We live in an2 bed HA flat. I sent ds's to school approx 7 miles away in an affluent area, as the school was amazing, and we were lucky to get a place. Ds1 best friend was 'old money', he and his parents all had titles, and there house was huge- swimming pool the lot.
First time I went his mum offered me a glass of wine whilst the boys finished playing in their own woods. So I accepted, and whilst chattting she admitted that I was the first mum that had ever accepted the offer, most legged it. She felt that people were intimidated by the house, their titles. (It was well known in the area who the family were).
One day I went to pick up ds after a birthday party, and there were loads of family and friends there. I got talking to one gentleman who had just retired but was a well known barrister. He asked who I was and I jokingly said 'I'm just the local council estate girl'. He laughed and gave me a hug, then pulled away and held me by shoulders and said something along the lines of 'never be ashamed of that, look around you here, almost everyone is old money, they all have titles, they all have their huge family homes with antiques passed through generations. But I tell you now, you are one of the most real people in this room, you know what life is and how to survive it. Many of these here haven't a clue. So please never ever apologise again about where you are from, it's that which makes you you'.
We then had a long conversation where he was telling me who was who, who had had affairs with who, who had been kicked out of different private school, who's been caught with cocaine, who was in massive debt etc. Then he went on to say 'you probably think I'm a huge gossip (umm yes!), but I'm telling you this so you understand that just because people have money, it doesn't make them any better when someone who doesn't. They still have he same issues, but rather than a 1k debt they have 500,000k, rather than being caught with weed it's cocaine, X for example can't decide whether to go on holidays or fix her downstairs loo this year'
What he said to me that day really has stuck with me. So I don't have the big house, but ours is clean and tidy 50% of the time, it's always warm and we have full cupboards, fridges and freezer. I don't have s brand new car, but my little 10 year old just flew through her MOT. We don't go on holidays every year, but try for every other, my boys work hard in school and ones off to uni in September. But most importantly they are polite and well mannered, never been in trouble in school or outside, never into drinking or smoking, and they care about their friends.
But it's funny when people ask where we are from and sound surprised when we say, as apparently we sound too 'posh' for here 🤣 Nope we are just from the local council estate and have no plans to go anywhere!