Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What are the main identifiers of those who describe themselves as lower middle classes?

564 replies

Rosehip10 · 24/12/2019 08:17

As distinct from middle/upper middle.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
Bitchbadgerplease · 24/12/2019 17:10

I've no idea what I am, and now I'm kind of curious even though I agree firmly with the poster above who said the employment indicators are all backwards now.

So... my mother and father are extremely well off but self - made (mother from council estate, boomer generation). Landlords.

I have a professional job that isn't well paid and is often voluntary (in MH).

Two degrees that I shouldn't have done. I thought they'd get me somewhere but they didnt. :(

Drive a second hand old sports car

3 mortgaged properties, two rented out. One I live in is a 2 up 2 down in a sought-after but scruffy area, and is falling apart 'cause I cant afford to repair it.
I usually say loo but think I say toilet sometimes. It's a sitting room. And a napkin. I swear constantly. What class am I?

sippingcoffee · 24/12/2019 17:38

I think many people get class and status muddled up
The social class you belong to originates from your family tree and upbringing and your status in life is about what you make from your life or from what is dealt to you along the way
Both are open to change but class less so than status
You can gain in status with education and wealth but you cannot change your roots

surreygirl1987 · 24/12/2019 18:03

I disagree actually @sippingcoffee. I'm doing a PhD and did a module which looks closely at social class ... and it's more complex; class and status do overlap. Bordieu's concept of cultural capital springs to mind on this topic if you know it?

I would call myself lower middle class actually if i were to put such a broad label on it (there are msby other ways of definding class which are often more specific and succint). My roots are very much working class (I was born in Birmingham, went to local comp, Dad was a mechanic, I was on free school meals, my family were pretty poor and at one point both my parents were unemployed at the same time and it was tough for everyone).

But now I live in Surrey, household income of over £100k, 2 cars, went on a month-long honeymoon to Hawaii and am a teacher in a top indepedent school. Got two masters degrees and soon a PhD, taught in a university and a Swiss 'finishing school' (they even teach etiquette classes there- bleugh!) and travelled extensively. Will be sending my son to private school.

My experiences of life for my first 18 years are totally different to my experiences or life in the past 14 or so. I'm not working class anymore, even though my roots were. I identity more with the middle class and anyone who knows me thinks I'm actually very posh and assumes I was privately educated and from a privelige background etc. But I think living two very different sorts of lives is a bit odd... and there are things that make me feel not quite as middle class as my middle class friends. In some ways I feel a fraud when teaching at my posh school. E.g. I didn't go to the theatre until I was 18, and didn't set foot on a plane to go abroad until I was 21, didn't eat out in a restaurant until I was around 17 etc. My husband is frequently incredulised about those sorts of things... but he had a much more privelige upbringing than me.

Class is a very interesting topic but incredibly complex and even top academics in this field don't have a consensus.

mindproject · 24/12/2019 18:08

If it's all about income then I'm working class. In most other categories I'm middle class. But I really don't care and I prefer not to label people and stick them in boxes, it's completely meaningless. Nobody is better than anyone else, despite what some people might think.

Baguetteaboutit · 24/12/2019 18:26

Nobody is better than anyone else, despite what some people might think.

Well obviously some people are better than others. It's just not linked to class.

But access to resources absolutely is and with social mobility at an all time low and while the traditional middle classes are getting less bang for their buck than in previous generations, there seems to be a resurgence in class anxiety at the moment.

Crankybitch · 24/12/2019 18:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MikeUniformMike · 24/12/2019 18:40

surreygirl1987, all that money, education and privilege and yet you can't spell. Glad you didn't teach my two.

DdraigGoch · 24/12/2019 18:42

I don't get the serviette / napkin thing, as I was brought up to think they were two different things. Napkin = cloth Serviette = paper.
@BreakWindandFire Can you imagine Margo Leadbetter using a paper serviette? When you go out to eat, think about whether the establishment uses paper or cloth and how that corresponds to its class.

Essentially, the use of words derived from French or otherwise rather poncey is regarded as the mark of a social climber. Someone born with a silver spoon in their mouth has nothing to prove and will therefore call a spade a spade. Hence "napkin", "what?", "lavatory" (look up the respective origins of "lavatory" and "toilet" to understand why lavatory is U and toilet non-U).

JoJoSM2 · 24/12/2019 18:45

@surreygirl1987 I’m surprised people are incredulised you aren’t from a privelige background Hmm And well done for familiarising yourself with the concept of cultural capital.

CanICelebrate · 24/12/2019 18:47

I would say I’m lower middle class but from a working class background. But...... I went to grammar school, have 3 university degrees (highest is MA) and now teach in the private sector with my own dc at (my) private school. I probably look more middle class than I identify as! Am proud of where I’m from and don’t aspire the climb the class ladder.

CanICelebrate · 24/12/2019 18:50

I also go to the theatre a lot which apparently is very middle class (!) although I also went a lot as a child with my parents who were very working class.

motorcyclenumptiness · 24/12/2019 18:50

the main identifiers of those who describe themselves as lower middle class
Is it having too much time on their hands for tedious navel-gazing?

BellsAJingleTheRoastedChestnut · 24/12/2019 18:53

I also have no idea what I am! I probably am LMC... I say loo, napkin, living room, eat tea or dinner in the evenings, supper is a small meal / substantial snack eaten after bath time, immediately before bed in my book and the only people who say supper for their main evening meal are much more well spoken than I am, I have a fairly strong regional accent and I have a degree, so does my dad, so does my husband. I wasn't born in the uk (I was born in the USA, a la Springsteen), so I wonder if I don't have a class...or possibly don't have any class in some people's books Xmas Wink. Am I LMC? I'm pretty sure (english born) DH is. My dad was definitely working class though, so what does that make me I wonder?

I don't think it's as defined as it used to be tbh...

BellsAJingleTheRoastedChestnut · 24/12/2019 18:54

Jesus, where were my full stops there^^??? Sorry. Hope it makes sense.

surreygirl1987 · 24/12/2019 19:20

@MikeUniformMike it's probably a good thing I don't teach yours then! 🤷‍♀️ And as for spelling... I'm actually an English teacher, and have taught English at a top university; this is the first time in my whole life anyone has suggested there's an issue with my spelling, but thanks for the feedback! 😂 Merry Christmas to you - you sound utterly wonderful.

percheron67 · 24/12/2019 19:36

Only time I have heard this use was when the local Lady of the Manor said to a friend of mine about someone in the village "the trouble with Judy is she is so lower middle class"!

MikeUniformMike · 24/12/2019 19:45

@surreygirl1987, thanks.
msby, definding , succint, indepedent, privelige, incredulised

MikeUniformMike · 24/12/2019 19:46

Could do better.

banivani · 24/12/2019 20:17

@BertrandRussell excellent quote there 😁

ruthieness · 24/12/2019 20:25

One of the interesting identifiers for class is how you bring up your children - do they go to ballet brownies music lessons? Structured time?
or are they free- range? Playing in the park/computer games?

LMC are often very concerned that their children do well and will closely supervise and encourage this. UMC children are often in a school/peer group which will lead to different expectations and opportunities and the parents expect this to happen without the parents micromanaging it.

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince · 24/12/2019 20:51

Working class -sportswear and labels for daywear. Hair styles with razor symbols in, or tightly pulled back
Lower middle: Next, Matalan, Dorothy Perkins + current trend, e.g Michael Kors bag. Fancy nails
Middle middle: Pure, Cos, Fatface, White Stuff. Jigsaw Boden. Natural fibres. Bob or layers
Upper Middle: Buys from designers, Caramel glossy highlights
Upper: Daddy’s old holey cashmere jumper, jeans from anywhere. Hair cut with a knife and fork.

Before you all shoot me😁😁l teach history of fashion. Clothes are signals and can be viewed as part of anthropology. Decoding them gives you lots of information!

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince · 24/12/2019 21:03

Although Boden can be worn by lower middle. But never upper middle

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince · 24/12/2019 21:06

And teaching and nursing is lower middle

kinsss · 24/12/2019 21:18

What pray tell is the obsession in many parts of UK WRT class!

Who gives a flying flamingo anyway. Do people like being put in a descriptive box or something? I just don't get it.

Upper Class,
Upper Middle Class
Lower Middle Class
Ordinary Middle Class
Working Class
Destitute.

Looking on from afar I can only say that whatever Class you think you belong to it is ALWAYS working class in NW/NE. Footballers excepted. Doesn't matter, that's the label. And voted Tory too. ye Gods!

Merry Christmas to all classes anyway.

limitedperiodonly · 24/12/2019 21:19

Before you all shoot me😁😁l teach history of fashion. Clothes are signals and can be viewed as part of anthropology. Decoding them gives you lots of information!

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince Does your history of fashion go back beyond the 1990s? It doesn't seem that way to me