How did you define 'Posh' when you were a child?

When I was at junior school in the fifties, I was very friendly with a girl whose family's lifestyle couldn't have been further removed from ours. They lived in the only detached house in the area, her father had his own business, played golf and owned a dinner jacket, and they cruised every year. My mother didn't exactly approve of this friendship; "they're too posh for the likes of you" she would say. In fact, these people had no airs and graces whatsoever and were very down to earth. Whenever this girl came to my house, my mother was never entirely at ease with her. Our friendship lasted throughout our school years, until we both started to work sand I moved away from home.

No, they knew each other, my parents had arranged to meet up on holiday when we were all on a Club Med holiday,and as I was one of four, he was one of five, they were hoping for peace and quiet and that we would all play together nicely. We did. They wanted to clear off somewhere over half-term and as we had all got on well, asked if my parents would have him and one of his sisters.

When he came to stay? At 14? My dad would have had a fit!

Sorry but you are all wrong. I didn't know the word posh as a child because I didn't hear it, but I was certainly aware that when I was asked, aged 14, by a new boyfriend, if he could ride his horse around our grounds when he came to stay, and I had to reply that it would be a very short ride if he did, well that was when I realised that we were not 'posh'.

(to Petra)

haha! No from that situation we moved to the 'colonial' life and had a whole bungalow to ourselves with all mod cons in Africa!!

My best friend Margaret lived in a large detached house with steps up to the front door which I thought were terribly posh and she had a swing in her garden which was even posher. My mother always maintained that POSH stood for 'port out starboard home' in the days when the British sailed out to the orient in the time of Colonial rule domination. It was something to do with the sun shining in your cabin in the morning/ evening but not sure which way round!

This thread is turning into a Monty Python sketch. Someone's going to mention the shoe box in the road soon. Lol.

Sounds very much like my mum's home. They did put in a bathroom after my granddad died (he wouldn't have a toilet in the house). Growing up until I was about 7 we didn't have a bathroom either. We had a bath in the kitchen with a lid, the WC on the landing and a basin in my bedroom, mum & dad slept on the pull out sofa in the sitting room. It was not a 'self contained' flat either!

I was brought up in the North East, in a small back to back terrace, I always thought anyone with a garden was posh

Or wish you were.

That's probably because you're posh, phoenix!

phoenix - don't let Victoria Beckham know she may fall off her shoes and break her hair which certainly won't give her anything to smile about!

I really don't know why, but the very word "posh" really grates with me! I HATE it!

I am now, by my own definition, 'Posh' because I have a car, a telephone and a four-bedroomed house.
And a coloured telly.

People who lived in houses where you couldn't see the house from the road. Or people in houses with a doorbell. Or stained glass in the front door.

I dreamed of an inside toilet. Really really would have loved a bathroom. A telephone.

I thought folks on a council estate were posh cos they had a bathroom.

I lived all over the place and changed schools nine times (army child) but the most alien place was Stockport. I was teased constantly for my "posh" voice and had trouble understanding the natives for their local accent and numerous strange words for familiar things. Nobody there seemed to have ever before met someone from elsewhere.

ninathenana - no need rub it in about the Corona!

Iam my mother too! I could write reams about what she considered common, but only what she considered posh, or better class, by inference.

People sometimes comment on my name or my accent (which is really unremarkable) so I just tell them I can't help it because I'm just very posh. They always laugh! Not sure what that means!

I've just remembered that after we had a loft conversion when I was 7, we had a downstairs loo as well as the bathroom upstairs. The former was very useful when I wanted to lock myself in with a book.

PS we had the Corona order too

I'm quiet surprised by what some of you thought as 'posh' (horrible word) We had the separate dining room, the indoor bathroom, I had my own bedroom, we had salad cream and other things mentioned.
We also lived on a council estate and mum and dad both worked in a factory. Mum was very conscious of decorum and manners.
There was certainly nothing 'posh' about us though