to wonder if mumsnet is a haven for very well off and slightly blinkered individuals.....?

[preparetobeflayed]

Obviously I have changed my name on this thread as I am prepared for the onslaught.....

Threads about Boden, how sad they are that their jumper from Boden has been pilling, 'oh woe is me my nanny has called in sick', 'I am hard up now the tax band has increased (although I am still earning £170,000....

Where are the rest of the population who reflect most of the parents I meet. I also wonder whether some people are able to look around and see what else is happening in the world....?

(Just having a bit of a rant about some of the other threads I guess......

maybe on the profiles their should be a question where you confess (quietly obviously)to being MC?

ahem

drlove8 - I think you are right - the PC is the new 'phone' of 25 yrs ago. We didn't get a phone until I was 15 or a colour telly until I was 19.

Daftpunk - you've gone and got me feeling sorry for you now. For some reason I resented being labelled a bored and lonely (adds that awful word) housewife more than being labelled MC or WC. Now I feel sorry for us both!

Fourkids - are you suggesting a quota system? A bit of social engineering perhaps?

I always thought we were super-rich until I read some threads on MN. Like coolma, nanny threads and private schools draw me like a car crash

LOL. Would you only be allowed to register if you belonged to an under-represented socio-economic group?

But also I was thinking that if some people feel this huge social divide, feel that they are somehow different to other people due to wealth/up-bringing/education/aspiration they could check who was who and avoid those they didn't much fancy! That was tongue in cheek before someone jumps down my throat...I HOPE no-one would feel the need to do that...but when I see some of the comments on here occasionally I do wonder...

Another thing I think is funny is this: if, as is being suggested, MN has perhaps a higher percentage of MC parents than WC/'underclass'/toffs, why is it apparently such a crime to be MC?!! That makes the MC the norm surely? Are those who consider themselves WC more vocal than those who consider themselves MC?
And...if this is a sort of mini-society, how come this is the only place I have ever (yes, ever, ever, ever) been expected somehow to feel guilty for being MC?

This is the only place I ever even think about class!

It is just another in a long list of MN dicotomies

WC/MC
BF/FF
State/public
Atheist/Believer
SAHM/WOHM
Boden/Non-Boden

I am sure there are more. We do like to shove people in little boxes don't we!?

That should be 'dichotomies' obviously.

Serves me right for showing off my MC vocab.

(That was tongue in cheek too)!

After all the time I have been on Mumsnet I still don't know what Boden is maybe I am over posh I shop is Selfridges Gucci Baybee

over posh...

Agree with Niecie, the only time I question class is on MN. The OP should be informed that one can be MC and poor. I ,for example, am staggeringly MC but have my Boden catalogues delivered to my extremely skanky council house (not kidding, I do. Have never bought anything from them but they're persistent).
Marmadukescarlet, you are right about Instow being a Joules/Boden eye-burner of clothing choices. I have never seen so many rose patterned wellies and gilets in my life as I have in Devon. Though, to be fair, the men do sometimes mix it up with self-conciously surfy gear.

I'm not poor but I'm certainly by no means rich either, so I'm in the middle
I can't say I've noticed the posh thread atall, there's more threads to do with just ordinary people. nothing sticks out.. but when I have seen the posh threads about 4x4s or expensive homes I do tend to roll my eyes (sorry).

and I've never bought anything from Boden. Asda and Tesco are about my standard level for shopping cheap and cheerful!!
YANBU

Over posh on Payday

Niecie - another MN dichotomy

Dad/Mum

I've never experienced being a minority in a social setting before. Its interesting.

"Who is more likely to have regular access to a computer and who are sufficiently eloquent to be comfortable with writing their thoughts? It is on balance the MC. "

Dons obligitary northern working class flat clap to be outraged. Points out that this w/c has a computer and s currently using it to write a booklet for her students, hopefully I will manage to do so eloquently.

I think people who spend a lot of time mixing with people who have a very different background to them think more about class.

I see myself as workng class, I however mix with very few people who have backgrounds lke mine, especally since movng down south.

We regularly buy from Boden and I would never shop in Asda so go figure.

Not sure what we are - I think we're MC because we both have degrees (actually I've got two ) work in professional jobs, are buying aour house and have quite trendy mc names for our children. However, I have been out of work for a while, till now, and signed on for jsa, immediately relegating me - we get council tax benefit as well. On a posh note, my hair is cut by the best hairdresser in the city and costs - well - lots. We do shop in Asda, tescos or sainsburys and only go to M&S when we have vouchers for xmas. CAn't work it out at all. sigh

Sooner or later, every thread on AIBU ends up with ponderings on one's class.Except the bumsex one.

Twinset - you are a teacher - all teachers are MC!!!

You may have been born WC but you are educated MC now!

Besides you shop in Boden and you can't order from Boden at all if you aren't MC - they won't allow it, you know.

ABetaDad - definitely Mum/Dad dichotomy. Which makes me think of Husband/Wife too. It amazes me sometimes that women are often encouraged to treat their partners in ways which would have everybody up in arms if the man were to treat the woman that way.

I certainly am not MC, it amuses me that the moment you do something viewed as positive you become middle class.

according to my dd we are the poorest family she knows.

I thought money didn't come into it!

Interesting you see it that way though - that you have done something positive so therefore you become MC.

That isn't how I see it. Teaching is not manual or unskilled labour and requires a lot of education. It is that which makes it a MC job. Besides, it is better paid than most WC jobs, although as I say, money doesn't have much to do with.

I don't think you will find teachers are considered WC by any of the sociological measures of class although I could be wrong about that.

No it doesn't come into it , she just made me laugh when she sad it.

I dont know if teaching is paid more than working class jobs, dont really care tbh.

I dont see t as you do something positive you become middle class, everyone else does.
You are educated you become middle class. You shop ethically you become middle class. You have a house full of books and like the theatre you become middle class.

I just know that when I am with people I consider to be m/c I feel out of place.

Sorry to sort of disagree here, but lets say, as a sweeping example - plumbing. I used to work with 'disaffected yoofs' and one of my 'tasks' was college placements. A majority of these so called disadvantaged young men went onto plumbing courses and now earn in excess of £40,000 a year. I don't know many teachers who get that, but would we suddenly call these men MC because they're earning a pretty good wage?