To think that not all old people have worked hard all their lives...

[MrsKittyFane]

Go on, flame me.

So officially I'm a BB (1956)?
Looks around for mansion, huge pension and holidays all year round.
Er, no, Single parent, HA home, 16 year old son to hopefully see through university, and possibly an OA Pension at the end of it.
Where did I go wrong

Oh I was wrong then. I always thought it was the children of 1945-50ish.

My parents are classic, classic examples :)

Sorry Notforlong not Neverlong. And googling more, i found another definition saying late 60s- really? The cohort seems to get bigger the more I read- perhaps I'll qualify soon!

Born in 1952 so I'm a BB. I worked till I was 55 then took early retirement to care for my parents who are in their 80s and 90s. I've done well out of property but I've used that money to help eldest daughter buy her first home and will help DD2 when she is older. My parents generation are the ones who had real hardship, life for us BBs has been easy by comparison.

Heswall
Bit late then though the children won't want to go to Disney at 24, 26, 28 and 32

I doubt many of the babyboomers would have considered themselves deprived if they hadn't been able to take four children to Disney. Shows how different your expectations are...

So much bitterness on this thread. It's just like a benefit bashing thread, only different...

The idea that babyboomers are some kind of homogenous group, all enjoying a splendid income having retired early from well paid careers is just silly.

No anger at tax payers money being spent on people who don't need it and a generation not excepting that actually this generation have it quite hard and many,many bb had/have it rather good and they can't expect to go cut free.

Of course there are exceptions. My parents benefited not a sausage by being BBoomers.

But that doesn't alter the fact that as a generation they most certainly did have it easier than young people today vis a vis free education, affordable housing, optimistic pension T&Cs etc.

My expectations are not different at all actually my mother took her 4 children to Disney Florida.

I was of course being flippant in response to the poster that suggested I could go on holiday when the old folks pop their clogs.
Because of course that's the easy answer isn't it, the younger generation could all have houses, pensions etc if only they weren't spending all their money on ipads

This reminds me of an amusing conversation dsis and I enjoyed.

Me dreading yet another rain filled camping trip in Cornwall,Dad "but we had it tough and went camping too".No dad we went to the South of France every year via Canvas holidays-that aint camping!!!

We can't even afford the ferry to France let alone the luxury of a Canvas holiday,complete with tent put up,fridge,toilet,heat,swimming pools,kids clubs,meals out,hotels enroute........

This was in the same convo we had about dad bragging about the WFA going towards his bar bill on one of his 4 holidays a year.

Bitter,moi!!!!!

You have to love em,they are good parents,just maybe slightly deluded.

@Heswell the ipad thing drives me the most mad. They do realise what an ipad costs (£500ish) and what the average cost of a house is (£170Kish). Average deposit would be over £45k for a first time buyer for average house.

Do the maths!

Disclaimer: I was born in 1987 and own neither an ipad or a house!

@notforlong the money we would save living with parents for 2 years wouldn't be enough to get a mortgage on. We have a duel professional income.

We don't own a house or ipad. Never likely too.

I wouldn't know an Ipad if I fucking fell over one. Even if I did though, I'd swap every computer I have ever and will ever own for the retirement income and security that even the poorest person born in 1946 has. This is not to downplay the other advantages I will have had over them- reliable contraception and abortion for all of my sexually active life, for example.

LadyBeagleEyes I wouldn't be using the housing association home as an example of you not being lucky, tbh! I don't remotely begrudge you it, but hope you know it's a piece of good fortune that many of my generation will never have and would give their eye teeth for.

I'd swap all the sex for a pension too, it wasn't all that

Is anyone who is feeling got at actually reading what me and others have written?

I am not jealous (well no more than I am of anyone who has more money and a bigger house than me :o ) and I am not bitter, because thems the breaks! They were born at the right time, I wasnt.

What I do resent is the total lack of understanding that my parents and their peers in the BB generation have towards me and mine in Generation X (I havent heard that used in years!), and that we cant just work harder, saver harder etc to have what they have. The average house costs something like 8 times the average salary, and that just aint doable no matter how you crunch the numbers. I am lucky that I bought in 1999 but I cant see my children ever being able to own, nor me being in a position to help them buy unless I sell my home!

Its not the fact of the BB having a good time of it that rankles, its the fact that many (most?) of them dont see that they had it alot easier than us. They seem to have no sympathy or understanding for people my age and younger when we are struggling to even keep a roof over our heads never mind save for emergencies etc

Me too Heswall :o

Where do I sign up?!

I was chatting to my Mum about this last night and she said what bothers her most is the hypocracy.

She feels many in her generation benefited from not only high employment levels but also a low cost of living. She points out that a factory worker, a postman etc could all keep their families as social housing was plentiful and cheap. Few women had to work, and if they did, did so part time.

They now criticise their daughters for working, depsite the fact that housing costs are silly and leave many families with no choice. And that it's their daughters' taxation that is paying for all the pubilc services that they cherish.

She also hates the fact that whilst many of her contemporaries almost demand to be 'looked after', having 'paid taxes all their life', they were not quick to do so for their own parents' generation (who let's face it had it really hard) voting in a succession of tory governments who were for low taxation.

Careful wordfactory you're almost saying that if the women didn't go to work, there would be enough jobs

And house prices would be based on single incomes !

Bogeyface - I'm with you.