Do you ever wonder how some people become such snobs?

[wakewap]

My own grandmother was a terrible terrible snob. My grandfather's mother didn't want her son to have anything to do with her because my grandmother was from a modest background, her mum ran a small shop and her father was a ship's captain.

But somehow, my grandmother became a huge snob - think Mrs Bucket.

My Mum was a snob, as was my Grandma. Neither of them were actually posh but they had some real difficulties in life and I think that considering themsleves better than everyone else was a defence mechanism.
I am really trying not to be one but sometimes I have an instinctive reaction to something my Mum considered "common" such as Ice Cream vans and I have to give myself a mental slap.

I'm probably wrong here, but forever , there was always a battle between being fashionable and trying to be fashionable.
Also a battle between looking like you have money vs actually having money.

I recall living in a small village where my dad had a shop. This was 60s to early 80s.
I was regarded as 'trade.'
Thus looked down upon.

However , we were only ever looked down upon by 'new money.'
A Duke, two Heiresses. a Lord and an Archbishop lived in our little village.
My dad's business relied on deliveries.
The duke, the Lord and one of the heiresses all pitched in during bad weather to help out , in their Rolls', Jags etc...

The wealthy middle class just phoned constantly to ask where their delivery was.

During my years there I learned that style didn't happen to the less moneyed. They had to follow , via Tatler, Vogue, Cosmopolitan etc.. and copy but what the proles didn't get was that, as soon as the middle classes got hold of a 'style' they dumped their preferences as they became ubiquitous. Yet the upper classes remained steadfast and didn't change. Consequently there are legion aristos, inherited wealth folk who slum around in 30 year old Volvos, decrepit Land Rovers, out of fashion clothes yet aspirationals are desperate to be seen as wealthy, hence the disgusting greed over designer handbags, stupid , feet deforming shoes etc..
Aspirationals are desperate to be seen as wealthy by following the new money and the ugly oligarchical fashions.

Hence the Primark wearer who fusses about which LV bag to buy.
The trackie wearer who fusses about which is the best trainer to wear.
It's all rather sad and pathetic really.

This is so funny, as it reads as you being quite the snob yourself!

@Hoppinggreen I think you might be my sister! My mum and grandma are / were dreadful snobs, and I absolutely agree with you that it was rooted in having a difficult life, and desperately wanting to prove that they were better.

My grandma came from a fairly poor family and my grandad's family were what Edwardians described as "comfortable ". So grandma married up and probably always felt a bit inadequate next to her in-laws. She overcompensated for it by being, well, a massive snob.

I’m a snob because I don’t want my child hanging out with little shits.

My sis also says I’m a snob because I say sandwich and not butty.

I’m a snob in some ways but not in others

My grandma is another example. I remember in the 1980s her having a go at my uncle for going to the pub in jeans because ‘people might think you’re poor.’

It was easy to laugh at her but it was rooted in her having lived in real poverty and difficulty making ends meet in a way I have never had to.

I’m a snob.

I value intelligence and good manners. I think it’s normal to strive for the best kind of life for yourself and your family. I don’t see it as a bad thing. I grew up poor, so it’s not about money for me.