What makes you working class?

[Bdueb]

Was listening to an interview with oa well known actor talking about their childhood and growing up working class. For them a key part was lack of travel and having not left their local area much etc. That was 20 years ago. What about now - what do you think distinguishes working and middle class childhoods of today?

I don’t know, all I know is if you care about it you are just about middle class and desperate to prove you aren’t working class.

I am not sure, but probably large family gatherings for birthdays and Christmas. Brands, perhaps - but MC seem to wear those, too.

Asking about class?

The responses are very middle class. If you go to large family gatherings?! If you wear brands?!?

If you grew up with parents who were blue collar workers, you're working class. Ditto if you grew up in social housing.

Oh dear, MN hates class threads.

I love them though. I have friends from many different backgrounds and lots say they come from a working class background because their grandparents were wc (whilst parents were dentist and teacher), their dad worked in a shop (he owned 3 newsagents), etc, etc. So birth class is definitely self identified, and current class is also self id.

Anyway, comparing my childhood to my mc friends - our only travel was for 2 weeks holiday in either a caravan in Cornwall or a cheap med resort. My friends went on city breaks, learned about the world, visited distant relatives.

We did not leave out local area. Other than the official holidays I probably hadn't been more than 30 miles from home until I went to uni. I have quite a large extended family, I don't think any even left our town. You were born there, got a job in the local industry (ship building and steel works then), you died there.

I thinknit was more - what do people think are today's limits that people will talk about. I feel like a lot more people travel nowadays, plus eith social.media you can find out about most things.

Sums it up perfectly

I didn't grow up in England and still find these differences interesting/ baffling.

I'm old fashioned and for me it's your parents and grandparents and close relatives occupations.

Mostly miners in my family (well, until thatcher shut the pits down), so I'm working class.

Where I come from it would be council housing and having a baby before the age of 25.

I did grow up here but real wc people don't understand class classifications and think it's just about money.

I find it fascinating as a concept but it doesn't make any difference really.

Large family gatherings? That's a new one.
Must tell my very middle class priest/wife and their five children, some with wives and children 😥.

The examples of working in the industry and council housing are all from 20 years ago. What defines a ten year old today and what experiences do they feel they are lacking from their middle class counterparts?

I can't think of a definitive answer.

My dad was a coalminer; Mum was in service and then a factory worker and finally a housewife. Dad saved up for a flat, but after 13 yrs the council bought it via compulsory purchase for a pittance and we had to move to social housing.

I was the first woman in the family to go to uni and I became a teacher, eventually becoming a HoD and then Faculty Head (Scotland).

Retired earlier than I wished because of my husband's ill-health. Now a widow living in an ex-council house and on an income of 22k a year...I feel somewhat stuck in the middle.

So far as foreign travel is concerned, in the '60s and '70s various of our neighbours holidayed in Spain every year and I would have said that they were working class.

Was that a mistype? 15?

Plenty of 30 yo grannies where I grew up!

I think that the traditional concept of class is outdated in 2024.

Speech and language. Working class people tend to have a noticeably restricted vocabulary and to speak in a sort of shorthand which is very specific to the local area they grew up in, and often don't have the ability to switch to a more neutral way of speaking when in conversation with those that don't share their shorthand.

Of today, I'd say:

Working class: little cultural capital, little parental interest in education, DC sent to the local primary then secondary, if there's money probably a bit of bling and labels. Holidays likely to be package AI where most visitors are from the UK. Jobs tending towards the vocational.

Middle class: theatre, opera, art, literature walking, curiosity about the world and nature, commitment to education and if money's tight will drop to their knees. Parents were well travelled before DC and if money's tight have bucket and spade holidays in Cornwall and Norfolk or Pierre etc Vacance, if not villas in Continental Europe or further afield. Jobs tending towards professional.

No uni degree is working class for me (as a foreighner). It's awkward noone mentions education.

So certain members of the Royal Family were actually working class?

I think most class differences these days are related to:

Diet
Education
Inheritance

And with regards to Education - it's not if you went to uni, it is which uni.

Enjoying bisto gravy so thick you can slice it. Merry Xmas!

Grandparents -taxi driver & cleaner, mechanic and admin. Parents - engineer and receptionist. My brother and I were only ones among all our uncles aunties and cousins to go to uni apart from my Dad. What class does that make us?

I'm working class because I work for a living and have no other possible income. Anyone else in the same position is also working class. I would consider anyone who is a landlord or has multiple properties ie. another income stream to not be working class. I also think anyone who doesn't work, can't define themselves as 'working class'.

If you have the need to show you're wealthy then you're working class.