What's your economic/social background?

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I'm from a working-poor/struggling middle class background... lived in 6 apartments, a room and a rental house for all my childhood... my parents both worked, except when one was too lazy (aka depressed?) Myfather worked in technical-type jobs... assembly line work, factory work, welding, aircraft stuff, etc. My mother worked in marketing in sales, once teaching English, tutored in English a few times, did some other stuff I forget... we were on Welfare off and on, got food and clothes from the church sometimes... but my dad sent me to a private school for 2 years, to sailing camp, to other camps, to Europe on a grade 11 trip... but he worked hard for all that!


I'm jsut curious about your backgrounds.

Upper middle class British. Father worked his way up from working class background, finally owning his own successful business in stationary for WHSmiths, Woolworths etc. Mother was housewife, and mother. Grew up mostly in countryside just outside of city. Went to a state school for all of a year, rest of time in private schools.

Started off at the lower end of the middle class with my father a career officer in the Navy and mother staying home to raise my sister and I. Father got a degree as part of an ROTC program and then a Master's at MIT as part of the officer's program he was in. As an officer, we moved up to middle-middle class, but it was a real struggle when both my sister and I were in college for two years at the same time. As the younger one, I got screwed, but know I was better off than many others. My parents were more interested in giving us stuff in the here and now than planning for the future and are still paying off debts from when we were in college. Now, I support 4 other people and am making enough to stay on the slightly upper end of the middle class, just below the next tax bracket. But that may all change with my struggles to at work lately. My wife stays at home to take care of the kids after two years of teaching and saving money while I was in graduate school. I am fortunate to save a lot of money for college for my 3 kids, but who knows if it will be enough 10 years from now.

i get ssdi $754 a month. im trapped in a lease for the next 6 months, on the first.

My birth mom was fairly poor, but the family I live with now is middle-classed, and pretty much always has been. Of course except during the deep depression, which my grandparents never stop talking about

Two child, Single parent family. Quite well off, but a little chaotic. Middle class both in terms of money and social upbringing. Posh accent. Very messy house, I guess that's because it's too small for all our things. We have loads of books and other things which can't quite fit into place.

Probably medium tier middle class, about £30000 per year income. I want a job myself though. I hate being a financial drain. Time that my dad got a bit of money back on the investment.

My status Now:
An average middle class neighbour-hood. My mother works as an aerobics instructor and as far as money goes, probably lower-middle class.

As far as my up-bringing.
Probably a lower-middle class house with higher-lower class money. Had two parents, a mother and a father until I was 3, I am an only child. So a pretty average up-bringing.

From when I was age 3-6 Mother and I stayed with my grandmother as mother didnt have a place of her own. The house we stayed in was higher-middle class.

Age 6-now.
Living in average middle class neighbour-hood.

Britt, I'm also an only child, also living with my mother, my parents also separated when I was very young (only when I was 1), I'm also a young girl, I also have a common American/English-lifestyle name, I'm also taking citalopram for depression, I was also in suburban neighborhoods, I'm also diagnosed with AS, I was also treated normally in high school, as far as money goes we were also probably lower middle class... I don't know how else, but you and I just seem very alike.

My family is fairly lower middle class... some going into very low... and I think some relatives maybe pushing a mid to upper middle class.

We are definitely not prim and proper people.

But we are educated or at least like to discuss things in a more high-brow fashion.

For example: my grandpa, you would be hard pressed not to call him a red-neck... looking at his yard. A bunch of old cars, a general lack of aesthetics sense... yet he's a dentist and learns languages in his spare time.

We started off as lower-middle class. My parents were both immigrants. My father usually worked, but sometimes he'd get laid off and my mom would go get a factory job because he wouldn't get another one ( he wanted to wait for the company to call him back). He would drink alot and my mom would get angry. We lived in an apartment building and my sister and i shared a room. They got a divorce and my mom remarried and we then lived in a house with our own rooms. We had 2 cars then, and my mom and step-dad went into business together. We did much better then. I learned my work values from my mother and step-dad, and to this day I work and do what it takes to get what i need/want.

An average middle class. My single mother is an economist who works as a clerk in a firm. We live in a block of flats in small town; we have two rooms in our flat.

Currently: Upper Class (the slightly lower end of it though). I live with my single-parent mom and no one else. (Mom and Dad got divorced when I was four.) We have a brand new house approximately 5,600 sq ft that backs up on to a 3/4 acre nature preserve. My mom is a CPA and earns quite a lot of money. My dad's a CEO of a business his father started, but it's not doing too well these days. But since he doesn't live here anyway, it's not my problem. In public, we definitely try to look the part of upper-class. To us, appearance is everything. I've been raised to be very proper and that means no improper use of the English language and especially no swearing.

When I was little, before Mom and Dad got divorced, we had a great big house in Houston that I lived in until I was six. At the time, we belonged to a country club, which Dad spent all his free time at. Mom didn't like it because of all the bugs (It's Houston, what do you expect?) and there was nothing for me to do. Both of them worked all of the time, which meant non-stop daycare and pre-school for me.

Mom and Dad got divorced and my mom and I moved here to Indiana. We had lost some of our money, so we just had a regular house for a while. But then around fourth grade, my mom started earning more money once again and we've gained quite a bit since.

As for my future, I plan on starting college in January and once I'm done with that, my mom is going to pay for my first house.

uhh...my expression is upper lower middle class (no idea what that means)
I have always been well off.
my parents broke up when I was...I'd say 5...and my bro and I were with my mom until I was 11 when my parents got back together-it took awhile ajusting to my dad always being there
a year later I was dx'ed with AS-but I am glad he was there-he was much more stern with the schools then my mother was...(I was bullied alot)
in terms of class-middle always
I mean we never had money just lying around...
My mom did a great job-taught me lots of life lesions-since my parents didn't just hand me money it forced me to go out into my neighbourhood and do odd jobs and community litterbugs (as we were called) 50 bucks a week is huge to a 9 year old!

Middle Class. In my life I've occasionally go between upper and lower.

Though in Mexico it's tough being middle class there and not seem like a rich person to the majority poor class (it's just as embarrassing to be well off here as it is to have an American accent).

It's just one of those things that doom you to feel left out and alone...so I never mention it explicitly.

im gonna have to apply here next week. dont you just love the headline? haha oh boy.