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?'

Yes winterlight

I was at our annual conference when my senior manager commented that she liked my dress, I replied "oh thank you, fifteen quid from eBay"

She looked like being a lovely southern, middle class lady who probably shops exclusively at Hobbs.

If someone said their dress was a Victoria Beckham that cost ££££ people would think that they were vulgar show offs but it's ok to mention the price if it's from New Look?

I love a bargain too OP.

Well done!

Constance-
No, that's not the point. It's not pride in the cost, its mentioning the cost. It's like a reflex action in my family to mention the cost of what you buy and ask others how much things cost.

I've just noticed that middle class friends seem to shy away from ever mentioning the price of things cheap or expensive.

They wouldn't have to mention the price - mentioning Victoria Beckham would be enough

That's because it's a no no to talk about how much your house/holiday/car cost you Winterlight.

There was almost a thread juxtaposition there : this one- what makes you working class and the one almost below: Smuggling booze into a wedding.

This is what my definitely working class family used to do quite regularly. Must be it.

Winterlight I definitely identify with that! I got a new job recently and MC MIL congratulated me and I said thanks and automatically said how it was X amount more per month than my current job which meant we could X, Y, Z and things would be less tight during such and such a time, and she just looked at me all baffled that I was sharing this information.

We are working class.

The evidence:
Live in a council house.
Grew up in a council house.
Parents grew up in a council house.
Our parent's jobs include postman, cleaner, carer, cafe assistant, convicted drug dealer, carpenter.
I'm a SAHM, because I can't afford to work.
DH is a skilled tradesman.
Holidays in caravans as a child.
Nearly all of our family smoke.
No one in our family has ever gone to university or even got close.
We were teenaged parents.
To call someone common is the ultimate insult.
To look like you are poor is the ultimate humiliation.

DH earns a good wage, we've just got back from Centerparcs and we home ed. The words 'la di da' have been thrown about our extended family!

I quite often mention the price if someone says they like something. My friends tend to like a bargain too though.

Thanks Jo it really was a superb dress.

It was brand new from Needle & Thread, RRP £150!

I may have also imparted this info to my senior manager, just can't help myself where bargains are concerned.

My very MC friend was saying slightly sanctimoniously how well OH and I appear to manage financially, what with us having five DC.
I'd had a few wines so I went in to great detail about all my Boden charity shop bargains.
She then replied with the whole new wardrobe she'd recently ordered from Next that she'd had to return because she is so very petite.

This is why I consider a love of a charity shop/eBay bargain to be the preserve of the WC. My friend looked a bit pitying when I shared with her my love of a good rummage in Age Concern.

Shopping in Iceland/ home bargains/ pound stretcher
Letting your kids 'play out'
Buying your kids a 'Maccy D's' for lunch
Smoking in public
Holidays at Haven and getting pissed at the family disco
Walking around in the summer with no shirt on (blokes)
Catching the bus to work
Going to Bingo

It's not a no no in the working class culture that I grew up in though. No one considers sharing the price of things at all vulgar.

I thought that sharing those differences was sort of the point of this thread.

Same here Winterlight

Discussing your bargains has never been considered vulgar, although it's always been considered distasteful to crow about how much your new Audi cost or the new Orangery you've just added to your house.

No second hand clothes
Spotlessly clean house
Immaculately dressed children
Holidays either florida, package to Spain or butlins / haven

Don't drink, don't go to Iceland - Heron Foods - Tesco . Dont watch Emmerdale,Coronation Street, Love Island, Big Brother, any sport on TV . Dont go into a Wetherspoons for any meals, likewise KFC, McDonalds or Any fast food place. What does that make me ......probably boring !

Insisting on chips with your Chinese takeaway (or boglenese).
Eating cake with a spoon
Vienetta with Christmas dinner
Personally knowing / being related to a workman for every occasion
Having one family member who has good enough credit for a catalogue and all other family members using said catalogue account.
Making a massive deal of Xmas
Dressing your kids in clothes with massive labels on
Package holidays
Clothes and furniture getting passed around the family
Wetting the babies head
Having one of those TV's that you have to top up with pound coins
Christmas saving schemes
Smoking in your house.

MissAlabama-

Yes, that's true. Discussion of price tends to focus on bargains or disbelief; 'you wouldn't believe what they were charging!'

But crowing would be frowned on.

Luxury!

I hate men walking around in the summer with no top on. But then my dad, who worked on a factory line, would never have dreamed of doing that. He comes from the old working class that would never have dreamed of doing that,and looked down on men who did.

Oh I don't mind so much Brasty so long as they are easy on the eye.

Of course I'd never admit this IRL and have the sense to look suitably appalled should one roam in to my line of vision when OH is around

Can you still get those pound coin tv's?

I have a professional job but always have and always will class myself as Northern WC. I'm not sure why I think there is a north/south wc divide but I do.
My list -

• I say breakfast, dinner and tea.
• I always have a cup of tea with my tea.
• I eat bread with everything.
• I love the soaps.
• My kids have played out from being little. Just like all the other kids on the street.
• I get my make up and hair done for a night out.
• my daughter age 6 wears a belly top sometimes ( I know this is bad but I used to wear shell suits so don't feel like I am in a position to comment on her clothing choices)
• My family is massive, 12 aunties and uncles just on my dads side!
• 3 children by the time I was 30
• regional accent

Are we talking about being WC now or in the 70s?

Holidays at Center Parcs rather than overseas

I'm very much working class and not paying Centre Parcs prices!! £400 all in in Benidorm for winter sun does me!

And a 5 bedroomed house as working class?! That's well posh!

I love my accent. I can assure you though that I'm not Black Country, though anyone from outside the Midlands assume I'm a yam yam!

And I don't have a Mum but I do have a Mom. I also eats scons not scones and have a bath not a Barth and I sit on my ass on the grass not my arse on the graaas.

Common as muck me! From a working class background. Dad was a factory worker, Mom a SAHM. I had hand me down clothes so was always dresses a decade behind thanks to the 12 year age gap!