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 have good friends from all echelons of society bar the upper classes.

That's because I've collected people along the way, from school, neighbourhoods I've lived in, university, work places, the DCs school, associates of my OH, my family in law.

I think it's odd to only have friends who are strictly within the confines of your own perceived social class.

I was brought up solidly working class, but now have moved into lower middle class. All my friends are middle class. Didn't matter when I was younger. But now in my mid 50s many are starting to reduce working hours and talk about retirement, on the back of inheritances.Meanwhile myself and my DP who also comes from a working class family, are subsidising paid carers for FIL, because the three 15 minutes a day gives him no quality of life at all.

And actually that is a real difference. Middle working class people usually end up subsidising their elderly family by the time they are in their 50s. Middle class people get subsidised by their family.

Especially as you say dh middle class etc etc

You don't come across as real WC OP.

We live within our means. Loans, credit cards and overdrafts are a big no. Scary actually.

I went to university but qualified for a full grant. My parents pushed hard to get me there, and I think it's one of their greatest achievements.

Apparently living in a huge fuck off double fronted house with massive gates, backing onto a park, having had a chat to lovely lady today. Did make me chuckle.

I have no clue, grew up working class but never went to Butlins. Parents couldn't pay for that so we went to whichever campsite with our tent. That was when camping was the cheapest option. All food was cooked on the camping stove.

Home was a hovel due to depression, I don't remember it being decorated. No pre prepared food, it wasn't available while I was growing up. Food was bought at the market, fish monger and butcher because it was better and cheaper than the supermarkets. Tinned food was acceptable though, so spag bol was a tin of minced beef and onion mixed with a tin or tomatoes and a bay leaf. That was my DM's attitude to foreign muck. And they wouldn't step foot into Iceland when it opened. Clothes were home made. One sibling wanted to go to UNi and was told to stop fucking about with stupid ideas above their station as it was time to start working because the family needed their wage.

ILs do breakfast, dinner and tea. They are definitely not WC. I've always eaten breakfast, lunch then dinner.

And I've almost lost my London accent due to move around. DC are amazed when it comes out, usually when I'm overly fucked off.

I don't think MC people socialise with the WC.I mean they don't like bingo for a start.

Why is that Constance?

Do you mean that I don't fit in with your perception of WC?

Or are you WC and find it difficult to identify with me?

(From the admittedly narrow details which I've been able to provide on this thread?)

Using mumsnet = mostly middle class

Mumsnet is very MC.

Middle class people love running. Go to a working class estate...you won't find a single person jogging/running.

After reading this thread I'm conflicted, I consider myself to be very working class but:

I have a gardener and I'm currently researching prices/recommendations for a cleaner because I don't have time to clean.
I love avocado and couscous
I've abandoned Aldi and Tesco for Sainsbury's and on payday I do a full shop at either Waitrose or Marks and Spencers.
I no longer have a TV in my house
I've stopped listening to commercial radio and now only tune into BBC Radio 4
I was at the cinema earlier this week and both me and my friend clutched our pearls and gasped at the antics of fellow cinema goers(we were both horrified by our automatic reactions lol)
I hate butlins and havens holidays and I don't do caravans

But I still dunk my biscuits in my tea
I have a very strong northern regional accent
I have relatives that live on council estates with neighbours akin to "shameless".
I still eat kebabs

My dear departed mother will be so happy that i appear to have moved up the social ladder

TeaCake5 I thought that until I actually met some mumsnetters and was surprised how many are working class. Certainly on here you would think everyone is well off with threads talking about visits to super posh places like The Fat Duck, as if it is an ordinary treat thing.

That's because we are all fat slobs who eat pies all day.

As a child I asked my dad what class we were. He said that as long as he worked then we were working class. Actually we were a typical mc family but that makes him all the more admirably down-to-earth and it's a great definition if you ask me.

Parental aspirations of upward mobility are very WC

Working class people do tend to be fatter. I am fat.

Most WC people don't actually live on 'estates' though former

And there's lots of runners on the prom right at this moment. I'm looking at them as I type.
Standard behaviour for this time on a Saturday around here, a solidly WC northern town.

My father wouldn't wash his car because only working class or lower middle class people bothered with that!

Working Class To me is working for a living eg to pay the Bills

Cleaning my own house car

If you're lucky a holiday once a year

Shopping at ASDA Tesco for just about everything

I wash our car.

Err excuse me bit not all us WC people want to be MC. I don't consider being MC as being up the social ladder

The polish men at the local 'American hand car wash' wash my cars.

Surely plenty of middle class people work for a living to pay bills? You are talking about upper class people when you take that out of the equation.