To want to be middleclass?

[holliejobber]

Im not though. I live in a council house! These are the things i have done to try and 'raise my game';
Have a vegetable patch.
Breastfeed for ages.
Go to baby massage classes.
Recycle my household waste.
Try not to watch jeremy kyle.
I am hoping to get a place at uni in september, that will definately make me middleclass surely?

This thread has made me smile on a dull Monday morning. I didn't think the Op was being particularly serious and if you are Holliejobber WHY do you want to be middle class for god's sake. I think social class is a huge thing in Britain and people do aspire to "move up" the ranks so to speak. FWIW I think we should all be OK and proud of the social class into which we were born (in my case working class) and even though I have been involved in a professional career for many years and have all the "outward trappings" of a middle class lifestyle (or so I am told) I would be hugely insulted if anyone tried to tell me I was anything but working class! I am immensely proud of my working class roots.

Oh and LeQueen - you surely can't be middle class if you have a "lounge" - even if this is a Laura Ashley coffee table in there. Surely you would have a "sitting room"

Oh and JH maybe you should be whatever class you want to be. Incidentally there is a lot of similarities between the working class and the aristocracy.

Oh and I forgot to say I do occasionally watch Jeremy Kyle! I have to say though I feel a bit guilty about it and would be careful who I confessed this to in RL! I was actually wondering in MNs watched and was considering starting a thread, so don't want to hijack this one, although it is vaguely pertinent to the issue isn't it

Hmmm, methinks its really a living room

i used to own my home with my ex, my dad bought it when we broke up and i now pay him rent.

i had a vegetable patch but it died.

no dc's yet, but i dont either BF or massage my snakes.

dont watch JK, am normally in work. saw some of it today though...

where am i?!

I was brought up and still live on a council estate,
I don't have a veggie patch but I do have lots of nice plants on my balcony,
tried to bf with DS but had to give up, didn't bother with DD
went to baby massage classes at local surestart and baby yoga at my local library.
I recycle
go to the local farmers market
watch Jeremy Vile very occasionally
didn't go to uni
never been to butlins (although did used to go to my uncles caravan when i was younger)
never been to uni
don't have a coffee table
I speak with a cockney accent
what does that make me then? (not that I care of course

OP is a joke though, right? taking the jeremy out of mc signifiers and concerns?

YANBU, but it is a mine field.
Despite going to my local comp, I went to uni, go to the farmer's market, recycle, post on MN, etc etc.

But occasionally I betray my prole roots: using 'pardon' instead of 'what' caused a few raised eyeborws recently!

tbh, on a serious note, i think the working and middle classes have merged quite a lot, there are a lot of people from working class roots who go on to uni and to buy their houses and a lot of middle class children go on to work on a checkout for their whole lives.

what hasnt changed is the upper class and the underclass. and they never will...

YANBU, I love being middle-class.

But forget the baby massage and not watching Jeremy Kyle. I'm as M/C as they come (diplomat's daughter, privately educated, BBC accent, Guardian reading etc) and I love Jeremy Kyle. It's not watching it that's the problem - it's being on it that you should be worried about!

What you need to do is get your bookshelves sorted out. If I go to someone's house and there's no literature on display, I assume they're w/c.

My downstairs bookshelves are stuffed with Chinese poetry, 19th Century Russian literature and well-thumbed copies of the classics (my Marion Keyes and Adele Parks bonk busters stay upstairs in the bedroom....).

Ours is the longe, because that´s what we do in it.

I´m obviously non-u!

Ah, LeQueen - 'scent' is a marvellous word. My dad uses it, along with 'expectant' for 'pregnant' and 'agin' instead of 'against'

And I find the word 'lounge' very evocative as well - makes me think of this:
foreverandever

LeQueen, my husband is also v.clever, also met him at university.

His mum refers to her copies of 'Take a Break' and 'Womans Own' as 'books', and apart from the odd copy of Martina Cole and a few Reader's Digest condensed book, there is no literature in their house either.

My DH's father was a booking clerk for British Rail and his mum a nurse. Both very wonderful, smart, modest people. Working class royalty I like to think.

I'm very proud of how far my DH has come with the crap schooling he had. His only advantage was having two excellent parents and a very good brain.

And I get to read his mum's copies of the Daily Fail and her crap women's magazines, without having to shame myself publically by buying them myself......

no books in my living room- what does that make me??

(actually I keep my books upstairs. Keeping them out where visitors can see them is awfully vulgar, imo [snooty emoticon])

FFS all shut out abut class.

Sabire-'my husband is also v.clever, also met him at university.'- you are not being serious surely....

YABU because then you have to worry about other people's perceptions of you and your status rather than just wearing what you want, shopping where you want and doing what you like.

This isn't exclusive to the middle classes of course but such class anxiety is far more prevalent amongst them than it is with the working and upper classes.

Posters here really are obsessed with class to an incredible extent.
It can be an interesting subject to ponder but I can't believe how often it's discussed on MN.

People seem to feel the need to reassure themselves of how middle class and 'poncey' they are. Why?

'I love being working class '

"(actually I keep my books upstairs. Keeping them out where visitors can see them is awfully vulgar, imo [snooty emoticon])"

How many books have you got?

Couldn't keep all mine upstairs. Not enough room.

"People seem to feel the need to reassure themselves of how middle class and 'poncey' they are. Why?"

Well - I'm not religious, I belong to an ethnic majority, I don't support any particular football team and I'm not into heavy metal. I need a tribe - and I've found one, among other m/c, guardian reading, wet liberals. I live in a very rough area which is extremely unfashionable: no Starbucks or nice little independent deli's. Us Guardian readers like to stick together at the school gates, moaning about the late delivery of our organic vegetable boxes, and watching the firm buttocks of the teenage mums with envious eyes as they flounce in and out of school with their little Jamelias and Connors in tow.....

If you're being ironic you need to make it more clear, otherwise you seriously risk just looking like a right tosser.

I don't mind looking like a 'right tosser'.

It's probably got something to do with the thick skinned self-confidence that often goes with a private education.

Don't get your knickers in a twist everyone, the op was only having a bit of light banter about how she seems to be straddling the social strata. It's not worth shedding blood over.

we do need to calm down with this class thing a bit don't we? Both ways. We must sound like nutters

DO coffee table books count as having-books-in-sitting-room btw?

Oh gosh, what's a sitting room?

WE have a drawing room.