To wonder what people actually expect and why they can’t just be happy to live simply?

Cinema is nolonger special occasions only, it's a popular weekend outing.

How do you know who is going weekly vs every few months?

Even with kids, it has to be somewhere like Nandos or Giraffee or Waga Waga.

How is Nando's different to Little Chef?

I totally disagree! Surely it's better to lower your expectations and "cut the suit to fit the cloth" rather than hankering after things that you can't afford and then feeling discontented and hard done by?

Because people seem to associate fun with spending money!

Until fairly recent years, the average family had fun staying indoors. Playing board games, cards, watching films and documentaries together, drawing, painting, reading. Going for nature walks, browsing the shops. Reading a magazine in the garden. All pitching in with household chores and gardening. Occasional days out to a museum or a longer walk with lunch in a pub. A drive to a local beauty spot. Enjoying each others company (or bickering at times, but there wasn't the isolation many seem to want from their kids now). On day trips to see relatives, we often stopped at a Little Chef for a cheap meal.

Nowadays, many families seem to assume fun involves splashing out. Entrance fees, cinema and theatre tickets, exciting day trips, browsing shops must include 'treating' themselves to a few things, and regular sit downs in coffee shops, restaurant for lunch. Even with kids, it has to be somewhere like Nandos or Giraffee or Waga Waga.
Nature walks are 'boring' so it's a children's treasure trail at an overpriced farm. Lunch in farm shop as parents too busy to pack a picnic. Kids want days out at Legoland or ChillFactor.

Perhaps there's a growing need for more 'stimulating' fun. Kids get used to expecting souvenirs in gift shops, having lunch in their favourite restaurant afterwards. Cinema is nolonger special occasions only, it's a popular weekend outing. I also think too many kids are put into afterschool dance, music, activity clubs. Parents often work all week, so weekends are catching up on all the admin and housework, AL packed full of exciting fun trips. Lots of families don't even manage eating around a table together each day. Parents have their own TV so they don't have to take turns with kids.

Like a chronic overstimulated state, with everyone seeking the next dopamine buzz. Very sad.

Not all families clearly. Mine like quietly chatting in lounge, reading, talking, kids playing.

Many people’s expections have risen a lot in recent decades, as regards ‘fun’ extras - holidays, eating out, takeaways, expensive days or nights out, lots of snacks always available at home. All have come - very often - to be seen as ‘normal’.

The trouble is, for many people, incomes have not risen accordingly, plus of course the cost of housing is a huge factor. So it’s hardly surprising if people feel discontented.

Take aways are extortionate and people use You tube to learn how to do everything. There is no excuse not to learn to cook.

“Why should generations expect a better quality of life than previous ones?”

Because they are paying a shit ton of tax for less.

I don't think it's unreasonable for people to have the expectation that in an incredibly wealthy country like this one they should be able to afford the odd holiday and day out for their kids.

Because this is the myth of perpetual growth which capitalism depends on.

I’d turn the question back to you and p ask “Why should generations expect a better quality of life than previous ones?”

It’s not a moral question it’s an economic one. Wishing things doesn’t make them happen.

I see half the things listed on this thread as 'living simply' as actually being signs of wealth whereas some of the 'luxuries' are signs of poverty.

Spending time walking your dog in the country or doing your garden- free at the point of use, expensive to get to the position to do them (house in the country with garden, salary and lifestyle compatible with a dog etc).

Cooking at home presupposes a whole raft of things, from cooking skills to time to a store cupboard of ingredients, whereas a takeaway requires none of those things. I used to live next door to council temporary accommodation- the people staying there had loads of takeaways, because they had completely inadequate cooking facilities, loads of stress and you could buy chicken and chips round the corner for £2.99. Hardly a luxury.

Get a hobby!

The OP is just trolling

@Bra848tofjn so you did have days out 😆

@Baital why are you assuming people can't enjoy things or make the most of things?

You can rip our middle of the stalls, 10 rows back, theatre tickets out of our cold dead hands if you like OP!

Trust me we weren’t all dragged out every weekend , far from it.Chessington was a one a year treat because our parents weren't spending £££££ on tech, phone packages, McDonalds every week, soft play, land fill crap, yearly holidays in the sun, expensive cars etc.Or coffees, take aways, meals out and other expensive treats that are now classed as basics if they're not happening all the time.

@Londonmummy66 I was agreeing with you

You seem to think it is though.

Along with an really poor memory of what life was like 20/30/40 years ago.

It isnt!!!

No, not judging. If I could afford it i would be having far more!

But i don't let the fact I can't afford more get in the way of enjoying what I can have, and making the most of it.

In my DMs day the holiday treat was a day trip to Blackpool!

@Bra848tofjn but days out did exist, just because you didn't have them doesn't mean nobody did.

London Zoo opened in 1838

Thorpe Park opened in the 70s

Madam Tussauds opened in 1835

Blackpool pleasure 1896

Drayton Manor 1950

How they survived with no visitors Im not sure.

It's not a race to the fucking bottom.

Why shouldn't generations expect to have a better quality of life than experienced by their parents/grandparents etc?

I live fairly simply by most people’s standards, but I still need to do fun stuff and not just work to exist. Life is different to how it was when I was growing up. People get used to a certain way of living and when things they used to
enjoy and take for granted (e.g eating out) become unaffordable, of course they will have something to say about it. Extend that to food costs soaring and I’m not surprised there is a lot of discontent out there. It’s not like we can expect it to improve any time soon either.

My phone is 5 yeas old, no iPad , no nails, no tablets for children, we have the odd Chinese every few months, I can paint and decorate and certainly don’t buy new furniture until the old stuff dies … the list goes on and on

So you think your kids should have the same as the royals and super rich!😫SM has so much to answer for and it’s not just kids who are deeply affected by it, their parents are too!