Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What makes a person 'common'?

926 replies

Karlwho · 10/07/2019 20:37

In your opinion. Just interested.

OP posts:
ThighsRelief · 12/07/2019 00:55

Naked I have your face tattooed over my face.

ThighsRelief · 12/07/2019 01:27

I'm confused over the hierarchy of condiments. I've been keeping a tally:

Common
Salad cream
Brown Sauce

Posh
Mint sauce (no bread)

What about Sandwich Spread and Marie Rose sauce from a jar?

Charlottejbt · 12/07/2019 01:46

My mum had some strange ones, along with the usual anti net curtains/ council houses stuff. They included babies with dummies, double buggies, twins in matching outfits, and being Irish. (She now denies the last one.) I'm sure there was more, but the fixation with things being common was more of an 80s thing. We weren't allowed certain things like a bean bag, a soda stream or those door curtains with beads on, because those were common too.

Nobody's mentioned playing the National Lottery yet, isn't that famously common? Help For Heroes? Ukip?

sayanythingelse · 12/07/2019 02:02

According to my dad, eating broccoli is common. It's "a poor man's cauliflower".

I'm not sure of the reason behind that logic.

LemonPastries · 12/07/2019 02:11

Tattoos
Knife in the left hand
Sitting in your front garden
“Mom”
Slug eyebrows

GreenDragon75 · 12/07/2019 03:12

Oh dear - after reading this it appears I am ‘common’.
My overuse of condiments (especially salad cream and brown sauce) combined with my love of dipping gravy up with bread means I will never be able to climb to the dizzy heights of middle class 😂

LaurieMarlow · 12/07/2019 03:26

Saying "sat" instead of 'sitting'.

People who do that are as common as muck.

I remember hearing Zara Tindell say that in an interview Grin

So common

LaurieMarlow · 12/07/2019 03:29

So what if you like brown sauce/salad cream, but also listen to Radio 4 (biggest middle class signifier I know)

What then? Grin

echt · 12/07/2019 03:29

Siting in your front garden

Years ago I was a on a website about being Australian where it said "only Poms and reffos sit in their front gardens". This even though many older house have lovely verandahs where chairs and tables are set out. Somehow this is not the same.

DexyMidnight · 12/07/2019 03:38

pierced ears on children under 12
Tattoos
Football mobs, chanting, singing etc.
Ugg boots
Heavy makeup

Rhubarbisevil · 12/07/2019 05:12

Mopping up jus is fine as long as it is a la France avec une baguette 🥖

formerbabe · 12/07/2019 06:57

Writing in text speak when not texting.

XXcstatic · 12/07/2019 07:16

Oh contraire, thighs, i'm afraid mint sauce is very common. If you must have a sauce with lamb (pink please, not well done), it should be redcurrant jelly, even though it's vile and mint is much nicer

I am a connoisseur of these 'rules' because my DM was from an upper middle class family that had fallen on hard times, whereas my DF's family had recently 'risen' from being working class to lower middle class (tho nothing wrong with being WC in my view). Both families had strong and - in retrospect- fascinating views on what was acceptable vs common, but they were very different. As a child, it was extremely confusing Smile

Messyisthenewtidy · 12/07/2019 07:23

Smoking whilst pregnant

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 12/07/2019 07:32

Telling your children it’s pardon not what

GrinGrinGrin

Brexit is common ? All old money I know voted to leave MC to remain

Drug taking Er no

Mmm guilty as charged being common according to quite a few on MN

We are so wrapped up in class What makes someone inferior we are about to have a totally utterly incompetent tit lead the country and he will be popular if his accent and mannerisms were more working class he would not have stood a chance

BikeRunSki · 12/07/2019 07:38

Misspelling foreign phrases when trying to sound superior. Hmm

EugenesAxe · 12/07/2019 07:47

Everyone talking about being ‘judgy’ - yes we are but I still hold there are things everyone will see and immediately judge on, and there are things that I notice that I think are ‘common’. The people who exhibit these behaviours are normally lovely and are much better than me in so many ways. The ‘things’ won’t affect how I treat someone or mean I can’t be good friends with them, I just can’t help noticing them. I’m not ‘working class’ but many things I do will be common to people in higher social classes; it’s relative. There are also things I do that good friends will automatically judge me for doing, without it affecting our relationship.

Also, ‘common’ has nothing to do with wealth.

These are what I notice:

Cars with a matte effect finish.

Many names, including some that will get me shot down in flames, like Alfie, Esme, Archie, Beau. Two part girls names where the second one is ‘May’ or ‘Mae’. Novelty names.

Having little regard to the environment; littering, failing to properly recycle, not cleaning up dog mess.

Poor grammar especially mixing up of tenses or conjugations ‘Was you?’

Being ashamed of academic excellence.

Titivating children e.g. head bands on babies, heels, makeup, earrings.

Thinking status is defined by the amount of stuff you have.

As well as many of the other things mentioned in this thread that are more plain vulgar (swearing, shouting at children/ arguing or fighting in public etc.). And in commenting here I’m not saying all the hideous things people of other classes do are perfectly fine.

PooWillyBumBum · 12/07/2019 07:47

Brexit is common ? All old money I know voted to leave MC to remain

Luckily those I know did not! I think that’s what’s so interesting about Brexit - it seems to have managed to divide within the classes and political parties themselves.

EugenesAxe · 12/07/2019 07:50

Oh I forgot: carveries. My DH hates this one as he loves a carvery 😆

Benjispruce · 12/07/2019 07:53

Holding cutlery like a pen. Mum drummed cutlery etiquette into us . We had to turn door handles and close quietly, NEVER put feet on chairs , never eat in the street, never shout in public, never lean over someone at the table to reach something (ask for it to be passed) and many more.She was very big on manners and conduct. She was working class of Irish immigrant parents. So it’s not about being upper class necessarily, you can be poor and have standards.

havingaKIDSparty · 12/07/2019 07:59

Swearing, poor teeth and entitled behaviour like pushing in or causing a big scene when you want something. Oh and wearing tracksuit bottoms out the house, especially those cropped ones in summer ( men or women.) Or the other extreme of everything being Ralph Lauren !!

I think I present common. I have the tattoo, never iron my clothes, but I speak relatively well considering I grew up in a "common" area, so I'm a expert ! Grin

TrickyD · 12/07/2019 08:26

I don’t think anyone can look at someone with tattoos and think they’re common anymore.

You may wish this were true, Fairylea, but the evidence from this thread shows you are very much mistaken.

CitadelsofScience · 12/07/2019 08:29

I now need to know where one is supposed to keep ones fruit bowl? Is mine that's on the kitchen side with a banana hanger thing on top showing me up as a dreadfully common human being? Grin

Shinyletsbebadguys · 12/07/2019 08:44

Dp and I have this conversation sometimes because he comes from a very poor Welsh background and I suppose I come from a middle class Welsh background although as is often commented on I don't really classify class.

However I often come out with things that DP looks at and laughs and gives me the "common" version (we don't use that moniker for it but in the context of this thread)

I had no idea before I met him that

Avocado
Referring to my parents drinking piesporter in the eighties and rioja now was odd as he grew up with tennants
That every school did duke of Edinburgh awards and it was a rite of passage was a middle class thing
Racing bikes as a kid.

So I suppose we come at it from the opposite angle but these things are how I grew up and they seemed just accepted things , DP often smiles and shakes his head...he sees what most people list here as common as normal and I see what most people list as middle class as "normal".
I do hate certain phrases that I think make people seem ignorant when they aren't...

"I've been mugged off" that seems common for want of a better word , and syntax and grammar such as " we was going somewhere"

Swearing at children DP and I would agree is unacceptable

Hmmm may be pyjamas outside but to be honest that confuses us both mostly as it seems a bit unnecessary and silly

Oh wait ....my gran taught me the milk bottle on the table was common ...i do remember that

Swipe left for the next trending thread