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AIBU?

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Original poster

middle class

210 replies

southeastastra · 12/09/2015 23:49

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?

OP posts:
UnderTheGreenwoodTree · 13/09/2015 21:25

I don't agree with Manatee - we live in SE, and we do pretty much earn £200k - but I know loads of people earning far, far less that are undeniably MC. Maybe in central London this is possibly true.

BeaufortBelle · 13/09/2015 21:59

I have read the full thread. Have no idea. Very tired now - tine forcsleep.

lemonade30 · 13/09/2015 22:12

I'm a privately educated working class medic with a gravelly scouse accent.

I'm basically abbey clancey crossed with Pete burns, brandishing a stethoscope Smile

SoupDragon · 13/09/2015 22:17

Is it already open season on Middle Class already?

It never fails to amuse me how it's OK to do threads like this about MC but not about working class or whatever we are allowed to call the blingy class now

lemonade30 · 13/09/2015 22:21

The correct term is proles soupdragon.

You're letting the MC side down (or being obtusely disingenuous) by not availing yourself of that fact you know?

carmugz · 13/09/2015 22:34

why is MN every so often banging on about class and standing in society?

Fatmomma99 · 13/09/2015 22:40

Nice of Southeast to come back and say sorry.

Get that you were drunk, but what led to you posting this in the first place? Was there a point under it all that was riling you?

I'm not comfortable with class definitions at all. I would be defined as "middle" by my accent. I earn almost nothing. I'm married to someone who is occasionally described as a "salt of the earth" type (he wants to kill anyone who does this!). He as earned over 80k p.a. (doesn't any more) and his parents were in a council house all their married lives. I think it's all bollocks, actually, and all subject to change at the moment. partly because of the influx of people from other nations, partly because society is changing. Most of what we think of as "working class" don't work. What class are you if you're on a zero hours contract? What defines your class? Your job? Your voice? Your stuff? who you are married to?
What class are you if you own a caravan? Blue collar jobs often take home more dosh (often considerably more) than white collar.

I don't like class stuff very much! (so why did I read 7 pages of a thread????)

SoleBizzzz · 13/09/2015 22:45

MC people are ime usually snobby.

Philoslothy · 13/09/2015 22:47

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 think one of the biggest indicators of being middle class is wanting to be seen as such. So maybe the ones who start to look middle class make the change. I have never wanted to be middle class and so never will be. I love my bling and huge TVs too much.

sproketmx · 13/09/2015 22:54

Oh I get what you mean. I'm common as muck but my in laws are middle class. I dont conform to their standards in the way I speak, the way I or my kids dress, the hobbies I let them do, the people I let them socialise with. It seems really stuffy the way they live and the way they look down their noses at me

NewLife4Me · 13/09/2015 22:58

I never know what class I am, I don't care.
You are who you are and that's it.
I'm obviously working class with that comment, but some people think me and dh are mc because of our lifestyle.

dodobookends · 13/09/2015 23:17

Oh crikey sproketmx, are there middle class hobbies?

sproketmx · 13/09/2015 23:18

I married a working class man who's mother married up. He drives lorry's much to her annoyance and she refuses to admit how old she was when she had him, that his father was a miner or that he's a lorry driver to any of her new pals. My kids ride motocross and we live in a council estate in an ex mining village and she doesn't even tell her friends where we live. She once asked us to wash our van and truck before driving to visit her because 'she has neighbours who worry about this sort of thing' Grin I drink beer out a can at crimbo just to annoy her

HormonalHeap · 13/09/2015 23:23

Sproketmx is your MIL Mrs Bouquet?

sproketmx · 14/09/2015 00:59

She bloody well could be Grin I remember when I took the kids to go see the monster trucks in real life. They were sooo excited and she was like 'oh I wouldn't be encouraging that interest'

sproketmx · 14/09/2015 01:02

Stay tuned in Feb btw. We're taking the kids to go see travis pastrana and nitro circus in Glasgow then.... no doubt she will have her tuppence worth about that too

PerspicaciaTick · 14/09/2015 01:43

When I grew up the middle class were the people with white collar jobs, the business owners, the professionals. Then somewhere along the line they started being the people who could afford private schools and very expensive houses.

The middle classes have definitely got a lot posher/richer in the last few decades. My parents, both graduates, both in professional jobs, felt they were middle class. My DH and I can't get close to being MC, even though we are both graduates with professional careers.

amarmai · 14/09/2015 03:33

i seem to be getting under middle class mn's skin, op so i think you must have hit a nerve.

BathshebaDarkstone · 14/09/2015 03:39

Middle class hobbies:
Macrame?
Flower arranging?
Grin

steff13 · 14/09/2015 03:43

Scrapbooking, definitely.

AvaCrowder · 14/09/2015 03:51

Oh I left my class behind me a long time ago. Fuck having class, I'd rather have fun.

StormCoat · 14/09/2015 05:19

If there's spa preponderance of one social class on Mn, it's the lower-middle class, surely? As evidenced by things like the responses to the what/pardon thread and the 'inviting people around to show them the airing cupboard in your new house' thread.

StormCoat · 14/09/2015 05:20

A preponderance! 'Spa preponderance' would be another thing entirely!

Want2bSupermum · 14/09/2015 05:33

What gives me huge relief is that I no longer live in the UK. The whole class thing drives me nuts. I get it but my goodness it's dull.

Love you SEA and I totally get what you are talking about. A couple of years ago I met up with a couple of girls I went to school with when I was visiting my Dad and they asked me questions about my car. I was driving a car I bought for GBP500 and it is 6 years old. It is an awesome car that is really cheap to run. We only use it when we are home (live in the US now) and when we are not using it my Dad drives it as his car doesn't fit in parking spots.

These girls couldn't really place me because I didn't fit into their little social hierarchy of striving for private schools for the DC, having a huge house and at least 2 holidays a year, one involving skiing. It kinda slowly dawned on me and I just spent the rest of the time smiling and nodding hoping for DH to find me!

SheGotAllDaMoves · 14/09/2015 07:02

The class system at present is very interesting.

Whilst the traditional middle classes insist that class has nothing to do with money this was not the case historically. For example the MC interest in education was not brought about by their live if Plato but their interest in making money ( by prividing goods and services to the UC).

Today, large swathes of the MC cannot provide their DC with an education any different to their WC neighbours.

Grammars are largely abolished. They can't afford private.

The tertiary education system us splitting into a two tier affair. The top tier available to the DC of the wealthy and the exceptional few who are not.

The later exceptional group increasingly coming from the WC as widening access schemes make their mark.