Middle class Scottish things

[velo army]

On 30/06/2024 at 05:01, SlipperyP said:

Having a gardener, cleaner or nanny.

Owning a piano.

Guilty. 

Je suis bourgeois.

Also, using french superfluously in conversation is pretty wanky behaviour, as is using terms such as Kafkaesque and Quixotic when you've read neither Kafka nor Cervantes.

 

 

These things I also do..

[Granny Danger]

On 30/06/2024 at 05:01, SlipperyP said:

Having a gardener, cleaner or nanny.

Owning a piano.

I don’t own a piano but my gardener does and my cleaner has a nanny.

 

[Jedi2]

Can folk 'change' class though? ie grow up in a Council House, manual labourer, but 'come into money', and then go onto live in the 'best' parts of Edinburgh, shop at Harvey Nics and join the golf club sort of thing.

[Spyro]

1 hour ago, velo army said:

Guilty. 

Je suis bourgeois.

Also, using french superfluously in conversation is pretty wanky behaviour, as is using terms such as Kafkaesque and Quixotic when you've read neither Kafka nor Cervantes.

 

 

These things I also do..

Sacré bleu! 

['WellDel]

2 hours ago, velo army said:

Guilty. 

Je suis bourgeois.

Also, using french superfluously in conversation is pretty wanky behaviour, as is using terms such as Kafkaesque and Quixotic when you've read neither Kafka nor Cervantes.

 

 

These things I also do..

Mange tout, Rodney. Mange tout.

[HeartsOfficialMoaner]

1 hour ago, Jedi2 said:

Can folk 'change' class though? ie grow up in a Council House, manual labourer, but 'come into money', and then go onto live in the 'best' parts of Edinburgh, shop at Harvey Nics and join the golf club sort of thing.

I would say no, you will always be a schemie but your kids will be middle class if you brought them up in Poshland. 

 

['WellDel]

41 minutes ago, HeartsOfficialMoaner said:

I would say no, you will always be a schemie but your kids will be middle class if you brought them up in Poshland. 

 

Aye, the kids will have a chance of being seen as equal with their peers, but those in these areas who come from money, rather than into it see themselves as somehow superior and will always have a sly sneer behind your back when you pop into the clubhouse for a Pimm's. (Even though they've done fvck all other than sat on their arses and had privilege handed to them on a plate).

Edited Tuesday at 17:39 by 'WellDel

[velo army]

Class is absolutely a mobile thing. If you grew up a "schemie" but then get a degree then you're now middle class. Middle class doesn't mean posh, that's where we get a bit fucked up. If you're a plumber and earning £60k then you're middle class.

Anyway. That's just the technical gubbins. On with the daftness.

[sophia]

3 hours ago, Granny Danger said:

I don’t own a piano but my gardener does and my cleaner has a nanny.

For a variety of reasons many folk have to revert to employing a cleaner but it's not everyone who has cleaning staff

@KnightswoodBear

 

[RH33]

Voting Brexit

Then fucking off.and living in Europe.

[Shandon Par]

14 hours ago, RH33 said:

Voting Brexit

Then fucking off.and living in Europe.

Mrs was reading a news story to me an earlier where all these expats in Spain were being interviewed about their postal votes. Their main concern was about immigration.

[Leith Green]

25 minutes ago, Shandon Par said:

Mrs was reading a news story to me an earlier where all these expats in Spain were being interviewed about their postal votes. Their main concern was about immigration.

We occasionally bump into one of our neighbours, a self confessed brexit voting, snp hating tory (as is the rest of his family) in the local pub. Hearts fan, obviously.

His family own a successful business, and they had property in Spain. One night he was bemoaning that they they had to "sell the place because they were not allowed to spend as much time there as they used to".

 

[Hedgecutter]

19 hours ago, Jedi2 said:

Can folk 'change' class though? ie grow up in a Council House, manual labourer, but 'come into money', and then go onto live in the 'best' parts of Edinburgh, shop at Harvey Nics and join the golf club sort of thing.

I'd say yes.

For example, my brother left school after his Standard Grades to be a joiner locally whilst I moved away for uni never to return (day trip exceptions), and if it weren't for family then I'd have to admit we have very little in common, other than football chat.

I get mocked for suggesting somewhere 'posh' to eat even if down for a birthday,  where posh to them means something that's not a £15 main + dessert meal deal or all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.  The number of 'oooooh, fancy!' Chewin' the Fat gestures has become tiresome.

I can also see the difference in family photos where I have a different idea of 'dressing smart' for an event. Whilst I'd see it as smart casual, the rest of my family will turn up in their most expensive branded t-shirt.  Back in my teens, 'smart outfit' meant the tracksuit without holes in the knees, ideally the 'poppers', this pair specifically:

Each to their own though I say.

Edited Wednesday at 10:40 by Hedgecutter

[scottsdad]

5 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

I'd say yes.

For example, my brother left school after his Standard Grades to be a joiner locally whilst I I moved away for uni never to return (day trip exceptions).  If it weren't for family then I'd have to admit we have very little in common, other than football chat.

I get laughed at for suggesting somewhere 'posh' to eat even if down for a birthday,  where posh to them means something that's not a £15 main + dessert meal deal or all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.  The number of 'oooooh, fancy!' Chewin' the Fat gestures has become tiresome.

I can also see the difference in family photos where I have a different idea of 'dressing smart' for an event. Whilst I'd see it as smart casual, the rest of my family will turn up in their most expensive branded t-shirt.  Back in my youth, 'smart outfit' meant the tracksuit without holes in the knees, ideally the 'poppers'.

 

Are you Pip from Great Expectations?

[Granny Danger]

18 hours ago, velo army said:

Guilty. 

Je suis bourgeois.

Also, using french superfluously in conversation is pretty wanky behaviour, as is using terms such as Kafkaesque and Quixotic when you've read neither Kafka nor Cervantes.

 

 

These things I also do..

I have never read Cervantes but I watched the film version of Man of La Mancha.

ETA I think that counts…

 

Edited Wednesday at 09:16 by Granny Danger

[Hedgecutter]

1 hour ago, scottsdad said:

Are you Pip from Great Expectations?

Those clickbait quizzes had me down as 'Technical Middle Class', i.e. those with the capital of the traditional middle class but less cultured than you might expect (to the point their only knowledge of Dickens comes from The Muppet Christmas Carol).  Supposedly a relatively rare breed, most of which are in some form of scientific profession (check).  My other half got the same, which also says our limited social circle tends to stick with their own (check ).

Must admit that I've never set foot in a theatre, nor read a 'classic' novel in my adult life.  I'd be able to identify a Picasso on classical radio though*.

 

*anybody else mind this old Scottish TV advert?

Edited Wednesday at 10:13 by Hedgecutter

[Hedgecutter]

On 01/07/2024 at 20:21, Leith Green said:

Genuine middle classes with cash don't flaunt it, I've worked in plenty of their houses.

There's a world of difference between people who drive around in a 15 year old Golf, while owning a big place in The Grange and a summer house in Barbados.....and those desperados who think buying a jetski to tow behind the G Class Merc they park outside their new build Cala home makes them middle class.

My working-class mum started doing quite well in sales and became quite close to your latter description by buying the fancy Audi and designer gear, almost certainly for show (whilst secretly living in a world of financial stress).  The whole thing fell down like a house of cards due to most of it being on finance and she had to sell, move, and downsize significantly.

I vowed never to put myself in that position, and type this on a Pixel 4 whilst wearing a faithful top I probably bought a decade ago.  They do the job.

Edited Wednesday at 10:37 by Hedgecutter
continued inability to proofread

[Granny Danger]

15 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

My working-class mum started doing quite well in sales and became quite close to your latter description by buying the fancy Audi and designer gear, almost certainly for show (whilst secretly living in a world of financial stress).  The whole thing fell down like a house of cards due to most of it being on finance and she had to sell, move, and downsize significantly.

I vowed never to put myself in that position, and type this on a Pixel 4 whilst wearing a faithful top I probably bought a decade ago.  They do the job.

I wonder if your post highlights a key middle class, or maybe aspirant middle class, trait; namely overextending yourself financially.

Despite now having an admittedly middle-class lifestyle (though not outlook) we spent the first 18 years of our married life in a two-bedroom council flat.  The next three years in a part-ownership housing association terraced house.  Never overextended ourselves financially.  Never thought that any sort of social status was important.

 

[Alert Mongoose]

24 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

My working-class mum started doing quite well in sales and became quite close to your latter description by buying the fancy Audi and designer gear,

Wid.

[Hedgecutter]

5 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

I wonder if your post highlights a key middle class, or maybe aspirant middle class, trait; namely overextending yourself financially.

Despite now having an admittedly middle-class lifestyle (though not outlook) we spent the first 18 years of our married life in a two-bedroom council flat.  The next three years in a part-ownership housing association terraced house.  Never overextended ourselves financially.  Never thought that any sort of social status was important.

 

 

I don't think that financial overstretching is characteristic of any single demographic as people who care what others think of them when it comes to materialism are found across the social spectrum.  Imo, such people tend not to care about what the higher classes think of them, but do care about what those around them think.  Often a lot.

I suppose it's easier for the middle/upper classes to be content with what they have more than those living in say a council estate.  There will be another type who will (wrongly imo) perceive living in a council estate by a certain age as being some sort of failure in life, and they'll overexert themselves to make them feel different.  You'd tend to find the latter in the working-class communities I'd have thought, so you could argue that overexertion is more prevalent in what you describe as the 'aspirant middle class'.