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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What makes you working class?

270 replies

Greenbluestar · 22/01/2022 01:20

I noticed the thread on what makes you middle class. So how about what makes you working class? I’ll go first..

  • achievement achieved through merit and seldom by privilege
  • keen to work and hard working

Any more?

OP posts:
EmiliaAirheart · 22/01/2022 01:21

In my case, being houseproud. The less you have, the more you want to look after it.

Original poster
Greenbluestar · 22/01/2022 01:21

@EmiliaAirheart

In my case, being houseproud. The less you have, the more you want to look after it.
Totally get this.
OP posts:
ClariceQuiff · 22/01/2022 01:29

I work for a living - I'm the only breadwinner in my household and if I didn't work, once my insurances and rainy day funds were exhausted, I would be fucked.

GnomeOrMistAndIceGuy · 22/01/2022 01:34

Heating on all the time
Over-cooked meat

Kerberos · 22/01/2022 01:39

For me the border between working and middle comes from generational wealth. If your parents own their own house, and have private pensions it gives a psychological safety net, greater likelihood of higher education and inheritance income.

Despite having a relatively high incomes and university educations for my generation, I definitely consider myself and my family to be working class.

It's an interesting and evolving question though.

Namaste6 · 22/01/2022 01:47

Strong, self-driven work ethic.
Internal confidence, with no outward cockiness.

BaggaTDoubleTroubleDoubleG · 22/01/2022 01:58

Coming from a family where university wasn’t the norm and whose parents worked in low wage unskilled jobs. Having to work very hard myself, including part time work during school, university and later law school, in order to fund my own studies. As previous poster alluded to, a lack of financial security relating to property ownership, pension, inherited wealth.

I consider myself to be middle class these days, having made my way through to postgrad study and a professional career. although I think I can still legitimately claim myself to be working class. I definitely know people who like to try and claim working class roots but actually had a fairly privileged upbringing.

Piggyk2 · 22/01/2022 02:09

@Kerberos you raised a good point about the potential inheritance.

BaggaTDoubleTroubleDoubleG · 22/01/2022 02:30

For me there was also a lack of exposure to a broader idea of culture. Theatre, art galleries, museums etc were not things we did. We had very few books at home. Watched the soaps. Didn’t read the papers.

Eating out would mean Macdonalds or Harvester for special occasions. No holidays abroad (in fact no holidays at all as they weren’t affordable) but the occasional seaside trip that would be more about arcades and fish and chips than about National trust sites and area of natural beauty.

I feel like this could sound judgmental but it isn’t meant to be - these are just some of the main elements of my upbringing that felt very different to the experiences of my middle class friends.

dipdye · 22/01/2022 02:33

You have, at some point in your life, stepped foot in a council house

ShippingNews · 22/01/2022 02:35

I'm glad to live in a country where there is no such thing as a class system. I sometimes read that the UK no longer has such a thing, that nobody cares etc, but at least once a week I see a post on MN about class . So I guess it still remains a "thing" for many.

HuntingoftheSnark · 22/01/2022 02:42

I didn't see the last thread. Becoming a single parent meant that my middle class parents wouldn't accept me into the family home, plus my ex didn't pay a penny towards our daughter. I think "work for what you want/have" would describe my situation without any class element, especially as I was overseas with zero benefits (monetary).

Piggyk2 · 22/01/2022 07:00

@HuntingoftheSnark that's really unkind of your parents. I think even if you worked a retail job in your scenario you can still be MC if that is your background.

HuntingoftheSnark · 22/01/2022 07:04

@Piggyk2 how nice of you to answer. My daughter is 24 and I'm totally past it but yes, I agree, it was unkind.

Snog · 22/01/2022 07:08

Brioche is not a regular purchase on your weekly shop.

GoodnightGrandma · 22/01/2022 07:09

My parents divorced, so my DM was a cleaner while I was in school We couldn’t afford heating at all and I had a ‘wash down’ in the washing up bowl every week as she couldn’t afford a bath of hot water. But we always had good food.
I had second hand clothes, and we looked after what we did have.
I’ve always had the mentality that you work for what you want/need.

Snowiscold · 22/01/2022 07:13

I don’t think either of the OP’s points have anything to do with being working class. Being keen to work and hard-working is not a marker of working class people only. It marks middle class people too. And achievement by merit only - jobs found by your mates, your uncle, people in the same trade, nod and a wink - as much a marker, if not more, of working class people.

SNUG2022 · 22/01/2022 07:14

Lack of privilege but you didn't really know you were missing out as nobody had access to those things. Lack of foreign holidays. Shit cars, shit food, no cash, hardly any clothes.

I always say that I know I'm working class as my idea of a good time is to go out, get pissed and have a laugh. I'm now in a very middle class area where everyone is competitive and aspirational, and nobody is funny! Nobody has a laugh or makes me laugh, it's so serious.

JulieGoods · 22/01/2022 07:15

@Snog

Brioche is not a regular purchase on your weekly shop.
I'm middle class due to my parents earning well but they were both from very typical working class London families. So while I went to grammar school and many theatre trips and holidays the way we celebrate and eat is very working class still.

I'm obviously thinking of a totally different type of brioche than MN is. To me they're little individual wrapped kids snacks? Like the bags of cheap croissants. Pretty working class now.

Ovenaffray · 22/01/2022 07:20

Having to work for what you have with no helping hand from parents

But I suspect this thread is more about signifiers of class in an “I look down on him and up to you” sketch way.

LordEmsworth · 22/01/2022 07:28

@Greenbluestar

I noticed the thread on what makes you middle class. So how about what makes you working class? I’ll go first..
  • achievement achieved through merit and seldom by privilege
  • keen to work and hard working

Any more?

Sorry can you clarify please? I'm not sure whether you mean:
  • Only working class people are hard-working and keen to work
  • Anyone who is hard-working and keen to work is working class (i.e. not middle or upper class)

I was under the impression that the class system is only an indicator of attitudes to work in lazy stereotypes, to be honest Good to know that doctors, teachers, social workers, shop managers etc are slackers cos they're not a proper working class person with a real work ethic Confused

Kingoftheroad · 22/01/2022 07:29

I’m in Scotland, class is virtually never discussed. In my opinion it’s not about what you’ve achieved, eat, live etc it’s what you were born into i.e parents with inheritance, parents occupation, grandparents history etc.

Seashor · 22/01/2022 07:29

My dad was a builder and my mum a cleaner and we lived in a council house but we weren’t poor. I was the only child in my school who had ever been abroad, my dad bought brand new cars, we ate in restaurants.
When I first met ‘middle class’ people they were all significantly poorer money wise to my family.
Being poor or broke doesn’t make you working class in my opinion.

whiteroseredrose · 22/01/2022 07:31

@EmiliaAirheart

In my case, being houseproud. The less you have, the more you want to look after it.
Not me unfortunately but the working class side of my family always had immaculate homes. Posh side, not so much!
Forshorttheycallmecomp · 22/01/2022 07:37

I have a class mix in my family and grew up in a working class area: two of my three best friends were firmly middle class (all three lived in the same type of house..). Although there was economic migration in the background of some of those families, there was (and is) little thought that you could choose to live in a different area as you grow up.

Those that did/have were looked down on a bit. Even recently, I had a conversation with one about their teenager’s prospects and was told with an element of “look what we’ve got here” that they could train to be a teacher without leaving their corner of that (rural) county.