To not actually know what social class I am?

[TheDogAteIt]

Their seems to be a lot of middle class vs working class vs chav etc on AIBU. So what criteria do you need to fill in order to be in one of these?

Maybe all the knowledgable MN's out there can help, so I can behave accordingly?

Education - Uni
Job - Public sector worker (wage £23000 pa)
Married - Yes
Child - One
Age I became a mother - Mid-twenties
BF? - Was crap at it, gave up at 6 weeks
Home - Average 3 bed semi (owned) in non-posh, non-rough area

Other suggestions for class criteria welcomed

My parents were poor but idealistic MC, we had organic veg in the garden, Radio 4 and the Grauniad.

I suppose I am poor but idealistic MC too. Definitely low income in comparison to what is now seen as MC, but that is because I do a job which I love (and which happens to be poorly paid). If I had put my Russel Group degree to better use... Still have the organic veg in the garden and Radio 4, but I read the Indy

If you have your DVDs on display in a bookcase, you are working class. Hope that helps

Think am middle class but try to hide it. Not sure why really, nothing to be ashamed of.

Education - Uni
Job - scientist £36k
Married - yes
Children - 2
Age became mother - 30's
BF - yes
Home - detached in small village. with chickens. And a veg garden.

It seems to the the chickens that do it. Or possibly the labrador (we have a cat - is that less mc?). But really not sure on the serviette. What has that got to do with anything?

We really need to distinguish between 'new middle class' and 'old middle class' if it has not been pointed out already

DH - Comp, RG uni and prof qualified
Me - Private, finishing school, sec course
DC - Me 35, DH 33 and the DC were formula fed because b/f hurt too much
One clapped out old banger (me too)
DS - public school
DD - small selective girls school
Live - SW London
Lots of scruffy furniture
Huge scruffy house but lots of baths and bogs
chipped china
Tend to be quite thrifty
I work full time and probably shouldn't
I own six pairs of shoes and two handbags
Mortgate almost paid off
Know the names of all the ladies at the tills in Waitrose and Sainos
DH thinks he's working class, I think we're middle class, the DC think we're quite poor. I think we're probably none of the aforementioned but don't especially care.

No Arctic Roll in our house when I was growing up (sob), no my mother made her own yoghurt and we would eat it for pudding after supper with home grown berries on top.

DH's grandmother used to let him eat fish fingers and arctic roll when his parents weren't looking.

Should have added had no compunction about giving the DC fruit shoots (they had just come out when they were little) but they wouldn't touch them with a barge pole now but they love Arctic roll and tinned peaches - nice cheap pudding.

Ah, we weren't posh enough to have a yoghurt maker. I think it was made in a thermos flask. She used to freeze it and tell us it was ice cream

We also briefly had two goats. It was very Good Life, except that we didn't have a TV and so didn't know what The Good Life was...

For anyone who is interested in a light and amusing way of reading about class difference.
Jilly Cooper wrote an absolutely hilarious book called Class. I could place everyone I knew.

greatauntbetty, I hope the labrador is black otherwise you might like to think of changing it!

I think we've been sort of lower MC for quite a few generations. Dad's side were farmers, so owned land and employed staff. Not hugely well off but not dirt poor either. Mum's side are a mixture. On her mum's side there were lots of miners so very WC, but her grandparents "bettered" themselves and were shopkeepers whose children went to private school (albeit partially funded by scholarships). Her dad's mother was a lady's maid, so although she was "staff" it was presentable staff IYSWIM.

I have no idea why people would want to overstate their class; I generally attribute this to ignorance. There are terrible things about my ancestors which I am afraid of ever being revealed as they would def colour people's judgement of my DCs.

Figcake speaks a lot of sense when she says lets distinguish between 'new middle class' and 'old middle class'

I understand Figcake, which is why I think a more general debate on class difference would be useful. I am wondering why people feel the need to disclose so much about themselves, unless it is for other to validate who they are and label them.

If your Dad wears strange mustard yellow or raspberry red coloured trousers, you are properly middle class. If he doesn't you are not.