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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that the middle classes are liars and actors?

418 replies

MargaretBrewer · 05/10/2024 12:37

I know this woman who I always assumed was middle class. Everything she says and values is a walking middle class stereotype. The couple live in a nice house, everything is nice. Forgive my surprise, then, when I found out that she was born on a council estate to parents who were often jobless. After some snooping around, I learned that her husband comes from more money, but his father actually began life as a builder - yes, a construction worker! - who rose to manage the (small) company before buying up a number of local estate agents. I never knew what the couple in question did until I learned that they are landlords to some shops in town. Their son went to a private school and struts around like he is prince of the county! When none of his grandparents were posh! And how is it that the husband and wife own so many properties in town?!

It reminds me of a doctor and his wife I know. I always thought they must come from solidly middle class, if not upper class backgrounds, given how they talk and behave. It turned out that both of them come from families that worked in steel!

And and and there is a writer who lives nearish to me. Single woman, carries herself with this gait and artistic flair that I assumed she must come from an UMC background. Turns out her father was a welder.

Why are these people so MC presenting?? I would never have guessed they had come from unglamorous backgrounds, and there are a few other 'friends' I suspect might be similar. Are the middle classes inherently actors? If so their snobbery is alarming to me!

Had to change my name for this.

OP posts:
AhBiscuits · 05/10/2024 12:39

Are you expecting them to tell you their parents professions while first shaking your hand?

MrsSkylerWhite · 05/10/2024 12:39

Eh?

Bigearringsbigsmile · 05/10/2024 12:39

You sound like one of the unpleasant characters in a maeve binchy book.
Just take a moment and listen to yourself.

SillyTilly2 · 05/10/2024 12:40

😂

MalcolmTuckersSwearBox · 05/10/2024 12:40

What a bonkers OP.

Drivingoverlemons · 05/10/2024 12:41

Don’t you know it’s against the law to say you are working class if your parents were and you are not?

DancingPhantomsOnTheTerrace · 05/10/2024 12:41

It reminds me of a doctor and his wife I know. I always thought they must come from solidly middle class, if not upper class backgrounds, given how they talk and behave. It turned out that both of them come from families that worked in steel!

How should people whose families worked in steel talk and behave then?

araiwa · 05/10/2024 12:41

Wtf is this shit?

doodleschnoodle · 05/10/2024 12:41

Eh? Is this a rehash of a Jane Austen novel?

Ellerby83 · 05/10/2024 12:41

Yeah right😂

mrsmalaprop · 05/10/2024 12:41

Well this is a weird judgement.

What's the issue here exactly? It is possible to move between classes, you know. What do you mean by 'middle class presenting'?

How would you prefer them to behave?

GetDownkeith · 05/10/2024 12:42

This post cannot be real it’s so funny!
You’d be appalled at my parents then they grew up poor and post was in the east end of Glasgow and sent me to private school! How bloody dare they!!
I might get ideas above my station now.

BitOutOfPractice · 05/10/2024 12:42

Would you like vinegar for that chip on your shoulder.

I grew up on a council estate in the West Midlands. I live a pretty mc life now. I’m very sorry to be acting above my station. I’ll remember to know my place.

Whousestypewritersanyway · 05/10/2024 12:42

Oh my, a welder! 🤣

Thepeopleversuswork · 05/10/2024 12:42

Er, social class is fluid, you know that, right?

No one is assigned a social class at birth and told it is set in stone for the rest of their life. This isn’t the Middle Ages.

Some people are born in poverty and become billionaires. Others are born into extreme privilege and lose it all.

Middle Class isn’t something like a blood group which you can test for. It’s subjective and open to change.

Overtheatlantic · 05/10/2024 12:43

Silly OP

chicken2015 · 05/10/2024 12:43

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe · 05/10/2024 12:43

Why are you such a coward, OP? You feel so strongly yet... had to change your name for your bonkers post.

Everybody lies and everybody acts. Not always, just when they do.

Howmanywishescanastargive · 05/10/2024 12:44

I'm guessing this is supposed to be a joke post, but I don't get it 🤷

Inslopia · 05/10/2024 12:44

Presumably the OP is taking the piss?

HollyKnight · 05/10/2024 12:44

1/10

Try harder.

Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 05/10/2024 12:44

😴

Goody2ShoesAndTheFilthyBeast · 05/10/2024 12:44

are you taking the piss?

Inslopia · 05/10/2024 12:45

I'm guessing this is supposed to be a joke post, but I don't get it

I assumed they were taking the piss out of the numerous class threads & the crazy posts they attract.

AgentProvocateur · 05/10/2024 12:45

You have a massive chip on your shoulder. That aside, you sound quite nasty and totally bonkers.