Do you have friends outside of your social class?

[tolatola]

I hadn’t realised what a bubble I live in. I’m privately educated, come from a very upper middle class family, went to Cambridge, and now work in an ‘elite’ profession. I live in an expensive area of London. Naturally, my friends or social time is spent through people met through work, university, or family members.

I went on holiday recently to a seaside town. We rented a house on the seafront. We went to a local pub and got chatting away to a lovely couple. They were from London, but very very working class. We had a lovely evening chatting. But it made me realise that I live in a real bubble. How many people have friendships that span class boundaries?

I totally agree. My background is working class but my working environment is more middle class. The area in which we live is quite middle class but i'm much more relaxed and 'myself' with those who share my working class background. I'm quite self conscious around those who I view as middle class.

I came from academic/scientific parents who came from working class parents. I now mix with a wide range of people from all sorts of backgrounds. I’ve never been wealthy, but I am comfortable and if I had to classify myself it would be solidly middle class. I’m sure growing up in an industrial midlands town, moving to SE with professional quals and experience in my 40s plus my DPs approach to life helped me mix easily with all classes.

Someone once told me I was MC because I went to art galleries

I think he says I'm more middle class because I speak 🗣️ better then a lot of people locally. I don't mix well with chavvy people and I tend to lean more towards smart and creative folk.

I’m amazed you weren’t aware of being in a bubble till now, OP. You must have realised how homogenous your circle is surely?

Hard to say, really. I grew up on a council estate, attended a bog-standard comp, then became the first person in my family to set foot in a university, never mind graduate from one.
Now, I live, work & socialise with the middle classes and share many of their tastes, interests & attitudes, but I will never really be one of them.

Conversely, when I return to my home town I no longer feel I belong there either. Even my accent has changed. In class terms, I’m homeless.

Yep, I'm in a bubble. I don't know anyone who voted brexit. Motorway service stations are always a real eye opener to me.

I grew up working class. Now live in a very middle class area.

It’s interesting to move around social groups because you don’t take values for granted. You can see them as being constructs of particular groups. I retain a working class outlook in many ways and will not apologise for it. I let my kids play out and bother the neighbours. I let them watch YouTube. We go to McDonalds. These things are so verboten on my street it’s actually hilarious.

Same here - being on the border can be tricky sometimes, particularly when inverted snobbery is rife. One of my neighbours commented that I was quite well spoken, she made it sound like such an insult.

Also in a bubble, I think the only time I've ever chatted with someone MC not on mumsnet have been doctors in hosptial.

Even teachers at school seemed rougher than badgers arseholes.

I've met 3 Jeremy Kyle guests randomly over the years, I suspect I'm uncouth.

I do-I've lived with someone from a very different social class for 40 years.I also have friends among the parents from all the schools my children went to. Very different demographics.

F

I don’t even know where to start with this one.

So until you went to this seaside town you never realised that people outside of your social circle exist? Is that because you’re tone deaf or what?

You say, They were from London, but very very working class. Shock horror. People that live in London can also be very very working class whatever the fuck that means. Some of us living in council houses, some of us private rent. We still rub shoulders among you people in London.

I’m not quite sure what the point of this thread is but it’s irritated me and that rarely happens!

* "Naturally, my friends or social time is spent through people met through work, university, or family members*"

If you joined local sports or other clubs or volunteered, or got involved in your town or village activities you would meet people outside your bubble.

Yes, my friends from uni and work have similar lifestyles to me but I have also been in a choir, go to different sports clubs etc and therefore meet and become friends with people from all walks of life.

I think I do, but I think that is because I grew up on council estates and went to uni. I have working class family and friends (none of us went to private schools and most don’t own homes). At college and uni most of the friends I made were middle class and attended private schools.

I don’t have a very ethically diverse friendship group, which is sad. I work with a really ethnically and culturally diverse group of people and have found cub joy in being around the variety of people and being involved in different celebrations etc. However I do live in a very white area so I suppose that is to be expected that I don’t get that in my private life.

I live in a bit of a bubble of working class and middle class people. I dont.really know any landed gentry types or mega wealthy. I can see them as I live in a very expensive bit of surrey but Im not having coffee with them.

I find the OP disingenuous too. Surely with that level of intelligence and education, OP wouldn't have been so lacking in awareness. I call journo.

Ooo how quaint, fancy that, you from such a privileged background mingling with the hoi polloi- hopefully you've been able to escape back to safety.

When my kids were young we lived in a gentrifying part of London, and I took them to lots of local playgroups. Real mix of people. I realised it was actually the first time in my life I’d mixed socially with working class people, which is absurd but private school, upper middle class family, Oxford, city career…..

Having kids who won’t sleep etc is a real leveller, meant we all had the important things in common even if some of us were going home to posher houses than others.

Other than that, no all my friends are middle class with degrees and a decent income. I think it’s a function of who I’ve actually met and spent time with rather than snobbery.

Do people really still
think that their children eating hummus is an indicator of social class? 🤣🤣

Most of us in central London council estates are a mix, many middle class academics, actors, artists, scientists, etc.: social housing has been the norm for central London for generations. Where I grew up, there was an old lady who'd been a cockney flower girl next door to a professor from Eastern Europe, some teachers in the next flat, quite a few actors and musicians, a plumber...

I never really fitted in to a neat class to start off with - Dad a working class immigrant, Mum middle class and highly educated. Grew up on a council estate, but my Mum had our flat lined with shelves of literature, poetry, political pamphlets etc. Bohemian, I suppose.

I’ve always had a very mixed circle of friends - class, race, religion, sexuality etc - and I like it that way. My best friends are similarly ‘mixed class’. Both grew up on the same council estate, but one’s parents were upper class types who were hippie dropouts, and the other is a product of her working class English Mum’s affair with a wealthy Nigerian politician!

Yes I do.

The OP has sodded orf to scrub themselves down with Chanel Grand Extrait.

I grew up abroad but my parents were both academics as am I, DH is lower MC by upbringing but now works in a professional job. However, usually we tend to mix with MC folk who work in professional but not city jobs which reflects our part of London so media, journo, academics, medics etc. We are moving to a very naice area where it's all old money and city jobs and that feels quite alien to me. So I guess my social circles isn't all that diverse and what I call professionals who pick a job you need a passion for rather than make money from 🤣