Signs of Middle Class Striving

Talking about money.

Driving a mercedes, bmw, or lexus. Bonus striving points for Lexus

Wearing Ralph Lauren labels

Large home built with cheap material and under decorated. My wealthy friends seem to take time to deal with quality material and decorate their homes room by room in a cohesive manner. Middle-class people, punching above their station, just seem to do one big credit secured furniture buy at the same warehouse store and style the run around the purchase or TV. They make certain status items the focus of the room, instead of making the entire room, tell a story. not sure if I'm making sense.

Buying a Rolex and talking about it incessantly.

Hahaha, r5. Those luxury watchmakers will miss their middle-class buyers, now that smartwatches have taken over the industry.

hideous mcmansions on postage stamp lots, in formerly small scale, modest neighborhoods

bottom of the line mercedes suvs

[quote] instead of making the entire room, tell a story.

That's upper class striving.

Those who speak of their cleaning person often, when they can really barely afford the help. Very often they do not really need it either.

Referring to the babysitter as a nanny

Guilty as charged r9, you must have given me the downvote.

Golf is no longer a status marker.

For thirtysomething couples of a certain age, having a first child.

SUVs.

Going to a Tony Robbins seminar.

Asking, "so what do you do?"

R2 I drive a Lexus. It’s 12 years old and boring to drive but it is sturdy, powerful, almost completely trouble free, anonymous and it gets unbelievably good mileage. I don’t drive it to prove anything, I drive it because it’s a very good car.

feeling the need to get a new luxury car every 3 years

driving a 20 year old mercedes is throwing upper class shade

Some of you sound a bit jealous....

Being all about healthy living and eating. Constantly preaching about the right diet. Parading your imaginary gluten intolerance. Being a terrible food snob. Never letting anyone forget you're better than them by claiming dietary sainthood.

Endless vacation pics on Twitter, Instagram, FB.

Look at our fabulous lives!

[quote] For thirtysomething couples of a certain age,

Oxymoron

[bold] The One Where DLs Middle Class Strivers Post The Things They've Figured Out Makes Their Striving A Bit Too Obvious [/bold]

Buying a new-construction faux Craftsman, Foursquare, or Shingle house

Giving your children last-names-as-first-names that don't have anything to do with your family heritage

Signing said kids up for "cotillion" classes

no one aspires to golf anymore

What R4 said - plus the houses need the requisite granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. The furniture is usually the same distressed brown, leather sectional set you can get at Costco. King size bed in the bedroom with one chest of drawers and a massive TV on the wall with a hundred wires hanging from it. Like every young couple's house I see, now.

r24, did you bold it to compensate for not signing it? It's ok, YMF, we see you.

Belonging to an HOA

R10: I have 3 friends that this suits to a T. Two of them travel 3-4 days a week. How dirty can a house get, as they are single. Their housekeeper comes once a week and they don’t call them housekeepers, they call them maids. I laughed at them when they called them maids.

R27, Why stainless steel rather than the more practical cast iron?

i'm buying a new condo but concerned about granite counter tops. They remind me of tombstones.

A pure bred dog of any kind.

Ordering mulled wine, heavy on the cinnamon, light on the cloves.

Wainscoting in the second bathroom

Non stop talking about their crotch fruit and their crotch fruit's sports, school plays, music lessons.

Taking Leadership workshops and hiring a life coach.

Talking about "our financial planner" - barf

using "summer" as a verb

Insisting that one must never drain pasta.

[quote] Why stainless steel rather than the more practical cast iron?

Why not both? I've got both.

[quote] A pure bred dog of any kind.

What's even more stupid is paying lots of money for "Malti-poo" (part Maltese, part poodle) and other mixed breed dogs. When you buy a pure-bred dogs, you at least get "papers" or some kind of certification.

[quote] and they don’t call them housekeepers, they call them maids. I laughed at them when they called them maids.

"Housekeeper" is a bit pretentious for a person who comes once a week just to clean. "Housekeeper" is the term hotels use, but that doesn't make it less pretentious.

I do agree that we don't have a comfortable, modern name for this person. There's "cleaning service", if you actually use a service (that is, a company that guarantees to send someone, even though it might be a different person from time to time) rather than paying an individual.

[quote]Why stainless steel rather than the more practical cast iron?

Not r27, but trying to picture a cast iron refrigerator / freezer.

[quote]I do agree that we don't have a comfortable, modern name for this person.

I call him 'my man'.

[quote] What's even more stupid is paying lots of money for "Malti-poo" (part Maltese, part poodle) and other mixed breed dogs. When you buy a pure-bred dogs, you at least get "papers" or some kind of certification.

Those designer dogs are signs of working class striving.

Pretending to have exquisite taste in wines and actually swishing a mouthful around when the sommelier pours a small sample to taste. People who use the word “sommelier”.

“Golf is no longer a status marker.”

“no one aspires to golf anymore”

WTF!!

Mounds of presents under the Christmas tree.

The Louis Vuitton tote bag.