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 . 😃

IMO it's insecure people who need 'tribes' whether MC,WC or whatever. It seems to be that most of us need to feel we belong to one group or another. I've witnessed it all through my fairly lengthy life .

John Lennon was being naive to think there could ever be "no countries or religions".

Hummus, you mention visiting Peckham from the Bronx. Do you, perchance, live in Lewisham?

Hoolie But how did you guess??!

Because it's a neighbouring borough and it's so, erm,....edgy and authentic? I've been working there for the last 6 months and I generally had culture shock when I started although it's growing on me. And I can't see it getting poncified any time soon!

Today I left my flat to discover someone had taken a shit in the second floor stairwell. I wish I had your problems!

Ha! TBF, my corner of Lewisham (Brockley) feels "just right" to me in terms of ponciness/lintels/the availability of sourdough. Lewisham town centre and surrounds I don't visit very much.

Not a Londoner but have friends who live in S London so visit often. Is it weird for me to prefer the 'rough' areas? Not out of (I promise) hipster views on ~~~authenticness~~~ but I feel like I fit in more. I have no use for sourdough Give me tons of Afro beauty shops so I can get cheap Palmers instead!

Jeepers, I think that you are over analysing your area to be honest. People don't necessarily choose to join a tribe

Yep, bit of over analysing, all that about being conscious of where you shop, brands you use etc being a signifier, all sounds a bit too aspirational rather than actual middle class. I mean who cares?
I wouldn't have thought of social work as being a middle class profession though...

I know what you mean, there are streets like that in every town. Even the degenerated ones have these type of businesses setting up in the naice areas.
I don't think it's necessarily mc though, plenty of wc live in these areas now.
I tried some of that paint, Elephants gonads or something, it was shit, didn't do the job and had to go to B&Q for Dulux that cost a quarter of the price and actually did the job, had a proper name too.

Those coffee choux buns look delicious.

It's a bit vanilla innit. Am also hugely amused by it all. #First world problems. My local mums group had a discussion on which Farrow and Ball white paint to use. There's a few apparently....diff types of white that is. Had over 200 comments. Think elephant's breath triumphed (trumpeted)in the end.

Oh dear, one of the kids posted that before I was finished and now whatever profound post I was going to leave is gone. A loss to mumsnet no doubt .
Seriously though, I fit all the middle class cliches but I don't make a conscious effort to. It's just because I am lazy and they are the choices most available to me. It bothers me a bit that people would think that I am somehow trying to be superior. Disclaimer: We use Little Greene paint, better coverage .

And up north in proper Birketts cake shops, coffee choux buns are called Elephant's feet. Tastier than Elephant's breath anyway. And cheap at 90p a go.

God, I would love to have a Greggs, here. But Tesco and Lidl were spurned; Waitrose and independent organic lentil shoppes reign supreme.

OMG how do you live without a Greggs? you poor deprived thing

In my area everyone is either retired and upper middle class or 20 something commuters who keep their heads down.

We're some of the very few young families and few of those who have a low income. It's a fab area and high retired percentage keeps things from getting weirdly tribal since most of them have spent too many years giving and fuck and are all out of them. Lots of brilliant quirky people becuase of it.

My previous town was totally tribal in this way though! I did not fit in one bit, but no one was nasty about it or judgey. I was just quietly aware of it, didn't like feeling that way.

OhGood this made me LOL, thank you!

I live in a bear pit and am chained upside down most of the time, god it's SO annoying

(Am late to this thread )

Most of the stuff associated with the middle classes is just people having enough money and time to make an effort with food, living choices etc. I dont really see what's wrong with it and I do some of it, but pick and choose what suits me.

What I really hate is snobiness - when others look DOWN on you if you don't conform. We moved to a posh little village with a good school. We were really pleased with the area. However, we live on a small cauldisac of smaller houses in the village, and because these properties cost less than 300,000 (this is midlands area, not London) we are considered the poor relation. You should see the shock on other mums' faces when they see where I live as they toddle on back to their mansions. There us a real sense of looking down noses if you dont drink expensive wine, or if you drive a ford or an old car. If you dont have a gardener and your hedges are a mess then they've got something to say about it.

Highly irritating.

BackAgain Have you been to Rye lane in Peckham? I'd hazard a guess there are more Afro Beauty shops/hairdressers per square foot than anywhere in the UK. And they ain't going to pushed out by any sourdough and olives establishment without one hell of a fight. It's genuine class war in action.

Reminds me of a conversation I overhead in Costa the other day. Two women just as you described complaining about having to find another cleaner and ferrying the kids to various clubs. I had a chuckle to myself that they probably panic if they run out of olives!

Nobody where I live would be caught dead in Waitrose.

That's because we have Turkish supermarkets and Asian Cash and Carry on our doorstep where you can buy bunches of bristlingly fresh herbs as big as your head for 69p, creamy Turkish feta in rounds from a stainless steel vat, lovely flatbreads two feet long and a foot wide for £1, huge raw prawns for £12 a kilo, red snapper, flat doughnut peaches for £1 a box, tiny, syrupy little Muscat grapes, fresh yellow dates still on the branch....

It's a foodie heaven where I live. Waitrose be damned!

I find it rather boring, just like any "all the same" tribe. Don't mind it so long as people realise it's just a fashion not a better way of being and terribly interesting and superior. I live in a real culturally mixed area, so although most of my friends have graduate/management/career jobs, I find people don't have the same taste/music/food at all.

I actually had to move away from Guildford when I tried living there for a while. Early 2000s, fucking white company appeared to be a replacement for any personal taste whatsoever and all to ensure no one took you for a "chav". Shudder.

LPickers yep. It's the lazy snobbery.

Even worse if paired with ignorance. Eg turning the nose up at a genuine Indian grocer for a tiny phial of over priced spice in Waitrose or (as someone I know loudly did) moaning you asked for chardonnay once for a free drink and the fool brought chablis.

... oh and as an unashamed antique/retro snob - shit renovation of older stuff with farrow and ball is fucking shit. It often ruins the collector value and beauty of really good pieces of older furniture which could be properly restored NOT in shitty pastel chalk paint.

Of course they think I'm a chav because of my London accent then I have to "prove" my knowledge and why they've just spent several days turning a £400 piece of mid century into a £80 wreck.