To think it’s selfish for parents to retire early when their kids are renting?

Do you work?

I'm going to apologise in advance for the rant that is coming.
When I read threads like this I am very glad of two things: 1. that my parents never had a pot to piss in and so never felt the pressure to give my sibling and I any hand outs. They didn't even have their own home because they never earned enough money between them to buy one. 2. I don't have kids.

I graduated in 1992. It wasn't a barrel of laughs and many people from my year, including me, ended up without a "graduate" job t go to. This was not through lack of trying, but there was nothing out there. The country had a few financial problems, let's say. There had been rioting in the streets a few years before, Thatcher decimating whole communities, mass unemployment during my childhood and a feeling among many of us working class kids that there was little hope of us having a lifestyle that we aspired to, you know: own home, good job, nice car, holidays.

We took shit, low paid jobs and by God they were low paid in the days before NMW. I couldn't afford to even rent a room in a shitty, mould-covered shared house which had no functional bathroom or kitchen. I ended up living with my parents and commuting to said low paid job by bike - it was 10 miles away. I became mega fit, so that's one advantage I guess. I had no savings. No handouts. No proper job until 1994 when I started temping. Only then I was able to afford the shitty room in the shared house, but then couldn't afford to eat properly and definitely no social life. Only in 1997 did I manage to escape the shit life - I was late 20's by then - with a place on a graduate programme. I could then afford to rent a slightly less grotty room in a shared house (this wasn't London and was actually a cheap area) and even managed to eat most days - though still had no social life, couldn't afford driving lessons so that cut down on job opportunities and definitely no hope of saving.

It wasn't until 2000 when I moved in with my then boyfriend, who became my husband (now ex) that being able to share the rent meant we could get a whole flat of our own. It was one bed, ancient kitchen and a broken bath, so we had to exist on sink washes to avoid flooding the flat below. We lived there for 3 years until we could afford a slightly better flat and then managed to buy a tiny, one bed starter home by taking out a scary number of credit cards and maxing them all out, plus a bank loan, to raise the deposit.

We were both, by then, in fairly good jobs and had progressed. We were still paying off the cards and the loan when we divorced in 2010.

For some of us there has never been a time when we could afford a deposit on a house in our 20's. Or 30s or, in the case of my parents. Ever.

For some of us the housing market has always been something out of reach and beyond our dreams.

I for one am sick to death of being expected to feel guilty for being born when I was. We struggled too. We had a cost of living crisis and we couldn't afford houses or a good life. Something that I think the parents of these spoilt children may have forgotten - or maybe didn't have to think about because they were the ones who had everything that people like me didn't.

Childfree people like me often get told that we are going to be dependent on your offspring to wipe our arses when we're old. I say to you now, I don't want your children anywhere near me because you have raised a generation of selfish, entitled drama queens and when I can no longer wipe my own arse, I'll see myself out of this life. Oh I don't blame the kids, btw. I blame you. Parents of my generation. What the fuck were you thinking.

Just the usual bullshit that we hear all the time from some parents. I don't know about the situation of the poster concerned, but when ever I get a comment about children's taxes being used to support my retirement I point out the following...

I have been working for over 30 years already and a lot of that time as a higher rate taxpayer.

We, current taxpayers and current retired people have paid for your pregnancy care, child's birth, child's health care, child benefit, child tax credits, child's education etc etc.

Do we begrudge it? No, it's how society functions. We don't want gratitude, we do it willingly as a healthy and educated society is a good thing.

She said she earnt 50k a year the same as her husband in her opening post.

To the ranting poster - you need the taxes my Dc will be paying (and one of my DDs pays a lot) to pay for your pension, health, and many other services because, I can assure you, when you are old you won’t be paying enough tax for all you take out. Here, care home costs are £5,500 a month. So hopefully you have saved up. Or are you expecting others to pay for all your care too? Of course you can hope you get the right to die, but you might not.

Bloody hell. 'Hope you get the right to die'? Wtf?! You obviously have an axe to grind (about your high earning daughter's tax payments).

Op has yet to return or even answer if she works.

It appears it's only her dh who needs to keep working his " low stress job".

Op has yet to return or even answer if she works.

It appears it's only her dh who needs to keep working his " low stress job".

I’m completely confused by the ‘he’ll be bored/go stir crazy’ people. I more or less retired at 59 (do the odd day of agency work in my profession) and I’m never bored. I have loads of things to do. Do people have no imagination and no identity outside work? That’s sad.

Do you still work?

This! ^ 😆 Is @pikkumyy77 and anyone agreeing with the OP actually serious right now. Surely this is a wind up??? I don't know anyone in real life who believes that their parents should keep working til they drop dead to support their grown-ass adult children! Where the F would it stop? WOULD it stop?!

If I had told my parents (who both retired at 60) to get back to work and earn some money to bankroll me in my 30s and help me get a deposit for a house, a nice shiny new car, and other goodies that I deserve because I am their CHILD, they'd have told me to fuck off. (Once they had picked themselves up off the ground from pissing themselves laughing that is!)

This is utterly alien to me in my world. I mean, I know some people have had their parents fork out for driving lessons, and even a car, and fork out for university expenses, and yep, the lucky few have had their parents gift them a deposit for a house. Good for them! If the parents are minted and can afford to dish out 10s of 1000s to their offspring, and it makes life easier/more pleasant for the offspring, all good!

But the very idea of someone wanting to retire at 60, and the ADULT CHILDREN demanding they carry on working til 65, 66, 67, or 70 even, to fund the adult children's lifestyle/house deposit/new car/driving lessons etc etc etc, is a new and special kind of farcical. An utter piss take. And I can't believe anyone seriously thinks this. No way. Not in real life! 😂

87% of almost 2700 people disagree with you @Lesbeavinu Take a hint. YABVU! 😆

YAB massively U

He might keel over at 60. If he’s managed his life well enough that he can retire at 59, more power to his elbow - hope he enjoys a long and happy retirement without you making him feel guilty for it.

I will tell my 75 year old Dad to get off his lazy arse and get back to work. He has only had two heart attacks and only worked from 16 - 65 with no stopping, obvs no one told him that he had to keep topping me up financially until he keels over.

Just to add, his job is very low stress, 9-4pm, fully remote.

I'm going to apologise in advance for the rant that is coming.
When I read threads like this I am very glad of two things: 1. that my parents never had a pot to piss in and so never felt the pressure to give my sibling and I any hand outs. They didn't even have their own home because they never earned enough money between them to buy one. 2. I don't have kids.

I graduated in 1992. It wasn't a barrel of laughs and many people from my year, including me, ended up without a "graduate" job t go to. This was not through lack of trying, but there was nothing out there. The country had a few financial problems, let's say. There had been rioting in the streets a few years before, Thatcher decimating whole communities, mass unemployment during my childhood and a feeling among many of us working class kids that there was little hope of us having a lifestyle that we aspired to, you know: own home, good job, nice car, holidays.

We took shit, low paid jobs and by God they were low paid in the days before NMW. I couldn't afford to even rent a room in a shitty, mould-covered shared house which had no functional bathroom or kitchen. I ended up living with my parents and commuting to said low paid job by bike - it was 10 miles away. I became mega fit, so that's one advantage I guess. I had no savings. No handouts. No proper job until 1994 when I started temping. Only then I was able to afford the shitty room in the shared house, but then couldn't afford to eat properly and definitely no social life. Only in 1997 did I manage to escape the shit life - I was late 20's by then - with a place on a graduate programme. I could then afford to rent a slightly less grotty room in a shared house (this wasn't London and was actually a cheap area) and even managed to eat most days - though still had no social life, couldn't afford driving lessons so that cut down on job opportunities and definitely no hope of saving.

It wasn't until 2000 when I moved in with my then boyfriend, who became my husband (now ex) that being able to share the rent meant we could get a whole flat of our own. It was one bed, ancient kitchen and a broken bath, so we had to exist on sink washes to avoid flooding the flat below. We lived there for 3 years until we could afford a slightly better flat and then managed to buy a tiny, one bed starter home by taking out a scary number of credit cards and maxing them all out, plus a bank loan, to raise the deposit.

We were both, by then, in fairly good jobs and had progressed. We were still paying off the cards and the loan when we divorced in 2010.

For some of us there has never been a time when we could afford a deposit on a house in our 20's. Or 30s or, in the case of my parents. Ever.

For some of us the housing market has always been something out of reach and beyond our dreams.

I for one am sick to death of being expected to feel guilty for being born when I was. We struggled too. We had a cost of living crisis and we couldn't afford houses or a good life. Something that I think the parents of these spoilt children may have forgotten - or maybe didn't have to think about because they were the ones who had everything that people like me didn't.

Childfree people like me often get told that we are going to be dependent on your offspring to wipe our arses when we're old. I say to you now, I don't want your children anywhere near me because you have raised a generation of selfish, entitled drama queens and when I can no longer wipe my own arse, I'll see myself out of this life. Oh I don't blame the kids, btw. I blame you. Parents of my generation. What the fuck were you thinking.