to think the UK offers a bleak future for our dcs?

[kissmyheathenass]

Looking at unemplyment figures in Europe (Greece and Portugal have nearly 50% youth unemployment), I am wondering what future there is for our dcs in UK. Unemployment is set to get worse and I cant see how things will improve. There will be jobs for the children of the priviledged but what about for our ordinary dcs? :(

I think the problem is that the wealth divide is just so great, and it's not at all by accident either (eg all those European wars/WW1/WW2/Vietnam/GWOT etc). Those at the 'bottom' of the scale throughout Western countries actually started giving up quite a long time ago I think. The problems are not limited to the UK. It is the same throughout former colonies like the UK and even the US. People blame immigration but in many cases, immigrants actually have the skills and businesses that many locals simply do not have. Whether that be because of lack of access to it or, far less frequently than is made out, motivation. Many also bring jobs to their new country.

DH is an immigrant to my country (Australia). He is originally from India where hopelessness with the level of corruption has driven many of their young out of India. He is a really, really lovely, well-educated guy. I earnestly wish my own brothers had access to the type of education that he has had (and my father is a teacher). Instead we get told these people are our enemy, and these people are our enemy, or that we ourselves are the enemy and our fathers, brothers and sons over the course of many years have been constantly expected to take/give bullets for those telling us this whilst they reap the financial rewards (arms sales etc). And then our loved ones have come back to nothing but poverty, guilt and horrific memories whilst those that sent them lord it over us. This has been the history of my family within living memory at least and most like us have had a gutful of it. I am the only one of my 10 first cousins who has more than one child, my brother only has one and none of the others have any. This is coming from a family where my paternal grandmother was one of 15 and my maternal grandmother was one of 11. This childlessness is decidedly not because of affluence, it's because we were all comparatively so deprived growing up and then basically given the message we're lucky at least we have something to eat (which I suppose we are but you don't see it like that as a child).

At the moment, my DH is working in Hong Kong for the Australian company he's been working at the past eight years. We originally planned to join him at the end of last year but we couldn't get our children into any English medium schools. Even with a corporate debenture (aka bribe), it just gives us a bit of a headstart on the waiting list, not a guaranteed place. I actually wouldn't mind putting DS (5) in a Cantonese medium school as he has shown interest in the language when I do my Pimsleur lessons but do think it would be quite unfair on DD (11) who is doing brilliantly in school here. We will be visiting next month and hopefully we can get them into schools by August. I did watch something interesting last night on some who are trying to make a go of it in China. I think we just have to accept the reality that life is not always going to be easy whereever it is that you might go....

I can't believe people seriously blame immigration for causing a global economic recession...

YABU... If you're writing off your DC's future before it's even happened then you're doing them a disservice. Encourage them to have goals, hobbies, work hard at school, be ambitious, industrious at home, be polite to others, a 'can-do' attitude, self-confident... all of these help equip children for life and open up possibilities. 'Don't bother, it's not worth it' does the opposite

If you are going to teach your children that an education is a waste of time and money, and that all the poles are taking their jobs, and the indians are internarrying too much....then yes, you are looking at a bleak future for your children.
But it won't be anyones fault but your own.

Well said Nooka. Alright for us to look for better opportunities for our families overseas, but not for others to want the same by moving here?

watching thread as seem to spend most of my time worrying about what it will be like for my dcs and wondering if i should have even brought them into the world in the 1st place :(

Biggest problems are that the Govmnt has broken the piggy bank on bailing the banks out, will take a while to fill it up, and they are taxing the people so that depresses demand and so jobs.

Longer term the problem is huge no of retired baby boomers that will want to be supported, even though they own the bulk of assets (housing etc). Not sure I want my kids around to fund that.

Immigrants have nothing to do with it, in fact they are a good thing because they are the people with get up and go energy.

OK I left school in the late 70s with half a dozen good o'levels. I then went to finishing school. I was one of the last of the era where only a very small percentage went to university and to do so they had to be very very clever.

I left school extremely well educated and there is a huge difference between being well educated and well qualified. It is one I see every day reviewing application forms and wondering how anybody can get a Masters degree or a PGCE and yet be unable to construct a grammatically correct sentence.

I had a very good career in the City before children and after children have become professionally qualified and have a very good second career.

I have no qualms at all about our children's future. They are 17 and 13 now. DS is academically first rate and hopes to read classics (we ensured he received the sort of education where this was possible and he probably will get into Oxbridge because there seems to be less demand for pure classics than more popular subjects). He isn't sure what he wants to do but is likely to have his eye on something media/advertising related.

DD is quieter and top average and would like to be a lawyer but I can also see her going down the route of speech/language therapist, educational psychologist, etc., and we will equip her with what she needs.

Personally, I think our children's futures are bright and in five to 8 years time when they are ready to start work the economy will be in a far different part of its cycle. They will have to be sure though to plan for the next bust part of it so they maintain their security.

Tax and Death are two sure things in life so a career in either is probably wise.

I have a friend of about 25 who graduated in the summer. She works in a shop but is trying to get another job. She has applied for fast food supervisor, potting up plants (I was surprised at this one!), admin, funeral arrangements, all sorts, with no luck - she's hardly expecting much, is she? In my final year of uni I applied for 2 graduate jobs, got 2 interviews and one job offer.

Friend said a lot of the jobs she's trying for pay about 13k. My first graduate job in the UK paid 12.5k 20 years ago!

And of course, we oldies will be expected to work longer and longer. Not many jobs getting freed up, are there?

@MistyMountainHop.... There's never been a great time to bring children into the world. Which is why having children is an expression of optimism. Did our parents and grandparents stop having kids in the thirties during the Depression? The forties, during a war? The fifties and sixties with the Cold War nuclear threat hanging over them? The seventies when Britain came to a standstill with strikes? The eighties/nineties when unemployment was high? The first years of the 21st century when Al Quaeda was out to get us? Our children will be adults in the 2020's and 2030's and that's going to be a very different world today.

Yes, this terrifies me too.
Surely we should be welcoming immigration though - we need economically active people to create jobs and make discoveries - do stuff! - and support our ageing population.
I will be a lot more realistic about my DCs' chances than my parents were with me (and they were right, the opportunities for me, graduating in 2000 were pretty much limitless, think I was possibly one of the last ones). Basically my DCs will only go to university (if I have any say) if they have a plan with their degree fittting into that plan. Sad that it has to be that way.

Cogito, that's a lovely post. I have often wondered when thinking about the WWs, how people with young children or who were starting a family felt. You're right, they had to have optimism that over the course of a generation the world would change.
I don't know what it s though - surely the communication/technological market is saturated?

Hear, hear sassy and other such posters.

I'm bored of this blame the immigrant ridiculousness.

Teach your child op to work hard; have good work ethics; don't think certain jobs are beneath him and lastly that the nature of work may mean moving - somewhere else in UK or abroad.

I am clinging to the hope that 'things will go in cycles' as the current situation really does seem so bleak to me.

I subscribe to the view that the decline of Britain's manufacturing base and the growth of the service industry means we have a generation of children with degrees 'expecting' to get a white collar/office job regardless of whether it's really the right thing for them.

I did a lot of recruitment at my last job and will admit I used to get pleasantly surprised when I saw a CV with a decent grade degree in an academic subject from a good university - they really were like hen's teeth. CVs with lower class degrees in Business or Media Studies on the other hand I could have papered the office with.

The industry I was in was completely oversubscribed at the lower entry level - and of course even if you get into that career path the jobs thin out as you get higher, I ended up stuck at the same job level with no hopes of promotion for 3 years before I realised I wasn't going to get any higher. It was so demoralising and I wish I had had the guts to get out sooner.

Mind you I can see trends like this going back to the 60's and earlier - my dad, for instance, is a very outdoorsy person and should have had some kind of job where he could be mainly outside - land/forest management, surveying, field work, etc. However his parents would have thought that 'common' so pushed him in an academic direction and he ended up stuck in a boring office job for years. As soon as he had the option to take early retirement and could afford to (ie after I had left home) he went and did the job he'd always wanted to do - not earning much, but getting a lot of satisfaction. Waiting until he was 50 to get to do that seems a pretty tough sentence to me.

So DH and I are definitely not going to push our children down an academic route if they don't seem suited to it. Just hope they can find fulfilling and interesting work when the time comes!

I totally agree with Sassymcnassy.

I don't think this is part of the usual 'cycles'. Because several times in the last years we should have gone down slightly but teh govt always created artificial stimulus and just wouldn't allow it

Dunno.

I'm actually pretty positive about the future. I've brought my kids up to do what they enjoy and not think to much about earning lots but earning enough to get by on.

I think young people in the UK with some skills are unhappy to apply/accept jobs that they feel are "beneath them" and the fact that minimum wage means that often they are not better off working than on benefits doesn't help .

I think this whole thing is based on keeping house prices artificially high in order to keep people thinking they have a safety net of equity and then they keep spending. This is over now. The QE money is about to stop and banks will have to raise rates to re capitalise

The job situation is dire I know several unemployed graduates. Dp has at least 5 grads a week coming into his place offering to work for free. Interestingly the only 4 20 somethings I know who didn't go to uni are all in work and not living at home. 2 of them own flats 2 rent.

Oops x posted with lots of good posts!

The baby boomer situation worries me.

I also very much feel the "keep working we can't afford to pay your pension" strategy is going to bite the job market seriously on the bum- keeping "oldies" employed doesn't release jobs for the young. It also costs businesses a lot of money. I'm an employer and I could "buy in " a young person for twice as many hours often as some of the mature experienced (and yes very valued ) employees I have.

I have a friend 5 years younger than me who is getting turned away from jobs for being over-qualified - she can't even step sideways into a 'similar but different' role which would let her get the extra skills/experience she needs to develop her career the way she wants, let alone take a step down to do it. That's also a very difficult trap to find yourself in...

I think there needs to be a complete shake up over the way we are working. The whole "employed on premises, set hours, leave , lunch etc" needs to be rethought. This will have an impact on some professions. I recently turned down a job due to restrictive hours and now they have no-one to cover the role. Thing is, there are at least 5 people who I know, in the area, who are keen and qualified to do it in various forms. No thinking out of the box so we have 5 people unemployed and one empty post.

I don't like to say it for fear of offending folk, but older employees often have health problems and need time off for treatment which means they're not as productive as younger people. We're having problems in my place of work atm because of these things. They should not keep increasing the retirement age

I'm trying to persuade ds1 to go into the RAF instead of wanting to be a history teacher. He's in Air Cadets and if he sticks in and does well there could be opportunities waiting for him. I don't want him to earn heaps, but just be relatively secure.

There is restructuring going on where dp works. One whole area is being privatised commencing May. They have split one job in 2 and will have 2 teams now working separately rather than one big team doing it all. the larger team are largely unskilled and so cheaper. The other part is more specialist and they are far less of them so grads penalised again. It is a nightmare.Also they have started allowing ex employees and retired people to volunteer for roles that were traditionally filled by students/grads seeking experience in art galleries and museums.