Are people like me middle class?

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

OK, I found the boundary to where class matters to me. My mother would scalp me if I had a lounge. And I like my scalp. ATM I have a drawing room or a sitting room (where I most definitely sit on a sofa not a settee or couch, but some times I lie on a day bed, not a chaise). My mother insists ATM on referring to my sitting room as ''the morning room'' and while I know what she means I really don't think I use the room as a morning room (I'm in t now) and therefore its a sitting room. My drawing room, when it here, won't really be a drawing room, but rather the opposite of a drawing room, its where I'll be receiving people in a clean environment, not where I ''repair'' to..it'll be ''foreign'' to me too.

moggylover wrote: »

:T:T:T:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

That and the second hand beemer confirm it for me as well:D

IMO, being "middle class" would have more to do with understated good taste, a lack of ostentation and conspicuous consumption (all very bad taste don't you know;)) and holding certain standards of behaviour. Having a lot of money and excrutiating taste does not make one middle class.

In the days when "middle class" actually meant something, very few people outside of the professions would have been considered middle class: but personally I reckon anyone that has to work for a living is working class and OUGHT to be proud of that fact;) It doesn't mean that you can't have good taste and exacting standards, just that you work:)

Furthermore, I'm of the opinion that anyone who buys a second-hand car instead of a brand new one just so that he can have the "right" badge when they are all much of a muchness nowadays has had a brain bypass anyway:cool:

If you go back to before the war, the upper classes didn't work (except by running their own land or whatever), the middle classes worked in professional sorts of jobs and had servants, and the working classes didn't have servants - and lots of them were servants. Now, I think class is much harder to pin down. It has to do with attitude more than money, though.

My parents were both very definitely middle class. They grew up before the war in families who had servants. My dad had a professional career, and they owned their own house (with a mortgage to start with but outright by the time I was about 5). They spent most of their income on school fees for us kids, and therefore had no money left for "less important" things like holidays (we stayed with friends and relations) or food (as much as possible was out of date and therefore half price, and we had boiled potatoes and cabbage with everything as the only affordable way of filling up my brothers). They had a drawing room and a dining room and two lavatories, and I've never heard them say "lounge" or "settee". They are well read and always speak with correct grammar and clear enunciation. They would think it was vulgar to make ostentatious displays of wealth, or to judge people by anything as crude as income.

My brothers seem to me to be clearly middle class too - public school & Oxbridge education, professional jobs, retaining many of the values we were brought up with. I find it hard to apply any other class to myself than middle class either, although I have a lot less income than the rest of my family. The education (private school & Oxford), the speech, the priorities, the upbringing... all those added together make it difficult for me to describe myself as working class despite being on a lower salary than many "working class and proud of it" people, sending my kids to the local state primary, and, of course, being automatically consigned to some kind of underclass in the eyes of some because I am parenting alone.

vivatifosi wrote: »

One way to look at it could be the working class can only suck a Polo, while middle class women drive a Polo and upper class men save their horsepower for Polo. The nouveau riche wear Polo. All purely based on stereotypes of course;).

Classic!! Thanks for that.

michaels

If one ever bases a purchasing decision on what others might think of the item then one lacks class. Similarly if one ever discusses what one has or (horror) what one paid for it.

Sorry OP

PasturesNew

My alarm clock cost me £7 in 2000. I managed to get it tax deducted too.
£1 says I have more money and class than the OP.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

My alarm clock cost me £7 in 2000. I managed to get it tax deducted too..

I use my mobile....is this not usual now?

has an alarm clock in London, which he doesn't use now as he also uses his phone now, force of habit.

toby3000

moggylover wrote: »

OMG:eek::eek: I call mine my sitting room:eek::eek: My parents always did as well, and it was a council house:cool:

And I always thought I was born working class and proud of it:D

The working class and the upper class have most in common in Britain, in terms of language (apparently), so sitting room, pudding, napkin and what? are all upper AND working, while lounge, dessert, serviette and pardon? are middle

moggylover

diable wrote: »

Willow or Chestnut?

Willow, hand crafted from a local craft fair:D It was a gift from a friend:D

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

I use my mobile....is this not usual now?

has an alarm clock in London, which he doesn't use now as he also uses his phone now, force of habit.

I didn't get a mobile until 2005, then it's second hand (yes, I still have/use it). ebay ftw.

PasturesNew

toby3000 wrote: »

The working class and the upper class have most in common in Britain, in terms of language (apparently), so sitting room, pudding, napkin and what? are all upper AND working, while lounge, dessert, serviette and pardon? are middle

I have: living room, afters, paper towel, you what?

What am I?

SingleSue

I also use my mobile as an alarm clock/diary/watch and amazingly, as a phone too.

We have a front room as it is err...at the front of the house. My parents have a front room, again because it is at the front of the house and a living/dining room (it has had different uses over the years, it is currently where the laptop lives on a gateleg table) because it was either where our living was done, for example, my dancing, dad playing his records or where we had special meals.

We had a toilet at home and a bathroom......we have the same here (I do say it barthroom too), the toilet is seperate to the room where the bath is.

My parents own their home outright and have done for the last 37 years, they are self sufficient with good private pensions, dad was originally in the merchant navy and then construction but switched to office work in the mid 70's, working his way up to manager level... he is educated to grammar school level.

They read the Daily Mail.

They are decidely middle class in their values and they have passed that onto us (although my values appear more middle class than my siblings) and I am now passing those same values onto my children, despite being a single parent on benefits (although I was once part of a professional working couple).

OP - You sure you are not my ex husband in disguise? He once bought a watch costing £1200....complete waste of money to my mind, it does the same as a watch costing less than a tenner from the market.

SingleSue

toby3000 wrote: »

The working class and the upper class have most in common in Britain, in terms of language (apparently), so sitting room, pudding, napkin and what? are all upper AND working, while lounge, dessert, serviette and pardon? are middle

I say serviette, excuse me, pardon or sorry could you repeat that and dessert.