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.

[HarHer]

Just a little amendment (in case my friend is reading), her parents lived in a large detached house (they owned a good few acres).

[MrsHathaway]

I'm middle class by any definition (landowning relations, expensive education, erudite interests, professional friends, qualified career, married someone I met at Oxbridge). Sociologists don't use those terms nowadays though.

If you regularly listen to R4, you're middle class. If you don't, you're not.

Oh. Not this definition. Too deaf. People are always telling me I'd just love such-and-such on R4 so I daresay I'm the target audience ... I just can't make out a damn word.

What's the point of labelling people by class? To decide what to sell them: advertise Hunters and Eurocamp on Mumsnet, and Ladbrokes and Carling in the Sun. If you're posting here, advertisers think you're middle class, even if you work at the local biscuit factory.

[newpup]

Middle class are people in professional jobs who are earning good salaries. I think the op's definition of middle class is how most people perceive independently wealthy.

[sorenofthejnaii]

If you're posting here, advertisers think you're middle class, even if you work at the local biscuit factory

Unless they start looking at your cookies

[MrsHathaway]

cookies

::facepalm::

[sorenofthejnaii]

I took part in a Radio survey recently. I had to keep a radio diary for a week. Apparently I am in social class AB according to the interviewer.

I do wonder if my listening tastes reflected their expections

[NatalieRushman]

Sam cam is the daughter of a baronet and a viscount essential and David Cameron has variously titled (albeit quite distant) relations. If that's how you define middle class, I'm afraid you probably need to reconsider.

About 90% of my friends are middle class, and we're born middle class. Especially as most of them were born to professional parents and went to private school.

If we're talking your definition of middle class, with titles and/or are independently wealthy, I know less than a dozen middle class people.

[stopgap]

Steffi13, as a Brit who's lived in America for the last 13 years, I'd say that you're spot on about money uber alles. We are upper class by American standards (my husband is one of those aforementioned, heavy hitting NYC lawyers) which I find absolutely hilarious.

In the UK I grew up working class, but went to uni, worked in a creative job in a competitive industry, listened to Radio 3, juiced and kaled a decade before most, own a vast collection of dusty books, love art museums and the theatre, have ridden horses for 25 years, and yet, I will never feel fully middle-class.

[ephemeralfairy]

Ooh I wanna do it!

Eating quinoa (because obviously you're just eating it because you think it makes you MC) Horrible stuff
-Shopping at Waitrose (because you're just doing it for the bags) I love Waitrose but it is far too expensive for me
-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) Not mad keen on musicals in general although I love Cabaret. DP and I are both drama graduates, we would got to the theatre much more if we weren't skint.
--Bought skiwear in Harrods (it's chivvy). I don’t ski. I do ride horses though
-Driving a new Audi (MC people only drive old cars. I don't know what they do when the old car dies) I don't drive.
-Get a blow-dry (too showy and nouveau riche) Have had precisely two blow drys in my life, for weddings. One was great, the other was a weird beehive/perm hybrid.
-Package holidays abroad. I have not been abroad since 2009. I would kill for a cheap package holiday somewhere hot.
-Being from "The North", and heaven forbid you're Scottish! South East til I die baby. Oh but my dad was Scottish. And I live in Glasgow.
-Having any accent whatsoever. I have a really obnoxious SE/RP accent.

I would like to be MC but can't afford it :-(

[ImogenTubbs]

I worked until very recently, when I realised I didn't need to. I then stopped working. I will need to work again at some point. Does that mean I was middle class for a short while, but no longer am? What am I now, then?

[NaughtToThreeSadOnions]

Haven't read the thread but OP that's not the definition of middle class!

From the Cambridge dictionary OP.
"Middle class - › a social group that consists of well-educated people, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers, who have good jobs and are neither very rich nor very poor:
The upper middle class tend to go into business or the professions, becoming, for example, lawyers, doctors, or accountants."

So actually middle classes do have to work! And actually you might perceive some one as wealthy but how do you think they got wealthy by working damn hard they had to work to earn that money and it doesn't mean they can give up work. The have children to support mortgages to pay etc.

I also think you've miss understood what David Cameron has done he's mearly resigned as leader of the party he's still going to be an MP he's still going to have a job.

To answer your question do I know any one middle class by the actual dictionary definition. Yes pretty much every one I grew up with. In fact most people are these days.

[Xmasbaby11]

I don't agree with the op definition. I thought it was having more than 3 types of pasta in your cupboard. I am definitely middle class!

[Squeegle]

downwiththissortathing, love the middle class bike incident. Hope he was ok 😀

[steff13]

I want to see if I fit the UK Middle Class:
Eating quinoa (because obviously you're just eating it because you think it makes you MC) I like it, my kids don't.
-Shopping at Waitrose (because you're just doing it for the bags) We don't have Waitrose, but I regularly shop at Whole Foods, if that's similar.
-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) We've seen musicals, plays, and operas at the theater.
--Bought skiwear in Harrods (it's chivvy). I don’t think we have Harrods, and 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) My SUV is 13 years old.
-Get a blow-dry (too showy and nouveau riche) My stylist blows my hair out every time I get a cut, roughly every six weeks. On occasion I'll have it blown out just for something different.
-Package holidays abroad. No.
-Being from "The North", and heaven forbid you're Scottish! I'm from the north, I suppose, technically the Midwest.
-Having any accent whatsoever. You would all think I have an accent, but you would be mistaken. Actually, a speech teacher at college told me I have the neutral way of speaking that television news anchors try to emulate.

How did I do? Am I UK middle-class?

[steff13]

I currently have rotini, penne, angel hair, and farfalle pasta in the pantry, and hummus in the fridge, if that helps.

[StealthPolarBear]

So a previous sahm who does a little job for pin money is middle class but her dh is working class?

[allegretto]

I am middle class. I can't afford private school for my kids (nor did I go to one) or expensive holidays and if I didn't work we would lose our flat. But - I am a teacher, listen to Radio 4 and love Waitrose (although sadly don't have one nearby). For me working class used to be manual workers but the definitions have all blurred - all the plumbers and builders I know earn more than me!

[Camembertie]

Depends, do you say?

Napkin or serviette?
Toilet or loo?
Sofa or settee?

First time my now DH met my family my mum decided to play U or non U, 20 years later he still does not understand it one jot, he feels staunchly we but whispers I suspect he's actually mc now (but then we mostly are these days)

[Girlgonewild]

I am middle class.
I might be middle of the middle class or possibly upper middle (although I would put Cameron in upper middle more than I am). Does any of it really matter? I went to and my chidlren go to private schools, fairly normal middle class accent, listen to radio 4, don't like overly showy cars, brands etc. not bothered about what people think of me.
Don't use the hair dresser

I was from the north. I went to school with a girl from the North - Lady XYZ in a private school. I don't think being from the North means you are not middle class actually. What about those who live at Alnwick Castle etc?

[EllenDegenerate]

Most of the people whom I know socially have regional accents, as do I.

We're mostly professionals but I don't consider that were established MC.

[KingLooieCatz]

steff13 has a pantry. Golden buzzer and straight through to middle class for you. Regardless of contents of said pantry.

We shop at Waitrose cos it's 5 minutes away on foot. Where we live is outrageously middle class. You literally cannot move for artisanal sourdough.

[MistressPage]

OP you are confused about what Middle Class means. It's nothing to do with money.

Middle Class means reading the Guardian and being a bit left wing, going to the theatre and being very much into the arts and culture, going to the Brighton/Edinburgh fringe festival, sitting in your conservatory drinking coffee and listening to jazz, not giving that much of a stuff about popular culture, drinking mojitos at nice dinner parties with your friends and being a bit eccentric, using long words and being sweary as well, and finding yourself at the till in Waitrose saying to your baby "You look very serious darling, is that cos we were listening to Faure's Requiem in the car?" and then giggling at how fucking middle class you are.

I'm middle class and so are most of my friends....

[MassiveStrumpet]

Middle class used to be merchants. Not aristocracy, but not labouring to produce good for consumption.

Upper class used to live entirely off rent from land they owned then later from investments made in industry (stocks). They did no actual work, other than perhaps governing. Younger sons of this class may go into military or the Church. Perhaps law. They started to merge with the middle class.

Middle class would own the industries. They didn't dig in their mines or build the railways or work in their factories. They got very, very rich. As agricultural declined in the 18th and 19th centuries, they started marrying into the uppers who needed the money.

Working class produced goods for consumption.

As economics shifted and education has become more available, the lines have begun to blur.

[SeasonalVag]

Why do people care about this outdated shit?

[EllenDegenerate]

mistresspage

By your definition MC seems to be an age/maturity thing.
Nobody behaves as you have described at twenty two. Most do (choice of news source and political persuasion nonwithstanding) at forty two.