Middle class identifiers 2022

[Pullandpush]

I read a similar thread a few years ago & the main middle class markers were hummus, organic food, private education, boden, ski trips etc, farrow & ball..
Are these unchanged for 2022 or have the identifiers shifted?
Since the pandemic I've seen a rise in the "hipster" style MC especially the men, maybe the working from home has allowed them to relax into the unshaven, casual look which wasn't there a few years ago...
Private education seems to be on the wane but that may be due to the cost of living..
Any other main MC identifiers I missed?

I’m really going to try to break it down here.
It’s really about:

Wealth, and not necessarily cash.

Having choice in many aspects of life… e.g. how you spend your money, your time, and that you have some private space that you can choose to use as you wish.

Having certain knowledge and connections that get you ahead in ‘how the world works’. So someone you can speak to for a bit of a steer on the legal aspects of something. Someone who can give you financial advice. Someone who can tell your kid how to open doors in the career they’d like. Someone who can help you with introductions if you’re starting a new venture of some sort.

And the benefits over time are a longer, healthier (not necessarily happier, or more worthy) life, and security for your future generations. Again, all of that’s on a spectrum too.

None of it is set in stone, but this, I think, is the crux of it.

Not having Astro turf in the garden

I’ll play. In our area:

• Electric bicycle for the work commute
• Electric car (Volvo/Audi/Mercedes or Tesla) or an older family car that they plan to replace with electric ‘once the technology stops moving so quickly’
• Tennis as a family hobby. See also skiing.
• Airbnb, glamping, using parents’ holiday homes, self-planned adventure holidays to places like Vietnam (never a package or a cruise). 5* hotels or villa that comes with staff on the ‘adventure’ holiday.
• Lidl or Aldi (whichever is nicer) for the main shop, supplemented by Waitrose or Ocado delivery for the nice bits
• Bento boxes for school lunches
• Home grown herbs, fruit, and veg. Maybe a home orchard and/or chickens.
• Work from home a few days per week
• Photography as a hobby
• Podcasts (vs radio 4)
• FT weekend
• Nice coffee, horrified by instant
• Private music lessons for the kids, but not necessarily piano as it’s a bit vanilla. Viola or Oboe perhaps.
• Laundry room the size of a small kitchen
• A cleaner, but only once every other week ‘to make sure it really gets clean’
• White Company
• Scandi brands for young kids, Zadig and Voltaire from Vinted for the tweens, mums in Cos and Arket
• Charcuterie boards and copious amounts of sparkling wine at the weekend BBQ
• State schools supplemented by tutors, and loud defense of state schools over private (whilst quietly plotting to pull inheritance money out of an ISA to fund private if the kids don’t get into a good grammar).
• Art on the walls, half of which is handed down from parents or grandparents. Nothing with inspirational quotes, nothing obviously mass-produced, nothing like a cheesy family photo shoot where everyone is in jeans and white tops.
• Lots of books AND a big TV. It’s 2022. Watching something like a Danish crime show on a 50 inch TV which is unobtrusively nestled into a wall that is otherwise covered with books and vintage records is peak middle class.
• Houseplants, nice rugs, lamps, furniture a mix of some quality inherited/thrifted, a few nice pieces they’ve purchased themselves, and Ikea. Wood or stone floors, no laminate. Nothing too sterile and nothing twee that looks like you’d buy it at Next.

I have no idea anymore. I would say the younger age group (35ish and under) are getting harder to define

I'm mid 30's, went to a Grammar school, university educated (red brick) love to travel, own my home. Love a mixture of things, museums, theatre, festivals, live music, camping and open to new experiences

Played the clarinet when I was growing up, but also did a lot of sport such as badminton, netball, horse riding and karate

Clothes wise, prefer comfortable, neutral colours that go with everything, made from decent material. Hate viscose, mainly because it clings like crazy when it gets hot. Not a follower of fashion per se. Wear my crocs most days when the weather permits Prefer natural hair colour, and don't like false nails, eyelashes, fake tan etc. but again, that's probably just personal preference

Don't really watch a lot of tv, prefer to listen to music, but if I was going to, I usually watch Netflix or discovery plus, Amazon prime

However, I'm in a minimum wage job, mainly because I'm just "stuck" in what I want to do, and have a few illnesses plus adhd on top, which doesn't help. Also moved around a lot, so my accent wouldn't be easy to pigeon hole

I don't drive and like to walk most places. But I live somewhere where it's easy to do

So no idea what class that is! But this isn't unique to just me, I know a lot of people in roughly the same age group who are similar

Agree with all of this

@Blaggertyjibbet Ooohh where I live now (Yorkshire) that would be considered Proper Posh rather than just middle class.

Here it's:
Holidays abroad, but France rather than the Costas
Slightly anxious fussy parenting
Vaguely environmental
Remainer (I say this as a Remainer!)
Centre Parcs not Butlins
State School, but the OFSTED outstanding one that it's harder to get into.
Music lessons, but piano & guitar are acceptable
Hybrid car

Someone said 3 DCs. I would have thought 2? The very wealthy and the working class often have 3, 4+, whereas those in the middle don’t, due to cost of childcare and often private Ed? And also because those who are just having their babies now are far more environmentally aware than parents’ even 10 years ago were.

Posting on MN class threads - Haha
Tesla's - no but other electric cars
Vegbox - no
Music lessons assumed - faffing about with a bit of piano or clarinet in primary then drums or guitar
Can ski/ ride/golf/ belong to clubs etc - yes
DC's apply to Oxbridge - maybe but absolutely russell group assumed
Live in pre ww2 house - no
Multiple full bookcases - not at all, everyone reads on kindle
Cross breed dog - yes
Pilates - yes
Eco cleaning products used by the cleaner - yes to the cleaner, no big interest in eco
Kayaking - never heard anyone kayaking
Hunter wellies in the boot room - not really for city dwellers
Cornwall/ camping - absolutely no camping apart from one family glamping trip to appease the kids and on DofE
Olives - yes
Wild swimming - nope never heard of this happening
Refill shop - yes
Vegan - absolutely not
Dark chocolate - yes
No tan/burn lines or fake tan/beds - agree
3 DC's - probably
Eggs from the farm - can't remember anyone going near a farm
Always vote - yes
Having a lawyer, accountant and IFA - yes
Own shares - yes
Reading the booker/ women's prize lists - probably not
Radio 3/4 - no. Still reliving youth on sport on radio 5 or still capital / LBC
Cricket not football - no - football still rules with some rugby and tennis
Opera/ballet - take the kids a couple of times under sufferance for everyone as it's what you "should" do
Shakespeare at the theatre not just because the DC's are doing it at school - no
Reading poetry - no
Reading niche/ political magazines - yes
Some community involvement/ campaigning - yes
Side business for the SAHM - yes
Hillwalking - definitely not
Under size 16 - yes
Choose school whether private or good state - yes
Full set of own teeth in good condition - yes
Fitbit - applewatch
Airpods - yes
More than one degree - probably not, who knows, everyone has a degree so it's not even a discussion point
Grow own veg/herbs - maybe
Make own ice cream/ice lollies - not once children are over the age of 5 and you've got over the sugar angst
Eat 5 a day min - yes

Really interesting to see cricket listed as 'posh'. My DC both do it & it doesn't seem to have any class connotations at all up here in ruralish Yorkshire. Another interesting one locally is junior chess. I would have assumed it was very MC before one of mine got into it, but it doesn't seem to be so much. The junior chess club in our nearest (fairly poor) city is actually dominated by kids from Asian or Central / Eastern European backgrounds & they often aren't that affluent.

Completely agree with this

For me lifestyle is the main thing that identifies a mc or umc person/family

Yes. See also rugby (union). Stereotypically MC in England (where rugby league is more WC in the north), universal in Wales.

Coming from an immigrant family I can see so many traits that I immensely value of our working class upbringing. The spirit of community, speaking to our neighbours, just the overall friendliness of w/c cultures. I say cultures because class is so diverse.

My parents were fairly illiterate (victims of immigration - taken from one country to another and lost out big time on their schooling). However they valued education above everything. They didn’t have the ‘know how’ and connections but I still went to a good Redbrick. However having now married into a white upper middle class family (lawyers, dentists, judges and doctors). I realise how advantageous their world is! From knowing how to use a knife and fork (as we are with our hands) to the immense cultural capital (my grandmother can’t read or write).

It’s another world. My w/c immigrant family who have done well graft and succeed in business/sales. They are ‘street’ able to connect at different levels. But they wouldn’t know about Art (or have any wish to visit a British museum). They have huge houses, own lots of property, run successful businesses and drive big cars! But they’re not interested in history or politics.

My DH’s family sit together around the dinner table and talk about friends who have done x y z. They holiday in caravans, they’ve holidayed in the South of France. The kids did lots of music/sport/co-curricular as children.

For me I have the best of both worlds able to relate across the board! I wouldn’t swap my life for my DH. His was sheltered from the real world.

It’s not just stereotypes! Rugby league only exists because of class differences: the northern teams in the RFU wanted to pay their WC players who couldn’t afford to miss out on a day’s paid work to play rugby. The MC and UC southern teams felt that this was rather grubby and undermined the gentlemanly nature of the amateur game and so the northern teams broke away and formed the NRFU, now the Rugby Football League, so that they could pay their players. It took the RFU a hundred years to catch up and go professional, in 1995.

Why what does a typical Audi driver do? (or previous BMW driver?) Genuine question

@getupstandupsitdown Sorry forgot to tag you in above

I’m taking post 2005. Before that, Audi drivers I would have teamed with Volvo drivers.

However, the same stereotypes that apply to BMW drivers now apply to Audi drivers. Same type of person.

Another marker for me are the houses and gardens, the post covid MC love their outdoor spaces

No worries, clearly not as funny as I thought, difficult to convey tone on here!

@Dahlly But I want to know the type of person you mean? I wont take offence I promise (yes I've owned 5 consecutive Audis and DH is in BMW and both dislike Volvos!!)

Taking part in wholesome outdoor activities, and having the correct (discreetly branded) equipment to do so.
Choosing to buy second hand for environmental reasons even if they can afford new. No shame in swapping hand-me-down clothes for their children.
A different attitude to education.
I was raised middle class, but my life now is very much working (or in my case, not, due to disability) class, and it’s really difficult to straddle that divide, even if people say class no longer matters. And it’s not what stuff people have, it really is the intangibles.

@vitahelp BMW drivers have a reputation for driving like twats. There’s a joke that they don’t come with indicators installed for example.

Oh ok, I thought it was relating to the MC/WC theme and about having the car on finance etc. Haha I've seen twat drivers in all types of cars, I was at my most Twattish on the road when I was in a Ford fiesta.
My Mum does have a theory that when driving a BMW you're driving style naturally becomes more aggressive though, she thinks its to do with the driving position in the car and the rear wheel drive.

So post 2005, a different clientele started to drive Audi’s. It’s the BMW driver stereotype- flashy and an obnoxious driver.

Part of that change is because Audis became more readily available on car finance deals around that time