To wonder what really is the majority social demographic on Mumsnet?

[CestNoel]

I see soooo many threads along the lines of:

• should I sack my au-pair?

• anybody know any good cleaners?

• my career is too important for me to go to my child's concert...

• can I get free transport to a private school?!?!?!?

• my dd has been given a non-organic fruit drink at nursery

• drats. My new Boden trousers are too short.

And then, everyone is up in arms at the idea of spending £10 on a present to take to a child's birthday party and we have all sorts of suggestions as to how to buy something suitably non-tack like for about £1.49

Is the beauty of Mumsnet I suppose.......

I'd be really interested to see the geographical breakdown of mumsnet users. There are lots of threads about subjects such as salaries and au-pairs and nannies and food that as a London middle-class professional don't cause me to blink twice, but which seem to send the Mumsnet Army into a frenzy.

Similarly, there are threads I read where I think "how is that possible?" and "where do you live?"

If I'm being honest I think quite a lot of mumsnet appears lower middle class, quite aspirational; net curtains and the Daily Mail, but perhaps that's just my interpretation.

I think I don't even fit my criteria either:

Live in the East (follow the star!)
Purposefully vote the opposite to what everyone else does
Have AP, cleaner, gardener, and am gearing up to get a nanny (yay!)
C of E
Boden free house
Have fish and chips at weekend
Shop in Tesco and Waitrose, Aldi if time
Shop on Ebay whenever possible
Big income but not much left after mortgage
Drive a crap Renault, very clean inside
Clean appliances
House needs painting
Hot water erratic
Eat fruit and veg

Anifrangapani

Love abraid's comment. Hear hear.

....recently we at Goth Towers signed up for the BARB audience survey thingy.

(TV viewing monitoring, it generates the viewing charts and sells info to advertisers)

....as part of their survey, the (pleasantly Welsh and bearded) operative conducted a 'social stratification' assessment, starting with postcode.

I was then asked questions such as education (post graduate), paper of choice (Times), number of others supervised at work (quite a few), holiday of choice (Tuscany), supermarket (Sainsburys/Waitrose) etc etc

...some of the answers I gave were even true. For reinforcement the monozygotic urchins even asked me to cook them sea bass for their dinner whilst his laptop computed the result....

(roll of drums)

C1

C1? C fucking 1?? I'm a B me, I gave B answers didn't I? Well, didn't I??

....the kindly gent assuaged my grief by telling me that his software could not award anything posher than C1, given my postcode.

Sigh.

Years of pathetic social climbing wasted.

I am looking to move to Bath.......

retiredgoth - that's hilarious. I am so glad I bothered to read right to the end of this thread

Just out of interest - what is your postcode ? I do hope it's nowhere near me... [shudder]

Not sure where I belong.

Privately educated daughter of diplomat, who (somewhat perversly) came from big Dagenham council estate and left school at 14. Both parents from poor working class backgrounds but dad did well for himself, without the benefit of a higher education.

I'm married to state school educated child of West Indian first generation immigrant.

Live in very untrendy and deprived part of SE London - locally known as 'Little Lagos'.

Shop at local ethnic grocery shops, Lidle, Sainsburys, street markets. Buy most of my clothes from charity shops and the high street.

Third generation committed labour voters and atheists.

My husband has a PHD but considers himself primarily working class black british. I consider myself thoroughly middle class.

I eat risotto, but also pork scratchings.

Read the Guardian, the Observer and the News of the World.

I will put my hand on my heart and confess to being a snob. When I go to people's houses I judge them by the quality and quantity of the literature on their bookshelves.

Cfucking1! v.funny, I can only aspire to be Cfucking1! I thnk the computer should have malfunctioned and awarded you a B for cooking sea bass!

The British are mad! I love Mumsnet, but you wouldn't see 7 pages discussing class on an any other country's parenting forum!!

I don't HAVE a postcode, so do I even exist?

ThePregnantMerryYuleWitch, I am a lower class than my parents too! I'm nouveau pauvre.

In the "me me me" frame of mind, can you please "diagnose" me.

My parents had me when they were 18. I grew up on a council estate until I was 12.

My dad was a manual labourer and my mum worked a few hours a week in the local chip shop. As times moved on, my mum did a secretarial course and started to work part time when my brother and I went to school.

We moved house to a private house, it was freezing cold and awful (until they refurbished it) as they saw non-council as a good move. Personally, I preferred the nice big warm council house with my cousin and grandma living over the road

My mum is now a police officer and my dad is junior management at the local council.

My brother and I both obtained first class honours degrees, although not in the most "valued" of subjects but I don't care.

I am now doing post graduate study and am on a years maternity leave. I earn more than both of my parents but not a lot.

I shop at boden (in the sale or with % off vouchers), we often have M&S food but normally shop at ASDA or Morrisons. We pay a lot to live in a nice suburb of a not very nice city. Pre DD we used to eat out most Saturdays with friends.

SO who am I ... ???

I say I am working class. I also say /we have worked hard to lead a nice life.

Inesj- MN a DM reading group??

Either you are very wromg otr i have outgrown MN and yearn for the old days (luckily I suspect the former)

I am a fearful oik, but only because I couldn't think of any answers at all to most of those Mail questions.

i used to classify people for a living... it's usually by occupation, status and success of chief wage earner in household.

....occupation, status and success?

...and still a C fucking 1.

I dragged dh down to my levl. He was privately educated to university lecture parents. Who have dinner parties. Then he met me fresh off a council estate and my mum was a single mum.
His parents were horrified. I then went to a Poly
And now he's on benefits cos of me.

Pamelat - you wear Boden. thats middle class that is

Can we have an "Am I being middle class?" board please?

Bs are boring anyway

had to classify an actor once... loads of people say 'yeah- i'm an actor' but when pressed on the matter are either students or have been in a panto. once.

i asked him how successful he was and he was cagey so i said 'well, have you been in anything i would know' and he replied, 'eastenders'.

it was martin kemp.

...Martin Kemp, an actor?

Really?

Heavens.

I thought this was him.....

You never can tell with these tricksy creative folk, eh?

Spent many years myself wondering where I fit into our beloved class system: born of working class parents, 4 sibs only 2 of us went to uni the rest persued non-professional paths. I don't own my own property, never worked in the profession I trained in and am very overdrawn. I also belong to a choir and a bookgroup, read the guardian and shop as ethically as I can. But I have decided the only time it matters is when it makes me feel uncomfortable. And I feel uncomfortable when i am "trying" to fit into any group. I think the demographic is largely middle class but I also think divisions between classes are much greyer nowadays.

Can you ever change class? I grew up on a council estate with working class parents. I'm degree educated and married someone very rich (that sounds poncey but 'tis true). Do I take on his poshness (although his parents made all their money) or do I always stay working class??

I am poncetastic in many ways - shop at Waitrose, boden etc. but am I actually common because I buy Jimmy Choos and Mulberry handbags? I know that I am not 'posh' so am I, by default, middle class?

Who knows sniffyhock? What is class, really? In 2008? (Now I'M being existential and slightly poncey...) right must get DD into bed, I'm neglecting her!

You are right Nancy -it's just that these class threads come up regularly and I do sometimes wonder...

Sniffyhock, thats what I mean.

To me, I stay working class because they are my roots.

Thats why I was interested to hear different views on here, saying that its about what you become (boden wearing, dinner party arse )