Do you know anyone middle class?

[angelos02]

I don't. But my definition of middle class is those that go to work but don't need to.

This is devastating news. So me being a lawyer and shopping in Waitrose has been undone by my love for curry and kebabs.

Don't worry about it blue. Nobody on MN matches up to every MN MC criteria!

Other examples of things I've read on here that means (despite all other factors) you're not middle class, and they actually used these reasons as to why, are:

-Eating quinoa (because obviously you're just eating it because you think it makes you MC)
-Shopping at Waitrose (because you're just doing it for the bags)
-Not being white (yep, seriously)
-Being a nurse (that means you'll always be working class)
-Seeing musicals at the theatre (should always be a play, if you've seen a musical, you're toast)
--Bought skiwear in Harrods (it's chavvy)
-Driving a new Audi (MC people only drive old cars. I don't know what they do when the old car dies)
-Get a blow-dry (too showy and nouveau riche)
-Package holidays abroad
-Being from "The North", and heaven forbid you're Scottish!
-Having any accent whatsoever
...

There have been more brilliant ones. They'll come back to me.

I was trying to work out our class the other day. I have PG qualifications and a 'professional' job (but not one of the professions), my mum and dad were a teacher and a building society manager, their parents were skilled/ semi skilled manual workers. DH has a level 3 vocational qualification gained in adulthood- he originally left education without qualifications-, his job is skilled manual, idk what his parents did exactly. I vote Labour apart from a brief and regretted fling with the Libs pre 2010. We read the Guardian and The Economist and have Sky Sports and shop at Aldi. On my living room wall we have Klimt print and a Euro 2016 wallchart. Our car is a fairly old ford fiesta. I don't drive so most of my journeys are by bus.
I can speak middle class. I don't tend to unless I'm being talked down to or feel it's going to make a difference in how a situation plays out. When I am drunk I sound very very not middle class!
My friends are a massively diverse mix. I don't know what class I am. I tend to upper working- lower middle, as far as that means anything. I'd be interested to know how people I know would class us.

Read Jilly Cooper's "Class". It's a bit dated, but a hoot and should prove very enlightening. Now on Kindle!

Money has nothing to do with class.

I like the Radio 4 test. If you regularly listen to R4, you're middle class. If you don't, you're not.

I'm confused

I listen to radio 4, I can sign passports, I have horses, I went to university, I ski, we have an old car, I say napkin, loo and pudding, I'm a liberal, read the Gruadin and like the theatre

BUT

I like take aways, we rent, I'm northern, we have an old car because we can't afford a new one and I've seen 3 musicals

I don't have a loo brush so I'm certainly allowed on MN though so that's ok.

I honestly dont think anyone cares about class. Or no one I know. It's far more complex than it used to be and more fluid

Money talks
Wealth whispers

This has just reminded me, DP and I were walking through a very student-y area in our city the other day and a young guy rode past us on a vintage racer bike. There were a load of old books in the basket and he had a Waitrose carrier bag on one of the handles. I don't know what happened, but he swerved and hit the curb and nearly fell off his bike, and the bag snagged somehow and split. His shopping went everywhere, poor lad so we helped him pick it up. It was all hummus, quinoa, falafels etc. DP said it was the most middle class bike accident he'd ever seen

I found this thread interesting:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2653122-What-class-am-I-just-curious

have a laugh read, alltouched

You could argue that The Duke of Devonshire has to work. If he didn't work hard making sure Chatsworth estate provided an income from tourism and the farm shop then at some point the house would start crumbling.

Money has nothing to do with class.

Maybe not there, but here class is strictly an economic construct.

Eating quinoa (because obviously you're just eating it because you think it makes you MC). Never eaten it so all fine there.
-Shopping at Waitrose (because you're just doing it for the bags) No Waitress in the sticks so i don’t do this.
-Not being white (yep, seriously) I am white.
-Being a nurse (that means you'll always be working class) Not a nurse
-Seeing musicals at the theatre (should always be a play, if you've seen a musical, you're toast) I LOVE musicals
--Bought skiwear in Harrods (it's chivvy). I don’t ski.
-Driving a new Audi (MC people only drive old cars. I don't know what they do when the old car dies) I have a new car now but previous cars were second hand Volvos.
-Get a blow-dry (too showy and nouveau riche) Had a few blow dries. Not keen.
-Package holidays abroad Not fussed for a package holiday.
-Being from "The North", and heaven forbid you're Scottish! I am Scottish.
-Having any accent whatsoever I have a Scottish accent.

I seem to be some sort of working/middle class hybrid.

I actually think this idea about British people being hugely 'tribal' about class is a bit outdated. Everybody loves pondering it, but it's a bit like those "Which Roman Emperor/Harry Potter character/animal would you be" quizzes. I don't think anybody I know really cares any more, except in an amused sense. But maybe that's because we're all clearly middle class

I love camping in France and listening to R4.

But I can eat fish and chips with mushy peas with the best of them. Along with a decent white wine. Probably French.

I bet people around where I live don't think I fit in and would describe me as middle class. But I don't have much choice about the area and it would be described as a working class area. I do have a stereotypical middle class job.

Everybody loves pondering it, but it's a bit like those "Which Roman Emperor/Harry Potter character/animal would you be" quizzes.

So true.

Although some people really do care, and really loathe anyone else being allowed into their club.

What's your definition of upper class, OP?

Somebody with their own herd of unicorns in the back garden of the castle, obviously.

I would consider myself to be middle class along with my extended family and maybe 70% of my friends.
I would say it is less about income and more about education, outlook, aspirations and interests.
I would say we are comfortable but we all work at least part time to earn enough to maintain the lifestyle we choose and provide all we want for our children. It's not flashy but we do pretty well.
I have to say the class distinctions are very blurry nowadays for most people. You can be earning peanuts and still be very 'middle class'. You can be a millionaire and still be 'working class'.

This one was also particularly sneery and horrid, when there was absolutely no need, just to knock someone down a peg or two.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2655524-Social-climbing-first-generation

Class is more about education, upbringing and culture than about money. If you spend your disposable income on a trip to Disneyland and you read the Sun or the Mail, then you're likely to be working class; if you spend it on violin lessons and read the Telegraph, the FT or the Guardian then you're likely to be middle class. Sociologists I think define class by occupation and level of education, but you could drop out of uni, work as a carpenter and still come from a MC background, listen to radio 4 etc. It can be complicated. You can move from WC to MC but not just by making money.
Upper class is if you don't buy furniture, you inherit it

I have met but not friends with any

By your definition OP Wayne and Colleen Rooney are middle class.... They don't give a stuff what you think of them.

Cameron is definitely upper class (his wife is an Astor). Along with other posters, you sound very confused about the class system. Middle class is general professionals; those with huge amounts of inherited wealth which means they don't need to work (and yet work, for fun) are upper class.

I have a friend who was born to land-owning, property-owning parents and was raised in a large, semi-detached house in the Golden Triangle of North Yorkshire. She got in with 'the wrong crowd' and left school with no qualifications. She took a series of unskilled jobs before she went to university as a mature student where she gained a first class honours degree and two higher degrees. She combined part time university lecturing with raising a family, but never managed to save enough money to get onto the property ladder. So she rents a two bedroomed house from the local council, where she resides as a single mother, working part time as a university lecturer.
Is she middle class? Do we need to rethink our definitions of class?

You sound a bit chippy OP.

I'm as middle class as they come. It's about a hell of a lot more than income, earned or unearned (although I'm in a professional job). I guess you could argue that DP and I don't both need to work, but again I'm not sure that's relevant and we both prefer to as it lets us enjoy the trappings of a traditionally MC lifestyle.

A couple of my best friends are artists. They haven't always had middle class income, but I'm not sure under what criteria you would call privately educated, multi-lingual people with a post-graduate education 'traditionally working class'.

The labels might not be ideal, but I think most people recognise that the old lefty adage 'everyone who works is working class' is horseshit.