Which social class am I?

[Chipandcheese]

Inspired by another thread, I'm wondering which social class other people would put me in.

I had a very working class upbringing, raised by a single parent living in a council house. Mum had no qualifications and worked as a cleaner. I attended a standard comp high school in a rough area. No guidance on studying or careers. No extra curriculars, no hobbies other than watching TV. Holidays to nearest seaside resort.

I became a single parent living in a council house myself in my early 20s. Benefit only income. Skint. Educated to A-level and dropped out of university. This made me buck my ideas up!

Fast forward to now. Still a single parent. Living in a private rented flat in a nicer area than I was raised in but not a super posh area. Educated to masters level, planning to do a PhD at some point. Qualified as a psychotherapist and have my own private practice that I run part time. I'm also about to qualify as a social worker, I'll be working full time in this job - I'm on a work-based scheme.

On paper, I've progressed and am doing much better now but due to the cost of living crisis and rent increases, I'm still skint, probably more so than when I was on benefits!

Anyway, back to the class thing. I'm absolutely working class in my background but I find that I don't fit in when I visit and interact with people where I grew up. However, I also don't feel like I fit in with middle class people either. I've still got a regional accent but this isn't as strong as it was when I was younger.

I'm effectively working class but working in traditionally middle class professions. But work is where I spend the majority of my time so does that make me more middle class?

I feel classless in that I don't think I fit into any class anymore.

I had a working class upbringing (council estate and free school meals)
I don’t count myself working class now. My accent is not recognisable. I have a high education and don’t share the values my parents had. Also I work in a ‘posh’ environment who have no idea I had the home life I had.i don’t think you are working class at all. Well done on your achievements op.

I grew up very poor in one of the countries most deprived areas. No central heating, poor schooling, no double glazing, no car. (This was 80,s-90's) dad manual labourer. Mum didn't work.

I now live in a 4 bed detached house, own two cars, we have cous cous, bulgar wheat, orzo and quinoa in jars on our shelves. Dh works in an upper managerial role, educated to masters level. I'm qualified to degree level but work in a fairly low paid job. Our children do extracurriculars
I'd say we at lower middle class

we have cous cous, bulgar wheat, orzo and quinoa in jars on our shelves

😂😂😂

Jesus, is this one of the metrics of middle class-ness? Take me back to the pits if so!

OP, I must say that I think you’re overthinking this. And I say that as someone who has thought the very same. In my view you need to stop thinking about the label and just focus on finding people that you do feel a sense of belonging with. It’s not the people from the area you grew up in or went to school with, and it’s not the people you currently work with. Perfect, you’re narrowing the pool down. Just keep doing that and you’ll eventually find your people. Maybe in Social Work? It’s not exactly a traditionally middle class profession by the definition some use. Rather, I think it’s likely filled with a lot of people that have a similar upbringing - or at the very least values -
to you.

Try not to fixate though. I can assure you that nobody else on this planet is giving what social class you are as much thought as you are. And I mean that with kindness.

For goodness sake. If their dc becomes a lawyer they are not going to be lower middle.

I don't think that's necessarily true. Both my parents, born in the 1930s, came from generations of very working class people who worked in factories and mills and who received only a basic education. However my parents were both very intelligent and due to the 1944 Education Act were both able to attend grammar school without paying, which previously would have been impossible. They then both went to a prestigious university where they met, one of them obtained a PhD and ended up working in academia until they retired. They lived a very middle class life, trips to museums, theatre, art galleries, holidays in France, all friends were similarly educated and in professional careers. As adults no one who met them would have called them working class although that was their background and they were not at all ashamed of or uncomfortable about where they had come from. All their families were immensely proud of how far their children had come, their parents were of a generation of working class people who wanted to "better themselves" but due to lack of money hadn't had the education to do so. My parents said that it was the 1944 Education Act that had changed their lives. Of course all their children and grandchildren are solidly middle class.

@boopboopbidoop what about the vast majority of people I know: 60s, home owners, educated, some privately, with degree level or beyond, white collar professions but not high earning - more creative/writing/civil servant careers, not banking or law. New Affluent seems closest but we aren't young or new.

I agree. I think what you describe is what many people are. Just straight up modern day middle class. Educated. Aren't rolling about in wads of cash but generally comfortable in a lifestyle that includes some luxury and a lot of careful money management.

I don't feel that I can be middle class when I haven't been brought up with privilege. Or confidence. Our schools weren't the type that built you up. No matter how many universities I went to, how much I have travelled, the type of house and area I live in, I will always be working class. And the middle classes can smell me from a mile away. Maybe it's my accent. Maybe it's my lack of self confidence. I don't know.

I think I may have slightly middle class children though...

I honestly couldn't give a shit what class I am. Why do you care? Find people you enjoy spending time with it. It makes no difference where they live, what job they do etc if you like them. To be honest, I wouldn't want to hang around with someone who analyses people in this way.

I'm interested in sociology and society and am interested in poverty and socio-economic factors of everything. Its just an interest, and this is just a discussion page. I'm w/c and have moved to a wealthy area- it is FASCINATING 😁

You can't change class. People saying that you can are wrong.

Class is something that is ingrained in you and defined by upbringing. You can't just move between classes by making a bit of money and starting to go the theatre.

Who cares? English people focus far too much on this

I have a problem with threads like this, both because I’m not British and because I think the only meaningful definition of class is Marxist. Do you own the means of production and buy the labour of others? Or do you earn from your own labour?

Even if we have some of the things that rich people can have - like tertiary education and nice houses - and enjoy some of the things that we associate with rich people - like classical music and overseas holidays - most of us remain working class.

I was going to say this, many middle and upper class people fall on hard times it doesn't make them any less middle or upper class. Just like a working class person with money is still working class.

Yep. If Prince William decided to jack it all in and go to work at Tesco he wouldn't suddenly become working class. Footballers are another example, majority come from working class backgrounds, just because they've got a bit of money now doesn't mean they're upper middle.

A lot of working class people that I know are more well off than the middle class ones, they often set up their own businesses in manual jobs like electrician, gardening, builders and do well.

Please don't think all British people think about class because we really don't.

It’s very often about your early opportunities and values, what sets you in your class.

I think it’s really common to leave your childhood friends and background behind though. Lots of people do it and feel strange about it.

Oh absolutely understood, @Bondibeechtree

Class is different in Australia. With a handful of exceptions - we have one or two random dukes who live here, and sometimes a member of the royal family used to be sent out as Governor-General - we don’t have an upper class, in the sense of landed aristocracy, at all.

Of course we do have obscenely rich people with far too much power, who like to think of themselves as upper class.

Historically we have had more social mobility but this is changing and wealth is becoming more concentrated.

If class didn’t exist the Labour Party would invent it. You are the proof.

Working class. However, educated to a high level.
I'd hazard a guess that most of the ' middle class ' people you come across are also working class.

And yet you live in an unusually class-bound society where heads of government have overwhelmingly come from a handful of elite educational institutions, there’s a hereditary monarchy, and inequality stark is widening.

OP, I would class you as ‘educated working class’.

I have a question for those of you who have said you have no interest in the social class hiererchy whatsoever and can't understand why other people have even a vague interest in it. Why did you click on a thread titled "which social class am I?" - come on guys, I made an effort to be clear what the thread was about. Why waste your time clicking on the thread, reading my OP, and commenting?

To those asking why I care: well I'm interested in it and it's something I've pondered because I used to fit comfortably in one box and now I don't fit comfortably in any box. I'm not losing sleep over this, I still live my life just fine.

I think @Ridiculous24 summarised it well:

"I'm interested in sociology and society and am interested in poverty and socio-economic factors of everything. Its just an interest, and this is just a discussion page. I'm w/c and have moved to a wealthy area- it is FASCINATING 😁"

Some people said if you were born working class, you'll die working class; it doesn't change no matter what you do. I kind of disagree with that, I think class does change over time but I don't think we have the right boxes to place people in the modern day. I think there should be a box between working class and middle class.

I had a working class upbringing and definitely fit in as working class until my 20s. As I gained more education, my values started to shift. I moved away from my working class upbringing and more toward middle class values and interests. But I'm not middle class as I didn't have a middle class upbringing. I'm not middle class or working class anymore, I'm somewhere inbetween.

On these threads you usually get someone saying "I'm a top barrister and have been for 20 years, I live next door to Jacob Rees-Mogg and have two children who attend the most expensive private school in the country. I refuse to watch television, instead I go to the theatre and opera every week. I'm definitely working class and always will be" - I find that quite ingenuous. If you're working class, why don't you live in a working class area? Why don't you have a more working class job? Why don't your children attend state school?

Yep, this is what l think.

You don’t own your property. This is what stops you entering middle class.

I also find this subject fascinating OP. I'm not sure whether we need new labels or even whether people want to be labelled. From a historical point of view I think its only from Victorian times that the concept of the Middle classes became a thing. Before that most people were working class v landed gentry/aristocracy. Obviously before that peasants/lord of the manor types.
So I think the idea of classes has evolved over time and will continue to do so. I find it quite sad that some people are so nasty about the working classes. I think the working classes over the last couple of hundred years have a lot to be proud of!

I think because Britain has such a history of ranking and etiquette etc wealth actually has little to do with class in the UK.

Australian rich would be considered as "new money" but their class doesn't change because of their wealth. Class is so much more complicated in the UK and can be seen in behaviours, attitudes, dress and manners. The middle upper classes who are at times rude, ill-mannered and scruffy do it differently. No worse or better just different.

Made in Chelsea doesn't equate to you class in the UK. Many of these families are just rich.

The Middleton family were mentioned and Mr and Mrs aren't suddenly middle/upper class because of their children's marriage choices. Mrs is still working but "married well". Mr is probably middle. The Princess of Wales is married to Royalty but she remains middle class and always will be (many will disagree but it's how it works). The children are royalty. Process Diana was an Aristocratic who married into royalty. Pippa is similarly middle class but her children will likely be upper class.

This is the traditional way it works but it's far more linear than it used to be. It's still generationally determined but there is quite a bit of movement.

It's a UK tradition, probably utterly pointless but a tradition all the same.