wanker. Just been to start with my cousin and she full on leads the lifestyle, but they live in a million pound house 15 mins from central London. We come from the same grandparents (well one side) how did I make such poor choices?? Not that I'm badly off in comparison to my childhood, but think Lidl, not Waitrose, terraced house in slightly rough area in South west, children at state schools, etcetc. I do own a joules coat and a seasalt one and flowery joules wellies, so halfway there.

Whenever I see myself veering too far towards a cliche I give myself a shake.

It’s easy to do when you want to throw yourself into work / be the best PTA mummy / give your kids a great time.

But I’ve always felt a bit seedy when people have said “oh you’re so X” or “such a X”. Makes me think “Nooooo, I’m so much more than that.” I can see why others like to tick off their cliche boxes tho. It’s about being in a tribe.

This thread is hilarious, full of women desperate for an opportunity to show off. If you think you are a cliche, then do something about it, use your own mind!

Or if you are really happy with your life as it is, then embrace it and don't pretend to be embarrassed.

This thread makes me cringe, so sad.

Sorry, not "happy myself" HATE myself

😬 🤭 Because I like emojis and I have no words.

@peaceanddove

Hell yeah, I'm clichéd up to the hilt and love it.

Privately and university educated. Happily married to a successful company director. Both teenage daughters attended a top performing village primary, followed by a top performing girls' grammar school. Eldest DD off to art school this September to study Fine Art & Photography.

We live in a big Georgian house, in the middle of a naice village. Interiors are all about Farrow & Ball and John Lewis, with Laura Ashley curtains (I paid extra to have the curtains hand finished by someone called Blodwen at their Welsh factory, which is the height of privileged twattery). We have a cleaner and a gardener, obvs.

Groceries come from Waitrose or M&S or Cook, but we eat out a lot at the weekend. I have just started yoga in the village and obviously look a complete cliche in my Boden yoga gear + matching yoga mat (yes, really).

We should have been on holiday in the Italian Lakes last month, but because of Covid we booked a frou frou Shepherd's Hut in Cornwall instead - of course it had an outdoor firepit and a Gaggia coffee machine. Obviously, I packed my Seasalt bretons, my Lotta from Stockholm clogs and my Toast white linen shirts (because, yes, I have an actual Cornwall holiday wardrobe as opposed to my Italian holiday wardrobe which is a tad more glamorous).

Right now, I'm wearing silk mix, paisley PJs which I 'sourced' (not just bought) from Etsy while drinking coffee and chatting with DD2 about her possibly doing a year out in Paris to polish her French as she wants to study French + Economics at university. Luckily, my cousin's DH is French and they keep a bijou apartment in Paris where she can stay. Which is nice.

[implodes in a torrent of her own clichéd cuntiness]

Christ, you're a thoroughbred wanker. Where I'm from, it's considered a war crime to have Laura Ashley ANYTHING. You'd go down Ceaușescu style for having those curtains.

Lovely opportunity for some of you to big yourselves up, la-queen style here. Ridiculous nonsense.

@Imcatmum

I think it's exactly in the tone of the thread.

The other posts were pointing a few things out and had the right idea. The post I mentioned was listing absolutely everything amazing about their life to the nth degree.

BoardingSchoolMater Yes, that's very familiar - but without the Waitrose; I haven't been in for years - wouldn't pay the prices. I'd add some niche clichés: house full of books, dog (retired greyhound), DC went to posh comp.

@PropertyFlipper

Lovely opportunity for some of you to big yourselves up, la-queen style here. Ridiculous nonsense.

You’ll be told to have a sense of humour 🤔 Sad thing is I know a few people like this in real life and they are exactly as they come across on here

Is this what's known as a 'stealth boast' on here? Look at how successfully, effortlessly, oh so identifiably a West London mum I am? It's hilaire.

I don't think clichés are confined to the middle classes, as this thread has shown.

And I'm not unhappy with being one. It's just a reality. I mean a huge majority of us buy our clothes from the same places, usually related to income level , ditto furniture and modes of transport.

And sometimes we recognise that and 'break out ' to try something different (hence people dying hair blue as up post)

Unless you are an artisan dressmaker /knitter/potter/housebuilder/decorator then a lot of what you do /have will be pretty much the same as everyone else. You may put it together differently but a lot of it will be from the same or similar "
'Lego blocks'

I'm OK with that.

This thread is all about a bit of self recognition and laughing at ourselves a bit.

My peak wankiness came at the theatre a couple of years ago. As I sidled down the too narrow gap to my central, mid stalls, arm and a leg priced, seat (because god forbid any of the chattering classes should actually stand up for me rather than half-heartedly swivelling in their seats) someone knocked my arm and my drink splashed a woman in the next row. To my horror I heard the worlds most Home Counties voice issuing from my own mouth "Oh I'm so sorry, but it's only champagne - it won't stain!'

It's a long way from theatres and champagne I was reared and I couldn't believe I'd been that person. Good play though.

Reading this thread has made me realise how working class I am

@MintyGreenDream and o bet there are a hatful of cliches you could share ?

I think cliches are universal

Ok here’s a different take on it for you, I’m disabled so on long term disability benefits, I hung an England flag from my window for the World Cup, and this weekend I’ve hired a hot tub for the kids.

My sheepskin slippers come from a small family business in Scotland. My takeaway coffee this morning came in a 100% recyclable flapover butterfly paper cup and I'm raisising sweetpea seedlings in previous ones. I clean and polish with cotton rags made from threadbare T-shirts and jimjams. I compost them with the vege peelings when they're past polishing duties, along with nail and hair trimmings.

I buy books in bookshops, especially secondhand ones, or from Wordery, only using Amazon as a last resort.

I might be a cliché of a sort.

Ex-Londoner moved out to the Home Counties.
Coffee and croissant for breakfast in bed and have just strolled out with my husband and baby in our bugaboo pram. I’m wearing a flowy cotton mumsy dress. Lunch now at the lovely local country pub - salad of course (I’d love to say I’m a competitive mumsnet undereater and if eat a quarter of my salad and be simply STUFFED but who am I kidding I’ve ordered a side of chips too).
Waitrose shop will arrive later before we pop over to my mum and dads for family dinner! Life is a cliche but I can’t say I’ve got too bad a deal!

I find your comment arsey, not the OP's. Run along now and derail another thread.

We moved house last year to a lovely village and have been sliding down the middle class slope ever since. We’ve even joined a commitee and got a Labrador! I’ve nicknamed our street Privet Drive as it’s just like the street the Dursleys live on in Harry Potter and yes, the men of the street are all out competitively washing their cars and mowing their lawns 😂.

@MotionActivatedDog

I’m a cliche too- but not in the way you lot are

Teenage mum, single parent, no dad involved, child with ADHD (to outsiders- badly behaved) don’t work, (currently- due to aforementioned child’s caring needs) on benefits, when I do work I’m a cleaner. The only box I don’t tick is doing the school run in my pjs.

You sound like a lovely cliche! Good on you - and good luck.

@pudding love it

These threads are excruciating

Agree with a high probability of being massively embellished.

Reading this thread has made me realise how working class I am

Me too, but it’s really making me smile. Some of you have lovely lives from the outside. I wouldn’t swap for anything, but it’s interesting reading.