to wonder what middle class/working class parental cliches you have actually experienced?

[vitaminz]

This thread is not to be taken too seriously and no offense is intended.

Today when I was in the supermarket I overheard another shopper saying to what appeared to be her daughter "Clemmie, shall I get some brioche?", she really did sound like a middle class cliche.

They are just normal foods now.
yes and I am sure people of all classes have been eating brioche, hummous and olives for centuries - just in other countries.

So middle class people aren't allowed to laugh at themselves?

KenAdams BTW that was a joke - I think this is hilarious I'm foreign, I find the class system utterly perplexing where I'm from you just judge people on their merits.

but it is good to poke fun at yourself... if you can't life isn't worth it. Self-flagellation is a national pastime.

myusernameis - my posts and ovenchips were saying that these foods are widespread now. But in the distant past of the 1970s and 1980s they were a bit out there: the preserve of vegetarians (in the case of hummus!) and people who had holidayed abroad regularly.

Yes, but they aren't laughing at themselves really are they, it's just steLth boasting on this thread.

I'm only 43, from a poor background, and yes, olives hummous, brioche - all furrin food really has become a sort of shorthand for mc parenting, thanks to their connection with travel/disposable income/trying new things. I didn't go abroad till I was 16, and I didn't go a second time till I was 28. Supermarkets didn't sell that shizz, you had to get it in delis. Most small mining towns didn't have delis.

So yes, while this is the shorthand, it's probably out of date now.

I remember my DM and me staring in wonder at a croissant when the local store started stocking them. 'The boy behind the counter said to warm it up in the microwave' she said. So we did. For three minutes. Came out flat as a pancake and hotter than the sun, but we ate it. And privately wrote the entire French race off as bonkers.

"Yes, but they aren't laughing at themselves really are they, it's just steLth boasting on this thread."

What w vey odd thing to say. How can you possibly know that? It's certainly not true of me- I find my iredeemable middle classness and that of my children extremely funny.

My parents were born in the 1920s and a lot of the food we considered "posh" in the 70s and upwards, they just saw as matter of fact because they were used to eating seasonal stuff when they were kids. My Mum had been brought up on lobster, oysters, monkfish and Dad was into all these weird offal things like marrowbone that you pay a fortune for now in fine dining style restaurants. They were as working class as it's possible to be. In conclusion, it's all pretentious bollocks. Eat what you fucking like, not what you think is "middle class".

I was in Konditor and Cook some years ago now and a woman was in there buying bread. Her 5 y o ds wanted cake and the mum said 'but we have cakes at home' and her ds replied in a withering posh voice 'but mummy, your cakes are disgusting' with much stringing out of the disgusting. Was embarrassed for her although sniggering a bit!

hackmum I think you make a good point about the shame/awkwardness arising from moving from working class to middle class.

I'm solidly working class in spirit and upbringing but I think income & lifestyle would see me as middle class. At times, I'm very conscious I'm actually neither but luckily I don't get too hung up on things.

Husband and I were both brought up in very working class households and retain that sensibility. We were the first people in our families (including wider family such as cousins) to get degrees, professional jobs etc.

Our eldest son is having tuition for an entrance exam to a super selective school (we're not in a grammar area) but I would be embarrassed to admit this to my family as it's a bit class-traitorish - using our income to buy his way into the best school in the county when people without that income with equally clever children don't have that option. Although quite why I should feel guilty I don't know as husband and I had to claw ourselves out off where we came from so why shouldn't our son benefit?

On the other hand, at school pick ups, I'm very aware that my broad local accent and lack of hang up on house prices/artisan baked goods/whatever marks me out as being different there too - not different in a bad way as I'm friends with a lot of the mums, but there is a difference.

I do think middle class people come in for more piss taking as their worries seem more frivolous - obviously we all have the same life/death/health worries but etiquette on hiring a cleaner doesn't compare to wondering if you'll escape the downward spiral of poverty and lack of aspirations you've been born into.

Whow Nancy66 - that's so polite and ahem ... upper class.

I've heard -

"if you don't shut up, I'll shove your teeth so far down your throat you'll have to stick a toothbrush up yer bum to clean 'em"

Honest!!

I was lucky to have two families who both believed foreign holidays were important in the 80's so I often had 4 a year... And I was always encouraged to eat local foods so taramasalata and kleftico, lamb tagine etc became my favourite foods. We also had to hide from the milkman and paperboy often because we were too poor to pay that week, and ate a lot of tesco value products and deals with coupons... I think it is just how your family chose to prioritise - some people eat good food all year, but aren't adventurous in it, others eat those awful findus pancakes and super noodles all year, but go abroad and try new foods then... No class in it.

Good Lord LonnyVonny are you me?? I'm the same age and had exactly the same experiences except it was me and my then bf who microwaved the croissants into oblivion!

Daisy - my dad used that one as well, but he saved it for other motorists!

4yo dd and I in a quiet cafe recently and she piped up loudly "mummy when is the servant going to bring our food?"

Actually that's not so much a middle class cliche as just painful.

funnyossity fair enough. Sorry if I came across as a bit ranty. To be honest when a previous poster mentioned it being middle class if Iceland don't sell it, it touched a nerve! That's what we could afford growing up and I think my mum fed us well.

It doesn't help that MIL seems to bring up how crap Iceland food is all the time. I don't think she does it on purpose but she does think it's beneath her.

When ds was in reception in the early 90s he kicked up a stink as he didn't have ciabatta, black olives and Brie in his packed lunch. Eeep.

prof how funny! When did you first taste an olive?

Um, that was me, and I shop at Iceland, and in my Iceland they don't sell Hummous. It was a JOKE

sorry, that was to the person who pulled me up on my post, can't we even have a bit of fun around here?

My family must be working class as we have a complex rating system based on which shop sells the best pick-a-mix and we can an hour long debate on the best flavour of crisps.

I absolutely refuse to play any class game , I just don't get the theory behind it - or rather the lack of theory .
Who are these middle classes ? Who is working class ?
How can a food, name , clothing label identify you ?
I'm being serious actually .

When I have to order a 'Babychino' in Costa when all I really want is some warm milk for my 18 month old.

I think the 'middle class' label is only used tongue in cheek now rather than the class system being revived. It's more of a metaphor to describe the delusions of grandeur that we're all guilty of having once in a while. Perhaps the term is not overly appropriate but most people have the same, common understanding of it in a modern context.