middle class

[southeastastra]

why is it so important for them to all conform to a certain standard

the right playschool, the right school, university, job

the right clothes, politically correct opinions, cars. does it not get suffocating to conform?

And you spell incredibly well when drunk, southeast. I completely lose control of my fingers.

I have been told quite a few times that I am obsessed with housework and that I should have higher ambitions than ironing, A trend I notice on here is that the posters I see as more middle class often do not see cleaning etc as part of their SAHP role. I see it in friends as well, they are at home but have a cleaner or insist their husbands do housework when they get home from work. I Perhaps because of my class I still hold to the "scrub your doorstep" ethic - not because I am a woman but because is see that as part of my role as a SAHP.

I particularly liked Boho's post @ 08.36.

This thread is making me feel less guilty for disliking friends of friends because they are not my tribe. Yay! Guilt free!

I am quite happy to be common with a big house and cars, I find it quite fulfilling, I have to remain working class or I would suddenly realise that my life is empty!

Theimpossiblegirl, my parents were hippies too. They still have a lifestyle that would be considered alternative by many. In their home is a tiny, dusty TV, thousands of books and well used furniture that has been passed down through many generations.

They are part of several community projects, dress 'comfortably' and grow most of their own food (they're vegetarian).

They are both well educated. They vote Labour, are very pleased that Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader, and read The Independent, or Guardian.

I see them as in a class of their own .

Laissez-aller = absence of restraint

These days virtually everyone seems to consider themselves middle class. I personally wouldn't consider a teacher a middle class job (unless at a prep/grammar school).

People also seem to think MC is related to money which I find very odd . Alan Sugar is loaded but you wouldn't exactly consider him MC.

Teacher is, or was until very recently, a very middle class job - as it formerly required a degree and a high level of education/knowledge. It has been denigrated lately though, which saddens me. Working class jobs are blue collar, menial, factory, don't require a degree, or qualification (very generally- obvs some do - and some degree holders do working class jobs).

fluff a teacher isn't blue collar working class. You need a degree level education. Except of course in a private school where a dear friend was able to teach with no qualifications at all!

You do get working class people in professional jobs. I know working class people who teach and people who are very middle class - all working in the same school.

True. At uni there were plenty of working class medical students too. Thirty years later they are indistinguishable from traditional middle class! Are they still really working class? It's a bit vague really isn't it?

I'm of a working class background and have a professional job.

My job is very varied from digging holes wearing a boiler suit and steel toe caps to suits and meetings.

I have traits of all classes and hence don't have a fucking clue what class I am.

DP is definitely still working class.

We live on a council estate (owned with mortgage) but go to the opera. We own a caravan and also holiday in Spain but never the 'brits abroad' resorts.

I don't have the working class obsession with cleaning or possessions. I wear my clothes till they fall apart.

I do the food shopping at a combination of Aldi, Asda, M&S and a naice farm shop for meat when I can be arsed to go.

I am all classes and classless at the same time.

Can I ask what makes one middle class?
I would like to get there someday :-)

Definitely working class people can do middle class jobs - that's what social mobility is all about. My friend at Uni was a medical student who was very working class and grew up on a council estate - she became a GP and lives a v MC life now. She was very well-spoken though, very intelligent and articulate, so I'm sure that helped.

Btw- just in case my posts sound at all snobby, I can assure I'm not. It's difficult to tell how written posts come across.

Unreasonablebetty -

Personally, I think it's difficult to say - but I think it's a mixture of background, education, profession and attitude. Background, you can leave behind (should you want to). Education - supposedly available to all, can put you into a very mc profession/lifestyle, university definitely helps. Profession - speaks for itself, blue collar vs white collar. Attitude - this is the one that is so varied. Personally - my experience of wc vs mc is as Bertie described upthread.

I may well be talking utter crap here, btw.

I'm MC. I only ever went to selective schools, I went to a very MC university, did an MBA and worked in professional services and am now a FT pushy parent with a high-earning DP and high-achieving DC. We have lots of inherited wealth and a very comfortable lifestyle with plenty of activities/holidays/restaurants/clothes.

I find these threads so pointless. The reality is that the new class system is a global one, and the aristocracy in this new system is so unimaginably rich that middle class needs redefinition too. All this nonsense about hummus and reading books means nothing.

The new normal is that at least in SE England anyone whose family income is much below £200K pa is working class.

Cookiedough and steff13. I am an ethnic minority and working class, single parent with a degree gained as a mature student. However I too volunteer and work for charities linked to disadvantaged children. Just to point out that those of us on the bottom end of the social ladder also help others in similar or worse situations and its not just the altruistic MC's who get involved!

Bugger knows what I am. One parent is aristocracy the other is from a family of coal miners.
I suppose if I work by median averages I am middle class.
My family are a bit weird though. The staunch working class (and proud thank you). The upper class ones are so eccentric they would be shocking even in a jolly cooper novel.

My parents are polar opposites in terms of upbringing but rebelled and became hippies in the late 60s when they met.
Actually that whole working class men being better lovers thread might answer a lot of questions as to how my parents ended up together

Shockers
Wondering if we were running round at the same festivals as kids.
:)

Is your DM Lady Chatterley lost

Super rich doesn't equal aristocracy. The 1% (well probably more likely 0.0001% or fewer) aren't really a class, as there are far too much differences, from inheritance heirs to self made men to criminals. I don't think their existence makes much if any difference to the UK class system, it's too tiny and too segregated a group, plus they live in a global context not a UK one.

I suspect that the biggest class indicator is still accent.

Nope. Dear mater a right hon not titled

And dear pa deffo not a gamekeeper, far more urban