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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:
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7
Baguetteaboutit · 26/12/2019 12:30

Yes, ^^ all that, thanks @FeigningHorror Grin

Emeraldshamrock · 26/12/2019 12:34

think that they are so enlightened that they don't belong to a class, or worse, those who think that class has been replaced by "tribes
Tbf I bet lots of the born MC people do think the WC turned MC will never to true MC.
If aliens invaded us tomorrow or war broke out we'd all be the same running for the hills with a few personal belongings.

ButtercupGirI · 26/12/2019 12:38

Has anyone classified themselves as working class yet? Working class people don't seems exist on munsnet? Grin

Emeraldshamrock · 26/12/2019 12:42

Yes I am here. WC.
WC posters definitely exist on MN though they usually avoid these threads.
The undercurrent hidden in the light hearted comments can cause offensive.

Baguetteaboutit · 26/12/2019 12:44

If aliens invaded us tomorrow or war broke out we'd all be the same running for the hills with a few personal belongings.

But give it a week or two and we'd be scrapping about whether the human flesh soup we were about to eat was tea, dinner or supper.

BellsAJingleTheRoastedChestnut · 26/12/2019 12:47

But give it a week or two and we'd be scrapping about whether the human flesh soup we were about to eat was tea, dinner or supper.

Crown Grin
SleepingStandingUp · 26/12/2019 12:48

@BellsAJingleTheRoastedChestnut I'm a humanities grad and SAHP too but a poor one 😂😂

BellsAJingleTheRoastedChestnut · 26/12/2019 12:50

Ah jeez, I'd be utterly broke if it wasn't for DH. Which is a bloody awful thing to have to admit, but that is where I find myself. Not the being poorer part, but admitting that the artificial wealth I have is because someone else earns it for us. Hate it. I'm retraining asap as I want to be less dependent on him when dcs are a bit older.

BarbaraofSeville · 26/12/2019 12:50

I'm definitely working class (daughter of miner and shop assistant/SAHM, only person in family to go to university, regional accent) but almost none of the 'markers' mentioned on this thread like obsession with labels and appearance, cleanliness of home, big TVs, AI holidays in places like Benidorm apply to me.

These threads always seem to bring out the posters who have a lot to say about what they think being working class is, most of it being complete bollocks.

FeigningHorror · 26/12/2019 12:55

There are loads of WC people on Mn, @ButtercupGirl.

And what you ‘identify as’ is only part of the story, surely. I do ‘feel’ WC in important ways — my parents were a cleaner and a bin man, and both my grandfathers were labourers — we were dirt poor when I grew up and not only was I the first person in my family to stay in education past thirteen, but my parents actively discouraged me going to university because it was for ‘rich people’ (they had never heard of grants and scholarships, and I didn’t go to the kind of school that had much experience of pupils going to third-level education) — but there’s no denying that other people may now read me differently, as someone with multiple postgraduate degrees from elite universities, working in a very middle-class profession, with considerable cultural capital.

What dominates — how you feel, or how other people identify you, or how you score on objective criteria like education, income, savings, job etc?

For instance, I come out as ‘Elite’ on the BBC class calculator, because it doesn’t ask questions about upbringing, or parents’ income, educational level or jobs. I don’t feel elite.

SleepingStandingUp · 26/12/2019 12:57

@ButtercupGirI perhaps because of the suggestions on here that WC = chav, work shy, criminal, lazy, covered in chavvy labels with questionable hairstyles etc. I'm WC but I don't identify with MNs perception of what that means

achainisonlyasstrong · 26/12/2019 13:04

I really like Grapefruitsarenottheonlyfruits definitions. Whether you use bathroom toilet or lav means nothing esp as you can deliberately choose words to sound more posh etc. Class is just used to make people feel better than others and also interesting topic of conversation. What one person considers uc or mc is purely subjective. Which is why it just leads to loads of conversation. Also class is just a good way of putting some rich people down. You can have money but you can’t buy class and such nonsense! Old rich versus nouveau riche etc

WatchingTheMoon · 26/12/2019 13:08

@BarbaraofSeville I'm similar, dad is a builder, mum was a cleaner for a bit, then worked in a shop, but they wouldn't be seen dead in Benidorm or wearing leisurewear in public.

They do have a fucking massive telly at Dad's behest, however.

Gwenhwyfar · 26/12/2019 14:57

"I always thought LMC meant professional jobs that aren't particularly well paid or status-y. So you went to uni but you're not sending your DC to private school/hiring a nanny or whatever. So public sector jobs like teachers, librarians, social workers, that kind of thing."

Yes, it's exactly that and I mentioned it in a previous post.
Hyacinth Bucket is a social climber. You can get those in any class, except the very top maybe.

Gwenhwyfar · 26/12/2019 15:01

"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!"

I don't see how anybody could disagree with this. Just switch on your TV set, every character in a drama is dressed for their class as well as other things like personality.

Gwenhwyfar · 26/12/2019 15:11

"In the Grayson Perry docu, The kings hill people were LMC. "

I don't remember it well, but I thought they were nouveau riche. I remember thinking that he hadn't covered LMC people, probably because it's not very interesting. The only person I could identify with at all was what he called working class grandmother with ornaments on her mantelpiece and widow sill.

Gwenhwyfar · 26/12/2019 15:14

"Many Swedes will tell you that schools all over Sweden are excellent and it doesn't matter which one attends... except that it does. "

How depressing. French people generally go to their local uni, but there are also some eltie ones such as the polytechniques and some of those are considered to be a kind of French mafia in terms of the power they hae.

Gwenhwyfar · 26/12/2019 15:19

"Opera and ballet tickets are can be had for a lot less than soccer tickets, especially premier or first division."

Accessible is more than just cost, though. If you weren't brought up with them, they can be hard to get into. I just don't understand them and it's not something I can improve by reading up on the story first.

"vegetables and fruit bought frozen or fresh are a lot cheaper than readymeals."

That's not true, especially if you're buying for one person. I can get a ready meal for just over a pound and it's a full meal, not just one veg. It's also true that I had a lot of processed and tinned food as a child (as well as fresh for things like Sunday lunch of course) and find that quite normal.

Thetruthwillout80 · 26/12/2019 15:28

*hugely embarrassing.

My MIL who became a nurse to marry a doctor and who finds the concept of people with mental illness distasteful is a good example. She married her doctor and is ok off but still retains some sort of underlying fear that her lowly origins will be revealed and shame her.*

So, can a woman's 'class' change if she marries 'well'?

ElizabethMountbatten · 26/12/2019 15:32

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the request of the OP.

MikeUniformMike · 26/12/2019 15:32

But frozen, tinned or loose veg is cheap. Ready meals aren't.

VivaLeBeaver · 26/12/2019 15:48

Me and dh did the bbc class test and got different results even though our answers were identical with one exception.

I got established middle class and he got technical middle class.

The only difference in answers was that in the “people,you mix with” section we had the same apart from I also had “shop worker” as I have one friend who works in a shop.

Bizarrely socialising with a shop worker promotes me from technical middle class to established middle class. So I think it’s bollocks. The funny thing is....my shop worker friend is the poshest person I know. Doesn’t actually need to work but Daddy told her if she was having an allowance she needed to work. So she works 2 days a week in a shop, and spends the rest of her time playing tennis and riding horses.

ims0rrydarlin · 26/12/2019 15:50

I’m definitely WC. Grew up a brewery town in the midlands. Dad was a taxi driver, Mum STAH. I was the first female in my family to go to University and that was only 12 years ago!

Have a fondness for luxury handbags though.

stoplickingthetelly · 26/12/2019 16:06

I grew up in a fairly working class family. But would say I’m lower middle class now. I’m a joint head of department in a secondary school, dh is deputy head of a primary school. Live in a 4 bed detached house in a nice area. We eat dinner and tea we sit on a sofa and have a living room. Voted remain and Labour. I’ve done ok, first in my family to go to university, but I definitely wouldn’t consider myself to be truely middle class.

stoplickingthetelly · 26/12/2019 16:12

I just tried the bbc online thing and got ‘technical middle class’ whatever that means 🤷🏻‍♀️