I feel I should layout my stall from the outset here. I'd just like to say a a big f**k you to all those people who utter the words "middle class" with the same contempt most of us reserve for violent criminals and sectarian or racist bigots. Now that's out of my system, down to business.

It was in my teenage years, as I began to watch news instead of complain to my mum that neighbours or something equally intellectual was on the other channel, I became aware of the fact that my parents were (lower) middle class, at least according to the government's preferred methods of classification. I also became aware of a lot of apparent hostility which I couldn't understand.

Even wandering around in the evenings as kids do, whenever we bumped into people from the estate down the road, on finding out where we lived they would invariable respond with (jokingly, admittedly) "Oooh well excuse us" or "Oh them big snabby houses on the top road". These responses were usually met initially with confusion (mostly down to not seeing much difference between them and us) and latterly with bored indifference, as we realised the record would never change.

Follow up:

To be fair to the other kids we met, they were at least usually joking and trying to being friendly about it. What's much worse is that in some adults (and specifically politicians and journalists) the joking seems to be replaced with resentment - where the term middle-class is used almost as an insult in and of itself!

The stereotype goes that the young working-class man has to work for everything he has, while the young middle-class man has everything handed to him on a silver plate from mummy and daddy. It riles me no end that my financial help at university is based on how much my mum and dad earn. I'm the one studying, not them. Means testing should be abolished immediately - but more on that another day. For now I'd like to illustrate why I get annoyed at the disdain at the way the very concept of wanting to better one's situation is anathema to so many people today.

The Life Story - My Family
My parents were not born into a long line of nobility and inherited wealth. My mother grew up in a council estate and my father was born on a farm before moving to a flat-roofed terrace as a child; both passed their 11+ and went to grammar schools. My mother left after her O-levels to work in a factory while my father stayed on and studied hard, eventually taking a third-level course at the Poly.

Growing up, my mother always worked during the week at one of various jobs. Sometimes she'd work during the day when my brother and I were at school, others she'd work about 3 weekday evenings for between 5-7 hours each while my father worked full-time.

Before I was born my parents lived in an upstairs flat in a block of flats above a row of shops and when I came along they moved to a terraced house about a mile up the road. When I was 11 we moved to a detached house in the estate I alluded to above - the one with "them big snabby houses," roughly another mile up the road.

My parents always encouraged me to work hard at school and I did. I passed my 11+. I did not have private tuition so mummy and daddy could buy me a place at the school of their choice, all I had was the aid of a few practice papers and parents patient enough to go through them with me.

We don't take multiple foreign holidays per year, although growing up we would visit my grandparents parents across the Atlantic once my parents had saved up enough to take us, which was usually every 3 years or so.

Is there something wrong with the way they've lived their lives? Should they, or we as a family, be ashamed of the effort they've put in to improve their lot? Is there something inherently unfair about their starts in life that meant they were predestined to end up in the position they're in now? Have they anything to feel guilty about?

No. In fact I'm proud of what they've achieved with their lives and can only hope I do as well for myself as my parents did for themselves. To me the only thing demonstrated by this story is that putting in the graft, both at school and at work, can provide an honest family with a comfortable lifestyle. Shocking, isn't it? It would just be nice if the government stopped trying to punish them for it.

My Adult Life...?
At 16 I got my first job in a cafe, waiting on tables and washing dishes. I worked through my A-levels and have been in continuous employment whilst studying at university - I'm not living off anybody's handouts.

Having moved out of my family home at the age of 20, I lived in a shared student house for 2 years, working 20 hours a week on top of university in the first year and full time (paid placement) in the second. I now live in a 2-bedroom flat with my other half and work hard to pay the quite considerable rent required to live in that kind of property in the heart of Studentville. I don't go begging to my parents for money and do my best to support myself.

I don't consider myself to live a middle-class lifestyle, but I refuse feel guilty about wanting to land a well-salaried job after I (eventually) finish my degree, and use it to pay for some of the luxuries I want (if anyone's thinking of donating to the cause, I'm currently pining after a flat-screen TV) and a mortgage on a nice detached house somewhere.

If I can emulate my parents' achievements I'll be more than happy.