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?

In my country working class means only blue collar/low skilled jobs, so it's confusing why so many people here are proud of not achieving more/ashamed of being called middle class.

DD is growing up working class. I'm a TA , OH is a stonemason. Vocational as you say.

Cultural capital? We haven't done opera indeed , but we have done museums of all kinds , theatre, musicals, she's going to every single trip she's picked for (skiing in Italy next) , visited all kinds of places etc.

We have a great interest in her education, knew her teachers well in primary,less so in secondary, supported her, helped her with homework, explained classwork when she didn't get it, talk about her day, help with revision, etc.

She did go to the local primary (one of 5) , but unless private don't most children? However, it was a faith school and the best academically in the area at the time. Not just that, but it is a feeder school for two very well regarded secondary faith schools so we had a long term plan and we wanted options.

None of us are bothered about brands or bling , except for trainers , but I doubt Converse/Nike/Adidas are a real class identifier. If they are, oh well... we like what we like.

I mean yeah, we do AI , but it caters for Germans rather than Brits so is that acceptable? 😬

Where does that fit in with your view?

Sorry to say this but if you have to ask your working class

What makes me working class? The fact that I work. If you have to work to earn a living, you are working class. Sorry I know that isn’t the answer lots of aspiring middle class people want to hear.

I think that's a useful classification.

I tick MC for wealth, occupation and interests but had a firmly WC upbringing which impacted on my cultural heritage and choices as an adult, and my friends are an odd mix of MC from work and uni and WC from school and hobbies.

So yes, self made WC works for me. It doesn't fit in any of the official classifications though. I'd have an identity crisis if I was inclined to navel gazing.

I like that, and probably the most accurate description if we think about it.

It also covers most of the "but what about..."?

My DH is a solicitor in the City, I work in a creative profession but exec (which is why the high income). All our friends are professionals.

Most people consider me MC but I don't actually care much whether I'm WC or MC. I just find @QuotetheRaven 's definition of class rather old fashioned. There are millionaires and those with titles etc who still need to work to fund their lifestyle - I don't think most people would consider them WC. In the past it used to be the case that those who "work" were working class, but that's a historical definition - not the current one

EDIT: @GreyBlackBay this was meant to quote your post where you asked about professions etc

So all pensioners are middle class?

As a PP said, it's a state of mind. Growing up in struggle, with limited resources, has an impact on a person that doesn't just disappear when they get a 200k job. It's not as simple as "was poor, now wealthy" - class is about your experiences and barriers.

After a family conversation today (and a past mumsnet thread)- working class is running downstairs in the morning and opening the Xmas presents whilst still in PJs. Middle class is delayed gratification of getting showered, dressed, prepping the veg and only then sitting down and opening the presents as if they are a secondary thought on Xmas day and not the main point of the day…..

That's far too sensible.

I grew up with white collar parents but I'm a SAHM and my DH would be considered blue collar. I don't have a degree but my parents and sister have several. I have ADHD and would say I'm an under achiever. I definitely don't feel MC but I don't quite feel WC either.

My employer is concerned about social mobility and asks some questions to classify your upbringing. They include your dad's occupation when you were a teenager and the highest level of education achieved by your parents. Sensible in that they're measurable.

It doesn't feel like that. We were growing up poor but with educated parents, we are educated with good income, our DS lives pretty much middle class lifestyle. So you can call him middle class but us working class though we provide him and we never had low skilled jobs?

This is so patronising

I am upper class, royalty, almost, so all these threads about lower, middle class bemuse me.

My teen DC said as I dropped him off at his dad's today "at least Dad isn't so middle class that I will be made to go for a walk". (He is totally MC, btw.)

Upper class is having your presents brought to you on a tray by a servant.

Yes. Exactly that. Because if you grew up poor, then to get to where you are now - comfortable income, educated etc - you have overcome barriers that your son won't have to face.

That's a good point. Walking as a hobby is MC. WC people are too tired for that.

I always saw this with holidays. Our WC families went on holiday to sit and relax and recover from the physical demands of work. WC families go on holidays to mentally decompress and they're often physically active eg skiing, city breaks.

How on earth is it patronising? There was a thread about exactly this issue a few weeks ago. I had yet another discussion with DH about this today as he rang his middle class family at 10.30 who hadn’t even considered letting the nieces open their presents until they’d dressed and prepped the veg and thought it was chavvy that we’d let our kids open the presents before eating breakfast/getting dressed.

Some of these are ridiculous -
Only having a limited vocabulary whereby you talk in short hand that is impenetrable to the upper echelons of society.
Only buying new stuff and replacing with new regularly.
Living in abject poverty without hope or aspiration, filled with self loathing.
No interest in anything outside of ones small personal sphere.

My Dad was a mechanic, we lived in social housing, my parents were divorced and my Mom was a SAHP for her new child. I still went to University despite apparently being thick and closed minded according to this post. I worked in social housing and now I'm a SAHM, DH is an office worker on an average salary, kids go to local primary. Despite this DS, 9, loves the theatre (and proper theatre not just Panto), is a voracious reader, does extra curricular activities. Smaller kids are too young for judgement but likely to share their brother's tastes. We don't travel abroad due to medical issues but prior to children I've been to to a decent spread of countries across the world and not AI in-a-resort eating-chips talking-to-brits.
We love Vinted and charity shops, all of our living room furniture is passed-on or charity shop, and we regularly donate the kids toys / clothes etc. kids raised with an understanding of the value of that.
I'm fairly average, I don't think there's anything above that makes me exceptional and I'm very clearly raised WC and raising WC children.

But I'm not a coal miner or a driver, never had to carry something heavier that a laptop, I wouldn't dare to call myself working class in front of people who do manual labour.

Joking apart, when my Mum was little, she is 90 now, they weren't allowed to open their presents until after the King's speech.

In the 60s, we were allowed one present in the morning to keep us quiet.

I think that is the mark of the insecure lower middle class of MN wanting to make sure they get all their proper middle class markers correct!