SO, according to my boomer mum, sending a child through uni these days is the same as it was in the 90s

[PotteringAboutIn]

Because apparently they didn't have the wages back then

Ffs
Drives me nuts

What when uni was free, accommodation wasn't anywhere near as expensive and you even got a grant

Can you just laugh it off and say "Math was never your strong subject, was it? " and change the topic?

No point in arguing with someone who doesn't understand basic principles of percentages etc.

As a 60 something year old , I really dislike the term boomer .
Why not just say your Mum ?

When I told my mum I was spending >£4,000 on nursery fees and it was crippling, she said ‘having children has always been expensive’.

She was a stay at home mum.

Cognitive dissonance.

So this must be a Boomer over 70 as I can't imagine my contemporaries thinking this way.

We didn't have the wages....

She started this subject as well, I don't discuss money with her, she just randomly brings it up

Saying she knows how expensive putting a child through uni as she's done it.

Yes she's over 80

Ha!! That’s all I can say to that!

How did you respond ?

It's expensive now but if you take money out of the equation, the rest of the university experience is much the same isn't it?

Well your mum is wrong, but you're unreasonable for labelling her 'boomer' on this thread, even if she is of that generation. I hate that the labels 'boomer', 'millennial' etc are used as a way to hate on everyone born of a particular generation.

I mean my mum stayed in work to put me and my brother through uni and heaved a big sigh of relief when we were both through.

yes accommodation was less but student grant was income tested and student loan didn’t cover accommodation (much like today!).

no fees though.

The accommodation cost now is extremely high.
Like 10kplus a year in many places on a very basic room

As the 90s?
Where you had to go to a computer lab to get online?
And turn up to everything in person?
And didn't have an eternal, instant essay-writing machine in the pocket of every student?

No, there are a lot of differences.

Me too. Also in my 60s. I can’t bear the American ‘math’ either.

The fact that she was a SAHM would have had a financial implication though. I didn’t work after my first DD was born because there really was no childcare. So we lost my income - £4k - a year.

Boomer was never meant to be an insult to be fair. It's an accurate description of a phenomenon after WW2 when there was a baby boom. And then the baby boomers became teenagers/young adults in the sixties and because there were so many young people proportionally it had a social effect. And then they entered politics etc in the 80s. (And then they remained in politics in America through to now for some reason.) And now there is a very large cohort of retired people as a result of said baby boom and that's having an impact of its own.
I agree I don't like it when it's used to imply "ignorant boomer" kind of thing. But they/you did have a unique experience both as young people and adults and it's fine to indicate that.

@PotteringAboutIn does she know about fees? I mean, as well as all the other costs.

I went to university in the early 80s. No computers.

I had a full grant and student loans came in during my third year so my mum didn’t have to contribute anything (she did sometimes send me money or buy my shopping but I would have survived without it.) When my son went 7 years ago, I had to get a tutoring job as well as him getting a job to cover his rent and bills. That was 7 years ago, i dread to think what it would be like now.

Exactly I dont offered of someone says gen x

Yes, and the labels 'student' for anyone studying at Uni, 'mother' for any woman who has children, 'children' for offspring of any age, 'Uni' to refer to all institutions that provide Higher Education. It's appalling.

I have no idea if she does, she seems to think she's knows a hell of a lot more then she does

For many parents though, they still felt the pinch for accommodation.

obvs the student didn’t accumulate the huge tuition and maintenance debt, but I’m late 50s and absolutely know families who would have felt they adjusted their budgets when their kids did their degrees.

I had no grant and student loans came in in my third year. I remember applying for it. It was about a thousand pounds. Took bloody ages to pay back as well.

grants were means tested and you got 100% at low or no income and nothing beyond maybe 30k?

So wonder how much the accommodation was back in the 90s