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?

So artificial and straight out of 1980s Jilly Cooper. And yet I'd say many of the characters in her novels were properly (U)MC. Sort of like Camilla Parker-Bowles family?

@LouisCatorze, CPB was not (U)MC.

And yet I'd say many of the characters in her novels were properly (U)MC. Sort of like Camilla Parker-Bowles family?

It's how I imagine they are tbh. 😁But I'm pretty sure its much much more variegated now. That was almost 40 years ago.

Yet you can see on this thread it's still a bit of a template.

Camilla PB was upper class.

This thread has been entertaining, though it's getting a bit humourless and taken too seriously, in parts, by some now.

That's not to the poster who said the PBs were upper middles. Easily done! On these threads there's usually at least one post describing the Queen as middle class, and reasons why!

@KirstenBlest are you saying she's Upper Class? Landed gentry class though rather than full-blown aristo (although I see that her grandpapa was a Baron).

@sunja no, the quality of products is the same in every shop.

There are certain departments where Waitrose quality is higher than other retailers e.g. protein, cheese, wine, homebaking, bread, counters, prepared meals.

There are other departments where there is less or no differential e.g. laundry, branded products.

The cheapest way to shop is, usually, to pick 1 shop and do your shopping there - buy mainly own label and branded products when they are on deal. Yes, you could save some money if you say did some of your shopping at Sainsburys and then some of your shop at Lidl but the saving are usually less than £5 which will be offset by petrol, parking and of course your time

variegated

The MC bods I described years ago on this thread wouldn't particularly aspire to any of the Jilly Cooper MC types.

So just thinking about how you jump up the class system.

Take Joe Wicks or David Beckham - both highly talented and successful.

Both WC, both multi-millionaires and excelled in their fields.

Their DC go to private schools. Are their DC now MC?

(I have deliberately left out Victria Beckham as pretty sure she was always MC and I don't know anything about Joe Wicks wife)

DB & JW - nouveau-riche

JW & DBs kids will be upper middle class based on the lifestyle their parents can give them... Huge houses, country pursuits (harper loves horse riding & they have spaniels, all gundogs are umc), ski hols, private schools, all indicators of an umc life

@Pullandpush Huge houses, country pursuits (harper loves horse riding & they have spaniels, all gundogs are umc), ski hols, private schools, all indicators of an umc life but that then comes back to whether these are significers of being truly UMC or just very monied. Haven't we already established that you can be UMC without necessarily being loaded.

Families who have three, four or more successive generations of professionals and university education are probably what I'd call UMC.

I don't know anything much about David Beckham. Nouveau riche obviously, but I wouldn't be surprised if he still self identifies as working class, on account of his background, as many monied people do.
I thought Victoria was/sounded working class back in the day!

The children possibly lower upper middles.

VB dad was well-off but in trade, I think. Sure I read that she was driven to school in a Rolls Royce? Typical of many TOWIE type Home Counties families.

Personally I think uc or umc is mainly about lifestyle... Behaviours can be adjusted or learned to fit in... Inventing Anna on Netflix being a prime example

One signifier I’ve found is sleep, or more specially, children’s sleep.

Growing up on one of the the council estates where Kidulthood was filmed, my childhood friends during the primary school years were up until all hours, usually well past midnight, with no sort of bedtime routine enforced whatsoever. My mum was an older mother (in her 40s in the early 1980s), and single by way of misfortune, but very old school Irish so strict about bedtime, education, etc.

The MC friends I’ve acquired by way of Oxford and another Russell Group university (thanks, positive discrimination! 😉) are all fanatical about their own and particularly their children’s sleep.

I still live amongst council tenants because it’s all I can afford to purchase in London Z2 on my salary (LA flats tend much larger for similarly priced non LA). The families on either side of me are HA and long term unemployed and I hear their children up until at least midnight during term time and usually 2am during holidays. I fear for their brain development and education. They are unlikely to escape the poverty trap.

Good sleep in the formative years goes a long way towards building success.

@Pullandpush I'd say that's more of a US model though.

@FreyaStorm positive discrimination of just plain bloody brilliant? And it got recognised by those places?
DH had similar trajectory and is clear that he wasn't helped - it was his brilliance that got him where he is! Lean into your talent and own it! Like a man would

Another couple I thought of this morning:

2 sets of cutlery & crockery - everyday and dinner party - does this still happen? I just have 1 set - posh cutlery from our wedding list, that I use every day and love. Crockery from Ikea. My posher friends have 2 sets of each.

Napkins at every meal at home - or is this an UMC thing?

We have two sets, one for everyday and one for entertaining. We only use napkins when entertaining

Coming into big money might buy you access to more MC activities, but it won't necessarily equip you with attitudes, style and mind sets. A good example where you could see this was the early episodes of Rich House Poor House. It used to be the rich family were traditionally MC, with a large sprawling Manor type house and land. The houses were understated, with expensive paintings and antiques. To a commoner like me layman it would just look like old, dated furniture. These families spent their leisure time walking, riding horses and other outdoor pursuits.
Then the rich family became very WC people who had made it big with a business. They lived in large new builds with fake marble columns, 60 inch tvs in every room and mirrored furniture. They spent weekends quad biking and holidayed in Dubai at every possible chance. It was very obvious from their appearance, the things they said and their habits that they were nouveau riche.

I think more often you see MC trying NOT to be WC.

Read the Names thread on MN.

So true! 😂

Separate cutlery for fish!

Names are a huge identifier... I learned quickly on the Mn baby name thread that names should never be hyphenated with Rose or May or Grace eg Lily-Rose, Katie-May or Isla-Grace...!

A schoolfriend's mother was UMC married to a LMC man who she spent a lifetime trying to fix. Definitely different knives for fish ... though always seemed somewhat absurd for fish fingers.
HMQ doesn't do fish knives apparently, preferring the older custom of two forks.