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!

I know someone who thinks that both tumble dryers and line-drying are common. Their spare bedroom is entirely given over to drying laundry and a constantly-running dehumidifier. Goodness only knows how that is preferable.

@HundredMilesAnHour honestly the crumpet situation was mentioned all week. Maybe I will eat 6 next time 😅

It sounds like you just have very rude colleagues, OP. How bizarre to comment on someone else’s lunch.

It can be awkward especially when ill thought remarks are made followed by silence.

I'm mostly proud of my wc life and culture until I'm in a situation where it sticks out and you feel like the outsider.

I wish I had a tumble dryer would make life so much easier unfortunately our kitchen doesn't have space for one. Need one in Scotland take 3 days for clothes to dry inside unless we put a fire on!

Agree with this. I don’t even know how my colleagues dry their washing or if they take sugar in their tea, much less sit assigning classes to them based on how they do it. Only saddos would do that, don’t give it another thought and just live your life normally.

I think this thread may well be Peak Mumsnet.

I am more astounded at the amount of people who don't know the difference between drier and dryer than the weird UK class system.
I live in OZ so I will just assume that I am lower class😆
Though I do live on acreage , have 3 dogs , one is a lab, as well as a horse and a pony. So maybe not. 🤔

Same

@ParsnipsAndPies

^I grew up working class. We didn't have a tumble drier or a washing machine! Every had to be lugged down to the laundrette.^

^Now solidly middle class, with a, shock horror, tumble drier! Just the same as literally every middle class person I know.^

^The inverted snobbery on here is palpable.^

So you grew up wc now you're solidly mc and you're judging the inverted snobbery.

Things will never change if successful people feel they have achieved the ultimate goal by changing class.

WC people are not a shameful part of society yet they're made to feel that way by MC people.

I can't afford a tumble dryer. Oooh, am I middle class now?😃

Ha! Just own it. Don't let the chips on their shoulders move to yours.

I get where you're coming from you but you need to ignore them and/or not care.

When I first started in a professional role in London (at 22), I was stuck in a room one day with this terribly posh woman who sneered at my very strong regional accent (and no doubt many other things that made me stand out as "not like her"). She grilled me about where I went to school (answer: very rough, very working class Northern comprehensive) and then said "Urgh, what on earth is someone like YOU doing in a job like this?" Seriously. (Total bitch).

I replied "so you had the all benefit of a comfortable background and an expensive private education? And we're doing the same job? So who's the stupid one here?" I never heard a peep out of her again.

Different is not better, it is just different. And in these times of diversity, they should tread carefully. So you can either ignore them, or you can deliberately wind them with vats of crumpets that you've tumbled dried in sugar, or you can just fire a gentle warning shot across their bows with "ooh, whatever happened to diversity? do we all have to be the same here?" (followed by classic MN tinkly laugh).

The tumble dryer thing is just plain weird. I am from a working class background and there was no room in our house for a tumble dryer. I didn’t live in a house with a tumble dryer until I “became” middle class!
Aye but would those privately educated from a mc background have a tumble dryer?
Maybe your neighbours judge.

I think my working class (ness) shows in my lack of confidence and sense of entitlement to exist, that those further up the pecking order seem to have in spades. I am only ever aware of these qualities in myself when I am around middle class/ upper class people.

All the other stuff about sugar in tea, tumble dryers, toilets etc is stuff you can learn, if you are inclined, but it's difficult to change the subconscious belief system that comes with growing up working class in this country. You only have to read the constant threads on here from people desperate to be seen as MC to see that WC people are thought of as lesser. It's not always easy to 'just be yourself' when just being yourself is regarded as common and undesirable by most of mumsnet - judging by the amount of threads asking 'how to not be lower class'.

none of those things are a class thing op, you’re worrying yourself over nothing. Also in the nicest possible way no one is thinking about you that much to judge you for using a tumble drier or putting sugar in your tea!

Sorry not to read the thread but didn't want to read and run while people plant doubts snd start telling you "its in your head". In answer to your question.. yanbu. Working class shows.... in so many ways, big and small. Including in the frantic way everyone tries to deny it even exists .. ...

So funny, I’m so very middle class and have Been shamed by my more working class friends to line dry after 30 years of tumble drying, they are so right, it’s fresher and that lasts longer. So reverse I was brought up that you didn’t put your clothes out to dry as that wa seen as common

They will.also have decided which class you belong in from the second you open your mouth. The other stuff will just confirm their assumptions.

My personal opinion is that the class system in this country is obselete and antiquated. I really don't think about it much. I think you have people born to privilege and family money, who I would certainly say were very upper-class. Some of them are extremely rich, and some of them are asset rich but can't afford to maintain their country estate. Then you have everyone else.

I was born to 2 parents who both worked. My mum was privately educated but chose to travel in her youth and ended up as a librarian and then a welder 🤣. My dad took on a trade and became skilled. My dad's salary was quite high for the 80s and 90s. He drank himself to death by 50.

I've been to university twice. My job is nothing to do with either of my stints at university but it pays, very slightly, above average national salary and I love going to work. My dp is self-employed, he earns significantly more than the national average.

We have a drier, no cleaner, we don't go abroad anymore, I'm vegan, he is pescatarian. I'm 41 and will have paid off my mortgage next year (no inheritance). We have no money issues, but we have had in the past. I own my own car - it is old, and we own a fleet of vehicles due to dp's business. I speak with a Yorkshire accent, I have no desire for materialistic items, shop at Tesco, sometimes Asda or Sainsburys. We are kind and help others. My friends range from cleaners to a barrister, and everything in between.

What class am I?

I'd say working.

Wow, I'm quite posh and have never heard this about tumble driers! Think I'm quite sensitive to class things as well. What's the thinking behind them...it's more sophisticated to air dry?

I had no idea a tumble dryer was considered WC.

I’m quite posh and mine is on permanently. I realise done people don’t have the space but I have no idea why people who do have space/can afford wouldn’t have one

I definitely see a difference between my upbringing and that of some of my colleagues. However, I don't worry about it at all. If your friends care about this kind of shit then they are not worth it.

I doubt you are imagining it. I’ve had a w/c upbringing and although now I’m well off and well educated I still feel the judgements from a certain type of person. It’s quite obvious.

this

Working class and proud!