Middle class life

[Blueandsilver]

Not one of those goady or provocative titles. I suppose I see Mumsnet in this bracket although perhaps less so than maybe ten years ago.

I’m just thinking things like Downton Abbey, John Lewis, national trust memberships, NCT classes, Volvos, Labradors.

What else?

It's because the WC peasants can't possibly relate to how the Crawley's lived😏

I'm bored now, I thought lots of people would have posted by now to tell us all how middle class they are.

No, I think BitOutOfPractice was trying to bamboozle the OP - but "grew up in a council house" is a pretty big giveaway. Not many children of MC parents grow up in council houses.

Exactly.

Love your post.

I live what looks like a very middle class life according to the stereotypes on MN (kids at private school, am university educated to Masters level, have a professional career, home owner, enjoy ballet and opera, eat avocado and olives most days…. 😂) But I am from a working class background and definitely still see myself as working class, although I suspect my dc would now be categorised as middle class.

I am proud to be from a working class family and I don’t think my education, job, food tastes and belongings can determine my ‘class’.

Also, there is nothing ‘chavvy’ about my family or upbringing as PPs suggested. We didn’t smoke weed in the garden and other the other nasty stereotypes. That’s just rude! My parents both worked bloody hard and brought us up really well.

I own three properties and my own business. I listen to radio 4 and shop at Waitrose. I’m university educated and read classic novels.

these things do not make someone MC btw!

@whalleyt think you’ve hit the nail on the head.

People who consider themselves MC - think they’re much better than the chavvy WC who, heaven forbid, may call their child Alfie and not Alfred; he’ll never get a job.
Very Hyacinth Bucket try hard. Very cringe. Must show the plebs we are much better than them.
Wish they were old money aristos and will push darling Alice to certain universities in the hope she may find a lovely chap from a wealthy family. Definitely shops in Aldi but places the tins behind the Waitrose ones when people visit, purposefully dress the DC in old, 7x handed down clothes to try and look wealthy and care free. Probably dress their son in pink glitter because Theyre So Liberal and They Can.

WC- don’t care what anyone who thinks they’re MC thinks. Work hard, encourage the DC to work hard at school so they can have a nice life, dress the DC well and make an effort with clothes & hair, keep a tidy and clean home.

What does then?

And I’m really proud of my regional accent which has been mocked in my academic and professional life and it’s even been suggested I have elocution lessons!! WTF?

Is it MC/shite in the same way the Archers is MC/shite? (No idea. Just guessing.) Was Upstairs Downstairs MC too?

The notion that Downton Crappy appeals uniquely to a MC audience would never have dawned on me. This feels like an unwinnable quiz.

@ComtesseDeSpair makes the starvation less painful 😂😂😂😂😂😂

@Louise0701 thank you!

Google it or find a book about it - lots and lots of good books about socio-economism out there if you're interested.

My parents are from different classes. My idea of MC is

-Expensive food on cheap, IKEA table
-children do loads of extra curricular activities
-education for its own sake
-napkins, not serviettes
-do not say pardon (what)—
-mum makes YouTube videos about cleaning and childcare
-cloth nappies
-don’t do package holidays

People scoffing and moaning about this thread - you should be more annoyed about inequality, surely? Because class is still very much a thing in the UK. Not helped by the fact we have a monarchy ffs.

When I was younger and people would talk about class, I have no idea which box I fitted into. Now I’m older, I have even less of a clue! I truly do not understand the class system. We never had any money growing up, but my grandmother who raised me always used to say “you don’t have to have money to have class” and that it costs nothing to have manners and kindness. She never had any money but worked hard her whole life and was the epitome of classy. I like to think I do her memory proud by being kind and well mannered, because of this people often presume that I come from a monied background, which absolutely blows my mind why anyone would make that assumption. It’s so, so wrong. I guess what I’m trying to say is, you really can’t make lists of a class criteria, because it will mean different things to different people. To some is all about wealth and to others, more about how people present themselves and act towards others. Personally, I don’t think any of it matters.

I was joking

makes the starvation less painfu

there is definitely an element of taking comfort in the fact that your neighbours are richer than you but terribly uncouth because they have a flash car.

I know.

TBF, people use “class” other than as a measure of cultural tribe. For example, income and class get conflated constantly, especially in public policy. If not in the formulation, then on the ground.

There are whole sections of early years and child poverty policy, for example, which rests on the assumption that income correlated perfectly with a child’s access to books.

Apparently this was exactly where our modern notion of middle and upper-middle class sprung from. The idea that it was about making do etc was largely a post-war invention, when people like Nancy Mitford were creating a notion of class linked to whether you said mirror or looking glass, very helpfully allowing all the ex-rich people to maintain their sense of status despite having lost all their wealth in the war.

Perhaps not exclusively the use of ‘yore’ but making a diddy rhyme of it most certainly must earn some MC cultural capital points?

Downtown Abbey is a propaganda vehicle designed to convince viewers that rich people are just ordinary people who happen to have money.

Yes I think you’re right about the post-war definition, which was for obvious social and political reasons.

The Economist recently characterized the middle class as having a reasonable amount of discretionary income, so that they do not live hand-to-mouth as the poor do, and defined it as beginning at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for housing, utilities and food, enabling them to participate in consumer and leisure activity. I think that’s probably a more useful definition in the modern world - and particularly so as developed countries have become more multicultural and thus defining class principally by the esoteric habits and values of the “native” culture is rendered obsolete (and indeed is racist.)

Most middle class people can use apostrophes correctly…

If you don’t know the difference between practice (noun) and practise (verb) you are not middle class. Pontificate all you like, it won’t impress.