What makes you middle class ?

[toddlerdanger]

Inspired by another thread. Just for a bit of fun.

MN is obsessed with this. Let me start- I am not originally British - so I wasn't born into this system. But I understand it somewhat. But I would like to understand what it is that makes you middle class.

Here are my thoughts, gathered from 20 plus years of living here, please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to offend, I find this topic fascinating, especially since reading so much about it on here:

• speaking in an RP accent, so not in a regional accent

• living in a period property or cottage ( an old house basically )

• playing board games and scrabble

• loving puns and word play

• having read all the classic books because you grew up with them and your parents showed you/ talked for you about them since you were young

• having parents who don't do manual jobs/ are entrepreneurs. Middle class parents seem to work in academia or in the corporate world in general.

• having parents who have a degree

• having parents that have been to private school

• having been to private school ( but not 100 percent necessary )

• having a degree yourself

• not driving flash cars, think more like a Volvo rather than a Porsche

• shopping at Waitrose

• not piercing your child's ears until they're in their teens

• not having too much flashy designer stuff. The odd bag is OK. But not constant flashing of designer stuff. More understated

• the Christmas lights things. Not too many colours, but more subdued. Think warm white vs ice white lights

• antiques in the home

• not into football, but more into rugby

This is all I can think of right now.

Counts cheeses, high fives self on climbing the social ladder...
Sod my degree, I have cheddar, parmesan, mozzarella, soft cheese, goats cheese, brie and Stilton

Adds mature Gouda and does a twirl , is your goats cheese cave aged ?

I grew up in a loving but poor home and my Dad worked in a factory and Mum.did part time cleaning. I consider I was working class. I went on to get 2 degrees became a teacher and married an accountant. I consider my children to be middle classed as they have grown up in large detached house and been to independent schools and had tutors too, expensive hobbies like horse riding and piano lessons and have had opportunity to go to good university. DS chose to not go to uni but drive a lorry. Sort of think he thinks of himself as working class because of his job.

Pretending that I don't read The Daily Mail. Pesto.

Nutsohazelnuts Yes, they can, but most people north and west of the home counties who are middle class do not speak with an RP accent.

@gailsmissingchin

Pretending that I don't read The Daily Mail. Pesto.

Hahahaha

The vast majority of people in this country with power are upper middle class or upper class.

It’s very naive of PPs to claim that class doesn’t matter.

I scored as an emergent service worker on that quiz, which I am loving because it says I am young. Not sure how young I will feel at 67 when I can take my pension as a nurse. Hopefully good cheese, cheap wine and R4 will keep me going until then

Decanting stuff into silly containers is very much working class/Hinch/b&M

I don’t have typical middle class tastes but I am middle class. I really like cheap and cheerful when it comes to most things. You can’t work it out from the cliches necessarily.

@toddlerdanger I think you'd enjoy the book"Watching the English"

It's all about the class system in England. Quite light, and humorous in style, but also well researched.

Ironically, I found it through a recommendation on a thread on here about what makes you middle class a few years back.

Very good for those of us not originally from round these parts

I really thought I was middle class, but only have own-brand cheddar.

As a (middle class) child I saw a documentary about the Queen, and she had breakfast cereal out of tupperware. I aspired to this 😁 When DH and I got our first flat we ceremonially bought breakfast tupperware to decant in to. Me in my class aspiration. Him in nostalgia for his (skint, though also clinging-to-middle class) mum mixing the cornflakes with plain oats to make them go further between 8 children. We do not yet have the opportunity for our breakfast tupperware to be laid out on the sideboard by the staff for us to come down to take a breakfast buffet. We get it ourselves from the cereal cupboard. Thus pretty sure not made it to upper class yet.

@DowntonCrabby

I tick 90% of your list and am resolutely, proudly working class.

Why are you proud of something you presumably had no choice in? I have yet to hear of babies being asked what class they’d like to be born into. I can imagine the sneering on here if anyone said they were ‘proud’ to be middle or upper class.

An Aga, wood burner and a house that smells faintly of wet Labrador.

@SoyMarina

Your first name is usually a sign of your class. If you're called Tracy, Sharon, Jackie, Mandy,Lynn or Linda ....then it would be unlikely you come from a middle class home. That is, of course, depending on the decade you were born in. But as I'm late 50s women with those given names tend not to be middle class.

I see your point but I dont think its that simple due to the year you were born and upward mobility.

I know three people with names mentioned above and I'd describe all as middle class.

They all went to either boarding or grammar school.
All have post-grad education.
All very senior, career focussed, high achievers.
One has a father who's a land owner (not titled).
One has a father who was an officer in the Royal Navy.
All live in period houses.
All speak beautifully.
All are late 50s / early 60s and born in Yorkshire.

Sorry, forgot the friend whose father was a vicar.

@Raquelos

The middle class is a trick to distract us from the fact that if we sell our labour for a wage we are working-class and our political interests are the same and in opposition to those who pay our wages. The obsession with being middle class distracts us from that fact and ensures that those with the real power and assets are never confronted with a united opposition. This is the very best way they can safeguard the status quo which grants them their wealth and privilege.

Yes this is exactly how I see it

I'm a class jumper.

Born working class, both parents worked in factories and were right to buy homeowners. Went to state school, trained as a nurse before it was a degree entry profession. Never had a regional accent. Not sure why as I grew up in the Black Country and didn't actively try not to aquire the local accent.

At 22 I went to university, discovered politics, radio 4 and lots of new experiences. Got onto a prestigious grad scheme.

Married someone in a very niche traditional profession. Met through a dating agency.

I changed my (v working class name) to fit in. No regrets. It was a game changer. We moved around a lot due to promotions so reinventing myself was easy.

Now have a 4 bed house, a child in a grammar school who plays 2 instruments and plays sport at County level. We go to lots of cultural events. I work in a board level job and our income is 6 figures. I volunteer for several charities including a food bank.

I never refer to my past. Everyone thinks I'm home counties middle class.

My parents see me as a class traitor, my inlaws think I don't belong.

I have no idea what I am.

Not sure how others would see me though. I work in a fairly senior NHS role and have a Masters degree in Science and an MBA but nobody on my family before me want to university. I have a mild south London accent that is more noticeable when I’m annoyed. Live in a 4 bed detached new build. Drive a Volvo and shop mostly at Waitrose. Don’t really know anything about the Classics or have any interest.

When we bought our first home, to my stepson we became middle class. I didn't think so at all, maybe lower middle, but certainly not middle - middle. We've now moved house, got a much better paying job, etc.. I think we're definitely middle with a touch of upper.

I wasn't born in the UK, but my grandmother was a proper aristocrat (she always told me stories of how her family's servants would through away meals her father didn't taste it/like it).

My grandparents (and I'm sure my great grandparents) went to university. I don't think class translates between countries.

It's not hard to understand at all. If you need a wage or salary to survive you are working class. The clue is in the name. You are middle class if you don't need your wage or salary to survive. As in, you own property, land or businesses, you have substantial savings, investments or inheritance you can access. The vast majority of people that call themselves middle class are just working class on a higher salary.

The behaviours and purchases don't mean very much.

What a knob you sound, OP.

@headintheproverbial

What a knob you sound, OP.

Ditto..

@headintheproverbial

What a knob you sound, OP.

What makes you say that about the op?

@Bundlesofchocforme

Round here it’s driving to school when your whole family is able bodied and you live two streets away. Parking your massive car on double yellow lines inches from the school gate and covering most of the pavement so wheelchairs can’t get by and then standing gossiping to equally irritating middle class friends in the middle of the school entrance while ignoring your kids who are creating Merry hell!

There is absolutely nothing middle class about any of this post.

@ConsiderablyRicherThanYow

It's not hard to understand at all. If you need a wage or salary to survive you are working class. The clue is in the name. You are middle class if you don't need your wage or salary to survive. As in, you own property, land or businesses, you have substantial savings, investments or inheritance you can access. The vast majority of people that call themselves middle class are just working class on a higher salary.

The behaviours and purchases don't mean very much.

What is upper class then? Do you need a title for that?