How the other half lives, what and when you learned

[tomorrowalready]

Reflecting from another thread made me realise it was not until my 20s I found out some people expected to have a private bathroom. I went to university then and shared with another mature student who had been married, divorced and said she found having to share a bathroom with unrelated people unpleasant. I had always taken it for granted as had live in jobs and rented bedsits before. She was a lovely person and also the first person I knew who had a glass of wine every evening and she introduced me to many new things - cooking with garlic, sherry, owning and using a car for shopping for example.

So what did you take for granted that surprised other people you met?

[quote ZednotZee]@RedToothBrush

I simply don't agree with your assessment of the middle class.

Are usually so rude when faced with a simple difference of opinion?[/quote]
The problem is, you’re presenting your opinion as fact.

Clearly I know nothing and clearly I know no middle class people and clearly I'm not middle class myself and I have no regional accent and don't know my own family history nor that of my friends.

But yeah crack on telling me I'm rude.

snigger

There’s no such thing as middle class lineage.

@Ifitquacks

Even if I am it amazes me the ability which it has to incote such rude behaviour.

I guess some people are simply determined to be perceived as middle class, for what it is worth.

[quote ZednotZee]@queenmeadhbh

No, not at all.

The MC northerners and southerners whom I know personally have accents which would make it extremely difficult to place them to a particular region.

I have a regional accent, it isn't broad by any stretch of the imagination but it firmly denotes my social class as working class.

I would never think that somebody who spoke like I do had middle class lineage.[/quote]
How can someone not have an accent? I don’t really understand what you mean by “regional” in that case.
So my accent is identifiably northern Irish, identifiably Belfast, so I can’t be middle class by your logic. What do the northern Irish middle class sound like if you’re saying middle classes don’t have a “regional accent”?

[quote ZednotZee]@Ifitquacks

Even if I am it amazes me the ability which it has to incote such rude behaviour.

I guess some people are simply determined to be perceived as middle class, for what it is worth.[/quote]
It’s a bit disingenuous to say ‘it’s only a difference of opinion’ when you know full well you are presenting it as fact and think you’re 100% right though.
Proudly working class here by the way.

I used to go to my friend's every Friday night in the eighties, when I was about 14. I always noticed there was a towel drying in front of the gas fire. She explained that they only had one bath a week, on a Friday night and she'd just used the towel and was drying it off for her dad to use. Also, her mum used to put cheap margarine on her face at night as she couldn't afford moisturiser and when we met up years later in our twenties and we were both working in offices, she still wore ankle socks as she said her parents thought tights were a waste of money as they might ladder. I often think of her and hope times are better for her now.

[quote ZednotZee]@queenmeadhbh

No, not at all.

The MC northerners and southerners whom I know personally have accents which would make it extremely difficult to place them to a particular region.

I have a regional accent, it isn't broad by any stretch of the imagination but it firmly denotes my social class as working class.

I would never think that somebody who spoke like I do had middle class lineage.[/quote]
Look here. We have someone who is so out of touch with reality they don't know whats middle class and what's landed gentry.

@Ifitquacks

As far as I am concerned it is fact.

And I wouldn't consider anybody with a regional accent to be MC, however as I explained earlier the MC are much smaller in number than many on MN seem to like to imagine.
They are a distinct minority.

I think its a great example of how class consciousness is alive and well in Britain just reading redtoothbrush's reaction to my strongly held opinions.
Its as if the world will end if I don't, one way or another concede that she is indeed MC...

And I wouldn't consider anybody with a regional accent to be MC, however as I explained earlier the MC are much smaller in number than many on MN seem to like to imagine.
They are a distinct minority

In your opinion

strongly held opinion if you don't mind

@ZednotZee

You live in Chester
So you have endeavoured to stamp out Scouse, Welsh, Shropshire and Manchester undertones in your children?

Well at least you are acknowledging the difference between opinon and fact now...

On the other hand you could just use google and get a dictionary definition:

middle class
/mɪd(ə)l ˈklɑːs/
noun
^the social group between the upper and working classes, including professional and business people and their families.
"the urbanization and expansion of the middle class"^

Next you will be telling me all the professions that aren't really professions...

I wish people would keep their cool, I’m still reading through this fascinating thread, charting some of the so-varied experiences of life in Britain. Varied by income, region, ethnicity, date, and just plain attitudes and expectations. I think it should be in classics.

I’m probably a bit weird asi grew up in hand-me-downs on a dirt poor estate in the north. My parents were the first on my mother’s side to own their own house, but my fathers family was more aspirational and thought he’d married down. They were better off, but thanks to my family’s work - including us older kids, we were sent out to work delivery jobs when it looked like we couldn’t afford the mortgage any more - we were some of the better off on my estate. I’ve always known of the variety.

What I’m shocked about at the moment is that nothing has improved at the bottom of society, in fact things are worse if anything and back at pre-war levels, but I’ve never seen so much inherited wealth. It seems hopeless to dream of change at this moment in time.

I can do rage.

the MC are much smaller in number than many on MN seem to like to imagine.They are a distinct minority.

Define middle class for us then because most of us here obviously don’t understand what the term means.

[quote Marmitemarinaded]@ZednotZee

You live in Chester
So you have endeavoured to stamp out Scouse, Welsh, Shropshire and Manchester undertones in your children?

[/quote]
Hahaha genuis.

Wait till they get pissed and the mask slips and they sound plastic scouse.

… but it seems fairly worthless. Communication would serve us better. Pressed post too soon.

@Blossomtoes

the MC are much smaller in number than many on MN seem to like to imagine.They are a distinct minority.

Define middle class for us then because most of us here obviously don’t understand what the term means.

And source. Dictionary will do.

I have a regional accent, it isn't broad by any stretch of the imagination but it firmly denotes my social class as working class.

Where do you live? I'm guessing not in the region your accent is from?

If you tried going back there and speaking to the local lawyers, accountants, doctors, vets, dentists etc... you'd find plenty of regionally accented MC people. You don't have to be landed gentry going back generations in order to be MC.

Just saw you live in Chester.... Have you really never met a MC person with a local accent? Even a very mild one?

I get the impression you must be talking about very broad local accents (which can certainly be a class indicator), because mild local accents are there in pretty much every MC person where I live. They're less obvious that the broad ones, but they are still very much regional accents.

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/middle-class

a social group that consists of well-educated people, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers, who have good jobs and are not poor, but are not very rich

www.collinsdictionary.com/amp/english/middle-class
The middle class or middle classes are the people in a society who are not working class or upper class. Business people, managers, doctors, lawyers, and teachers are usually regarded as middle class.

There are clearly no scouse managers, teachers, doctors or lawyers....

It's all relative I guess. Our 4 bed family home was bought by a couple for their daughter. She was going to University in Oxford and they wanted her to have her own space. The house was £420.000 and 5 of us had lived there. Apparently other rooms were for when parents and friends came to visit. My mum had to explain they had another house as I'd wondered where the parents would live. I'd never heard of second/holiday homes etc. That was shocking as to afford our house, everyone worked and it was a doer-upper over many years. To top it all off, they were going to rip out the kitchen and bathroom for new ones.

@Marriedatfirstyear are you sure it was Oxford and not Oxford Brookes? Oxford colleges usually want students (first year at least) to live in college as it's part of the community ethos.Or was she an overseas postgrad? I

www.dictionary.com/browse/middle-class
a class of people intermediate between the classes of higher and lower social rank or standing; the social, economic, cultural class, having approximately average status, income, education, tastes, and the like.

'Average'

Except apparently
however as I explained earlier the MC are much smaller in number than many on MN seem to like to imagine

I must admit to be highly amused by this nonsense. Its made a car journey considerably more entertaining!

Are people who consider themselves middle class the only people who care?
Does it really matter?

My ex mother in law was very middle class. A school teacher ( covering ) most perturbed that her son married someone from a council estate. She didnt like working in those areas, beneath her. Lived in a nice house with three quarters of an acre, double garage, married a pharmacist, one son a doctor, daughter an accountant and my ex a musician. I visited my ex gran, her mother who lived in a council house with a worn out carpet a budgie and an open fire. Nothing wrong with bettering yourself but Hyacinth Bucket she defo was