Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

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
hopefulhalf · 29/12/2019 07:59

I agree with rhe other posters - it takes 3 generations. DH is probrably MMC/UMC (his aunt and cousin are tittled), he went to public school as did his Dad.

His Dad married his mother who was the daughter of an accountant (private but not publically educated) then divorced, moved countries more than once and remarried. They have no money and have been effectively cut off from the titled side of tbe family. He no longer works but his wife is a libarian. His daughter (DH's half sister) struggled to find the money for college. He was UMC by upbringing, thwy have fallen tbrough the middle class and unless DSil lands a good professional job (not looking likely)her dcs will be proper working class.

I would indentify my upbringing as LMC /MMC. DM was the daughter of a mechanic and a SAHM, shs went to grammar school , then teacher training. DF is the son of 2 GPs he worked for the council. We had enough food and some holidays, but I didn't get a plane till I was 20. Education was valued and I was expected to go to university. I love my DM dearly but there is something of tbe hyacinth Bouquet about her. Needless to say she adores my slightly toff like DH.

DH and are both professionals, big period house, considered privately educating the DCs (at grammar). Skiing and sailing family holidays, Dd rides. I would say we are firmly MMC, I do love a bit of Boden and I winced when Dd (13) got her nails done. I'd like to think they are having an easier and more suppoeted adolescence than I did.we definately have more money.
I supposed my DCs will be more solidly MMC than I am with their titled uncle and grammar school education (my son has much better vowels than I). What they do with it is up to them.

NewName73 · 29/12/2019 10:15

3 generations thing is interesting.

DH grandparents definitely working class - manual labourers.

Their kids - his Mum & her siblings were bright, some went to grammar school - she was a primary school teacher, one ended up as a Uni Professor. So middle class. Lower middle (the prof doesn't count as lived in the US - classless society).

DH middle class - Uni educated, company director, both kids at private school...

sproutsgalore · 29/12/2019 11:45

@WatchingTheMoon

I didn't read the thread. I read the title and commented on that.

MoobaaMoobaa · 29/12/2019 11:55

sproutsgalore

Then don't be surprised to be addressed about it on the a thread were everyone else has read the title, the OP, and RTFT, and are having a discussion.

Bitch plopping isn't really necessary.

sproutsgalore · 29/12/2019 12:05

Oh dear. Get out of bed the wrong side this morning, did we?

MoobaaMoobaa · 29/12/2019 12:22

is that to me?
Not sure why you would think that.

sproutsgalore · 29/12/2019 13:00

@MoobaaMoobaa Yes it was. Using the term Bitch plopping towards me was uncalled-for.

I don't know what it means, but it is thoroughly unpleasant all the same.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 29/12/2019 13:05

NewName
My family is similar to your DH

GP were WC

My DP were both civil servants. DF did a degree as a mature student. Loved theatre, opera, classical music. Probably LMC.

I am in a profession. Well off with some independent income and DC in private school. Postgrad qualifications. Usual cultural capital indicators. I am probably closest to MMC. The likelihood is that my DC will go to university and end up at least MMC. The difference is that they will have been born into a MMC lifestyle.

MoobaaMoobaa · 29/12/2019 13:07

I don't know what it means, but it is thoroughly unpleasant all the same

okaaaay Grin

I'd recommend you stop digging yourself a hole.

or keep going
Grin

sproutsgalore · 29/12/2019 15:51

I have gardening implements aplenty thanks (and I know how to use them) and i'm also quite handy at laying a patio should it prove necessary.

flirtygirl · 31/12/2019 12:20

Someone said up thread that only the British have classes. Such nonsense, most countries especially those who were colonised have strong social classes and groups.

And of course you can be a different race but still fit into the classes in Britain, as different races and colours have been a part of this country for hundreds of years in some cases, not just since the 1950s as some like to think.

Nigeria for instance has a large middle class and firmly separate upper class based in part on their old tribal system and on the British system. With lots of upper class and royalty but also lots of middle class. They also have a enormous working class as have a large population.

America has a class system but more defined by money, however the established upper class do not let the lower classes in even if they have education and money. In some ways there is less class mobility there and just wealth.

There are markers and identifiers in almost every culture, country and colour.

My family love education, one side is very posh and I refused to go to boarding school as the side of family, I grew up with and are closer to, went to good state schools.

Nearly all are highly educated either degree, masters, PhD and/or technical and professional qualifications. The ones who are not highly educated are mostly because their parent' married into a working class family so they have a slightly different outlook as they mix with different people with a different outlook. Ie a good job (not high status or well paid but steady and stable) but not necessarily one needing education is more their remit. These ones would identify as working class as they married into a working class family and their lives are more on that parallel.

Class is interesting as it is about social mobility and the lack of it in the UK. Yes you can go to uni and become a teacher, civil servants or doctor. But these opportunities are becoming less available for so many, due to a lesser education in the state system.

It just as hard for some children in 2019 to access a good education as it was in 1819. Also if no one you know, knows how to fill in a ucas form or even knows what one is, of course it is far harder to go to a Russell group uni or to oxbridge.

If getting an office job is rare in your area or in your family, as most people do retail, factory and manual work then it is an enormous task to go to uni and to become a professional of any type.

Not impossible just far harder to navigate. Then if you do, you may not get on the graduate training or right career path needed to get to the top as internships need money and many jobs still are about who you know. Lower and middle levels not so much but upper and top levels, absolutely.

flirtygirl · 31/12/2019 12:30

And class especially nowadays is less about money than about aspiration of education, outlook and way of thinking.

More of the middle class nowadays do not have a high or higher income but they had a middle class upbringing and ideals which they pass onto their children. Who again may not have money but have that cultural upbringing. My children may not have money but did horse riding, visit the theatre, know about higher education, literature, play an instrument etc

Some working class do live what is thought to be a middle class lifestyle and some middle class do live what is thought to be a working class lifestyle. It's much more fluid in that you may not have changed your class but you do more of the things attributed to a class that is not your own.

So the outside markers of class mean less nowadays as working class can dress in Boden, Hush or Toast and have short nails, swishy hair, etc
Just like the middle class can dress in primark, new look and peacocks, have long nails and a ponytail. Having a 4 x 4 means nothing and signifies nothing.

OhTheRoses · 31/12/2019 13:36

Well said flirty although I think horse-riding, swimming lessons, music teaching, theatre trips, etc, do add up to quite a few hundred pcm for two dc so do involve a middle class income.

I agree with you about class in other cultures. I have worked with a no. Of South Asian professional women over the last 20 years and some of their comments about those they consider inferior have been jaw dropping.

rudolfsquiffy · 01/01/2020 20:36

My Parents were uneducated but bright and hardworking and had unskilled jobs. We in turn all went to University. Struggle to pay mortgage in a nice area of town. I've got a postgrad but retrained in a low earning profession and we are always skint. I'd say maybe I'm lower middle class Grin

New posts on this thread. Refresh page