To ask what class you think you are?

[IHate]

People always say everyone on MN is middle class, but are we?! I honestly think it’s a pretty socioeconomically diverse mix.

What class would you say you are? Curious how people map themselves when you take both background and current life into account.

These are the rough descriptions I’m working from (from Reddit - I didn’t write them, so please don’t come for me 🤣). Heritage first, income last.

Upper class
Old families, land, inherited wealth, public schools, Oxbridge, connections that run through generations. Sparse vowels, quiet confidence, and a sense that everything important happens in drawing rooms you will never see.

Typical household income: irrelevant, wealth is inherited.

Likelihood of two parent families: very high.

Age at first child: early thirties.

Upper middle class
Professionals with long-standing pedigree. Parents and grandparents were doctors, civil servants, academics, barristers, consultants, senior military. Private or grammar schooling, strong cultural capital, instinctive ease in elite spaces. This is the group most people mean when they say “middle class”.

Typical household income: often £150k plus.

Likelihood of two parent families: high. Age at first child: early to mid thirties.

Middle class
Educated, comfortable, but not posh. Teachers, mid-level civil servants, senior nurses, managers, small business owners. Cultural capital is mixed. Grandparents may have been skilled workers. Big on gardens, National Trust, and well-behaved children.

Typical household income: around £90k to £150k.

Likelihood of two parent families: moderate to high.

Age at first child: late twenties to early thirties.

Lower middle class
Clerical, admin, retail management, entry-level professional families. Polite, aspirational, very aware of class boundaries. Parents or grandparents often from working class backgrounds. Transitional rather than settled.

Typical household income: around £60k to £90k.

Likelihood of two parent families: mixed.

Age at first child: mid to late twenties.

Working class
Manual trades, industrial work, care work, service work. Strong community identity, distinctive humour, bluntness valued over polish. Heritage is key. You can earn millions and remain working class because class is about where you come from, not what you now earn.

Typical household income: usually under £60k, though can be higher.

Likelihood of two parent families: lower than middle groups.

Age at first child: late teens to mid twenties.

Precariat
Insecure work, unstable housing, gig economy. Identity varies, but the instability itself defines the experience.

Typical household income: under £25k.

Likelihood of two parent families: low.

Age at first child: late teens to mid twenties.

I’m solidly working class. Also, if discussions about class make you cross, this is probably not the thread for you.

I can't remember. I don't think there was any consensus. Some people said it was upper class to have it in the living room/drawing room/sitting room/lounge/where the TV is, because posh people snack so easily on fruit, others said that was common because it was performative and posh people never eat anywhere but the designated dining room, and others said it was common to have a fruit bowl at all. The only thing I'm pretty sure about is that shifting the fruit around isn't going to change your socioeconomic status, and you should avoid anyone who's going to come to your house and eye up the fruit to decide whether you're worth knowing.

I’m middle class. I grew up in a nice house, in a leafy suburb.

I agree that on MNs when people refer to middle class they mean upper middle.

My parents are immigrants so I never know where I fit in.

I think I'm lower middle class

I always wonder at the phrase 'old families'.

Everyone comes from a long lineage. Commoners weren't created in a test tube in the 1970s.

Funny you feel the need to say that.

it’s fine you don’t have to be embarrassed about being middle class. No one outside mumsnet gives a shit. The only person I’ve ever heard talk about class outside mumsnet claimed she was working class despite having gone to private school. I can’t remember the reason why she was working class but it was ridiculous.

My parents were working class - father was a semi skilled manual worker. I was born in a two-up-two-down terrace with outside loo. I qualified as a librarian then later attended uni, gained a doctorate and became a lecturer. I consider myself middle class by reason of education and profession/s. Now run my own business.

I think you're right. I'm not entirely confident that the single brown banana and two wrinkly apples speak of anything other than my reluctance to go shopping in this weather, regardless of where I keep them.

Well, according to your description, upper middle class.

But I live in a country where no one gives a flying fuck about class and it’s GREAT. 🤗

Banana bread!

It's just a phrase referring to the decendents of landed gentry - working class people dont tend to track their ancestry.

Lots of things aren't literal.

I don’t know

I was born into a working class family, my parents had manual jobs and really into education, we lived on a rough council estate, I passed my 11 plus and went to a good secondary school. I had my first DC in my teens, went to university, have only ever worked very part time, DH earns 200k, own our own home and I have a couple of flats that I rent out.

I'd call myself middle class. I have elements of upper middle according to your list (grammar school and Oxbridge educated) but I was the first in my family to go to university and I'm a teacher.

I'm working class on the cusp of precariat.🙈

No idea either.

I’m in my 20s and I think it’s hard to place yourself in those rigid categories in your 20s. It’s like dependant on parents, but I’d say my parents were quite privileged and my life has been more a struggle financially in comparison so I don’t feel upper middle class even if they fit into your categories.

I dont 'feel the need' to say it. Im on a thread where we're chatting about class and just chipping in with my opinion. I agree it never comes up in RL.
I wouldnt be embarrassed about being MC if I were. I'm just making the point that you can identify as whatever class you choose, but that doesn't mean that's how you'll be viewed by anyone who does give a shit.
Anyone looking at my household, seeing our home, knowing our friends or extended families, hearing us speak is going to identify us as WC. My job and education dont wipe out all those signifiers. Besides which, my partner left school at 16 and is in trade, so who denotes our household class, him or me?

Working class and happy to be that. 👍. Middle class is a perceived ambition - it’s meaningless.

Either you’re upper class or you need to work. 🙄

Well now. My DH: mum a hairdresser, dad a builder/bar owner/jack of all trades kinda guy. Neither went to uni- not even sure if they did A levels (born in the 20s/30s so not sure if that’s what they were called back then). Occasionally flush occasionally not. Suggests working class by your definition.
But then look at my DH. Boarding school (he expects it was a way of getting rid of him as his parents got divorced then and no idea how they afforded it), Oxford, high earning City lawyer. So that suggests upper middle class- so I do not believe once working class always working class!
Me: parents (born in the 1920s) and their parents all uni educated (perhaps not my grandmother who was born in 1880s, though my paternal grandmother had a career) professionals mostly doctors, surgeons, businessmen. Both had staff growing up! Both my parents went to boarding school, both have post graduate degrees. Suggests upper middle. I went to state school, uni and creative career and only owned my own home as parents gifted the deposit, which suggests middle.
I think it’s more mobile now than before. You really cannot say my DH is working class despite his unskilled/uneducated lineage. You also wouldn’t call Rockefeller, Vanderbilt or Henry Ford working or lower middle class, though that is their background! One could say they have a working class background but they have worked their way up and subsequent generations benefit eventually becoming upper class (how many generations does it take)?
And there is that odd reverse snobbery that somehow being working class makes you morally superior and more ‘authentic’. It doesn’t.

Considering the recent benefits thread, I'm the shit on the bottom of most people shoe apparently 🤣

Middle and lower middle are a bit off
We are educated professionals but not getting 90k. I very much doubt teachers, nurses and civil servants are either

Lower middle but working class origin. Teacher (retiring) married to teacher (retired), income about £60. Tiny 2 up 2 down. El Cheapo holidays (easyJet draw line at Ryan Air), kid at RG uni . Dad was a carpenter, husband’s dad was a postman. On way home from ballet now, 2 very disobedient horses, so some attempt at aspiration. Going to have a chippy supper and watch strictly.

I work in a skilled advice and support role including legal representation but will always consider myself working class as that is my background for generations.

Lower middle I suppose. Generations of Cockneys on my side and dh parents Irish immigrants. We both have degrees. Doesn’t matter much does it. Can you really pigeon hole people?

Have all the M/C signifiers but I'm a proper Cockney and my parents were definitely W/C. However, it's been many years since I discussed class with anyone.

Middle, but we don't have the income bracket of 90 to 150k. We are much much much lower on income.

All my direct ancestors are farmers, the first one not is my great great grandfather who was a doctor (his daughter my great grandma married a farmer).

My husband (a farmer) is similar and I have to go back to his great great grandfather to find a non-farmer, his trade was horse trainer and he trained a national winner. His daughter married a farmer.

I say middle as whilst we're cash poor we're capital rich(ish).