To ask what makes you working class? (Lighthearted)

[MissAlabamaWhitman]

So, the whole 'what makes you middle class' has been done to death hasn't it?

We're all pretty au fair with avocados, elephants sodding breath, the ubiquity of joules et cetera.
And lovely as it is to have such knowledge of the middle classes, none of it applies to me.

I'm working class and I'll explIn to you that which denotes this in just a minute.

Incidentally I heard that there's a few of us about so perhaps we can make our own list of our very own class signifiers.

Who's in?

I shall go first.....

Love of charity shops, this week I picked up a leather Hobbs bag for 3.99 and a couple of Abercrombie & Fitch tops for DD1 1.49 each!

Love of Iceland/Heron foods/Home bargains/B&M. Yes I know I could get everything I need in Sainsbury's but I actually prefer scrabbling around for bargains and topping up at Lidl.

Chardonnay. I love it, tastes fab. I can't be arsed to pretend that I prefer a Beaujolais or Cab Sav. I don't.

One bathroom/toilet in a five bed house.

Regional accent which I take pleasure in.

Children who play football and wear replica kits whilst doing so

Girls who wear pinkI draw the line at bloody Jojo bows though

Getting drunk at barbecues and performing impromptu Karaoke.

Allowing my children to 'play out' in the cul de sac from age seven.

Cleaning my own house.

Holidays at Center Parcs rather than overseas.

Owning a Huskita

Letting my children watch TV and eat crisps in full view of other parents.

Having a 'pop man'

Listening to LBC rather than R4

Not really giving a fuck about trans, one way or the other.

I'm sure there's lots more besides which I'll try to remember.
How about you?
What makes you sit back at the end of a hard day and think 'yep I'm a fully paid up member of the old working classes?'

[DameDoom]

Working class. Brought up in a village in the North East. Mostly upper working class families with massively high aspirations. Parents owned a corner shop but also had full-time WC jobs. The importance of education and bettering ourselves was hammered into us all. Most of my year group got into good redbrick unis (full grants) and we worked our bollocks off. Don't think we were particularly intelligent but a proper working class ethic of working your arse off was and still is ingrained.
My parents house was immaculate, we were immaculate and manners were paramount... and proper diction - we were encouraged to be proud of our accents but slang and dropping the g was not tolerated.

[frumpety]

.

[FreyaJade]

I'm definitely WC (care assistant, low wage, WC parents) but I think I must have a MC person inside me trying to get out.

Evidence: I like avocados & hoummous, I read the guardian (online) & go to coffee shops.
I hate football, the Sun & English food.

In reality like I said I'm working class but I am good at mixing with people from all different backgrounds & have friends of all classes, races, religions etc

[nina2b]

But it is drop dead gorgeous.

[Cellardoor23]

Yeah, I live in Edinburgh. The weather isn't the greatest!

[MissAlabamaWhitman]

Birmingham then Liverpool Cellar

Although I got in to Manchester and really regret not going there instead of Birmingham.

It rains lots in Manchester though, and Edinburgh too as it happens

[nina2b]

Today 15:36 GetAHaircutCarl

Struck what chord?

Do you imagine I'm ashamed of being working class? Why would I be?

And as I've tried to explain my experience of what young people school are planning to do with their lives is current not based on stereotypes. I have twelve of the buggers in my kitchen right now!

They don't have grand plans.
They do however have a ludicrous plan that they only need ten minutes to get ready tomorrow morning and that it will only take twenty to get to the airoprthmm

Cool.

[Cellardoor23]

Alabama I went to a red brick too What university did you go to? I went to Southampton although I really wanted to go to Edinburgh, but I got rejected -I'm not bitter-

[GetAHaircutCarl]

miss yes indeed.

We working class folk are all terribly worried about it and trying to hide it!

We also don't know anything about anything, except possibly whippets and pies. And maybe nail bars.

[GetAHaircutCarl]

Struck what chord?

Do you imagine I'm ashamed of being working class? Why would I be?

And as I've tried to explain my experience of what young people school are planning to do with their lives is current not based on stereotypes. I have twelve of the buggers in my kitchen right now!

They don't have grand plans.
They do however have a ludicrous plan that they only need ten minutes to get ready tomorrow morning and that it will only take twenty to get to the airoprt.

[MissAlabamaWhitman]

Oh ffs Carl just know your place and tug your forelock will you?

You're supposed to be deferential in your demeanour towards the likes of nina.

Do you see what I did there? I made it rhyme so that your proletariat little mind can remember what I said.

You're very welcome

[nina2b]

Sweeping statements are not evidence, btw!

[nina2b]

Don't you find that grin thing terribly passive aggressive?!

[nina2b]

[nina2b]

Sorry if I struck a chord...

[GetAHaircutCarl]

However you have proved you have no manners.

[GetAHaircutCarl]

nina what am I trying to prove? I've stated very clearly that I am working class and perfectly happy with that.

You then told me I don't understand what rich well educated kids are doing these days so I explained that I do. My experience could not be more current!

[MissAlabamaWhitman]

I was privately educated, my parents scrimped and saved to send me to prep school and then I was fortunate enough to gain an assisted place at an independent.

So to say that the WC don't value education is about as far from my experience as it's possible to be.

Incidentally I read philosophy at a redbrick because I was interested in it, fart arsed around in PR for a year or so, had a baby and then did a nursing degree.

I absolutely value education for my children. I'm betraying my principles and sending my eldest to a grammar school next month
I value education so much that I'm willing to admit to blatant hypocrisy for the perusal and enjoyment of I'm sure, myriad right wing parents

[squoosh]

I could have millions in the bank and I'd still love rummaging in charity shops, shop at Lidl/Heron/Iceland. I still wouldn't listen to Radio 4 or buy a new build house.

I'm sure on an alternate thread rummaging in charity shops and a dislike of new build houses would be used as markers of being middle class.

[nina2b]

I am also laughing at the idea of law being a very popular choice for the working class!

[nina2b]

"Hardly any of them HAS a Grand Plan."

[nina2b]

Today 12:16 GetAHaircutCarl

Based on the current experience of having two DC leave a hugely selective public school this Summer.

The pupils are rich, extremely clever and worldly. Hardly any of them have a Grand Plan.

Oh my goodness, that is a cringeworthy post! You really don't have to prove anything to anyone.That you should seek to do so, indicates your class...

[GetAHaircutCarl]

I think being a lawyer is seen as a very solid profession by many WC people.

And most WC students want to leave university with something solid in their pocket.

That's not a concern for my DC and their upper MC mates from what I can see. Though some of them will end up lawyers I would bet.

[DragonsandDungeons]

Law is WC?!

Me and DP both did law, that settles it

[DragonsandDungeons]

I sort of straddle the awkward line between middle and working class. My dads posh but my mum is working class and we had much more to do with her family, so I'm kind of a hybrid.

Anyway mine are

• had my first baby at 21
  

• I don't sanitise my kids hands every two seconds
  

• cheap beer is good beer
  

• dinner and tea here
  

• West Midlands accent
  

• I'm very straight speaking.
  

I don't have a WC "look" though, I'm very pale. And I shop in M&S because I buy stuff like toilet paper and branded goods from cheap shops!

I'm a weird one.