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?'

I get lots of my furniture and home accessories from charity shops too, my house is what I fondly term eclectic.

My very MC friend has a very matchy matchy, minimalist house, whereas mine is cluttered by comparison.

I knew it Zoflora.

It's only scousers who call it home & bargain apparently

Jo, I don't know, I'm WC.

I had dinner at a friend's with a small group. All solidly MC at least; a couple probably more like upper middle.

Main was pasta in a nice sauce. A salad was put on the table and we had side plates but everyone ate their pasta and didn't touch the salad, then afterwards, put salad on the side plates and ate it.

I put some salad on my main plate and used it to mop up the rest of my sauce. Host/friend asked me, looking puzzled, if I wanted a separate plate for it. I gleaned from this that you're supposed to do as they did and eat it afterwards and separately. I don't see the point though, when there's delicious pasta sauce to be mopped up!

Oh come on now NC

Even M&S have a 'spark's card' loyalty scheme going.

It must therefore be pretty universal to call it 'marks & sparks' because I doubt the CEO is pandering specifically to those of us who are WC.

Not Marks and Sparks. Marks-ies!

We were taught at school that your class was dependent on your occupation. My occupation would make me middle class, although I am from a more working class background as my mum worked in a shop when I was a kid and my dad mainly did manual type labour. My tastes are a mixture, I like eating fast foods like mcds, greggs, kebabs and pot noodles and I also like cooking elaborate meals, avocados, houmous and fancy restaurants. I love trashy tv. I go all out at xmas and spend too much money, I like matching my kids clothes from time to time, on the other hand I have a 4 bed house with 3 toilets, but no cleaner.

I call it Marks, not Marksies.

I've never heard Marksies, regional perhaps?

I'm 31 and an inordinate number of boys I went to school with are dead already.

Is dying working class?

But maybe that's a Glasgow thing?

More the fact that they've died young in situations the middle class people I now associate with would never find themselves in.

Fair enough intrigued

I live an entirely middle class life but if I'm pissed my accent gets very strong, I get argumentative and I could easily hit someone.

I was brought up where the above was entirely normal. Fights in the street, fights at home, threatening people if they 'disrespected' you, violence as an every day language.

Fairly obviously I don't get pissed. Or go to rough pubs, or take drugs.

Scrape that guacamole veneer off and there's a fucking arsehole underneath.

We had a pop man! Not seen one since the 80s.

Where did you find him?

I didn't go to school with any boys.

There were lots of anorexic girls in my year group though so I wonder if anorexia is a WC affliction?
One was very unwell though and did almost die.
I hope that she's better now, I haven't thought of her in a while.

I've read a bit more of the thread now and didn't realise 'underclass' was considered separately from working class... so maybe my initial post would be more at home on a thread titled 'To ask what makes you underclass? (Depressing)'

Poppypopcorns post is why I hate what some of MN think being WC is all about.

There were lots of anorexic girls in my year group though so I wonder if anorexia is a WC affliction?

I think it's much more associated with being middle class...if anything.

sapphire I'd say they were being pretentious. I'd serve pasta and salad together. If the main's pasta It's pretty informal anyway. Might put side plates put if I served the pasta in bowls.

Even if there were hard and fast rules about informal suppers they were very rude to make an issue of it.

He knocked on our door human

My OH almost pissed himself with excitement.

He is a bit irregular though, think he covers a large area to make a living as these days people are much more conscious of the implications of drinking lots of fizzy pop.

I'm not though. I know how to moderate.

twirls

There were lots of anorexic girls in my year group though so I wonder if anorexia is a WC affliction

You have got to be joking? It's a mental illness , doesn't matter what 'class' you originate from.

Goady post right there.

LaurieFairyCake

Behind the cute username, you're actually Frank Begbie, aren't you? 😂

Unfortunately yes. Which is why I really don't drink.

Thanks, Roses. They're good friends, so I don't know why I didn't just laugh it off, remind them of my lowly origins (in a joking way) and ask the 'proper' way to do it.

Guess I still feel a bit ashamed/self-conscious and slightly inferior to real middle-class people.

Oh behave yourself SanDiego

It's a valid observation on a lighthearted thread.

If I had wanted to be goady I'd go and do so on a thread which somebody else had started, like everybody else does.