Middle class tribe - ever get on your nerves - light hearted rant 😄

[ginorwine]

I live in a middle class area which is dominated by lecturers , gp s , social workers etc -my Dh fits into that catagory and I am an x that catagory .
It's a really pretty area and the kids roam between houses etc
Recently - I seem to be a little irritated by its predictability and 'niceness '- tho am aware it's a good area I really am .
I'm
Grumpy menopausal creature at present !
The paint work is mainly Farrell and ball, same kitchen appliances , similar dress code .etc . Whilst I too have Farrell n ball in one room and may therefore fit into the cliche myself (!) I'm becoming quite amused by it all in a way but don't know why .Part of me loves it part of me wants to say rude words and act up and be a Harridan !
Why do we follow these 'tribal 'things ? .the estate agent once reffered to the area as all lentil s and lintels . 😃

I use Farrow and Ball sometimes just because they do better colours. I always look at the cheaper ranges first but often find exactly what I want with F& B. Never had a problem with it either.

Goodmum1234 it's just not a name you associate with mc. Any hyphenated name Ellie-May Lucy-Mae etc etc is usually wc, like the female equivalent of Kaydon, Baydon, Raydon etc

Round here in a very mc commuter village we are prob the only people who don't have farrow and ball or an orla keily statement wallpaper wall. Everyone has huge kitchen living extensions with bifold doors opening out onto a lovely well kept garden, a lot of kids have posh painted Wendy houses, my dd gets v envious she'd love one but our garden is on a slope and we can't afford one anyway, she hasn't even got a trampoline poor thing, v unusual round here! We also don't have a huge plasma TV screen on the wall and our place is generally respectable but not trendy or with anything new and shiny, it's a bit shabby really 😊

If I had the money would I like those things? Probably! Maybe not exactly those, but of course I'd like to improve things if we had the money. I come from a v mc family, my dh is wc roots but now defined mc by his job, I'm a sahm but have a chronic illness so if I had the energy I'd def work on improving things! Funny really, we moved here, back to where I grew up when we had did, and my parents still live here, but we can't really afford to fit in with the tribe round here!

OP, I wonder if we are thinking along similar lines.

I was brought up in an area with about 70% council housing, the other 30% privately owned due to "right to buy" scheme in the 80s.

i now live in the most chi-chi street in S London. Everyone knows each other. They hold street parties. There's a residents' association. At once it's lovely but I also think my 21year old self would punch me in the face if she saw me now.

It's nice but at best I feel like a fish out of water, at worst a class traitor.

Our local school is single sex though. No WAY am I having my DD go there though, no matter how "outstanding" it is.

Buddy198 I wouldn't worry about the lack of trampoline or huge plasma tv, I don't think they're considered mc anyway! (complete opposite in fact!)

Together with "statement" wallpapere walls. Naff.

I'd never even heard of "Farrow & Ball" before reading this thread. The local paint shop just sells Johnstone's or Dulux.

Statement wallpaper...ick.

DH reckons everything in our house is 'dust coloured' which it is, but I love off white and pale grey...so soothing.

DH's favourite colours are burgundy and dark green...naturally he isn't allowed any input, whatsoever, into how we decorate or furnish our home crazed interiors despot that I am

Technically most people are working class as most people have to work.

Not sure what "statement" wallpaper means. But if you mean wallpapering one wall in a room, I like it. A wall's worth of high quality wallpaper is much cheaper than buying a large oil painting. Most of us cannot afford a lot of high quality original art, at a size and quantity that makes an impact.

A wall of Sanderson, or Colefax and Fowler, or whatever, looks a lot better than cheap posters in IKEA frames imho.

I have absolutely no idea why people wish to be considered middle class.

The majority of them are cunts.

May I recommend HRT Ginorowine?

If you've already passed over to the dark side, this won't effect your clarity regarding the emperors' new clothes, but it will stop the stabby feelings.

HRT is cheaper than a divorce, affair or yet another loft conversion made out of carefully F&B painted, upcycled plantation shutters or "LOVE" twigs.

Technically most people are working class as most people have to work.

That's over simplifying and not correct

Echoing what PP have said about some areas having no useful shops. Equally somewhere which only has betting shops and off licenses and down at heel charity shops is miserable too - it's about having a variety. A Greggs and a betting shop are fine in a street of useful, normal shops - a decent late-opening/24hr pharmacy, an opticians or dentist, a nice local charity shop, ethnic stores, a small supermarket like a Co-Op or Tesco Metro, a couple of cafes (preferably a nice coffee shop and a greasy spoon at least), a local restaurant/takeaway or two. Stifling conformity at either end of the spectrum isn't much fun.

Nice, clean, safe areas which aren't full of Farrow and Ball and Boden do exist!

Dor je
Your post made me 😄
Am almost there just the odd flush wth astounding temper !!!

JasperDamerel That sounds like hell to me but obviously heaven to the hipster tribe in your area .

Ahem, the size of a painting has little to do with its quality or impact (thinks of my little modern masters). And a single wallpapered wall is no substitute for even one painting.

Tell Banksy that Foggy .

Being middle class is having choice. If I want a plasma tv I can, if I want a £1000 bag I can, if I want a new car I can, if I want to pay the dc's uni fees I can. Likewise if I fancy a Greggs sausage roll and a cheap midweek supper at the Harvester I can do that too - and thoroughly enjoy it.

The only people I despise are the ones who give a flying f* about what other people do.

How does anyone know what paint is on a wall?

Write a play about it all OP.

It will be cathartic if nothing else. Abigail's party updated. I'd go and see that.

MC good taste is so dull! You have my sympathies, OP.

Re. the statement-wallpapered wall and the ghastly television screen thing stuck on it: no way is that considered middle class!! I think some of you need to brush up on what defines the class system.

As a matter of interest, consider how the upper class live: old television set, faded carpets and upholstered furnishings, inherited good quality furniture, Barbour jackets, old wellies, very old Landrovers which will be muddy and shabby, lots of dogs, dressing for dinner, education truly valued, masses of decent books, jumpers and pearls, tweed... In a word - style.

Those ghastly identikit modern extensions and the wall to wall inability to prove any sort of independent thinking or choices or style - that is not classy. Being properly classy is about not trying too hard and being inclusive. Being properly classy is having excellent manners and being friendly or eccentric.

Oh and class cannot be bought.

Ohtheroses:
It is so lacking in class to talk about what things cost! Why would you want a massive wall TV set or a bag that costs silly money and is probably Tacksville with a capital T??!

I didn't say I wanted them, I said I could have them. Everyone knows what things cost anyway, all they have to do is google.

What lacks class is the obsession some people have with it. The people who care don't matter and the ones who can tell would never mention it.