[Closed] Middle Class Dinner Parties

No. Go. Be Frankie Boyle. Relish in it.

The problem will quickly resolve itself one way or the other.

they all love a bit o' rough, you know

The problem will quickly resolve itself one way or the other.

indeed. Usually the other

What's a middle class dinner party?

What's the etiquette on how much you drink? I'm genuinely at a loss, my friends at uni were all arseholes who just drank till they dropped.

I'm genuinely not used to pretending that I'm civil. Is it going to be like this till I get old and die?

I struggle with prolonged exposure to polite company. I can handle it in small amounts. You have my sympathy.

Just fiddle the keys in the jar thing and screw the one you fancy the most.

You don't have to go every week.

YESSSS! I knew that we'd eventually agree on something Ernie!

Old mantra, avoid politics, sex and religion. And stay off the wine until they arrive and make sure everyone has the same amount. Be careful with the ones who won't be drinking as they are driving. These people are spies.

Trivial pursuits is too boring for anyone. Just get everyone onto neutral ground down to the pub afterwards and have a game of darts or sumfink.

Dafuq? All our dinner parties resulted in getting pissed and setting the rats* on folk...

*they were lovely really, they only wee'd on people they liked.

I struggle with prolonged exposure to polite company. I can handle it in small amounts.

I knew there was a reason we don't get along 8)

OP be yourself, if they don't like it/you then no problem you won't be invited back. Simple.

Dinner parties where pretty standard fare when rhe kids where younger, easiest and cheapest way of going out. In general we ate better and drank more than if we where in a local restaurant. Fell asleep at the table once, I pointed out that a dinner party following straight on from a rugby international was unlikely to result in too much intellectual conversation. I am not sure there is any particular social code, you are having dinner with friends no ? Behave as normal.

Jamby, friends are only actually friends if they'll get blind drunk or end up in a cell alongside you.

Or maybe I just have a really warped sense of friendship. I think I belong in a zoo.

I guess I'm having to get used to having responsibilities/growing up...

Bowl in there pissed as a rat. Unironically declare it's a biggest dick comp to all the men in the room, as you flop it on the table. After doing the helicopter and spewing up over the nearest guest, apologise profusely then start ranting about snotty ****s and WTF is this wine no Stella party all abooot ya ****in paper shuffling ****bags.

General rule is if you have to aska forum how to behave then it's a lost cause. Try starting the are we in a simulation thing again with them

Change your friends. You either go to dinner with people you want/ know / get on with and accept you or you're trying to be some sort of fake social climbing pretentious bull.

Didn't MCDPs go out of fashion in 1988? I thought they just called it Swinging now

What makes a dinner party middle class, just out of curiosity ?

Is it the very act of sitting around a table and eating off plates with cutlery (as opposed to eating takeaway out of the boxes in front of an enormous TV), or do all the people have to be doctors and lawyers ?

In about 10 years you'll start enjoying them. That's the time to worry not now.

The main topic of conversation at middle class dinner parties in Surrey normally include a few rants about the cyclists clogging up our roads! Especially those buggers riding on the dual carriageway between Dorking and Leatherhead! 🙂

Just act normal.

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Sounds hellish.

Suggest a game of cards against humanity, if they know what it is and say yes you will enjoy the party, if not RUN! We have mates round for dinner, not sure if that is a dinner party I always though that's what grown ups did

I guess I'm having to get used to having responsibilities/growing up...

The responsibility of having dinner parties?
Responsibilities are things like looking after I'll friends and family, looking after children, supporting people close to you emotionally in real matters not ones of status.
Dinner parties are not an act of responsibility. Sounds like pretentious ****.

I can't stand them but when I'm forced to go I can sometimes enjoy the odd moment.

I have a really dark sense of humour and the dinners tend to be held by middle aged Germans ( don't ask ) I have so much ammunition but have to constantly hold back.

Does anyone else feel that you really have to control yourself, to make sure that you don't say something/make a joke that is horrifically dark and totally unacceptable in these peoples company? I felt about as out of place as Frankie Boyle at a royal dinner tonight.

Climbing club garden party in Didsbury last night.

Proper Didsbury too, non of yer cheap borders/suburbs crap.
🙂

The only dinner parties I know are friends getting together for, well, dinner. They normally end up with everyone having one eye closed trying to focus and bumping into things. Or is that just me?

Keep a yellow card and a whistle in your pocket.

The second anyone starts a conversation about property prices, the OFSTED rating of the local schools,or the relative merits of their next company car, blow your whistle loudly and produce your yellow card with a Mike Dean style flourish. If they continue down this road having already received a yellow, due to human rights legislation, you are now perfectly legally allowed to stove their head in with a pick axe handle

'Only' middle class? Sorry, I wouldn't lower my standards!

The only dinner parties I know are friends getting together for, well, dinner. They normally end up with everyone having one eye closed trying to focus and bumping into things. Or is that just me?

Sounds about right.

Last night was latest book releases, the history of ski touring, postgraduate funding, whisky and whether the C4 Cactus is chavvy or not.

Then we all got drunk.
🙂

this 'dinner party' thing again. i go round to friends' houses for dinner, which is nice and easy because i know them and enjoy their company.

Is this something different? are you getting lassooed by strangers?

whether the C4 Cactus is chavvy or not.

And what was the conclusion?

Keep a yellow card and a whistle in your pocket.

The second anyone starts a conversation about property prices, the OFSTED rating of the local schools,or the relative merits of their next company car, blow your whistle loudly and produce your yellow card with a Mike Dean style flourish. If they continue down this road having already received a yellow, due to human rights legislation, you are now perfectly legally allowed to stove their head in with a pick axe handle

Excellent! 😀

That would be soo funny in reality! ( a bit bloody though!)

I'm genuinely not used to pretending that I'm civil

We had noticed.....

Perhaps try to suspend a few of your own prejudices and preconceived 'ideas'; you might then find it easier to relate to those people you've already judged.

Working Class Dinner party?

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Now that looks like the way forward to mePP! Invite everyone round for a Munchy Box. I would never trust anyone who wouldn't jump at the chance of a Munchy Box. Therefore it acts an effective social filter. Its a win/win! 😀

To be fair, that's only a 12 incher.

For a dinner party you'd definitely go for 16 inchers.

Nothing says "Welcome to my home!" more than a 16" Munchy Box.

being dragged along trying to be nice to the wifes friends others halfs is a challenge. however once you get to know them you either just suck it up as they are idiots or its back to the 'one eye trying to focus'. i`ve not really found any middle ground.

i`m shit at small talk which doesnt help.

'Munchy'?

'Munch' makes me think of idly grazing - whilst that box of delights thing up there is an olympian f/eat!

Dinner + party? Sounds to me like food and no party. Set out to party, and help self to food. Can't lose. Even that sour-faced prig hogging the Prosecco as if it's a New Thing will not stop you having beer-pong. Always take a pack of cards (ring of fire) and a ping-pong ball w/plastic glasses. If people say 'but I'm driving' - say that's nice what type of car? They say Skoda. You say you don't believe them show me the key? You wrestle the key from them and throw it over next door. They are flattered that you care for them to partay!

They will now be the wildest party animals because unexpected freedom and someone showing care for you to experience it is a powerful combination. They will lay waste to timidity. They will win beer-pong and lose Ring of Fire. They will give you conspiratorial winks in Waitrose next Sunday.

Munchy?

...as in " I'm ripped to the tits on these cans of Kestrel and copious amounts of the Ganj and now i've got the pure munchies"

^ in that case yes it's a tiny offering 🙂

IdleJon - Member
And what was the conclusion?

Munchy box, I'm not even northern, but that looks like a great way to blow a days worth of calories.

[quote=binners ]Now that looks like the way forward to mePP! Invite everyone round for a Munchy Box. I would never trust anyone who wouldn't jump at the chance of a Munchy Box. Therefore it acts an effective social filter. Its a win/win!

I shall eat the salad for you 😉

I am Northern and I would prefer food.

Anyone on here going to a dinner party should think of themselves as a representative of the STW forum, and behave accordingly 😀

Following on from the dinner party for middle classes, got invited to a games evening,by the manger of a place i used to work at (all adults no sex games)a few years ago, playing monopoly, cluedo, cards,or bring your own games etc,she said there would be nibbles/snacks/brink some drinks, i refused as it was 20 miles from where i lived and i had no transport home, also i thought it was a joke, this didnt go down well and the woman hated me from then on, as i had refused to go on a team bonding event.

One of the other people that went said it was horrendous, her being a working class person,it was all people trying to impress each other, talking shit and acting daft, and she was treated as lower class because she stuck up for the labour party and didnt have a car, but choose to use a bike or public transport.

Throw a sickie and go riding

Dinner parties are not an act of responsibility. Sounds like pretentious ****.

TBH the OP sounds like one of those people who's so desperate not to be middle class that he falls into the trap of actually being middle class.

At some point he will start reading the guardian in order to stay in touch with the troubles of the working classes and go to dinner parties to tell other middle class people how working class he actually is.

I think it's the name "dinner parties" that is putting the OP off. Don't think of it like that, think of it was a group of mates sat around with some good food, a shed load of beer or wine (or Port in my case) and a chance to talk rubbish to each other. That's certainly what my "dinner parties" turn into.

if in doubt, get hammered.

I think the OP is just very young. This is the sort of thing lots of us said in our early twenties when being pretentious muppets desperate to show how non conformist we really were.

Oh God, my parents used to do this back in the sixties and seventies. I remember my Mum often asking my Dad: "Do you think the Joneses would go well with the Smiths?" She was a huge social climber, being the village doctor's wife and all.

It always followed the same ritual; medical, musical or village friends would arrive, we kids would be introduced then we'd be sent upstairs to mess around (no TV in those days) listening to the gales of increasingly drunken laughter until the guests had retired to the lounge, when we would sneak down and scoff the leftovers. At some time when I was about 14 this included alternating kitchen tumblers of white wine and sherry from plastic barrels, which got me so drunk that I still had a hangover two mornings afterwards.

The following day my Mum would always have an inquiry: "I think that went quite well, don't you dahling?"

My poor Dad croaked years ago under the stress but my mum, now 86, is still an embarrassing social climber. In my adult life I have met women like her and even been invited to a couple of these dinners, which I soon realised are held for the hostess to show off her cooking or her social connections. Whatever the reason it's usually the host and hostess who feel they have the floor and will witter on for hours talking conceited bollocks about themselves.

Hideous.

my parents used to do this back in the sixties and seventies

no TV in those days

Where did you live.......somewhere in the North ?

Sounds grim.

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ernie_lynch - Member

Where did you live.......somewhere in the North ?

Sounds grim.

I grew up in a middle class area of Bristol & I don't remember anyone having a TV upstairs either.

I don't remember anyone having a TV upstairs either.

I see, the downstairs TV couldn't be watched, perhaps I don't understand dinner party etiquette fully. I certainly find children having to sneak down to eat the leftovers strange and somewhat incomprehensible.

I get dragged along to these occasionally.

At the last one, the hostess (a friend of my partner's) was so obsessive and anxious that she looked like she would burst out crying if the slightest thing went wrong. So what could have been a relaxing evening with friends just became some sort of horrible challenge. And her loud-mouthed Tory **** of a husband was, well, a loud-mouthed Tory ****.

I tend to smile and nod, eat with my mouth closed and say as little as possible.

My mum used to do this. The treat for us kids was leftover brandy snaps; and for the adults 'cocktail' cigarettes in pastel shades with silver filters IIRC. As opposed to the Players #6 she usually smoked.

We were never dispatched upstairs though. Mainly because i grew up in a bungalow.

One of the other people that went said it was horrendous, her being a working class person,it was all people trying to impress each other, talking shit and acting daft, and she was treated as lower class because she stuck up for the labour party and didnt have a car, but choose to use a bike or public transport.

Wow mate, I think you are the one with some class issues!

No Ernie, we just didn't have a TV in those days! We read books and did healthy country things like cycling and forced labour gathering elderflowers for my Dad to make wine.

The first grainy black & white, second-hand valve-powered TV arrived in 1973 when I was 17. There were only four channels; it was hidden away in the cold spare bedroom (the shame!) and the set-top antenna had to be waved around then balanced on a pile of books to get a reasonable picture. Perish the thought that we should have an aerial on the chimney! I remember my Dad chuntering about this subversive new show called Monty Python's Flying Circus then watching it secretly with my sister and loving it. We were limted to an hour of TV a day but TBH the picture was so terrible there wasn't much joy in watching anyway.

TV arrived in 1973 when I was 17. There were only four channels;

Four channels in 1973? Did you live in the USA or something? 🙂

Okay maybe there was only BBC1 and BBC2, I can't remember; or maybe it was just BBC and ITV.

The first grainy black & white, second-hand valve-powered TV arrived in 1973 when I was 17.

So you spent all your school days not having a clue what the other kids were talking about when it came to talking about what had been on the telly? That's tragic.

I remember BBC2 arriving. ITV had always been there but we weren't allowed to watch it - what with us being middle class.

I don't remember anybody talking about television at school, but then I was at boarding school until 1971. The first time I saw TV must have been at my Granny's house, probably when we watched the maiden flight of the Vickers VC10, which Granny's brother, great-Uncle Eddie Gray helped design at BAC at Hurn. That would have been in 1962 according to Wiki.

I don't remember anybody talking about television at school.

WTF did you talk about.....reading books and gathering elderflowers to make wine?

Old mantra, avoid politics, sex and religion.

That's pretty much my conversational remit. 👿

I like dinner. And I certainly like a paaaaarty! Why mix them?*

*COI: often invited, rarely asked back... Actually I'm probably not that much of a rocker, though I did once eat an after eight at seven forty five.

Don't tell the story about when you ended up in a knocking shop in the early hours of a morning completing a Spitfire jigsaw with the resident professionals whilst your mate availed himself of the entertainment on offer.

Especially if it's your own dinner party.

Could have heard the proverbial pin drop.

In my defence, it's hard to resist a part complete jigsaw.

'Munchy'?

'Munch' makes me think of idly grazing - whilst that box of delights thing up there is an olympian f/eat!

Dinner + party?

Point of note, a dinner party and a munch are two very different things. Mix them up and someone's going to get a shock.

Point of note, a dinner party and a munch are two very different things. Mix them up and someone's going to get a shock.

Cheers, coffee\keyboard disaster narrowly avoided and now getting odd looks from bloke across the desk from me.

don't tell the story about when you ended up in a knocking shop in the early hours of a morning completing a Spitfire jigsaw with the resident professionals whilst your mate availed himself of the entertainment on offer.

...so did anything interesting happen?

do all the people have to be doctors and lawyers ?

majority of my mates are doctors, the OH is a lawyer; dinner at my house must be middle class, but they don't sound awful like the OPs description.

Is this MCDP different to dinner with friends?

majority of my mates are doctors, the OH is a lawyer; dinner at my house must be middle class

Out of interest when does supper become dinner, or are you talking about lunch ?

Middle class Munchy box....

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Out of interest when does supper become dinner, or are you talking about lunch ?

'Supper' is an upper middle class thing Ernie...you probably don't get invited to many Supper parties in Croyden I imagine? Your Mate THM probably goes to them every week!

'Supper' is an upper middle class thing Ernie.

So what you're trying to say is that people who talk about dinner parties aren't posh enough to have supper parties ?

I'm sure that's harsh but fair.

Of course they do. They just give them their proper name, pyjama parties.

Supper is working class 4th meal of the day: but then I'm not as posh as my MCDP suggests!

Breakfast- lunch- tea- supper in my family.

My grandparents would have cheese / biscuits / toast for supper. NB not cheese & crackers but cheese or bikkies.

The OH still gives me grief over eating tea. 😀