Lighthearted - What’s the most (stereotypically) middle class thing you’ve done/said recently?

[CatteryCatss]

I’ve just re-waxed my Barbour jacket…

What about you?

If you’re serving rubbish coffee to the chap who unblocks your drains - a self employed drainage contractor actually earns more than a GP!

Class isn't influences or what you earn, it's what you are born into. Did you have at least a couple of generations of parents and grandparents working in professional jobs, educated, well read, well spoken and cultured.
Someone mentined tradesmen earning lots so must be mc?? They rarely are, unless they were born m/c and then took up a plumbing job. Money doesn't make class. Look at footballers.

Yes this! Drug dealers earn a fortune and I doubt a lot of them were born into middle clas families for example. Some of the highest earners I know are tradespeople. I'm from a more -classy- background not middle class I don't think but my grandparents were in professions (one of them wasn't, he was a bomb disposal expert)! But despite a post grad and professional role I earn less than my plumber/electrician/joiner I employ for my property development!

I respectfully disagree that you can't change class. I think it's much more fluid nowadays than it used to be.
Also, we have so many influences, not just our childhood home and family background. I honestly do think you can get class variation within families too. I think in the dark days of the eleven plus, those who passed were kind of thrown into a more middle class world. So unfair on those who didn't pass, and both could happen among siblings.
I've always thought class is more about your profession/job than anything else?
I'm confused by the 'markers' people talk about on Mumsnet. I happily shop at Lidl/Aldi, but also M&S the odd time; I'll happily eat sourdough and avocado if offered, but also tinned spaghetti on cheap sliced! I interchangeably talk about dinner and tea to refer to the same meal!
I've had middle class and working class influences on my life, and feel like a bit of hybrid/classless.
I think society has shifted so much that it's hard to know now. Many traditionally working class trades pay way more than some of the middle class professions such as teaching; so the economic part of socio-economic class muddies the waters.
Many middle class people are really struggling now, and I know loads of people who grew up in middle class homes who are now living very precariously. They certainly don't live a middle class life.
Ironically, I think one of the most middle class things a person can do is boast about how working class they are! When it's obvious they're very middle class. I've even known lawyers and doctors do this! Sometimes they'll have had a working class grandparent, but most of us did.
Authentically working class people wouldn't boast about it so much. People are so funny!
An interesting and funny thread 😊

Definitely this online stranger put a lot of effort into trying to tell me I'm lower class not middle class, they had a whole theory where all but the lowest class parents would force their daughter to have an abortion if they were pregnant before 20. Guess they've never heard of the MP Jacob Rees mogg who is very upper class and anti abortion

Mmm yes but it’s all a lot more mixed up these days.

DH is 2nd generation university educated and a professor , but his grandad was a builder.
One of our plumbers is married to a teacher.
Of the two heating engineers that fitted our new boiler, one was from an educated home but messed up his school exams due to his parents moving to a different country where he didn’t speak the language when he was a teenager, the other was also an artist.

We have books and degrees up to the eyeballs, but I don’t feel we are meaningfully different from the people that come and do jobs for us and I am not sure they do either.

Like in this recipe?https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=5578d13f22385e79f11fd6b7a76fdb053f72588cb35c810934a81b14fcd7a8e3JmltdHM9MTczOTU3NzYwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=2d893548-eb46-63fa-1a7f-207eef4661c5&psq=tartiflette+au+reblochon&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmJjLmNvLnVrL2Zvb2QvcmVjaXBlcy90YXJ0aWZsZXR0ZV81OTA5Ng&ntb=1

Totally agree that it's mixed up. I don't know what class I am, if any. I also don't know which class most of my close friends think of themselves as.
The only people I know for sure about are the aristocracy! The rest of us are a bit of a mish mash nowadays by and large.

I whinged that Volvo don’t seem to make their cars as well as they used to and bemoaned the loss of our more rugged, ancient Hyundai. I’m going to a cottage in rural Wales and am concerned about the state of the roads.

DS has requested that I take him food shopping in Tesco, instead of his usual student loan Aldi, when we visit (hence the Welsh cottage in February) so clearly he’s keeping me grounded.

Actually, paying his rent as well as my mortgage on my MC (but public sector) wages keeps me grounded. No designer wellies, orchards or chickens for me.

Threads like this always bring out some interesting comments. The idea of middle class is quite a nebulous one and has changed in the last couple of generations, as you say. And it suits politicians etc very well, because when they say something (say, a tax) affects the middle classes people can think "they're talking about me, this tax must be reduced!", even if what the politicians actually mean is the more traditional, narrower definition of MC.

Even then though- dd’s boyfriend is foreign aristocracy with family seats and coats of arms and illustrious ancestors and all that stuff. Or rather, he’s HALF aristocracy, his mum’s background is working class from a different country altogether.

I'm WC but my neighbours are mostly MC and I laugh at these, and them.

On the local forum a bloke wrote, "Basically anywhere South of Forest Hill (London) are the Badlands" and I nearly peed myself laughing.

At this point, class is more how you identify than what you earn.... there's "Middle class" people on minimum wage in 1 bed flats, and "Working Class" on 6 figures in small mansions.
Buts its a combination of education, family life, outside influences and basically just want people want to feel.

Actually, now you mention it, I remember hearing on the radio about a true story from the early 20th century of a girl from an upper class family who fell in love with one of her father's servants. Her family disinherited her, and she went to live with her beloved's northern working class family, who embraced her and loved her as their own. She had her children there, and worked in the biscuit factory like the other women in her new home. Probably very unusual for the time. But, I wonder whether she actually became working class or remained an aristocrat? Or a bit of both. That was obviously at a time when class was much more distinct than it is now. Fascinating anyway...

Asked DH if he wanted samphire with his dinner or if he'd gone off it now.

Couldn’t think what this thread reminded me of - it’s just come to me! Rivals by Jilly Cooper- Tony Baddingham desperate to prove his place at the table, RCB knowing how to upset him by taunting him about the misuse of a word and then we’ve got the cockney self made millionaire and his wife with her fake posh accent/ shed trashing their listed building. But all that’s a bit dated now, surely!

A lot of this stuff is as relevant now as ever. You just need to look at LinkedIn posts from anyone working in professional services - how do you know they grew up on a council estate and went to the local comp? Don't worry, they'll tell you in every other post.

Eta - this is not a dig at those who have done well for themselves despite not been born into privilege, but an eyeroll at those desperate to display their working class credentials at every opportunity.

Is it more MC if your house looks like this and is also often a complete tip? Asking for a friend.

I really dislike all that minimalist grey/white house thing. My ex DP was like that. Looks like Home Bargains threw up in your sitting room.

Bonsaibaby

Couldn’t think what this thread reminded me of - it’s just come to me! Rivals by Jilly Cooper...

But all that’s a bit dated now, surely!
(My editing of quoted post)

I'm not sure if you're referring to the book or the TV series. I can only speak about the book but I'm not sure it is that dated, especially on this thread.
MN seems stuffed with people who are lower middle and trying very hard not to be seen as such. Hence the fuss about brands, for example.
Most of the better off people are obviously nouveau riche (unless they're making things up - you never can tell on the internet) and reeling off somewhat old fashioned middle/upper class tropes because it's what they thought were smarter on their way up.

Ha ha no I don’t go on linked in I’m a teacher up north in a city so don’t get the whole country luxe status symbols! My dh is a bit like that though clinging on to his working class roots

I think much of it - both the people giggling with a tinkly laugh about how outrageously MC they are (or have become) and the "I'm just so down to earth, me" WC people - stems from insecurity and wanting to assert themselves as deserving of the successes they have made in life (whatever those successes might look like).

There are a lot of prople out there who want to slap down others, either as not really being middle class, or not really being deserving of academic/professional success (eg the idea that going to private school means you must be an overachieving thicko).

It's all very interesting!

I couldn't agree more MegTheForgetfulCat.

Particularly with the It's all very interesting! sentiment 😊

How on earth can anyone know what a self-employed person earns? Every one is different, hourly rates between employed and self-employed are not comparable and their expenses are totally different.

There is nothing more guaranteed to rile British people up than casting doubt on whatever they perceive their class to be.

I have no idea what class I am and I don’t especially care. I’m a mish mash.

The problem with this thread is that while a lot of the posts are trying to be all self effacing and tinkly laughed, sometimes the snob / chip on shoulder sneaks out though the gaps.

Exactly. I think the other poster is just spoiling for a fight. It was friday night and he probably had too many pints of stella..