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Original poster

What makes someone middle class?

283 replies

lilibet · 31/08/2006 17:03

Just had a conversation with a mate and a mutual freind has described themselves as middle class.

He works in a shop for a living, his parents work for a living, to me he is therefore working class.

I appreciate that a brain surgeon is obvioulsy a bit higher up the social strata than me ( I work in finance in the NHS), but to me if you have to work for a living you are working class.

Thoughts and opinions?

OP posts:
DumbledoresGirl · 01/09/2006 21:56

I mean living room implies you have no other rooms in your house - this is where you live, whereas, sitting room implies the exact opposite - that you have other rooms for other uses.

Perhaps I should adopt drawing room?

fatfox · 01/09/2006 21:57

I'm confused now; maybe you're right?

How about drinks - which drinks do you think define class - is a glass of red with "supper" middle class?

southeastastra · 01/09/2006 21:58

hey i've got a living room! we live in it

Glassofwine · 01/09/2006 21:59

overplayed = working class ie. Serviettes, sitting room etc

unerplayed = middle class ie. napkin, living room, supper etc

DumbledoresGirl · 01/09/2006 21:59

A wine glass of anything would be middle class I am sure. The middle clas would know whether it should be red or white (not sure rose counts) depending on whether it is meat or fish you are eating - though I believe that distinction is becoming less defined these days - I am a non-drinker)

DumbledoresGirl · 01/09/2006 21:59

Oh SEA

Glassofwine · 01/09/2006 22:00

We have a front room and a family room - when the children say family room in public I do sometimes feel it sounds much grander then it actually is.

fatfox · 01/09/2006 22:01

agree re. underplaying

scruffy old volvo = middle class
shiny new BMW = working class
Audio = new money

enemy · 01/09/2006 22:08

I don't do sitting rooms or living rooms. We have a family room and also a lounge, so what class would that make me then?

UselessMum · 01/09/2006 22:17

me crappy old volvo, dh suv; me crappy clerical job, dh high managerial something, what now?

what if someone say had childhood as wc, married and had 25y as uppermc, divorced and ended up desperate for any job? like my mum. mind you she's italian so it might not apply.

curlew · 01/09/2006 22:27

It's nothing to do with what you do for a living or how much money you've got - it's all about language, attitudes and what you send your money on.
A coffee=working class, a cup of coffee==middleclass

expatinscotland · 01/09/2006 22:29

As the late, great Coco Chanel once said, 'There are people with money, and there are people who are rich.'

PretendFriend · 01/09/2006 22:33

We have a front room, with sofas (NB), bookshelves and TV (I don't live in it but some of us do) so that could be called sitting or living or lounge, but it's at the front so it's the front room; and a back room, with dining table and chairs, piano, dresser and other random storage, so that could be dining or music or family, but it's at the back so it's the back room. When I was a kid we only had one room apart from the kitchen so that was the "other room", lol.

We eat lunch but also tea, supper is what smallish kids have before bed when tea was too early.

labels, schmabels.

fatfox · 01/09/2006 22:35

Curlew - spot on

Useless mum; I don't think it applies to people from overseas, as its a British obsession - although Italians are generally better dressed than Brits; whatever their class

curlew · 01/09/2006 22:36

Serviettes and "pardon?" =working class
Napkins and "what?" or "I beg your pardon?"=middle class

"Pleased to meet you"=working class "How do you do?"=middle class
Conspicuous consumption=working class,ostentatious pretence of not spending anything=middle class. That's the appeal of the Boden catalogue, you can spend a lot of money getting the effect of hand-me -downs!

enemy · 01/09/2006 22:37

I quite like this thread, I wonder what "CLASS" most of us mumsnetters really think we are? Its all gone a bit quiet hasn't it, is it really that boring? Quite good fun I think.

DumbledoresGirl · 01/09/2006 22:38

I know the class I belong to enemy. I am still wondering though why naswm thought I would be bound to come on this thread....

shimmy21 · 01/09/2006 22:40

Sitting room= middle class definitely

My family are definitely mc -agas, log fires, bread makers which only ever make wholemeal bread, pay more attention to the horses than the children etc etc, and we say sitting room.

anything else is common [ironic emoticon] - (except perhaps 'drawing room' which is only for those who are pretentious as well as posh)

Glassofwine · 01/09/2006 22:40

Spot on re the Boden catalogue (which is sitting next to me)

enemy · 01/09/2006 22:40

Boden? Class? I always think of it as exceptionally boring and square

expatinscotland · 01/09/2006 22:40

Oh, dear, I've been mixing up 'working class' and 'middle class' terms. But I'm foreign and from the Southern US, where a lot of these 'working class' terms are used by 'old money'.

expatinscotland · 01/09/2006 22:41

Sorry, but Boden's a damn rip off! I mean, wtf? My best friend sews me stuff out of there for buttons! It's so easy, she just does it off a picture.

Why do Brits allow themselves to get ripped off for clothes like that?

Glassofwine · 01/09/2006 22:42

Was just thinking that myself Enemy - why do people like it so much? Middle class frumpy clothes.

southeastastra · 01/09/2006 22:43

hah are you all judging people on clothes?

enemy · 01/09/2006 22:43

Dumbledoresgirl, I am thinking you might be quite MC and proud of it.