self entitled middle class??

[sweetsoulsister]

As an 'out of towner' can people explain why the middle class in this fine city of London feel they are so god damned righteous?

I'm standing in a queue with my children at the local swimming pool, and judging by the car park, it's busy. We go in and join a long queue. A couple of the families in front of me take their turn at the counter, turn around in disgust, and pace back and forth, argue with each other and work themselves up into a frenzy. Assuming they are going swimming I ask what has happened with the pool. One of the ladies says, 'The pool is at capacity and if we want to go in we will have to wait until someone leaves,' her voice rises another octave and she continues, 'This is completely unacceptable!!'

Really? Unacceptable? If you were the first family in the pool and it got too crowded because they let everyone in would you just suck it up because it's unacceptable to let everyone in?

This is not the first time I've encountered this outrage and it always seems to be what I've deemed the 'self entitled middle class...'

Explanations please???

Is Canadian middle class so vastly different from UK?
Here's my checklist of potential middle class indicators. You don't need all of them.

You read any of The Times, The Independent, The Guardian or The Telegraph. You don't read The Daily Mail or tabloids

You listen to Radios 3 and 4

You don't go on package holidays unless it is somewhere difficult and odd like Libya or Albania

Films with subtitles are fine.

You're more likely to watch BBC 2,4 and 3 than the other channels.

Attending ballet, opera, contemporary dance,classical music events and live theatre which aren't musicals is routine.

You have if you're in the UK visited Edinburgh at least once during the festivals or you have been at Hay on Wye literary festival or similar.

You shop at Waitrose and M&S food halls and always buy free range products.

You think Fortnum & Mason is much nicer than Harrods or Harvey Nicks

You have a degree from a university which was a university before John Major upgraded further education colleges.

You live in cities like Oxford, Bath and Edinburgh and if you live in the latter 2,you prefer a Georgian city centre flat to a modern house in the suburbs.

You either have owned or still own a horse.

You shoot or you know people who shoot and you eat game you've shot or have been given.(You know how to pluck and clean a pheasant and gut a fish)

Your children are at private schools, bonus points if it's the school you also attended.

You might have private health insurance but it came as a job perk and you're not sure if you'd use it.

You would have preferred to start most of the items on this list with "one" rather than "you" but it might have been taken the wrong way.

You correct typos on forums "live theatre which isn't a musical"

Oops sorry, wrong threads

Still don't get this joke.
Don't give up the day job, eh?

I wouldnt, if I had one, which I dont

Caitlin is it ok to read the tabloids if they are given to you for recycling and you read them an eye rolly ironic way? because I dont skip to Dear Deidre and find out how to make sure my husband doesnt want to cheat if I try harder in bed

Eh? You've never met a "lower class"/income person who's entitled, rude, abrasive, impatient and a general arse? Nor a rich knob head? You don't get around much then.

You met someone behaving like an ass....happens every day - no need to make sweeping anecdotal generalizations about it

I have got annoyed about that kind of thing - when it is the toddler pool and its full of bigger kids that could use the main pool - I think they should have rules in place to stop that scenario. Maybe the women just didn't explain the whole situation to you.

Who would want to go to a sweaty steamy indoor public pool that is full to capacity? I refuse to go to those places, they stink. Whatever happened to lidos? Completely unacceptable is hilarious!!!

I am totally middle class and this happened to me at the swimming pool. My 3yo was really excited about going swimming so I took the risk and paid the money, prepared to wait. Only the wait took longer than my toddler's tolerance so after 45 mins or so we left. I got stuck in a stand-off of profuse apologies with the pool attendant where he was so, so sorry for the pool being full (not at all his fault) and I was sorry (what for, I don't actually know) and it took about another five minutes to get all the apologising done before I could leave. That , to me, is the quintessentially British middle class approach of social awkwardness and guilt.

And , sadly, we left on the bus - no Landrover for us. Definitely poor middle class here!

(And we still had the post-swim trip to Greggs...ssh!)

Shows that there aren't enough public facilities to go round. Perhaps that is what was 'unacceptable', though that isn't a word I'd use :). I try not to take things out on the messengers - been there often enough - but it is annoying for oneself, and double so for the kids who are all worked up expecting a treat. I hate disappointing kiddies. Glad you found another treat, jelly.

OP you are bonkers.

Maybe they left to go to a different pool. Tbh I think the constant rain and challenge of finding stuff to do with v young kids is messing with everyone's sanity and patience atm.

Was this the Latchmere in Battersea by any chance?

caitlin17 I think your list highlights that the middle class is more heterogeneous than you'd think.

The guardian reading radio 4 listener is not likely to shoot or pluck pheasants. The shooting, pheasant plucking telegraph reader is unlikely to feel a moment's anxiety about using private health care or want to holiday in Lybia.

I would argue that there at least three middle 'middle' classes. The left leaning university lecturer/social worker/teacher type with an old Volvo and an interest in foreign films and knitting their own natural yoghurt. The right wing blazer sporting gin, jag and golf club bores and more consumerist orientated newer middle classes who tend to work in service sector jobs and display their status through new homes, white BMWs and designer goods.

All could conceivably be thought of as middle class but they each do middle class in wildly different ways.

have read only half of your thread.
but running out of time need to leave in 3 mins.

the thing is that at the moment the mc seem to take alot of bashing.
It isn't cool to take the piss out of working class people, and not upper class people as we all know they have a hard time but a but like goldie locks the mc are ripe for the picking.

the reality is that you get wankers of every type.
come to our local pool and you get people from the traveller community calling the shots which although different is still bloody annoying.

Wouldn't be loud/frenzied in public be a lower-class indicator, anyway?

(Not British here).

I never really understood class dear. money yes class no as it's a load of old bollocks.

OP, you are making two mistakes - you are confusing London with the UK and confusing certain bits of London with all of London.

I lived in Canada when I was younger and I would comment that the most noticeable difference between the countries is population density. Londoners (especially in north and west London) have to compete for scarce resources -- as you will have noticed, there's a shortage of seats on the train, pavement space, housing... It extends to public services such as schools and swimming pools. The roads and parking spaces don't fit the Landrovers! We have a much stricter planning system than north America and little available land. Population is growing quickly.

When people are fighting over scarce resources, manners get bad.

My experience is that Canadians are much more polite (less direct?) than the British.

Good luck, get out of London and read Kate Fox's book - it's good.

Haha according to that BBC thing I am an 'Elite'.

• Enjoy high cultural activities such as visiting museums and listening to classical music - Yes, but it ignored the other answers obviously
• Went to private school and elite universities - LOL, not even close
• Socialise with people who do a wide variety of jobs - Well yeah

You know those big fuck off TVs that only poor people have on MN? Well I have one of those, connected to the xbox and there is nothing finer than finding myself childfree with a good supply of beer and chips and my controller.

Admittedly the beer is good beer and the giant TV is in a very nice house, in a very nice suburb.

I think new money might confuse the bbc thingy.

bodyreally? So you don't think that the networks people operate in has any influence? Class isn't just money, it is mixed with cultural and social capital too.

A footballer may be as rich as an aristocrat, but their interests, tastes and circles of friends will be wholly different.
A lottery winner may be richer than George Osborne, but won't have the same family contacts and access to other powerful people.

The fact you don't understand class is not testament to the fact it doesn't exist.

There is a tendency among some wealthier English types to view those working behind a counter as "lower orders" who it is OK to be rude to. I remember working in a supermarket many years ago, and getting flak from harassed middle-class types because I didn't know where the cocktail sticks etc were!

Part of the problem is that there is also a cultural reluctance to confront this obnoxious behaviour when it occurs. All of (1) stress levels (2) entitled idiots (3) reluctance to engage in confrontational social contact with strangers are more common in London than most (all?) other parts of the UK.

Not sure what the answer is though. Perhaps calling out the bad behaviour where you see it is the only practical thing that might help. If such people were more aware if just how twattish they look, they would be less likely to misbehave.