What does middle class mean to you?

Also she is probably the epitome of Mrs Middle Class! Humble roots to high achiever.. appearances to be kept up.... accent developed to be 'posh'.. I bet she has a drawing room!

Hmm - well, she's an easy target, I suppose, but things were moving that way well before she was elected.

I suggest her influence in response to Deedaa's suggestion that by the time we got to the 80s the classless feel of the 60's had gone. She did promote the 'look out for no1' approach which I believe contributed to the the greed that has caused the banking crisis. I suggest her because of all the politicians I find her the most difficult to find anything redeeming about her.

The fifties were so austere it's no wonder the sixties appeared classless.

Wilson? Callaghan? Heath? Why is Margaret Thatcher blamed for everything, even though she became PM way after the 60s?

Thatcher?

Good point Deedaa. What brought about the change I wonder? Money? Media?percentage pay rises emphasising the haves and have nots?

Does anyone remember how classless the 60's seemed? We all bought clothes from the same boutiques, the trendiest car was a Mini and if you could afford a car at all you could afford one of them. What sort of house you lived in didn't seem to matter and people were interested in what you could do and not what you owned. Sid James and Arthur Haynes lived a couple of roads away from us. They both lived in detached versions of our semi and they had slightly better cars, but there were no gated estates or chauffeurs or security and they both did their own shopping in the local grocer. Sadly, by the time we got to the 80's the only thing that mattered seemed to be how much money you'd got and how ostentatiously you could spend it.

Our 2 sitting rooms are known as the Day room and the TV room! The TV room does not get very good light after about 11:00 so we use the other , sunnier room during the day & repair to the TV room in the evening ( has the stove in there so cosy!) but do not always watch TV!

Baubles , right on .

That's the equivalent of my grandparents' 'front room' - no one used it except on the odd occasion they had visitors who weren't family. The sofa was very uncomfortable and covered with immaculately clean upholstery.

I love the word 'parlour'. The front room in my dear Grandmother's house was always called the parlour. It was kept for best and if any of my aunts & uncles were 'courting' they would be allowed to use it. I was the typical annoying child who was forever disturbing them

My flat was built in 1986, is probably the smallest accommodation of any member, and is very convenient and cheap to run. I have never really been interested in my houses - my daughter chose all our furniture and decorations as soon as she was old enough. She said our black leather seating units, dark green carpet and orange curtains were vile! She had an Edwardian villa in Yorkshire, beautifully furnished and decorated with the correct period feel, down to chequered tiles in the hall. She has done the best she can with her house in New Zealand, but spends most of her time outdoors, growing fruit and vegetables, looking after the pigs and chickens and riding. She is now getting a boar and intends to breed pigs. It is so funny to see her transformation from smartly dressed business woman to countrywoman in jeans and wellies. She has never been happier. Is she still middle class? She couldn't care less.

(If higher education means I am middle class, fair enough, but I still feel classless! I don't care how people label me - they are mostly nice to my face!)

Lilygran - perhaps the house was!

Gosh; a lot of you seem to live in really old houses. I was only thinking about that the other night. I've always wanted to live in an old cottage but quite often, when I'm on my own I feel a bit scared even though I live in a relatively new house. I did live in a very old haunted house in my youth and it didn't bother me, but I'd worry now that I'd be very aware of the people that had lived in my house before me. And I wouldn't know until I tried it. The S.O. has a flat in an old house oop north and sometimes I feel a bit scared there.

Oh, Ana that sounds a notch above 'middle class'!

We had a morning room in the house I spent my childhood years in....

bags couldn't agree more!

My granny had a drawing room (rarely used) and a parlour where the family gathered. And a croquet lawn. Mind you, she married into it, but was every inch (quite short, actually), the grande dame.

Absent. I love the word drawing room , seems to go with the house , now I am going to really make you gaffaw , we call the main sitting room "the parlour" it is on the 1st floor . Know for a fact because we have the deeds that that it was always used as a sitting room . I know the term parlour is Victorian or Edwardian , but it just tickles me , to call it so .

Looking back at all the previous posts education really seems to make the difference. I don't mean a cosseted,old school tie, private education because I would happily do away with private schools if I could, but a good general education means that you can confidently form opinions and not blindly follow whatever the latest flavour of the month is. You can feel secure in your choices and live life the way you want to.

I don't think you can label everybody on the strength of one person who knew Sheffield well, or one small enclave in NZ
My daughter's experience in South Island has been entirely different.

According to my grandmother, I married above myself. My family worked for the Post Office while DH's father was a journalist. She was most upset when she discovered others in my new family worked on the railways!

greatnan We came back to the NW of England in the 90s for 5 years. DH being sent by the German government, was part of the diplomatic service
(only for those years out of Germany) I met some official to do with schools and he was the one who asked me not only where I came from but which school I had been to.
He knew Sheffield and his business with my husband was about the teaching of German. He was really in a mess with me. Due to the fact that I was married to DH, he couldn't place me and struggled. He was such a snob. The more he struggled, the more I confused him.

The fact of NZ is following. This family is from very old stock and moved North to an area like a golf course near the sea and bought a plot of land as did many other similar people. To enter this land you need a card to access it. I can't listen to their conversation without getting upset. I have heard that 'he' doesn't like me. They used to live in Auckland but that would be impossible now according to him!
As for me I suppose I am middle class, because I'm not working class nor am I upper class. We had a sitting room with a piano in it, which I learned to play as a child. My father went to a private school but mother had moved up. She was working class, so married well as they say. They called it upward mobility and apparently according to sociologists this has now ceased.

What's with the labelling and categorising, folks?