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

I'll ask chatgpt

I'll ask chatgpt ..... halls around 35 to 45 per week

If she’s over 80 (as in 1945 dob or before) she’s not actually a boomer.

But yeah, I could cry for our DC tbh. The debt they’re coming out of Uni with, the lack of jobs (DD1 just finished and DD2 finishing next year), the fact that the maintenance loan comes nowhere the rent in most cases etc etc. There were some rough times as Gen X growing up, but it was so much easier back then, in a lot of ways.

Costs in relation yo wages were basically half

It was way easier back then, also was acceptable to leave kids as latch key kids from age 8 maybe even 7

University is a poor investment for anyone but the very very clever right now. But sadly, there isn't much work for anyone else either. Up shit creek, without a paddle.

Exactly at least way back then jobs were around

Thank Rachel Reeves for making low wage jobs too expensive to fill.

I think one of the biggest differences in generations now, university related, is that the vast majority of young people didn't go to university in the 80s/early 90s. I grew up in a major city and hardly anyone I knew did A levels. There was a 6th form at each comp but it was small! There were plenty of jobs about, factory jobs for those without lots of qualifications or office work for those with more qualifications. Only a few people did A levels and even fewer went to university.

It was deemed unattainable and too expensive. I mean, my parents and the parents of all my friends 'got by' but there just wasn't the money around that there is now. There would have been absolutely no spare cash for parents to subsidise uni rentals or living expenses. It was rent, bills and perhaps one holiday a year if you were lucky.

Just speaking from the experience I had. I actually did a degree in my 30s. The opportunities for young people now are absolutely huge compared to then but I don't think it's any easier or harder I guess, just very very different.

I confess I’m normally the first to jump to “and I used to walk to school in the snow uphill, both ways” normally but my mum is exactly the same. I’ve concluded that it’s actually not about the relative cost of things/affordability/anything to do with money, it’s about her feeling that I understand that she had things hard too (she didn’t at all financially, but thinks she did). So a bit of nodding and mhmm-ing is all she really wants. She has no interest in the facts because they don’t suit her narrative.

This☝️☝️☝️Absolutely hate these derogatory labels for any generation .

Mine is also Silent Generation.

Apparently her cohort didn't have the advantages of being able to get jobs for life then onto the housing ladder, raise a family on one income and retire at 60 if they chose...

I'm pretty sure the SG and the Boomers had it harder than anyone else in history....

Never never never have these conversations- everyone thinks they had it harder!!!!!

Another biggie is I was earning only about 20% less in the early 2000s than I do now ( work for ourselves and I’m 64 now) and yet costs of being able to help adult children have massively jumped -

Between 1990 and 1997 the average UK unemployment rate was higher than it is now.

Well, sort of.

there were very few nurseries and pre schools and so on were not as widespread. My mum set up three in the three places where we lived before we settled properly (and she never moved after at all).

so working with young kids was tough, nothing like the availability of childcare there is now.

yes, latch key kids but that was strongly disapproved of (certainly in my area) and most mums that worked did do part time.

of course if you’ve had 5 or more years out you’re going to find it hard to get a job in your previous area and you’ll be well out of date - my mum worked in offices and in the 5 years she was off with me and my brother they all computerised and she’s a lovely person but she never did get the hang of computers.

she moved into teaching.

I was born in 1956, so peak Boomer. We worked overseas in odd places to earn our house deposit, and yes, we benefited. But we are passing it on down too. My DC is about to complete on a first house with the proceeds of two GP estates that we did DoV on.

Totally agree but she will randomly come out with things

Like she even randomly said to me have you paid your morgage off
Considering I'm in my 40s and I near talk to her about money it just a bit weird

What's dov

I’m not sure I entirely disagree with her tbh… sorry! Fees are paid from loans, so no direct outlay as it was then. Grants were only available then if you were from a poor background - at least now everyone is entitled to a minimum maintenance loan. The majority of people I was at uni with relied fully upon their parents. So in a sense there’s been an improvement since then.

My accommodation was £30 a week, over half my grant went on rent. We all worked!

Lifestyle wise - no significant changes. Lots of time spent drinking, clubbing, parties, eating noodles and toast because they were cheap. Modules, assignment deadlines, exams - as now. Had to get physical books and journals out of the library as no internet, but environment pretty much the same despite that.

Great days!

Do you actually know what the unemployment rate was??

Why has it become a derogatory term tho? When it's just short nickname for kids born after the war

It must have become a negative term due to certain behaviours and attitudes surely ..?

I recognise this too. I left school in 1977 at 16. Very few of my classmates did A levels let alone university. Actually I was never given any encouragement or even information about uni. I could have got A levels no doubt, but The focus for most was to get a job, an apprenticeship, or go to college which I did. University was very much a minority, unless your goal absolutely needed a degree, but most “normal” jobs didn’t so no point. Very different pre the Blair years of massive focus on university education and turning perfectly good polytechnics into universities.

Deed of Variation. If you inherit, you can fill out a deed of variation to alter the named beneficiary of an estate. I inherited half of my mother's estate, with my sister, but I did a DoV to pass it on to my son. So he received half the value of her house instead of me getting it, and he's using the money to buy an almost identical house in another town that suits better.

It was way easier back then, also was acceptable to leave kids as latch key kids from age 8 maybe even 7

I don't know anyone who thought that was acceptable and I didn't know anyone who was a latchkey kid at that age.
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