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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think my niece doesn’t really get a say on how good or bad she thinks the budget is

292 replies

Dennien · 26/11/2025 21:42

I’m a single mum, I work full time, I have 3 children and I just about get by.
My niece is 26, she makes almost 100k (got lucky, was in the right rooms either the right people), and inherited 500k from her paternal grandparents.
She doesn’t have uni debt, she doesn’t have childcare costs. She happily pays £500 a month for a fancy London gym, lives in a flat share with her best friend etc.
Today she told me she didn’t think the budget went far enough etc. that Labour are useless and so on. She is a Lib Dem/Tory voter and very against reform too.

AIBU to say that young people in a privileged position shouldn’t really get to comment as they aren’t facing the same difficulties others are.

OP posts:
Dennien · 27/11/2025 00:23

JHound · 27/11/2025 00:20

Maybe that informed her view. I grew up as part of a low income family - part of the “underclass”. And I saw first hand most of the “struggling” families around me were that way due to poor lifestyle choices.

Including my own.

And how can she be from a “low income family” with a 500k inheritance?

Her paternal grandparents, only had one child, her dad, he passed away several years ago. Then they both passed within 9 months of each other 2 year ago, she was the only person who could inherit, they had a property and 2 life insurance plans.

She grew up mostly with my sister, brief stint in care but this was not my sisters fault. Her dad despite being from a fairly middle class family was not a good nor hard working man. Her grandparents didn’t live local and weren’t close to her dad so didn’t provide financial or any kind of support.

OP posts:
JHound · 27/11/2025 00:20

Dennien · 26/11/2025 21:51

She grew up in council houses with low income parents so I’m shocked at her lack of empathy if I’m totally honest.

Maybe that informed her view. I grew up as part of a low income family - part of the “underclass”. And I saw first hand most of the “struggling” families around me were that way due to poor lifestyle choices.

Including my own.

And how can she be from a “low income family” with a 500k inheritance?

JHound · 27/11/2025 00:18

Dennien · 26/11/2025 21:50

No she wanted further welfare reforms and spending cuts, she deeply resents supporting people who are out of work or on low incomes. Always says “they just need to up-skill and earn more”.

She is correct.

GaIadriel · 27/11/2025 00:18

Dennien · 26/11/2025 21:50

No she wanted further welfare reforms and spending cuts, she deeply resents supporting people who are out of work or on low incomes. Always says “they just need to up-skill and earn more”.

Is she wrong? My mate has just done a free two week training boot camp to work on HS2 and will be making around £50k driving 60 ton dump trucks. He got made redundant in his 50s a month ago and has no experience whatsoever. There are loads of people who could do this.

JHound · 27/11/2025 00:17

You sound envious. You don’t earn 100k from “being in the right rooms”.

Jellycatspyjamas · 27/11/2025 00:14

Ladamesansmerci · 27/11/2025 00:02

Is no one else completely thrown by the fact there's a such thing as a gym costing £500 a month?!?! Here was me thinking £40 a month was a lot 😂😭

I’m guessing it’ll be related to her dance training in some way. Specialised settings can be very expensive.

WhenTheStarsLightUpTheRoom · 27/11/2025 00:12

Everyone gets a say so you are ridiculous to say that she shouldn’t.

Imagine being someone that thinks others should just be quiet because you don’t like their opinion. 😬

BauhausOfEliott · 27/11/2025 00:12

I'm not sure you really understand how democracy works.

jezlifecoach · 27/11/2025 00:08

Why did you have three kids if you can’t afford them?

im guessing you’re relying on state money that’s been paid in taxes? From people like your niece?

Mummysof · 27/11/2025 00:05

You literally put her down when get called out say you appreciate her and are proud when in reality it just seems you are bitter. She got there because she has the talent to do so and she is still there because she has the talent to stay in this apparent incredibly niche job that she has. She is doing incredible and what a lucky but extremely demanding physically and mentally job she has that she must work hard to be part of and not just swan around like you suggest.

Opinions are like arseholes everybody has one!

PinkArt · 27/11/2025 00:03

Dennien · 26/11/2025 22:09

She didn’t go to uni, she works in the creative industries, her break very much came from being in the right room. I’m proud of her for succeeding but her success is a niche avenue of an already niche industry that most can’t access.

In that case if she's on that kind of money, at that age, in a creative industry she's not just lucky she's incredibly talented and hard working. Too many people her age would sadly be on a quarter of her salary.

Instinct1 · 27/11/2025 00:03

Are you going to comment on her being a Net Contributor and you not? Do you think some would think that gives her more right to comment than you / others supported by her tax?

Ladamesansmerci · 27/11/2025 00:02

Is no one else completely thrown by the fact there's a such thing as a gym costing £500 a month?!?! Here was me thinking £40 a month was a lot 😂😭

Misanthropologie · 26/11/2025 23:59

In a free society, anyone can have an opinion and express it. There is no corresponding obligation on anyone to listen.

SleepingStandingUp · 26/11/2025 23:57

ContinuewithGoogle · 26/11/2025 23:08

If it's true, I am guessing nherited 500k from her paternal grandparents. is a very bitter pill for the OP, on top of the young woman earning such a high salary based on her own work and skills.

why? are you assuming that nieces father is ops brother and this the wicked niece who dares to work hard, earn high and have opinions has somehow gazumped op from her rightful claim? pretty sure she'd have mentioned that.

GaIadriel · 26/11/2025 23:55

And why should only people struggling financially have a say? That's not how democracy works.

GaIadriel · 26/11/2025 23:50

Well, the taxes of people like her pay for everyone else.

WilfredsPies · 26/11/2025 23:47

AIBU to say that young people in a privileged position shouldn’t really get to comment as they aren’t facing the same difficulties others are

Of course you are. We’re supposed to be a democracy. We all get to comment. There will be vast numbers of people who are worse off than you. Why should you get to comment when you aren’t facing the same difficulties they are? See how silly that sounds now? What you’re essentially saying is that anyone with a different opinion to you needs to sit down and shut up.

I feel very uncomfortable with this line of thinking that if your circumstances or your opinion is slightly different to the people who feel that they are the most hard done by, then you need to be completely silent and not voice your opinion on anything as you are unworthy. It’s like the early days of a dictatorship.

AnneLovesGilbert · 26/11/2025 23:42

Her considerable taxes are paying for your children’s education and healthcare because you take out a lot more than you put in.

Tangit · 26/11/2025 23:35

SpoonBaloon · 26/11/2025 22:40

I grew up in a council house with low income parents. They both worked every hour under the sun and put their two children ahead of everything else.

I went to school with and lived around people who didn’t work. They were no worse off than my parents, and in many cases lived a more luxurious life. I knew a family of seven who all spent three weeks in Florida every summer. Another girl who received free school meals but also had parents who could afford to have a horse.

It’s a cliche but they all had bigger TVs than us, their parents were often smokers whilst mine weren’t, we didn’t go on as many foreign holidays and the kids all had decent phones and games consoles.

I’m not earning anywhere near as much as your niece is but I’m slightly sympathetic to her views, and I feel she’s more entitled to those views given her background.

This is my circumstance and opinion too. I'm council estate born and bred. My parents were like yours, as was I (and many others I know). I have worked my backside off to get where I am now and I'm fed up paying for dossers.

InSpainTheRain · 26/11/2025 23:32

It’s a democracy, we all get a say and can have a view.

Daytimetellyqueen · 26/11/2025 23:29

Dennien · 26/11/2025 22:34

No I’m well aware of this, I’m not ignorant to the fact she probably put in as many hours before 18 to become a highly talented and skilled dancer as many do at uni post 18.
What I’m saying is she was not the only teenager to go straight from school to dance every night, or to spend weekends practicing.
She is not the only talented dancer.

Many are, not all are fortunate enough to meet the right people and the right time.

I appreciate skill got her there, and her qualities made her memorable to the people who mattered but there is an element of luck in even meeting them.

You really do sound bitter & jealous of her success & are therefore doing everything to minimise that!

sittingonabeach · 26/11/2025 23:28

Her skills must be keeping her in a job.

She will be a net contributor, paying towards the services you use @Dennien Be grateful for her as many people in this country are not, and that would probably include you, with 3 children so will have made use of NHS services, education etc

Andromed1 · 26/11/2025 23:28

Everyone has the right to comment. Not everyone understands how difficult things can be for people in different circumstances.

AliceMaforethought · 26/11/2025 23:21

You shouldn't have had more children than you could afford. People like you annoy me no end.

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