Boomer parents

[Freesamples]

Anyone else got a boomer for a parent that a) has no idea how the world currently works and b) loves to put the boot in and c) is absolutely delusional about how much things cost.

me, I love to sniff out a bargain, crowning glory the summer hols I’ve booked for me, dh and dcs. 4 star+ AI, 2 adults 2 kids, package £2k and in summer holidays. Absolute belter. All to be met with a chorus of how expensive that is and how much we’re over paying and how they’d spend no more than £1k on holidays for us (in the mid early 00s). Plus, don’t want to go there, they hate brits, it’s too hot. (All places we went as kids btw)

it can’t be just me

@skyfalldown "Generalising younger people as lazy, frivilous and entitled is always okay though."

No it isn't.

OPs post is age derogatory, making snide remarks about her parents and them being so out of touch because of their generation. You can’t use race , gender , or sexual orientation, so why use age .

OP it sounds like you went on lots of nice holidays growing up, how about being grateful for that?

Have any of the "boomer bashers" acknowledged the contribution people of that generation made to the society we live in today?

I'm a Boomer. I work 53 hrs per week. I have helped with all my grandchildren. I buy second hand where I can. I help my family when I can.

Don't blame an entire generation because your parents are shit.

Bet you won't say no to any inheritance though? 😏

They were also physically and emotionally abusive but swings and roundabouts I suppose

OP, I think your feelings here have been lost amongst the boomer stuff. This isn’t about generational issues, it’s about your parents. It might be worth starting a new thread, maybe in relationships, and getting support for that instead. Xx

That is where you’re wrong

But I am glad I'm getting > 5% on my savings and my children are glad they're getting a good return on their savings as well.
I still feel sympathy for them starting out now.

A Tale of Four Generations:

1. Granny (1890-1973). Born into wealth, Devon. Not allowed to work, dear me no, a gentleman's daughter did not work. But she was allowed to drive her father out shooting in his Wolseley from 1905 onwards, and to play her violin in an orchestra in Exeter. No money of her own, because that would give her independence. Escaped by joining the Red Cross in 1914 as a VAD nurse, served in hospitals in Exeter and Malta until 1919. Travelled alone to New Zealand to marry her wounded ANZAC soldier in 1920. Lived in abject poverty in the remote mountains as the wife of a sheep farmer, working 15 hours a day doing laundry in the mountain stream, cutting down old clothes sent from England to clothe her children, carrying her babies in sugar sacks slung over the saddle to ride the 25 miles into town down river beds and bush tracks. She loved it. Father's trust fund left her wealthy after his death, bought a bigger farm, which needed massive work, she worked like a dog grubbing gorse, ploughing with horses, milking cows. Husband traumatised and wounded at Gallipoli had some issues with PTSD. They lived in a tiny, ancient wooden cottage, grew their own food, A wonderfully happy woman, though, kind, spiritual, artistic, educated.

2. Mother 1924-2019
   Grew up with every advantage - her own hunter, point-to-points, hunting, show jumping, dressage etc, posh boarding school etc etc...war came, she was needed on the farm because her brother was in the army, and every possible scrap of food that the country produced was to be husbanded to send to the Mother Country. She too worked like a dog doing heavy farm work for a few years, only, it must be said. Married DF who had served in Italy and later in J Force in Japan. Given a 'dowry' of a considerable sum on marriage (enough to buy a house...which she later did, but moaned that it was DF's job to buy her a house) She never had a mortgage in her life. I have to say, she worked hard when we were kids in the 50s...no washing machine, no fridge, a house cow to milk, chickens,huge veg garden etc. Then she discovered golf, and the work fell on us kids, though by then (1958-ish) she did have a washine machine with a wringer-hand operated, of course, and a fridge. Even when my 6- year old sister had pneumonia and was confined to bed, she went off playing golf, leaving her alone in a silent house with no phone and no neighbours. No boyfriends for us, there was work to be done. Get an education (though you'll never have to use it because you will be "kept", it was all about showing off one's clever kids to friends). Despite my father's incredibly well-paid job and her money, we lived in utter shit...bare floors, cold rooms-no heating, it cost too much, my sister didn;t even have a bed...she slept on a pile of old mattresses on the floor. The horsewhip was prominently on display and used with considerable skill upon bare bodies in the bath. She inherited millions, spent most of it on travel to virtually every country in the world, and also on plastic surgery and endless junk, just so we couldn;t inherit. "Family money has to end sometime, and I deserve to spend it on me." She managed to spend/fritter/invest badly probably 5 million, leaving about another 6. I haven't spent a single cent of "her" money on myself, other than a comfortable house which I'll improve and leave to my kids (b '77, '79, '83)
   T.B.C.

Oh what a stupid waste of time this thread is.

OP: my boomer parents are awful because they're boomers.

Lots of other posters: no they aren't, the boomer baby generation are not all awful selfish parents.

OP: well my parents were abusive so top trumps.

You would be well advised to grow up a little bit op AND - if your parents are so awful why on earth do you have the kind of relationship with them where you'd even tell them what you're spending on a holiday? Such bollocks.

What a stupid waste of time your comment is.

i never said my parents were awful because they were boomers. I asked if other boomer parents had those traits.

but to people saying oh i bet you won’t turn down the inheritance and be grateful you went on holiday. I say stately homes, so no I shan’t.

but on your comment of why have a relationship when your parents were abusive. Probably best to educate yourself on the dynamics that play out in abusive households

Me - the Boomer 1949-
Middle child of 3, older brother, younger sister. All 3 under 3. For mother -no washing machine, no hot water other than the copper, cloth nappies, loo on the ouside back veranda, everyone had chamberpots until the early 60s. As above, housework, maintenance of best part of an acre of garden was to be shared, kids working weekends. Left alone on Sundays from a young age so parents could play golf, some serious injuries dealt with by neighbours. Second hand uniforms, not quite regulation which meant mocking from other kids. One blouse each, so pretty dirty come weekends. Gym slips drycleaned once a year. No-one of my generation ever had a bought dress, they were always home-made or hand-me-downs. Hair was cut at home, no shampoo - too expensive as a very new concept. Dishes were washed using Sunlight soap in a little wire holder...no detergents in those days. Once we finally got a phone, in 1959, mother could phone the little "dairy" (convenience store) up the road to order groceries which Dad picked up on his way home. No supermarket in the town until 1963. I should add that mother was given a car - brand new-by her parents in 1952...only possible because Granny had funds in England. Dropped at school in the morning by dad on way to work, we walked home a mile or so after school. Later, mother gave me her bike for Christmas...her old bike from 1935...to ride to junior high at age 11, right through town, buses, mad traffic etc, about 5 miles. I remember arriving at school soaked through and trying to dry school jersey on radiator. Secondary school...great if you were bright and in top stream...but oh dear, if not a top academic, you were consigned to the rigid lower streams with inferior teachers, most of whom were traumatised returned servicemen, refugees from Europe, maiden ladies of a certain age who had lost their fiances in WWI. Of the 1300 girls at the school, only 30 went into the Upper 6th and on to Uni. Uni was a nightmare of sexual abuse from tutors and lecturers, with no come-back because they were untouchable. I was scared off my career choice, because it was seen as being too unfeminine. I was sexually assaulted during a language oral exam. We marched in the streets against Vietnam, so outraged were we by what was going on over there, the men coming back having been doused in Agent Orange, and soon to die horribly of various cancers. Halls of residence were decrepit old wooden hotels, absolute deathtraps, one bathroom, 2 loos per floor. People like me doing extra heavy academic loads were not allowed to work, and there was very little work anyway, other than, if you were lucky, a little cleaning in a hotel. Mother hovered over me, agitating about me not having sex because i just might get pregnant and humiliate her...as so many of her friends' daughters had done. There was no contraception except condoms back then, doctors wouldn't prescribe the Pill to unmarried girls, no abortions.Married young to have sex. Became the breadwinner, but couldn't open a bank account without my non-earning husband's consent, couldn't buy carpet on HP unless he signed for it, couldn't get the Married Teachers' Allowance because though I was supporting a family, I wasn't a man. ....and so the 70s moved on...
TBC

Yes, yes, yes, to all these points.

If your parents or siblings are divorced with separate households they are part of the problem re housing.

Selling off council housing was a deluded decision which has bitten them on the arse.

Relaxing borrowing so that two salaries were counted when applying for a mortgage - another stupid decision.

Foreign investors buying whole blocks of flats off plan in cities, hiding their money abroad. A Chinese consortium bought two blocks of apartments in Manchester sight unseen before the contractors had even broken ground.

I worry that Starmer releasing land will increase the appetite of overseas investors.

BTL well in Wales labour has knocked that on the head pretty much for local individual investors. The licensing and rules scared them to death. The result these properties being snapped up by overseas investors who are unaccountable to the Welsh government because they're in the UAE, the Netherlands, Germany .

A Boomer's Life (cont.)
The problem with housing in the 70s was that a woman could not get a mortgage, even if she were a high earner. Only a man's income was taken into account by the bank when a married couple attempted to get a loan. A woman, of course, was always going to get pregnant and stop working. This helped to keep house prices down, but was very irritating, especially in my case with a low-earning and then a non-earning husband. Even so, unless one was eligible for a low-earners' rate mortgage ("State Advances loan"), though interest rates were around 7%, house prices hovered at 6-7 x a single income. It was possible to build a fairly flimsy house for less, trying to stimulate the building trade.
There was no benefit system for unmarried mothers - the family had to support the girl and her child or else it was adopted. It had not become a career choice as it is now.
There was no tax relief, nor family allowance other than $3 a week per child, which had not risen in 20 years. Higher earners were paying over 60% tax.
TBC

There's no point in reporting threads like this. Unless the term is used as a specific direct attack on another poster MNHQ aren't interested.

Yes I think the problem of single person:parent households is massively overlooked in the housing crisis.

Boomers will most likely have lived with family until the day they married and most of them will have stayed married.

Young people who did move out will often have “taken a room”

I would think Gen X and millennials to a lesser extent were the only group who might have been able to afford a house on their own (usually furnished with relatives cast offs). But this has been a blip in the history of housing, previous to Boomers many rented their houses. I think what’s happened is people have looked at the previous two/three generations and see what they have done as some kind of right or given when in fact, some stars aligned to create an anomaly.

this

the only reason baby boomer was shortened to boomer is that "baby" boomers are not babies.

With OP's update, it seems like a problem of abusive parents rather than what generation they belonged to, no? They could just have easily been Gen Z.

I bought mine then and it’s still going strong.

No it isn’t.

When l was younger it was Baby Boomers.

Then Boomer became an insult.

That's not it at all. They are called 'baby boomers' because they were the products of the 'baby boom' after the war.

They were not named such because they were 'boomers' who happened to be babies.

"There was no benefit system for unmarried mothers - the family had to support the girl and her child or else it was adopted. It had not become a career choice as it is now."

You lost me with this @pollyglot I was born illegitimate in 1963, with all that entailed, and I'm just bloody glad that it isn't like it for women now.

I hope you have found unloading your extensive discourse about yourself helpful.