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?'

You don't get to start a thread poking fun at MC people then have a say whether they can react or not OP.

You knew exactly what you were doing.

I am working class.

I am proud of that?

Not really.

It's sad that people are marginalised and subjugated.

Centuries of class structure has robbed people of aspiration and opportunity.

Even this thread is a sad reminder of how much social disparity we have.
UK is one of the richest countries in the world, but one of the biggest in terms of the rich/poor divide.
We have enough money in this country to allow everyone a decent standard of living.
But that doesn't suit the rich.
It's fucking gruesome.

Nobody has called anybody a shit mum, nobody said anybody had bad dress sense either.

It's much more insidious than that.

Tell me Morris does being disingenuous usually work out well for you?
You seem rather fond of it.

Nearly all the stereotypes of WC parenting on this thread have been negative. Marleys post is a prime example.

Make your mind up Constance

You were agreeing with SanDiego who said I started it to have a pop at WC people before.

So which is it?

or do you need somebody else to tell you?

Indeed constance

OP, I'm personally not finding you particularly amusing; perhaps others are.

It has nothing to do with CP. I think on reflection the thread is a big stealth boast. "Look at how much i have and I still consider myself WC!"

I would add to that the point that if charity shops locally to you typically carry designer wear such as Hobbs you possibly live in an affluent area (even if it is in the North) and that most genuinely WC people I know wouldn't know Hobbs if you whacked them round the head with it.

Well, OPs starting to get the bun fight she wanted!

The MC dont like it when the WC get all uppity. Know your place.

I didn't say bad dress sense. I said dull colours from Fat Face. It was more than one poster and it's on the first page of the thread. You're totally goading now, unless you're new to mumsnet which from your op you don't seem to be (sodding elephants breath etc).

I have my foot in both camps. Working class upbringing in a council house with free School Dinners. I am very proud of my upbringing.
1st one to go to Uni and now have a good job.
I have Dinner and Supper. Holiday abroad, drive a BMW have my nails done. But shop at Tesco. I'm pro Union. Rarely see my GP

I see this thread has taken different directions but I am interested. I think traditional classes are becoming harder to define than a couple of decades ago even, and definitely than 100 years ago.
I don't know what I am. I think WC though.

MC me;
Shops in charity shops
Shops at Sainsburys
Has a messy house
Doesn't answer her door
Went to university and has two degrees.

My parent's only child
Parents are well off.
Drives a sports car
Isn't interested in working all the time, have had non work periods a few times
Likes 'posh' food
Speaks quite well.
Is quite slim.
Wears natural make up
Doesn't go on holiday
Goes running and walking
Says breakfast lunch and dinner

WC me;
Wears fake tan (I just look better with it)!
Drinks cider out of a can
Goes to whatever supermarket is handy
Drinks at pubs (including wetherspoons)
Mother from a council estate
Both grandads were 'downt pit'
Was fairly poor growing up
Doesn't get dressed until she's leaving the house
Eats pot noodles

I think background is most important which is why I think I'm working class. But I'm at struggling to find other examples here!

The most popular parenting trait on this thread has been letting kids play out. How is that negative? Kids need more outdoor play not less, as posters well know.

I'd say you're rather intentionally myopic regarding what being WC actually entails baileys

As for bun fight, stop being goady.
It's tedious and frankly, you're crap at it.

According to my very MC DP, my housecoat makes me WC. He has never known anyone who owns a housecoat.

My autocorrect also struggles with this because it insists I mean to type "houseboat".

Maybe but I dress in 'full colours' from Fat Face too... and that's not very positive either

Chasing Highs, ain't that the truth.

We have breakfast, lunch and tea.

We do either a package holiday or butlins. Centreparks is too expensive when you can get a week AI out of season in Tenerife for the same price. Butlins is booked via the Sun holiday codes.

We shop mainly in Aldi. Top ups in tescos, b and m, and occasionally home bargains. M and S for the 2 dine in for a tenner.

Dcs are dressed in Next, Joules occasionally and branded bling for dd (13).

I drink wine (m and s meal deals) and gin. Dp is a carling man.

We have ponies and an allotment. Ponies are cheaper to keep than a 20 a day fag habit for 2 people as I often point out to people who think we are rolling in it because ponies. Usually they smoke or spend £150 a month on hair, fake nails, fake tans etc.

Dp is a builder, I am mostly a sahm for now bjt also do all the paperwork for dps business.

We are as wc as they come. Some of the things we have or do are probably classed as mcish. But we were both dragged up, had lots of poverty and haven't had it easy.

Am hoping dd goes to university. And ds too tho he is only 3 so a long way off. I think class these days is a very fluid concept.

Most popular, yes.
Most deliberately inflammatory no.

May I remind you that the fat face comment was by no means popularised and yet you still took a certain amount of umbrage.

Now, afford your WC counterpart the same consideration.

Also if you consider me goady, feel free to toddle off and do something more productive.
Your presence here was never requested in the first instance.

Frouby You see I would see you and your DP as upper working class. Still working class, but often better off money wise than lower middle class people.

Cheddar cheese grated on to your spag bol.

The OP is clearly about as working class as your average tory MP but there have been some good observations on this thread.

In answer to the question as to why working class people spend so much at Xmas it's for the same reason they don't go into charity shops - they don't want to look poor.

See, thing is, when you've got a nice big house and a car and people know you spend a couple of thousand on a holiday, your life has plenty of status signifiers. So it doesn't matter a damn that your kids have mismatched out of fashion clothes or that you "cobble together" something for dress up day that looks like shit - everyone knows you have money and therefore status so you can relax a bit knowing that will not be taken from you.

If however you have none of these markers then nice clothes and Xmas presents matter. Because if you wear cheap clothes and give your kids a yo-yo and a satsuma for Xmas you are acutely aware that you are not doing so through choice but necessity and you are horrified at the prospect of signalling to the world something of which you are constantly and acutely aware ie your lack of money, status and power.

Which is why what Op?

I don't think you're WC, I said so earlier today.

I love cheddar cheese on my bolognaise.

Parmagiano doesn't have the same deliciously melty qualities does it?

Wearing fleecey jackets with gap/ adidas/ nike on them, football tops, michael kors accessories, definately making a massive deal of weddings/ birthdays/ occasions. Having an expensive car when you are literally skint all the time.

@MissAlabamaWhitman you need to get some sass off him if he sells it! That's a proper pop delivery!

We used to get a massive bag of broken biscuits with the pop delivery. WHAT A TIME IT WAS!