To ask what makes you middle class?

[Wantobeareader]

I am not from the UK so not very familiar with these class definitions (which personally I cannot stand) but I am curious to understand what people mean with MC. I thought it was a term referred to the fairly wealthy but apparently lots of people and incomes seem to fall into that categories.
So, how would you define Middle Class? Feel free to type a description of a typical MC person you can think of :)

Who knew Walkers Crisps make you middle class?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2013/newsspec_5093/index.stm

Here's a quiz.

Apparently I'm "established middle class" which I feel anything but

In fairness, we buy Aldi own crisps each week but for Christmas we buy Walkers

I would say the other way around. My mum was working class - cery house proud and insisted people took their shows off. Middle classes often worry less about the shoes, have messier houses allow dogs on the settees etc

That’s fine, but it has formed quite a large part of the discussion on here and people either subscribe to their personal opinion or to an external one – both are valid.

Trans-class. Was working class but believe self to be middle class (but not got all the credentials to be middle class).

Imo if you host friends for supper more than once a year, your bloke wears coloured chinos (eg anything other than black/beige/grey/navy), and have a dog that has a regular paid for dog walker, then you are MC.

have a dog that has a regular paid for dog walker, then you are MC

I disagree with this bit!

Victoria Beckham!

Surely the MC eat Kettle chips and would never eat anything as common as Walkers.

Oh you sweet summer child...😂

Stiff G&T totally acceptable. Kir or Kir Royale also fine as is champagne or cremant, but NEVER Prosecco :-)

I'm immigrant class, it's great, no fretting about shoes at the door or crisps brands....

It's all such a load of shite though isn't it. What if you take your kids to museums and castles and art galleries because it's cheaper than water parks? MC or WC? What if your kid moans the whole time and refuses to absorb the cultural capital provided? MC or WC?

What if you live in rural north Wales and have never ever heard anyone say 'serviette' and everyone wears hiking boots and fleeces (okay, some from passenger some from Primark, but still). MC or WC?

Does it not count in Wales?? (Hope not)

Museums are quite boring for kids. Same as NT gardens. I'm sure most kids would rather charge about in soft play or bounce for hours in a trampoline park.

It’s a state of mind, like being a Royal Marine Commando

These threads really irritate me because I don’t think I’m either WC or MC.

Both sets of grandparents WC (as most people’s are)
Dad OU degree, lecturer, intellectual, loved opera etc
Mum not too bright, watches soaps, never reads, no interests
Me OU degree, used to be a cleaner, groomed, softy spoken but with a mild regional accent. Disabled, autistic, no income at all, live with my mother. Friends are both MC and WC. DS went to a private school.

Op just google. The classes are very well defined.

people on here are making up their own definitions. Like your parents are working or middle class so you are, refusing to accept social mobility, both up and down is a thing.

people can also be multiple classes in their life time, your class is you. Your parents class is theirs, you can be a middle class adult who had a working class childhood. You can be a middle class parent, who raised children who became working class.

effectively unskilled or semi skilled labour ie supermarket check out, construction labourer, wait staff, retail worker, road sweeper, is working class. Earning a wage rather than a salary.

middle class is further educated skilled labour, be it an electrician or a university lecturer, earning a salary,

people have huge emotion around this subject, as you can see from the thread, people who are clearly middle class arguing they are working class, and people who are working class arguing everyone else is.

for some it’s an emotive subject, that causes them to come up with their own definitions. The simplest way is to simply google the definitions, and then understand that some people may wish to identify themselves or others differently to that due to some personal emotion they feel about it , and thus create their own definition then declare it the actual definition. It isn’t. Clearly.

What makes the family middle class is my partner’s education, job and lifestyle. I’ll always be working class though so I’ve dragged him down unfortunately.

What makes you middle class?

Getting rid of your skid marks on the bog when you're produced a particularly wet log.

I personally think it's more how you were raised than where you are now.
I believe that if you're from a 'working class' family, you'll always see yourself that way.
Same with 'middle class'.

It’s an interesting thread. I feel like I’ve got a foot in both WC and MC camps!

My parents are WC - factory/office jobs but own their own home, now retired but have savings and holiday abroad for several weeks every year. DH is from a WC background - Dad was a factory worker and Mum was a SAHM for many years. council house, never learnt how to drive, no savings, never went on holiday etc.

I am university educated (did a degree in my 30’s) and now have a professional job, DH took further qualifications to do a professional job. We own our own home but don’t have huge amounts of savings but we have a decent level of income.

I like some MC stuff like museums, stately homes etc but DH likes sport and gaming. I do a sport that’s a fairly expensive hobby.

I guess I don’t see myself as completely WC or MC really - just a hybrid of the 2!

I agree you can't change class but your kids can. So my husband is wc, his parents had low skilled jobs, and I am mc. My mum was wc but got out, dad was mc so we were mc. My kids are mc and we have mc values but my husband is still wc, the family is mc. He lives like a mc person as an adult though but that doesn't make you mc.

BBC Calculator has me down as Elite .. not bad when I was brought up without a pot to piss in

TBH, my Working Class start to life is important to me. Life is different now, but I’ll never forget how it feels to be poor, and I spend time now trying to make sure other children don’t feel the way that I did.

There isn't that much of a middle and working class anymore. It's more about money now.

I just did that quiz twice with very minor variations (there are very few questions?) and came out with two answers ranging from elite to the one at the very bottom.

I am Irish so class is a thing here but not to the extent that it is in the UK. I used to have arguments with a friend about it. I feel he is middle class as his parents were professionals and his brother (but not he) was privately educated which is pretty rare in Ireland. He was convinced I am also middle class as my parents owned our house outright, which I thought was ridiculous. It was inherited from my grandparents, my dad was a farmer in the west of Ireland and we hadn't two shillings to rub together!

Technically we are middle class now, professional jobs & multiple degrees, own our own homes, do cultural things, read extensively etc. I still think his family are a different level to mine, but no-one really cares about this sort of thing here, luckily, unless you live in South County Dublin.