To think working class shows?

[MrsBonnie]

I work in a lovely school where they’ve all had very different upbringings to me. Very much working class here. Sometimes I think it shows with little things I’ve noticed.

Having sugar in tea, using a tumble drier, not having a cleaner, using the wrong glasses for different drinks (I.E using the same one for everything!)… what else am I missing that excludes me from the club 😂 sometimes I will mention something like the above and get “oh I never use a tumble drier” … then I just think oops have I said something weird there?

Sometimes I think they’re judging me with things I say and do but I hope not! I grew up being homeless at a certain point, council houses, single teen (but amazing) mum, a very specific type of circle. I feel like Mum did everything she could to get us out of that way of life, but I can’t help but feel I don’t belong sometimes. Or that I stick out like a sore thumb. Am I being daft? Imposter syndrome a little bit!

@Aghxmas that’s hilarious 😂 always handy to have mates who can do handy things!

I'd have thought a tumble dryer would be middle class. They cost a fortune for a start. I've never owned one. I have a working-class upbringing but would class myself as middle class now (or lower middle class at least). I still don't have a tumble dryer as they take up space and are expensive to run.

I’m WC and proud to be. I use a tumble drier.

What pretentious clap trap!

Middle class people don’t take sugar!!!!

Wow! What a snob you are. I honestly didn't think people thought like this anymore. How wrong I was. You sound up your own arse.

Suage in tea and tumble drier are working class.....really.
I do think class comes down to education these days and not just formal education. There are people who chose to willfully remain ignorant and not be beyond their small sphere

Are some people reading a different thread from me?

The OP is worried about being on the receiving end of judgment - she’s not the one making the judgements.

@Katypyee you’ve read the post with the opposite view of what I meant - don’t worry it’s clearly the way I’ve worded it as a few have thought the same. The things I’ve listed in the OP are the things I have had funny looks or comments about.

Personally, I find people who indulge in classism as being somewhat lacking in class.

It doesn't matter what class you think you are, nor what class you think others might be. It's all outdate pretentious nonsense. What matters is who you are as a person.

@StupidSmallFruit I don’t think they’re reading the whole post. At the end when I say about being homeless and stuff it would be clear which “side” I’m coming from.

When I was at uni we went on a field trip to the council estate where I grew up and still lived to study ‘an area of social deprivation’. I thought it was hilarious.

True but having a ' fairly large, well ventilated utility room with one in ' pretty much means you are ! (As pp).
Not many working class families have this available!

He said they have a million different subtle ways of letting you know that you don't truly belong.

I don't agree with this - it's a myth perpetuated by some to give the place seem more outwordly than it actually is - it's just a place where people who are considered "smart" when measured against the academic framework happen to study together.

I'm from a very working class background (council estate, father factory worker, mum didn't work majority of time - old school - and then only part-time jobs like school lunch assistant, awful primary school - so bad it was shut down, no car in family, no holidays etc etc) and was fortunate enough to get myself into Oxford (see below re. easier financially as to why I consider this fortunate).

Whilst there are people there from very privileged backgrounds, there's also people there from every background you can imagine there and there just isn't a culture of making people feel they don't belong - quite the opposite intact.

In fact, and as an aside, thanks to the college system (and often rich alumni)there's a ton of financial support for those less well off students (which I think makes being a less well off student easier there).

DRYER.

‘drier’ is a comparative adjective.

My clothes are drier because I put them in the tumbler dryer.

Bravo

Maybe it’s a hangover from having had staff to do things for you. Why the would you need a tumble drier if you don’t need to think about laundry?

I should add, the reason I commented is that I hate this myth as it puts people off applying.

Ps apologies for the typos!

The way your OP is worded is quite confusing actually.
Can you explain more clearly which “side” you’re on?

I must be a mish mash since I have sugar in tea (and it needs to be very strong and not very milky!) sweeteners in coffee, use a tumble dryer, clothes horse and a washing line, drink coke from a can but I insist on the correct glasses for wine, prosecco and gin (99% of the time) I am a bit of a half and half though since one of my parents came from a poor working class background and the other from a very rich middle class background. My parents worked in basic jobs and we lived very comfortably (with a tumble dryer used sparingly that lived in the detached garage 😱)

My very much working glass grandma had a ceiling pulley, drank everything out of mugs and my very much middle class one had a tumble dryer and used crystal glasses.

Neither had a cleaner. I don't either, I would like one but I have better things to spend my disposable income on. Maybe if I had an extra grand spare every month I would get one.

Class is very much a thing of the past, I hope anyway. Life would be very boring if we surrounded ourselves with carbon copies of ourselves.

So does spelling it as 'drier' make us all more working class or less??? 😛

I don’t think that you have worded it wrongly @MrsBonnie . I think people are just so overexcited about a class thread that they have chosen not to understand your post. A bit like my husband when he gets a new gadget and doesn’t bother to read the instructions.

This

I think this is spot on and I can relate big time.

I have chosen a life now where I hang around people like me, and I am proud of where I grew up and my family background.

I avoid people who try to subtly - or not so subtly - remind you of their “class”.

(Can’t understand the dryer debate though. No one I know near me has space for one (London), and they’re not great for the environment, but by god are they useful and I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t secretly like one despite the environment thing!)

@LadybirdsAreNeverHappy

If you read the OP I wrote both of these:

“very much working class here”

“Sometimes I think they’re judging me with things I say and do but I hope not! I grew up being homeless at a certain point, council houses, single teen (but amazing) mum, a very specific type of circle. I feel like Mum did everything she could to get us out of that way of life, but I can’t help but feel I don’t belong sometimes.”

I get what you're saying, OP; you know, sitting there in University, you're an outlier because they go on about social mobility, but I am sure teaching is more diverse than many careers anyway!

But I don't get why we should have a class system; all it does is try and pigeonhole people anyway; I don't get why people can't accept people for who they are.