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 love this way that people seem to associate being from the north seems to automatically means working class and how lots of wc seem to say this as if it authenticates their credentials or something.

There are plenty of mc and wc people in all counties of the uk!

MissAlabamaWhitman

I admire you're honesty. Having read your comments it does appear that you are very much working class.

You may have a point Tea

Although, I think you would be pretty hard pushed to find many people from my city, which is Northern who would self identify as MC.

On the whole I suspect that northerners are more likely to identify as WC.
From my observations there isn't the stigma attached to doing so which precludes many southerners from identifying as such, even when it most accurately denotes their economic, cultural and social position.

Thank you user14928

I appreciate you saying so

Having a sitting room not a lounge.
Have very working class background,great-grandchildren was a buffer girl,grandad a miner the other lied about his age and joined the army at 15.My parents both left school at 16,I was born when they were 22.Lots of hand me downs but all smart for going out in.
Then my dad spoilt it all be going to night school then uni.Then my mum followed and both became teachers.Parents divorced when no one did that so we were poor lower middle class.
We must have been socially mobile,GPS houses inaccurate,mum's less so with kids now very tidy but more relaxed style,mine ok if you don't look too closely.People say I should get a cleaner but I don't want to pay for something I could do and always thought only posh people or those a bit above themselves had cleaners.
Breakfast,dinner and yes but think that's a regional thing.
So not sure where those of us who started one way and end up as wine,avacado and low carb diets who also say key near fit in nowadays.

I would say it is about a bit combination of things if you have enough from that column then you are that class.

My indicators of a work I g class perso would be using French derived words over the Germanic or English ones. So settee over sofa and such. Other language I indicators would be: Lounge or front room over sitting room. Pardon over excuse me, especially when they think that saying person is the 'posh' way. Using the word posh. Valuing tv highly by either having many or a bit one or many big ones all with Sky. Always having to buy new, valuing labels and posessions a lot. Loving football . More likely to have traditional gender roles. E.g. women are seen as bag who love cleaning and men seen and living being with the last down the pub.

Damn auto queue,granny not grandchild!

Jesus, I clearly don't proof read. New phone, get fingers.

I go to two toddler groups, one in a WC area, one in a MC area, here's what I've noticed;
WC mums:
Drive everywhere
Buy everything new
Get overly excited about the Next sale
Change their kids nappies every 5 mins
Talk about laundry (a lot)
Seem to have more adult time (make their relationships/friendships as much of a priority as their kids which is healthier.)
Don't 'play' as much with their kids
Would never ever get a cleaner
Don't seem to do as much with their kids (extra curricular activities, day trips etc.)
MC mums;
Crow about how old and rubbish their second hand kids clothes are.
Love a bit of a skip rummage.
Try to be extra nice to people of colour if they are white.
Do way too much with their babies.
Go on holidays in the UK even if they could afford to go abroad as some sort of torture method (we're going camping in the Brecon Beacons in March!)
Are outraged by the line in The Wheels on the Bus which goes 'the mummies on the bus go chatter chatter chatter'
Love to cycle and walk (all seasons) even if they have a car at home
Give unsalted rice cakes as 'treats'
Talk about sugar vs sweetener (a lot)

Autocorrect has gone nuts today

We don't even have a lounge.

Front room, back room, dining room, kitchen in this house.

Lots of us who are WC follow low carb diets. I do.
All you need is access to the internet (check) and ability to read (also check)
Wine is cheap these days too. They sell it in Savers FGS.

Extra the MC women sound really nice.

Alabama

Do you live in Liverpool now? I'm on the border in Knowsley though i went to an all girls school in Liverpool

We have a living room.

We have a living room.

Some of these posts are bordering on rather unpleasant, you know.

Zoflora

No I'm dingle born and bread but have now defected to over the water.

Did you go to ND by any chance?

I'm working class, I earn a wage. That's it.

There are lots of things I see as working class:

• having a massive TV and Sky
• eating lots of takeaways
• Butlins/Haven/Benidorm etc
• ladies that drink beer/ cider - especially from a can!
• allowing children to eat sweets/ fizzy drinks as anything other than a treat
• smoking
• swearing around children
• reading the Sun.

I think the point is that there's much to be admired on both sides of the fence, the MC mums might run up and want to know your name but would they be there for you? If I ran to their house in my pj's crying then would it be 'bad timing' because they had 'people over.' I know the WC friends I have would do anything for me, and are loyal to the end.
I have my feet in both camps (uni educated but broke af most of the time) so I feel I can be critical of both

The thing is there is a flipside to a lot of the 'good' things about both MC/WC.

Family is valued in WC communities and can extend to friendships but this can (purely IME) border on intrusive and downright nosy on occasion.

That's just an example and some will feel differently but I know when I worked in the community I got fed up of being asked really quite personal questions by people who "meant no harm".

You see those as WC or you are WC and that's what you do? Marley?

Surely not all MC people would turn someone in need away because they were busy. I wouldn't and haven't.

Blimey. The working class make more loyal friends than middle class people?

Yeah fuck my mates. Let them wallow.

No I don't do those things, just stereotypical stuff.