Mumsnet paused a “boomer” thread this morning, and…

Despise, or are frightened of becoming? Bit of both I expect.

I am sorry to be pedantic, but you said they were not, and provided your own contextual evidence. You did not say most were not.

FWIW, most of our friends are late boomers like us, most of them had children in the mid to late 90s. Similarly, very few parents in my eldest child's reception class were younger than mid to late 30s in 1999, indicating they were born before 1964. This was reflected at their next schools.

I don't think most are tbh. Parental age was at an all time low in 1981.

I didn't say one did but you said young people 20s/30s, were not the children of baby boomers.

You don't need to be a boomer to remember the '80s. The cold war, miners strike, chernobyl, AIDS and black monday were the backdrop to Gen X's youth.

Today's 20 & 30 year olds don't have boomer parents

I have nephews and nieces of those ages that do.

@Neurodiversitydoctor with the very greatest respect, DH and I were born in 1960 and 1961. We are baby boomers, albeit late ones. Our children are 31 and 27.

I agree with @ParmaVioletTea. We remember the late 70s/early 80s very well. And black Monday and the early 90s. So easy for later generations to forget the strides made by women from earlier generations on their behalf.

Today's 20 & 30 year olds don't have boomer parents- you are missing a generation. DM was born '49 she is a boomer, I was born '76 I am Gen X, DC born 2000's - they are 20-30.

Indeed @Eskarina1 - I had friends a couple of years older than me in the US who were very involved in anti-Vietnam War protests (the men were really at risk then).

I'm technically a "boomer" as I was born at the end of the 1950s, but I hit the contractions of the late 70s and 80s, rather than the economic boom times. 15% mortgage rates anyone?

I was aware of the "hope I die before I get old" and the "never trust anyone over 30" catch-phrases, but I know that I respected those who taught me because I was in aweof what they could teach me. I was taught at university by women who were 'firsts' - first female professors, first female academics to lead departments, to be Deans and so on. They blazed the path that I've been able to follow.

The current anti-boomer rubbish forgets this. Women on MN forget what their mother's generation did to ensure they could live as they live. Today's 20 and 30 year olds can be very ignorant.

To be fair, I know plenty of my generation who could be termed as old fashioned but I don't think they were ever activists when they were younger nor effected change for the better. When I look back I wish I had done even more than I did but as the saying goes 'every little helps'!

I grew up on stories of my parents and their baby boomer friends' political activism. My mum's defiant nursing care of (illegal) abortion patients in the 60s. My "uncle's" bravery at being an out gay Jewish man in the 70s. Civil rights marches. Greetham Common etc.

So it amazes me when people see boomers as old fashioned. Those I knew fought to change the culture and were successful.

Thank you @CurlewKate it's nice to see that some people do appreciate what we did in the 1960s and 70s that many women take for granted.

No, I was agreeing that men are not a disadvantaged group.
Nothing to do with age per se.

That isn’t a generational thing thought - its an economic group thing.

My young end millennial children had an upbringing and opportunities which my parents could never have hoped to give us. My DC have not had a discrimination free life but growing up in a more affluence meant they (especially the girls) entered the job market with more opportunities and less disadvantages than I did growing up poor and born in the 60s. My daughters were not routinely asked about their plans for children at interviews, they were not denied promotions due to likely family plans and they were not denied access to pension schemes because they were in female dominated roles which just happened to pay less and not qualify for the company scheme. They were not subjected to an 11+ which reserved nearly 70% of passes for boys, all the DC entered employment at a time when large employers had some form of diversity policy on race and sex (both relevant).

Have they had charmed lives? No of course not but a generation of social progress and more importantly growing up affluent gave them a much easier run at life than I had. Like other millennials/GenZ growing up in affluence they can also anticipate a decent inheritance and have the security of knowing there is the emergency bank to call on if desperate. Millennials/Gen Z growing up poor will face many of the same struggles that I did on the boundary of GenX/Jones.

Its always ultimately about economic class. Maternity pay and free childcare hours and low interest rates all help the current generation, higher house prices make life difficult in some regions of the country but not all by any means.

The whole “right location right time” argument posted earlier in the thread will always fail because there are pros and cons to every generation. The better or worse argument is driven mostly by economic class and aggravated by sex and race. Money solves most of the problems in every generation, poverty always makes them worse.

Excellent points, @Violinist64 .
That really is a fascinating series.

Yes, it was paused for a short while.

Was it paused? I complained about it but was told it doesn’t break talk guidelines

I think this is a very naïve comment. People are individuals and, while some may seem to have had gilded lives, there are always problems of which most of us are unaware. One of the biggest resentments on MN is the issue of student grants and free higher education enjoyed by people in the past. What is forgotten is that, even in the eighties, only 10% of people were awarded degrees. The vast majority of people left school at fifteen or sixteen to go to work. The oldest boomers were born in a bankrupt country with rationing and many lived in inadequate housing. Have you watched the excellent 7-up series, where a group of people have been filmed every seven years of their lives? The final episode, 70-up is to be aired soon. These people were born in 1956, so right in the middle of the boomer period and, while some appeared to have been born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths, the vast majority were not. This series is one of the most fascinating documentaries ever made because we see how people have used their circumstances to shape their lives.

It must be hard to have your kids having less advantages than you. I feel happy that mine have more, and have benefitted from legislation and changes in societal attitudes.

Baby boomer to describe our demographic objectively, is fine and always has been. It's the same as the other demographic labelsWhen we suddenly became a target, particularly on SM, it was shortened to boomer, and that's the word that is always used when we're being judged and generalised.

I'm a baby boomer and I don't feel remotely disadvantaged. I hate ageism, but wouldn't for a moment feel disadvantaged as a boomer. My kids have things a lot harder than I do.

And I agree with the pp. I hate generalisations, and those generalisations about men are far more frequent and damning of everyone in that demographic than the boomer posts.

That's true of every thread and applies to everything, then.