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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think I am not posh?

149 replies

gprc · 22/01/2019 17:47

Recently had a plumber over to fit a new tap as the old one was caput, who told me he thought I was very posh whilst I gave him a MUG of tea. This was in our tiny two bed flat that we’ve just scraped to afford, not in a very naice area.

I do have a rather posh accent but there are definitely sometimes hints of Lancashire. I work for a big firm in the city. I did go to Oxford. I do sound a bit posh, and I do write well.

I went to a local comprehensive school up North. My mum was the first in her entire family to go to an actual university. Her father was an engineer! Her family is proper salt of the earth type!

My dad did go to a boarding school. I’d say they’ve got middle class pretensions.

AIBU to think I am not posh, and indeed it is wrong to judge people purely on accent! He gave me a real look of askance when I told him, oh don’t be silly I’m working class.

OP posts:
Aprilshowersarecomingsoon · 22/01/2019 17:48

Was it Earl Grey though?

InTheAbyss · 22/01/2019 17:49

Ignore the peasants darling, they couldn't spot blue blood if it squirted them in the eye!

RedHelenB · 22/01/2019 17:50

Your dad went to boarding school and your mum went to uni so don't sound very.working class to me!

schopenhauer · 22/01/2019 17:50

You’re not working class. I would probably say you were relatively posh given the information you’ve written here. I think you probably know that really...

Beamur · 22/01/2019 17:50

A misplaced regional accent often gets called posh. My DD was scandalised by some Scottish boys calling her posh when we were on holiday a few years ago. She's not posh.

ChampagneSocialist1 · 22/01/2019 17:53

Can’t you be posh if you’re northern? Confused

SwimmingJustKeepSwimming · 22/01/2019 17:55

Definitely not working class!

Boarding school in the family, Oxford and a job in a big firm in the city = reasonably posh! Thing is you surrouns yourself with people like yourself so its hard to see.

He was probably quite surprised by your response!!

NameChangeNugget · 22/01/2019 17:56

Why did you let such a feral man in your house, in the first place? Wink

Aprilshowersarecomingsoon · 22/01/2019 17:57

I hope you made him enter /leave via the back door.
*not a euphemism.

Original poster
gprc · 22/01/2019 17:57

I really do not feel posh though. We’re always skint, well in comparison to most people around us.

It’s not as if I’ve got a double barrel surname or wear my dad’s signet ring.

OP posts:
BoneyBackJefferson · 22/01/2019 17:57
CobaltRose96 · 22/01/2019 17:58

You sound relatively posh to me. Certainly not working class. An Oxford education, dad who went to boarding school.... All quite posh.

That isn't necessarily a bad thing though. It's up to you wether you'd consider 'posh' to be an insult or not.

CobaltRose96 · 22/01/2019 17:59

You can be posh without being loaded IMO.

ThatssomebadhatHarry · 22/01/2019 17:59

It’s relative. Kate Middleton is not posh to the Royals but she would sound at least upper working class in say Rotherham. Grin

donajimena · 22/01/2019 18:00

I'm thought to be posh but in my case my dad didn't go to Oxford, I'm a fairly broke lone parent in a rented house. I'm from a council estate and I'm only just in University. A former HE college. Its purely because I don't have a local accent.

CobaltRose96 · 22/01/2019 18:01

@ThatssomebadhatHarry very true. She'd considered a 'commoner' to the Royals but certainly not a commoner as you or I would define it!

CobaltRose96 · 22/01/2019 18:02

*she's, not she'd Blush

Fuedsandfury25 · 22/01/2019 18:02

Haha so compared to me I would assume you were middle class “ posh “
But I love in a ridiculous posh area in a council house as a single mum with in my mid 20s with a school aged child on benefits.
With a mum who avoided council tax and got charged and a dad who has a huge gambling addiction and drinks by 10 am.
I really do stand out at the local ballet school 🤣😂

( I do have a degree and on benefits because of daughters health )

MuseumofInnocence · 22/01/2019 18:02

Yes, definitely posh, but it's all relative. I'm sure there are Earls who consider themselves not posh because they know a Duke or a Royal.

Your parents, by virtue of going to boarding school and university put themselves in the top 5% of the population. You going to Oxford and working for a big city firm does the same. You might not be aristocracy, but you're solidly middle class.

PS, did you mean to say your grandfather was an engineer? If so, that's three generations of middle class professionals.

BlueJava · 22/01/2019 18:02

You're not posh if you have to ask.

Racecardriver · 22/01/2019 18:03

Well judging from the lack of inverted commas, no. Does it really matter though. Maybe you tea was loose leaf?

Fuedsandfury25 · 22/01/2019 18:04

Weirdly I do have a double barrelled surname .. that’s just because my parents didn’t actually like each other and argued over it.

honeylulu · 22/01/2019 18:04

It's all relative though. I've been called "posh" in similar circumstances. I'm quite well spoken but lower middle class in origin.
However I work in the City and some of the people at my firm seem properly posh to me - public school, second homes, cut glass accents. Yet they probably don't feel posh next to some of our clients!

Witchend · 22/01/2019 18:04

Are you still living up north?

Some areas tend to regard any hint of a southern accent as automatically "posh".
Being brought up in the area of the north as I was with a southern accent (even one that all southerners say "oh you do sound northern") was at best called posh.

Whynotnowbaby · 22/01/2019 18:05

I would say you’re not “posh”, simply because you are worried about whether you are or not. No one I know who really is would think twice about how that sort of thing.