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

[Rosehip10]

As distinct from middle/upper middle.

Yourself and myself.

Does anyone even care about "class" ? I say sofa, napkin, loo and pardon, e have lunch and supper We live in a lovely little house in a very sought after village, we both worked bloody hard 7 days a week and ran our own businesses and had enough to retire before i was 50. Our car is old, we holiday where, when and how we like. We eat out often and visit the theatre if we fancy what is on, we have NT passes and spend a lot of time in museums. Dh has tattoo's and earrings and is a member of a motorcycle club that look rough but have hearts of gold. Our friends include a Factory worker, Publicans, Farmers, Cleaners, Builders and Doctors Are we MC/UMC/WC ? Dont know and dont care.

They post on Mumsnet.

I associate my parents with LMC. It was definitely a "thing" when I was growing up.

Their parents were working class but "respectable" and not as poor as some. My granny was very staunch Chapel so the outlook on life was very moral, even Puritanical.

My parents were brought up with a strong work ethic around established routines. They were clever and very funny - grammar school educated. They loved music and my mother in particular loved languages. They were never wealthy though but thought themselves a cut above others in the community.

My mother was obsessed with appearances. She thought that leaving an unwashed milk bottle on the step was the height of slovenliness.

She was strict in many ways (generally involving politeness and respect) but i had loads of freedom, like other kids of that time.

I used to read the Famous Five and marvelled not at the adventures, but at the elevated (to me) social class of the characters.

i was also amazed a the characters in sitcoms who lived in semis and detached houses, as it was so unlike my own experience. Everyone I know lived in a terraced house.

Dunno. How about

A degree each, one from 18-21, one cobbled together through the OU over several years
Both working in education/public sector
Combined income around £45,000 due to one working part time
Pronouncing words largely as intended, rather than dropping consonants in keeping with the regional accents of the birth county
Preferring what comes out of the (secondhand) bread machine or oven to what comes out of an orange plastic bag from the supermarket
Preferring the layout, space and calm of Waitrose to the chaos of ASDA or the jumble sale of Aldi/Lidl, but in reality, buying most things from the ethnic shop round the corner because the veggies, olives and feta/halloumi are better
Performing/working at festivals rather than stumping up hundreds for the privilege of getting rained on for the best part of a week
Not really giving a shit what anybody else thinks of them?

I was told once in all seriousness that, if somebody was able to tell a researcher that their income puts them into the C1 category rather than B, that made them a B in reduced circumstances. I laughed and said, had they asked me up to six months previously, it would have been E.

It's a complete nonsense.

" I think teaching puts you in middle middle?"

My parents were primary school teachers and I think we grew up lower middle class. They had higher education, but teacher training wasn't affiliated to universities in those days so they weren't graduates. Not much money either, wearing hand-me downs,etc. though not poor either. We had piano lessons, but wouldn't have done 'posher' things like ballet or pony club.
The way we eat would be considered more working class by MNers I think. I find the food section of the Guardian, for example, completely alien. Mainly grew up with potatoes and baked beans. Never had salads, lots of processed food as well.

I do admin work, so I'd now call myself lower middle class, but wouldn't be offended if people considered me working class or upper working class - Owen Jones considers admin workers to be working class. I personally tend to think of anyone with higher education as middle class, whatever their job.

Look at Hyacinth Bucket. All the things she does/says.
HTH

"We are both university educated, I'm a HCP he's a business professional. Household income of 100k. Enjoy theatre, ballet etc."

No way is that lower middle class!

We all know it is where you bought your Christmas food from!

"Does anyone even care about "class" ? "

Anyone interested in politics or societal issues, yes. Class determines people's life chances so it's wrong (imo) to say it doesn't matter.

I’d say Rosehip’s list is accurate and a very good indicator.

I'm not sure I have a class.

I'm a NMW retail worker, living in a house I can't afford to heat, scraping by on bills, which would make me working class. But I'm also a multi published, award winning author, who gets invited to lots of glitzy 'do's in posh places (writing books is a VERY middle class activity, just wish it earned a middle class income).

So when I'm at work in the shop I'm working class. When I'm at a glam do with my hair up and makeup on, I'm middle class.

Mostly, I'm just me.

" I think teaching puts you in middle middle?"

It doesn't- lots of young teachers come from very working class backgrounds

In my experience those who describe themselves as any level of ‘middle class’ have seasonally decorated false nails, drink a lot of Prosecco and are obsessed with ‘reality’ TV and their next long haul holiday 👍🏻

Ive never met a single person I would consider ‘middle class’ who thought it important enough to discuss or label 😬

"Look at Hyacinth Bucket. All the things she does/says.
HTH"

That's aspirational lower middle class though.

Not all lower middle class people aspire to be 'more' middle class. I'd say that where I come from, lower middle class people strive to not be seen as posh as much as not be seen as common. So certain interests or behaviours will be avoided as 'too posh'.
I can see that might be more of a Welsh than an English thing though.

RhythimIsRhythim

Why Miffy?

I have my original childhood Miffy books from the late 1960s- they are the same images but not the same texts as now. What class does that make me?

I'm with you on 'toilet' 'settee' 'serviette' but what has pardon ever done to be tarred?! 'what?', certainly not an improvement... 'excuse me?', could go wrong. i'll stick with pardon thank you. (I'm exactly half UMC and half french catholic so impoverished my mother was born in a communal home run by the church .. long story)

Matching furniture

Mumsnetters are so funny, so obsessed with class but they don't realise talking about it in such a way puts them firmly in the lower category

Main identifier: too much time on hands.

"Do people really still care about this?
The idea of class is there to keep you in your place, like gender."

No, it's the opposite. It's people who say class doesn't exist that want to keep people down. It's to make them think that if they're not successful it's their own fault rather than being down to structural issues. The Tories under John Major had a thing of talking about the 'classless society'. Yes, Major and Thatcher had themselves made it in life from humble beginnings (working class for Major and lower middle for Thatcher) but inequality is a real thing.

I think it used to be easy in that earnings//job type told you a lot about a person. Their favourite drink to how they might vote

Nowadays a lot of that is topsy turkey

A menial job like a plumber may be earning shedloads more than a desk based person. A degree level education once propelled you towards middle class now sees you working in a call centre topped up with universal credit,

A middle class job like teacher once gave you a decent lifestyle compared to working in a factory but now that is no longer so clear. Both might have reasonable car and foreign holiday.,,although one might have less debt than the other

?

So how people see themselves and their class have changed,

sorry, but if you HAVE to work for a living then surely you are working class any way ? that doesn't stop you behaving and speaking in a certain way. many mners on here would say i was middle class if they spoke with me and we dicussed hobbies, likes / dislikes etc. i say lounge, lunch and dinner for example but that's how i was raised plus strict grammer school teaching
doesn't make me a better person though, just different.

I think accent is the biggest indicator of class. Stuff like jobs and where you do the supermarket shop mean nothing these days.

FWIW my concept of ‘class’ is a mixture of profession/Income, education level, behaviour/personal presentation and lifestyle choices.

You’re not a certain class just because you tick one box.