When do you become middle class?

[ForMintUser]

I was reading the “rich get richer” thread which made me think about something I have been wondering about, interested in other people’s opinions.

My parents came from working class, council house backgrounds, neither set of grandparents ever had much money, never owned a house.

Both parents left school with no qualifications, didn’t go on to further or higher education.

My father worked as a salesman, eventually got promoted to management and ended up working in senior management for a UK wide company.

I would say they were working class from birth but would probably be middle class now, jobs in management, home owners etc.

I would say I was raised middle class, there wasn’t a huge amount of money when we were children but certainly didn’t grow up in poverty, myself and siblings all went to university, have professional jobs.

I will say I recognise there is a lot of luck and timing in this (particularly in relation to house prices and the fact that my mother was able to be a SAHM because a family could live on one income then). I’m not a big believer in the idea that hard work always equals success, it does for some but not for others.

My question is, if they were born working class and are now middle class (happy to be corrected on that if people don’t agree) surely there needs to have been a point where you would say they had become middle class? So at what point do you become middle class?

Interesting thread. NC for it.
My grandfather was born into what is now a very deprived area of Manchester but worked hard and became MD of a company with HQ in the USA. He wrote books on his subject, sent my mum to elocution lessons and moved to a leafy part of Cheshire on the edge of the Peak District where he called dibs on a corner plot with a builder and had a 3 bed detached overlooking the Peaks. He holidayed abroad with my grandmother 3 times a year and had shares in various things. He paid for me to attend private school for 3 years.
My father was born poor with a tin bath tub in the kitchen and an outside privy. He became sales manager of a large company after working for my grandad. We had a nice detached house.
I have several professional qualifications but am currently a single parent carer on benefits. I shop at Waitrose and have a fridge full of hummus and Greek yogurt. I don't drive, can't afford to, and my children have never been abroad. People have said I am posh, but I'm not, I just speak well. My house is full of books from classics to chick lit. I rent my house in the same leafy place my grandparents lived.
I don't think about my class but my teenage daughter thinks we are definitely working class.

If you have to ask/wonder/justify you’re not middle class you’re aspiring (nothing wrong with that). The true middle class don’t care where they shop/what they wear and please themselves instead of getting angsty about whether they’ve taken their children to the theatre enough.

Interesting comments, thank you.

Middle class isn’t something I aspire to, I would say it’s what other people would call me. I have said previously I don’t think class exists in the same way anymore and been told that was ridiculous and it obviously does.

I like musicals, I have an expensive car on PCP (because I like cars, not a keeping up appearances thing and PCP because I think it makes financial sense for me). Not a national trust member, don’t listen to radio 4. Based on some of these comments I’m not sure I qualify as middle class now!

I agree with this. We’re very comfortable; have what people would consider a large home, 2/3 holidays abroad a year, weekends away probably once a month. DC all do several clubs. We are definitely working class. My husband and I both grew up on council estates with parents who worked really hard to provide the basics. We have also worked hard to get where we are; no family help for us.

I cannot understand the obsession with ‘class’. It did used to have a meaning but I really don’t think it does anymore. There are titled people and old money who I suppose are ‘upper class’ and there are unfortunately a underclass who exist outside normal society either because of criminality or deliberate reliance on the state and worklessness. Then there’s the rest of us. In my opinion.

No nouveau it’s a class. I mean I’m edging into middle class and it’s likely my children will be middle class.

Edited to summarise:

When you start to think you’re richer/better than other people and are a bit anxious to have that acknowledged, you’re middle class.

When you don’t really think about whether you’re better than others or not and take your lifestyle completely for granted, you’re upper middle class.

When you KNOW you’re better than everyone else, even if others disagree with you (ie entitlement), you’re upper class.

When you don’t have much money or pretensions, you’re working class.

Christ not another tedious, navel-gazing post about class. Wish I could vote YABU 1000 times.

Don’t agree about the one person income thing - why would that be relevant? A pair of married academics may well be middle class but not earn a huge amount. Don’t think it has anything to do with income (you could be working class and making a lot of money IMO).

I do agree with your point about culture and hobbies though. I’d say it’s more to do with being educated, having a “professional” type of job, how you spend your free time (eg taking your children to a play vs funfair), the type of area and house you live in, etc etc.

Feel free to scroll on by then, plenty of other threads on here for you to comment on.

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

Take the quiz to see

Plenty of other near-identical threads for you to read the near-identical comments on, rather than starting yet another.

Didn’t realise you were the arbiter of what people can’t and can’t post about on here. Have a nice time being a miserable prick tho.

Why does it matter? Just live and let live

Think you’ve just shown your “class” there

For swearing? Is that a class indicator too? I’ve no time at all for adults who are offended by swearing.

Middle class isn’t something I aspire to, I would say it’s what other people would call me.

So why do you care? What does it matter?

Just like the things you like and do the things you do.

Middle class is what you are when the wealthier working classes look down on you and plot to take away your savings and investments so they can splurge then on bling.

No, not the swearing; the knee-jerk aggression

Its an attitude not a wealth thing.

DH sums it up as... he's working class, living a middle class lifestyle, raising very middle class children.

The labels may be different, but there is still a class system in every country.

Yeah I think it’s difficult. Honestly @ForMintUser I would probably agree that having a car on HP and enjoying musicals are probably more working class than middle class. The middle class “versions” would be owning an older car outright, and going to see a concert at the South Bank, Sage etc. Or in fact a local amateur orchestra at a church. Nothing to do with money really, more values/ culture.

But it very much depends on what the rest of your life is like- there are I am sure some middle class people who enjoy musicals and have cars on HP- but I definitely wouldn’t say these are strong indicators or being middle class. IYSWIM.

Middle class doesn't exist as a genuine concept, it was a construct so the working class felt they had something to aspire to.

You either have to work to live or you don't. If your family needs to work to make money to live, you are working class.

When you know you will be able to retire

Try to be an immigrant 😂
The whole hummus, olives, exotic veg and fruit love and homemade sauerkraut puts us into top 5% or something 😂