What does middle class mean to you?

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 .

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.

bags couldn't agree more!

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

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

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.

Lilygran - perhaps the house was!

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!)

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

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.

Baubles , right on .

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!

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.

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

Thatcher?

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

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

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.

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

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!

I once half considered buying a house in the depths of the country because it had a boot room.

Lady of the house speaking Thank you gransnet!!!
Right, now that I plan to be an expert of middle classness, I can assure petallus that gnomes may be regarded as post-modern ironic. If they worry you, you could be post-modern ironic and buy one of those "rude" mooning ones and set it up in opposition!

I like my gnome. He's playing his trombone.

He'll be getting his tinsel scarf soon.

i am rather partial to my gnomes , think they bring good luck .

We have an old concrete gnome. He did used to be holding a fishing rod, but it broke off, so now he looks as if he's holding..er....himself ! We've got him settled under a tree and are letting the lovely green moss cover him up a bit !