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?'

miss threads about class can never be positive and light hearted - this is the UK!

Playing out is being allowed to play in the street outside your house as a child.

Today 15:51 ChasingHighs

The OP was asking WC mumnetters what being WC was. But instead all the MC mumnetters who have a WC MiL etc have to stick their oar in and trot put all the stereotypes.

And that is exactly why this thread was never going to be lighhearted because you can't stop someone posting about their WC family/friends etc.

It was started to shit stir.

Shit I live 20mins from Glasgow I didn't know that. Well that's cheered me right up.

I grew up in a working class immigrant household.

I went to grammar school and university and entered a respectable profession. Although I live in a nice neighbourhood we can only just about afford to do so.

I buy a lot of my clothes and furniture second hand.

I rarely wear makeup and my house isn't exactly spotless.

Like a previous poster I don't think any job is beneath me and I'd do any job to earn money rather than claim benefits.

I don't eat "posh" food and love fast food.

Not sure what class I am as my ethnic origin plays a large role in my lifestyle and takes me outside of the class system a little.

I don't agree with you Tea

The post was asking WC people about the things which makes them feel WC.

There was absolutely no requirement for MC mumsnetters to contribute their perception of those behaviours which denote being WC.

None at all.
It was uncalled for, irrelevant and impolite.

writinghome your post just comes across as someone who sniggers behind your step sil back.

I played out every weekend and throughout the summer holidays as a child. I've never seen any children playing out where I live.

Was wc people describing mc called for and polite?

Thanks MissAlabama

As a North American, I find this thread super interesting. Even though we don't have the same class system, we're still pretty attuned to markers of class status. In a way, it's even more insidious, because nobody will admit that there is such a thing as class and everyone clings to the dream of upward mobility and the idea that if you don't "make it," it's entirely your fault and that there's nothing structural about it.

What's good for the goose and all that.

And you really believed that only WC posters were going to contribute to your thread?

Bollocks did you.

Hang on! I thought Working class = Blue collar occupations.
Middle class = White collar occupations. A poster said Working class actually means anyone who works for a living. Who's right?

Do you know what Constance?

I really do pity you if you honestly believe that to be true and aren't just being nasty for the sake of it

Nobody would accuse a person of being a shit stirrer for asking MC people what it means to them to be MC.
So why won't you afford the WC the same consideration?

Do we always necessarily deserve to have the piss taken out of us in a way which the MC don't, in your opinion?

Because that's your problem if you think that way

And it's unspeakably sad.

Miss, going back to Home Bargains, I'm pretty sure that they were called Home and Bargain years ago. I'm thinking of the one on Lord Street in particular.

I've since moved to Hull and still say "Jacko's" when what I really mean is Sainsbury's Local.

My application:

Neither DH nor I went to uni
DH left school at 16 with no qualifications (didn't take any exams, left three weeks after 16th birthday)
DH was a squaddie, a factory worker then a postman
Huge telly and Sky subscription (plus telly in every room of the house except bathroom and kitchen)
Furniture points at the telly
Terraced house
Holidays in static caravans
Used to have Provident loans
Shop in Iceland, Aldi, B and M and the Range
Prepayment meters for gas and electricity

Anyone meeting us would think we are middle class though, because I am a civil servant, we have a decent family car that isn't brand new but is well loved, and we are members of a London club. But we are really working class with a decent income.

According to mumsnet rules:

• Having a huge TV in my living room that isn't hidden away in a cupboard.
• The fact I'm not ashamed about my huge TV.
• I eat kebabs whilst sober.
• Grew up on a council estate in the North!
• My mum and dad had 7 kids
• Dad was a miner
• Breakfast, dinner and tea

I am actually working class though so I don't care!

You know Morris, it wasn't in the spirit of the thread.

I had rather hoped that we could lightheartedly discuss our class idiosyncrasies, predilections and signifiers without making reference to the MC.

Sadly it seems that members of both social classes are unable to do so, which is a shame.

TeaCake does it? I simply listed the things that she regularly does / shares on FB and talks about in real life. How is that sniggering?

I too am from a WC background, with grandparents being trades people parents did not attend third level (I was the first to do so) but my parents had their own business and made some money so that by the time I reached my teens we were living in a nicer area, in a nicer house etc.

However, I did not grow up in UK so perhaps different cultural markers. Step SIL is from UK

I don't believe that you started this thread to have a "nice" discussion about WC folk.

You've been pretty sneery throughout and quite mean in parts about MC people.

Surely to cause a reaction?

It was only a matter of time before the sneering started. Why is the name Jayden so bad? Just curious, it always makes an appearance on these threads.

Don't believe it Constance

I won't be losing any sleep over it, nor further granting you an audience.

I'd be interested to know exactly how I've been mean about MC people but other than that particular point my interest in your particular opinion of my motives has been thoroughly quashed.

I'm working class and one thing I've noticed is that middle class friends hardly ever mention the price of things, whereas it feels odd for me not to.

So for example; if I'm wearing a new top and get a compliment I'll say' thanks-it was a bargain-reduced to £7.99 in New Look' Or I'll say how much our holiday cost.

But they seem quite shy of mentioning the cost of the new car/house/holiday etc as if it's not the done thing.

Of course the biggest thing that makes me WC is being disappointed my kids are turning out MC! Oh DP was so ashamed when DS started eating quinoa and kale! 😂😂

I always get the impression with these threads that there's an element of competitive WC-ness. A bit like Marie Antoinette dressing up as a milk maid to amuse herself.