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Original poster

How are your older teen/young adult children reacting to the election?

333 replies

BertrandRussell · 13/12/2019 13:42

My 18 year old is incredibly upset- it was his first opportunity to vote and he feel very let down by Corbyn.

OP posts:
BerwickLad · 13/12/2019 23:38

Also, insane.

Snowjive2 · 13/12/2019 23:38

Autumn don’t you think it’s regrettable that bright young people want to leave the UK? I think many people assume that their kids will live as their parents always have, but that’s just not the case any more. Many aren’t all willing to put up with bad decisions made by other people.

My sympathies are with kids whose circumstances are such that they can’t move away, however much they’d like to - their position is even worse as a result of this election result.

AutumnRose1 · 13/12/2019 23:42

Snow

“ don’t you think it’s regrettable that bright young people want to leave the UK?”

Well, as I was saying, many ambitious people will come and go.

I’m still unclear why these young people consider the UK to be so bad, especially after the vote, that their first instinct is to go, and I’m genuinely interested to know why they think other places are better. Would a hung parliament have made them think “ooh I’m leaving the country” as well?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

18 years old
Trewser · 13/12/2019 23:42

All kids can move away temporarily for work if they want to silverjive. It's harder to get a visa and permanently live somewhere else though, even if you have family there. I have close Swedish family but it is getting very right wing in Sweden so not sure how that makes it attractive.

Trewser · 13/12/2019 23:44

I know a lot of very bright young grads and none of them are leaving the country permanently.

It's one of those Mumsnet tropes thst has no reality in RL

AutumnRose1 · 13/12/2019 23:47

Trewser I remember people saying they’d leave the country if Blair got in.

I don’t think there’s an MN link, but there’s a personality type perhaps?

OhGrrrreat · 13/12/2019 23:51

Not an older teen but DS is 10. His teacher openly told them he was voting labour because of education and the NHS (teacher's wife is a junior doctor) suffering under the Tories. DS has been quite worried today upon learning the Tories won. They are also learning heavily about climate change and I think it's a lot of pressure on young people on how they have to help save the planet and environment whilst we continue to fuck it up for them and strip away their quality of life.

Ilovelucyy · 14/12/2019 00:00

My children (21, 19, 17) cheered when the first Conservative seat was announced. They are delighted with the result. Many of their friends voted Conservative too.

MsAwesomeDragon · 14/12/2019 00:02

My 20yo is gutted. She ranted at me for a good hour this afternoon about how selfish some people are and why don't they care?!

The sixth form at my school were pretty glum as well. We'd had a mock election at school where labour had won by miles, then the real election results came in and all the seats near us are now conservative, even the couple that had been labour last time.

2 of my pupils are leaving the country because of this election result. It had been a possibility for them ever since the Brexit vote, but this morning they announced they won't be coming back after the Christmas visit to family in their home country. I'm devastated for them.

daisypond · 14/12/2019 00:03

@BerwickLad It’s not insane. There are virtually no jobs available in the UK. The jobs are abroad, usually Europe or America. Mine is not in either. Has a visa for the country she is in. It’s virtually impossible to get a work visa for the US, so people aim for Europe - usually Eastern Europe - and we know nothing yet about work visa requirements or immigration rules for Brits in the future.

RaiseaGlasstoFreedom · 14/12/2019 00:05

I work with cusp and voting age teens, I'd say it's been 40% slightly upset and 60% very happy.

RaiseaGlasstoFreedom · 14/12/2019 00:06

Ms awesome that's so sad. Sad

My 12 year old obviously can't vote but already has a balanced view of both sides.
She would have found good and bad in a corbyn win and has done the same with tory win.

BerwickLad · 14/12/2019 00:07

And yet I and over thirty million other people in the UK work, and none of us feel that we need to move to a politically corrupt country with an extreme environment to be paid a pittance merely in order to find said work.

Thehagonthehillwithtinsel · 14/12/2019 00:13

They're going to learn that others have different opinions.I got my first vote at the beginning of the Thatcher years as it was over a decade before a change but I have never lived anywhere where my vote really counted.You learn to live with it.

MsAwesomeDragon · 14/12/2019 00:14

It is sad. I'm gutted for those kids.

I'm not thrilled with the result, but our pupils at school were shocked that the adults didn't vote in similar proportions to them. They didn't expect everyone to share their views, and obviously some of them are happy about the result, but they naively assumed that adults shared their views in similar proportions, which wasn't the case.

Davros · 14/12/2019 00:14

I remember the first time Margaret Thatcher got elected, I was about 18-19 and said I'd leave the country 😂 I'm still here. Also, all these people talking about living elsewhere better plan ahead on how they will visit family and friends if they don't want to destroy the planet. The people I know who use air travel the most have come here from other countries

Thehagonthehillwithtinsel · 14/12/2019 00:15

Nurses and Drs have always spent time/moved to Australia and New Zealand.It was never about politics.

RaiseaGlasstoFreedom · 14/12/2019 00:19

I don't feel gutted for them I'm delighted... Their vote will actually mean something now once we break free of the eu.
The Labour Party isn't fit for purpose. What they have done to their tribal core voters in poor areas is dreadful.

And what teen wants an anti semantic government that's nasty and anti democratic??

Oliversmumsarmy · 14/12/2019 00:22

Dd 19 is quite happy.

pearldiver19 · 14/12/2019 01:33

Anyway, as fascinating as these anecdotes are, who really cares what any of the little darlings think?

They’re kids with no experience of life.

I’m not exactly saying they should be seen and not heard, but all this drama and hand wringing over what a 14 year old school kid says and thinks is just ridiculous.

Jenpop234 · 14/12/2019 07:30

@FudgeBrownie2019 this sounds lovely. I hope my children are as diverse in their views, respectful and resilient as yours when they are older 😊

Trewser · 14/12/2019 07:35

daisypond are you talking about a specific job? Confused otherwise it does seem a bit pretentious that your dc feels they have to take a job in a far away country to "earn a pittance"

Trewser · 14/12/2019 07:36

I don't think being a Labour supporter is anything to be proud of. It was the nasty party in this election.

Barnseyboyo · 14/12/2019 08:33

trewser

Agree with you. I’d be embarrassed to be associated with the hate and bile

underneaththeash · 14/12/2019 08:47

My teenager wasn't very keen to be living in a Marxist state and wanted a few job opportunities after he left university.

He's exceptionally relieved about the result.