to ask, can you all just make it clear whether you are WC or MC?

[bejeezusWC]

so I know whether I value your opinion on any given topic, or whether I will just humour you

I am working class, just so you know. Although 'I pass' for MC, so I may be moving amongst you undetected. be afraid

I have no idea.
My living room and most bedrooms have shedloads of books. Between us dh and I have 4 degrees and he works in an investment bank (but is not a banker or a cleaner!!).
We have the largest flatscreen hanging over the fireplace. And live in ex-council on a council estate and shop at tesco, poundland, lidl, primark, next and m&s.
So what am I? (other than a kept woman...)

MC and would love to know why this makes my opinion of no value

I have no class. My Boden often has gravy dribbled down it, as does my TU

Not entirely convinced that the vast majority can be pigeon-holed so neatly now. I don't think I can. I could easily write out a whole list of contradictions about myself and my family.

I have no idea what I am. I thought MC but since I was born WC apparently, I have been told before on MN, that makes me WC for life.

Personally I think class is more of a spectrum than clear cut bands which would explain my inability to work out if I fall in a band or not.

If I have to label myself I'm MC.
I work that on the fact my paternal grandparents were UC

MC lifestyle, WC roots.

I'm classless.

bottom of the class

bunbaker

its not jealousy! that makes me bristle a bit. Its really arrogant- which is a more plausible reason for the 'nastiness'.

Its like BMW owners thinking they are ridiculed because secretly everyone wants a BMW. I really really dont want a BMW, I think they are wank and I would be embarrassed to drive it. If you gave me one, I would sell it and buy a camper van

bertha I agree to the spectrum nowadays

I also think that if you are raised WC, you are WC...that fits for me. I could never feel MC

But its debatable isnt it...I dont think anyone can tell another person how to define themselves...its how you feel

summer it is tongue in cheek/ a bit of a knee-jerk kick back...just following the rash of 'class based threads' over the last day or so...and the call for a middle-class segregated area so that MC posters could just get the opinion of other MC posters

I don't know - how do you find out? I work therefore I am WC...?

When I was a very small child, my parents were kind of poor - making their own wine kinda skint. But they owned their house (mortgage, I mean). Then they got kind of wealthy - 2 cars, 2 foreign holidays a year etc. Nearing retirement, they own three houses outright between them and both plan to retire abroad. My brother and I went to state schools. My mother rivals Carrie Bradshaw on shoe investment.

Now me as an adult - work in the city, earn just above the national average but DH and I can't afford the deposit to buy a house, and don't have a car. We have one holiday a year, have small savings but since I am 5 months pregnant, it's likely the dream of home ownership will slip ever further away.

At what point do you stop being what class your parents are, and start becoming your own?

its an exciting fusion thats for sure! bender

betty I think only you can decide that for yourself..and like many posters have said...does it matter? if it doesnt matter to you then so be it

Generations of my family have been WC, my formative years I was raised WC...my life experiences into adulthood were WC. I now have a MC job

But every fibre of my body and mind feels/thinks WC

bejeezus I might try a florentine-custard cream-florentine sandwich next time the opportunity arises.

Do people even care about this kind of thing these days? People work, people don't, people have old money, people make money, people win the lottery, people send their kids to private school, people send their kids to state school. It's not like in the old days where class was more clearly defined and mattered. You can come from a council estate now and get a top job and go to a top uni and you can come from the aristocracy and work in Burger King. I can't believe people even think about this any more because it's so irrelvant.

bejeezus. Are you not confusing being left wing with being working class?

I was raised working class. I'm now a "nothing" I honestly don't feel wc or mc. My politics are left wing.

What do you mean when you say you feel working class?

Ah bejeezus I thought that MC thread was to take the piss out of MC people! ("Oh look at me, I'm so worried about Waitrose v Sainsburys" etc etc. I thought it was an extremely stupid thread and I am about as MC as can be.)

I don't know what I am, we seem to have it here in northern Ireland. Over here they worry about what religion you are instead. Isn't it marvellous the way people will always find ways to class people

I think people worry too much about class.It baffles me. How does it matter? That is a genuine question. Looking at the definitions of working and middle class I know I am neither, so it is all very strange to me.

Sorry that should say we DON'T seem to have it here

Bonnie no I am not confusing the 2- although I am left wing also

I am at work-so cant think about/articulate a reply to you as I would like, but quickly;

I notice the difference a lot...when it comes to parenting as an example
My experiences as a child are very different to my MC childhoods..I often find myself when they talk about things/there approaches/views to raising their kids...Our goals are the same certainly, to raise happy confident children who at least reach their full potential

but, as an example..me and my cousins/friends did NO after school activities, didnt go on holiday. I left school at 16 and I am the only one of my friends from school to have gone to university. Alot of the things that my MC see as 'essential', are really optional for me/how I raise my kids. Im not afraid of poverty or my kids not doing academically well.

Another difference I notice--my MC friends/ aquaintances will talk about an issue much more-more philosophical, less efficient at doing than my WC friends- Reliance on therapy/counselling etc

It baffles me too. I know some very well off people who don't have what I would call 'class' they are rude and unscrupulous then I know several families who wouldn't be that well off and are hardworking, respectable and extremely well thought of in their communities.

Social mobility isn't that great in this country though - wasn't there an article in the Independent last week? If you are born poor you are most likely to stay poor.

Social class does matter though, however you want to call it, people need to place themselves somewhere in society. If it didn't matter there wouldn't be much of a discussion here, would there.

theres more..i will need to come back to this

My experiences relate more to other WC people....its like cultural similarities isnt it...