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?'

Thanks Miss Alabana. We do have a DAB radio but only ever listen to 2 station s - Radio 5 (dh) and Radio 4 (me). I will have to seek out LBC

Love these sort of discussions.

Working class for me is about areas. Where I live, it is a former manufacturing town.

Growing up, our area was proud. Our grandparents were shopkeepers. Ran a tab for the community. If a person made it into the Police/NHS/Teaching everybody was so proud.

My dad was a general foreman. He kept management and the workforce happy and the factories employed the majority of the town. The factory bosses laid on a Christmas party for the employee's kids.

Coming home from school, neighbours would feed us till parents came home or we went to Granny's shop.

We played out till the street lights came on which was when we had to go home. We backed our books when we went to high school.

Grandma knitted our school sweaters. And we had Domestic Science at school. (I say bring back DS)

We had street parties for silver jubilee and Charles/Diana wedding.

Following the closure of the factories, we swapped manufacturing for poverty, crime and drugs.

I am working class, my parents were, their parents were. And the dole rarely featured. As everybody had a job.

I don't think LBC is particularly working class, I think it's a real cross section of people who ring in. The presenters are far from working class, in fact I'm fairly sure that James O'Brien picks all his topics and views from MN

A cup (or rather a mug) of tea being the answer to every problem

And having a cup (or rather a mug) of tea with fish and chips I think that might be a northern thing

Sheila Fogarty (sp?) is very much working class Tralala

I breathe a sigh of relief when she arrives and uberego O'Brien vacates the airwaves

For me:
Kids playing out
Haven
Not wanting "to bother" the doctor
Irrational fear of social workers
Crippling self doubt (Lol Lighthearted! )
Stricter on behaviour than food (middle class mums are the opposite)

Things I do that are not wc. Despite wc background:

Messy House
Charity shops
Kids in my 30's
Grandparents too far away to be regularly involved

"Can someone explain the Christmas present thing. The concern about quantity and spend,and who gets what. Why is it so important and why spend so much of the family budget on it?"

It's just the nature of the holiday. It's always been about excess. The traditional Christmas requires roast meat, rich fruit cake and plenty of alcohol. All in the dead of winter. Do you think this was easily affordable to a medieval peasant or a Victorian factory worker?
The piles of presents are simply the modern equivalent.
My theory is that middle class people have become so accustomed to plenty that the idea of a big blow out has become meaningless to them. Thus losing sight of the true meaning of Christmas

"A double bed and a stalwart lover, for sure
These are the riches of the poor"

I am sorry and will go back and rtft.

WC, then was perceived as MC by some, but am back at WC. In fact, not even that as now on benefits. I hate it and am ashamed.

Having loo roll up your sleeve to wipe your nose instead of those small packets of individual Kleenex.

WC usually nice to shop workers as have or may have had the same typeof job.

Yes. Shop workers are called shop workers. MC say Retail staff

Our working class areas are depleting.

I find this kind of thing really interesting.I'm probably middle class, largely due to my posh manner of speaking, spells of private education and the fact that where I'm from is the kind of place that makes people say "Oooooh you must be posh then!" when I reveal my origins.

However I did get a Maccy D's summer job whilst everyone else I knew was swanning off to do work experience with daddy's associates in London. I dress almost entirely in Primark and delight in furnishing my home with Wilko. I've never ridden a horse.

Something I've noticed - please correct me if im wrong - is that having your nails done (eg at a salon) seems to be a "WC" indulgence? I never encountered anyone who got there nails done when I was surrounded by posh people.

reading the Sun

Disagree – The classic Sun reader is a self-employed trader, not working class in the sense of having to work for someone else. The Sun is the ultimate white van man and barrow boy paper.

Acrylic nails done at a nail bar are WC.

A manicure at your regular salon is MC.

I have neither, I do my own nails rarely

The sun isn't even a paper where I come from.

No self respecting person of any class will touch it, our newsagents don't stock it.

It's insulting that anybody should feel that it is in any way affiliated with the WC or humanity for that matter

Agree with The Sun Miss, while reveling in them.

I mean The Sun has a grand time showing the WC at play and telling them they are getting it wrong.

Hang on, properly posh ppl are IME lovely to shop staff!

Also Botox and nails - done by loads of posh ppl I know. Not the acrylics but shellac or normal nail varnish.

Mark my words running the MC are now eschewing Botox.

Frozen faces don't fool people in to believing that you're young when even the lady serving you in sainsburys is on to your predilection for a little bit of toxic immobilisation because she does it herself.

I have a theory about Christmas.

If you are middle-class and not short of a bob or two, you can afford to give your children whatever they need whenever they need it. Outgrown shoes in May? No need to wait for the new school year. Lost PE kit? Just buy a new kit. Piano / flute / cello lessons? All manageable with no cutting back.

But if you are working class and money is tighter, you have to say no to your children. Make them wait for school shoes / music lessons / new winter coat. So when Christmas rolls around, it is an opportunity to make up for that scrimping and putting off.

Whereas if you are MC, a nice pair of White Company pjs, a high quality toy or book and one box of Lego at Christmas is fine as you are not making up for anything. There is no urge to splurge.

WC save up for Christmas in a thrift club at local pub.

We still have one. Way before Credit Unions appeared, thrift clubs were and still are fantastic.

I only spend approximately £300 per child at Christmas, which is a pitiful amount according to most of my WC friends.
One of whom gave her ten year old an iPhone. Because he asked for it.

In truth my children don't have many wants or needs and it's difficult to find things to buy them which aren't almost replicas of things which they already own.

I wouldn't ever just buy them a pair of pyjamas and a box of lego though.
Not even my staunchly MC friends would be quite so spartan.

For me:

Never been skiing, can't think of anything worse.
Reginald accent that rears its head big time whenever I get angry/excited.
Sauce bottles on the table.
Expensive presents.
Tattoos.
Always buy new clothes for a wedding.

Regional, not Reginald.

Silly phone.

Latest iPhone
Huge TV
Watch Kardashians/Bigbrother etc etc
Think DFS sofa sales are actually for real
Chavvy private number plate that 'doesn't quite spell their name'
Kids have latest Xbox or Playstation
Body piercings/tatoos
obsession with 'celebrity'
Daytime TV