To think I am not posh???

[LadyShirazz]

Our lodger has just informed me that I am "the poshest person he has ever met". Not in a nasty way at all, but at the same time in an entirely genuine one too.

Fair do's - I have the most plummy cut-glass accent imaginable which I hate. God only knows where I've acquired it from, as the rest of the family don't speak anything like this - I can only put it down to having moved around a lot as a child, and therefore never having picked up a particular accent. It's not even one of those "smooth as silk" Joanna Lumley accents either - think more the Queen with constipation (but also shit-faced, so lots of 'shits' and 'fucks' thrown in to the mix too...).

I do speak well and write well. I did go to Cambridge. I do work for a "big name" in The City that is a traditional haunt of the public school types many of them wankers - am new - that's another topic.

But, really, I come from true salt-of-the-earth stock. My mum is a Yorkshire farm lass, and my dad grew up in the slums (true sense of the word there) of the Black Country, and was the first person in his family to go to university (where he met my mum).

His choice of degree (engineering) has afforded the family until it went to shit a fairly "middle class" lifestyle, but certainly not a "posh" one. I went to Cambridge from a bog-standard comp on the basis of my grades (and a lot of hard work) - not my background. I only wish I had a trust fund, but am just working hard, alongside my OH, and caring for my elderly MIL - more or less like all the rest of us. We're okay financially, but by no means rich.

Anyway, surely - if we were that posh - we wouldn't be renting out our main bedroom of our two-bed flat to a lodger in the first place...???

I am definitely not taking this as an insult and am not offended - nor am I intending to cast aspersions on any one from any background at all.

AIBU though to not like assumptions being made on me or my background on the basis of my accent, when a) it's something I can't help and b) actually the very opposite is true...???

[thehypocritesoaf]

Nooo, my very favourite line was 'dh is not remotely bothered by his w/c background'.

It says so much. Brilliant.

[yankeecandle4]

Posh is relative; I was in hospital once and another patient was complaining that the tiny canteen only sold posh and fancy food that she couldn't eat. I was perplexed as it sold very basic stuff; prepackaged sandwiches, sausage rolls etc. The offending food item was potato wedges

[blueteapot]

Joules... big difference between being posh and being a complete snob.

[MarshaBrady]

You may well be the poshest person your lodger has met. But it doesn't mean that much. Because we don't know who else he/she has met.

From your post you sound like a mix of different influences (which is not unusual).

[Chippednailvarnish]

Posh is relative. It was only when I came on Mumsnet that I realised that, for many, growing up in a smart 4 bed detached house, with central heating, fitted carpets and having a foreign family holiday every summer was considered very privileged and 'posh'

Anyone else reading this and thinking of Tim Nice But Dim?

[Only1scoop]

Chipped
I thought that reading several of the excerpts

[Only1scoop]

And....
Wealth whispers

[Chippednailvarnish]

Just for you Only!

[Only1scoop]

[Only1scoop]

How I've chortled

[Dawndonnaagain]

Joules, if you're going to be an insufferable snob, may we discuss spelling, sentence structure and grammar, your education seems to be a tad limited in said areas.

[TheSwallowingHandmaiden]

Joules, you may well be posh but you write the most execrably boring posts. And the reason the plebs around you at work care nothing for politics or the education system is because neither of these institutions gives a shit about them.

[TheSwallowingHandmaiden]

..and yes, please learn how to spell 'wholly'.

[TheSwallowingHandmaiden]

Chipped, nope; I'm thinking 'cunt'.

[Chippednailvarnish]

Swallowing I believe the standard response to your post would be a comment regarding a lack of depth or warmth

[ComposHatComesBack]

It reminds me of the tedious conversations at university 'I'm actually really working class, my granddad was a miner and we had findus crispy pancakes for tea'.

I was one of the worst offenders, but to be fair I was 19 at the time. What's your excuse op?

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Maybe tedious to you Compos but I still find it all fascinating, especially if someone is going to talk about their ancestors and the different influences on them and their family.

[cruikshank]

It's hardly fascinating to hear some boring posh girl go on about how 'salt of the earth' she is, given that loads of them do it. Jarvis Cocker deals with it quite well, I think.

[ghostyslovesheep]

I struggle with my place sometimes - class is one of them

from Liverpool - have a freezer full of nuggets, crispy pancakes, instant mash - drink (nice) instant coffee, drive a Ford, use terms like 'butties, ciggies and chezies' I shop at Aldi, drink Cava and love footy

but I read the Guardian and grew up in a home where we where shit poor but had rooms filled with second hand Penguin classics, I went to university and have a nice middle class profession, mortgage and I love my home - it's beautiful and classy

so I never know where to sit on the class wall - not that I actually give a shiny left tit

[BabyGanoush]

How can you struggle, yet not give a shit at the same time ?

You are the epitome of middle classiness, as IMO the only way to determine whether someone is middle class, is if they ever talk about it and/or are in any way anxious about it! Like desperately trying to prove their faux poshness or their faux working class "roots"...

So that includes you....

...and I guess me

[maggieryan]

Joules, you sound like an awful snob if you don't mind me saying so. Your husband sounds like a gobshite, changing who he is just to fit in. Must be exhausting for him!

[IPityThePontipines]

Joules' posts about her ever so clever (but working class husband) sound rather familiar...

[Mountainash]

My Mother told me that you could tell how posh someone was by their toilet paper.

[Liomsa]

What are the loo paper criteria, Mountain? Does quilted Andrex imply middle-class? What about the hideous-sounding ready-moistened kind? That crackly tracing paper kind they always had at school? Is coloured toilet paper as non-U as coloured table napkins?

[BertrandRussell]

Proper old posh are still using the ancestral supplies of Izal laid down in the late 1900s...............