Lets talk working class values with Dr Hannah Waite

I definitely think it is those strengths that I've mentioned and I think yeah when you google like what is working class there's so many different ideas of what working class is and I think a lot of it is usually focused around sort of like wealth and economic status and financial position and I do think that's partly true but I also think it's much more than that I don't think it's anything solely to do with your economic status and financial class I think there's a lot to do with people's values and their position in the wider world within that as well and so if we solely went off sort of financial status I'd now technically be classed as middle class because of my income and the job that I have and our household income between me and my partner we'd be classed as middle class and we're both very working class through and through the me and him were having a conversation this morning before I drove into work because I said that I was going to be on this podcast And we have a running joke in our household that he will ask if I watched anything on telly when I was a child, like specific programs.

And when I was growing up, we didn't have Sky or anything like that.

It just wasn't necessary in our household, partly because it's bloody expensive.

And also because we didn't need it because we were out all of the time.

But my husband did have Sky when he was growing up.

And because I didn't, he'll always make a joke of like, oh, that's your deprived childhood speaking that you didn't watch these programs.

And it's a running joke in our household and there's no malice there at all and things like that.

But I do think it's a lot more to do with who you are as a person and sort of intergenerational values as well and where they come from that help shape who we are as people.

And I guess for me, I personally don't see class as like wealth status.

I see class more of who am I as a person and where do I fit within the world and who do I relate to? And that's like my tribe, if you like.

I guess sort of financial and economic status does come into that because of the opportunities that you've been afforded or the places that you've been to or the the different sort of areas that you're immersed within, you do have different opportunities depending on how much money you can afford to spend, for example.

But for me, it really is about, if I was to try and define working class, how I see it for me and my family, it'd be about being really hardworking, having that value of family and support and chipping in together.

Whereas, like, for example, when I first went off to uni, asking for help wasn't a thing that you did.

Like it was, no, you don't ask for help because you should be able to do this or you should know or they won't give you the opportunity to do it.

If you're going to be afforded the opportunity, it will just be offered to you or you've got to be sort of in the right place at the right time.

Whereas I think actually, now I will ask for help because we're deserving of help if we need it.

And it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, we're human beings and For me, class doesn't come into that at all.

You're a human being.

If you need help, ask for help.

But there was definitely barriers in place during my upbringing and certainly my early adulthood and going to university where asking for help just wasn't a thing at all because it was instilled within you that you just crack on, you work hard, you put your head down.

And if you want to be as good as other people, you have to just keep pushing.

And we have a very... a very sort of strong unhealthy family dynamic at times where in relation to work, where unless you are literally dead, you're going to work because you can't afford not to.

Like I have very strong memories of different points in my life where mum had never, as far as I was aware, never been off work, ever sick at all.

And I remember that because I vividly remember the one time that she was.

And the same with my dad, like dad was never, ever poorly.