Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
Roaringlogfire · 23/01/2022 01:31

I come from a working class back ground (parents with many middle class values) but have Masters and professional career. Mix in very middle class circles.

What I think sets me apart is that I occasionally shop in Primark and give the DC the occasional McDonalds. My friends would never go to either. My car is not a MC one and my home is furnished in a modern IKEA type way.

So I guess, I can't shake off my WC roots. My dsis on the other hand has a very working class job but her home and shopping habits and her values are ultra MC.

Magicandspiders · 23/01/2022 06:17
  • My parents have always lived in social housing and so even though I no longer do- I will always be working class.
  • I went to university on full maintenance grant due to low income family
  • I take my shoes off when in someone's home
  • I always wash my cup before leaving a friends and never go over empty handed
Magicandspiders · 23/01/2022 06:18

And of course- I feed my children McDonald's 😉

User387598621 · 23/01/2022 06:25

I didn't realise that Anaglypta wallpaper was working class, it's just wallpaper from a different period.

buddythemum · 23/01/2022 06:41

What makes you realise is that everyone we know is either working class or middle class, but there's not much difference really compared to the top class rich propel who run the country, the money they have the could tip a cab driver the amount any of us make a year, they are the people who control the country. No one from a lower class family will be the prime minister 🤷

cafedesreves · 23/01/2022 06:49

@buddythemum

What makes you realise is that everyone we know is either working class or middle class, but there's not much difference really compared to the top class rich propel who run the country, the money they have the could tip a cab driver the amount any of us make a year, they are the people who control the country. No one from a lower class family will be the prime minister 🤷
That's not true... John Major and Gordon Brown weren't from posh backgrounds.
steff13 · 23/01/2022 06:52

The US likes to think of itself as 'classless', tell that to the Vanderbilts, Kennedys, Gettys etc etc!

We do have "classes" but they're based on your income. Because of my income, I fall into the "upper-middle" category. But there are not discussions here about virtues that are assigned to each class. No one here would say that a lower income person doesn't eat avocados.

People who are lower income are not automatically assumed to be harder working than people who are middle income or upper income.

Snowiscold · 23/01/2022 06:55

No one from a lower class family will be the prime minister

John Major immediately sprung to mind.

MrsGHarrison87 · 23/01/2022 08:46

Needing a benefits top up alongside working.

LonglegsMumtheBlacksmith · 23/01/2022 09:01

This is a massively complicated social and political question. So for me it boils down to this;
Middle class women spend ages on looking natural and like they haven't made any effort.
Working class women spend ages on looking like they've deliberately tried to make an effort.
This is said with much love for both and by someone who flits between the two.
Wink

FitAt50 · 23/01/2022 09:23

@Snowiscold

No one from a lower class family will be the prime minister

John Major immediately sprung to mind.

John Major's family were NOT working class. His father was a wealthy entertainer who lived in America as a child. John Major also had siblings who went to private school, hardling working class.
QueBarbaridad · 23/01/2022 10:07

@steff13

The US likes to think of itself as 'classless', tell that to the Vanderbilts, Kennedys, Gettys etc etc!

We do have "classes" but they're based on your income. Because of my income, I fall into the "upper-middle" category. But there are not discussions here about virtues that are assigned to each class. No one here would say that a lower income person doesn't eat avocados.

People who are lower income are not automatically assumed to be harder working than people who are middle income or upper income.

@steff13 “No one here would say that a lower income person doesn't eat avocados.”

Is that because there’s less shame attached to eating an unhealthy diet at any level of society?
Many MC here do sneer at the weight and health problems of the lower orders. It seems to me that health inequality and the tendency to blame the poor for their poverty are at least as rife in the U S as here. Do you never come across that? Do you never come across non-judgmental attempts to understand health inequality?
I don’t think one can generalise by class how hard working people are either.

RTHJ14 · 23/01/2022 10:41

I hoped that by 2022 we’d be moving away from traditional class stereotypes…

I grew up in the North East, 2 professional parents, owned their own home, reasonably affluent yet defined themselves as working class.

I now live in a area which is significantly more typically ‘middle class’ and I’m clearly seen as being from working class roots because of my northern accent. There is a perception that I have ‘done well’ - many of these people are less well educated or economically positioned than my parents yet would define themselves as middle class - location and accent seems to still play a part in how others define you!

Some elements of the work I do involves analysis across socioeconomic groups - I see such a range of people in each, with a mixture of views, economic power and circumstance that I don’t feel the traditional ‘class’ labels are valid, and it would be wonderful to see society move away from them. Obviously just my opinion mind you…

cafedesreves · 23/01/2022 10:46

@FitAt50 that's true but if you read the post it's responding to, the poster was suggesting that there's minimal difference between working and middle classes and that the country is run by an upper class elite.
So when they say "lower class" they were referring to anyone not upper class.

TrickyD · 23/01/2022 11:05

Working classes less likely to be involved in groups serving the local community. When I met DH's parents I was amazed that all they did was stay at home and watch TV. I was used to my parents' participation in various organisations in our small town.

The In-laws were adamant that anyone who was a Councilor or any other sort of volunteer was 'only in it for it for what they could get out of it'. They meant concrete advantages, not just enjoying it.

ParsleySageRosemary · 23/01/2022 11:22

Having no inheritance or help of any form from mum and dad. Knowing everything I’ve got is the result of my own work - and that people who have worked less and been given more are much, much better off.

cafedesreves · 23/01/2022 11:24

@TrickyD

Working classes less likely to be involved in groups serving the local community. When I met DH's parents I was amazed that all they did was stay at home and watch TV. I was used to my parents' participation in various organisations in our small town.

The In-laws were adamant that anyone who was a Councilor or any other sort of volunteer was 'only in it for it for what they could get out of it'. They meant concrete advantages, not just enjoying it.

Is this true? Plenty of working class people help with lots of community projects!
MadameHeisenberg · 23/01/2022 17:08

@cafedesreves

Absolutely not true and the opposite in my experience! Growing up we were involved in so many community groups - my Mum was a co-leader of the Rainbows, we were in Brownies and Scouts and Birchfield Harriers (me for hurdles and DSis for javelin), Dad ran the neighbourhood watch and coached the Boxing club…

MadameHeisenberg · 23/01/2022 17:15

Working classes less likely to be involved in groups serving the local community

Again this is just lazy stereotyping based on the idea that MC people are inherently ‘better’ and therefore do more in their communities.

Just because 2 working class people you know we’re interested, it in no way follows that everyone else is the same (unless you ascribe to the idea above).

cafedesreves · 23/01/2022 17:20

@MadameHeisenberg

Working classes less likely to be involved in groups serving the local community

Again this is just lazy stereotyping based on the idea that MC people are inherently ‘better’ and therefore do more in their communities.

Just because 2 working class people you know we’re interested, it in no way follows that everyone else is the same (unless you ascribe to the idea above).

I completely agree with you!
cafedesreves · 23/01/2022 17:29

@MadameHeisenberg it wasn't me who said that about community... I couldn't agree more that WC are massively involved in local community.

cafedesreves · 23/01/2022 17:30

Ah sorry you were responding to my v confused response to that ludicrous claim 😄

MadameHeisenberg · 23/01/2022 17:38

No, my fault, I wasn’t very clear!

TrickyD · 23/01/2022 17:54

FFS.
Read before posting.
I did not say ALL working class people were uninvolved in their local communities, I said they are LESS likely to be thus involved.
Maybe you disagree; it is my observation.

MadameHeisenberg · 23/01/2022 18:05

Nope, not less.