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

[MrsKittyFane]

Go on, flame me.

Compos I agree.

Dp and I put everything into the kids,what little we have.If I ever inherit anything(not likely as my dp live by the bumper sticker"we're spending our kids inheritance"),I fully except we won't be spending it on us as we will have to put it into helping the dc with uni fees and scraping some kind of deposit together X3 if we have it.

I don't begrudge my parents but they have a completely different mentality.They help out in small ways and I'm grateful but they would never lower their standard of living and why should they.However dp and I know we have no choice.Re their children my parents have had little to worry about.We all just got in at the last minute and bought houses,we had all our uni fees paid for,they never had to pay for childcare and could live happily on one salary.

We have a completely different outlook on life.The world owes dp and I nothing,we don't deserve an easy retirement(although we are working just as hard/harder),we will have to go without in order to help our kids.If we don't life will be very hard for them.I just couldn't think of 4 holidays a year when I knew my dc were saddled with student debt and no hope of renting/buying anything decent.My expectations on quality of life for us as old people are much,much lower.

Going on a bit sorry but I think that's what annoys me so much my parents parents went without, gave up their time and hard cash. My mothers attitude to struggling children is that we should sell our house and buy something smaller as if that would solve anything at all. The thought of lending a few quid wouldn't enter their heads.

Heswall, I know what you mean although ideally no one wants to borrow and I wouldnt want to be beholden to my parents at all.

My biggest issue is that assumption that I can do what they did on much smaller resources, I am just not trying hard enough! In my parents case the reason we had holidays etc was because mum worked PT. Dad covered mortgage, bills, food etc and she covered the extras. The only reason she could work PT was because my GP babysat one day a week, every week, for years. It wasnt even until we were at school as she worked at the weekend, she took that for granted and didnt pay them, but she wouldnt entertain the idea of doing that for me and my sister.

Now I am not saying that she should, not at all. But what does annoy me is her attitude that "we managed, so so should you" without acknowledging that she had a) more help from her parents than we have from her and dad b)lower outgoings compared to income thanks to lower house prices etc c) better options in terms of jobs available to part time workers as there wasnt the insistence on total flexibility/last minute rotas that there is now. She accepts that all of this was the case, but refuses to acknowledge that this made their lives easier.

I am now launching my own business after years of "should I? Shouldnt I?" as its the only way that I can work without incurring crippling childcare costs. It means I will spend all day with the baby, after school with the kids, doing housework etc and THEN run a business in the evenings and on the one day off a week I get.

that's such a shame Bogeyface. Perhaps your sister should have a child anyway. They may change their minds.

I know I would want to help my dd's and my ds out when they have children if possible. My mum helped a little when I went to work and in laws were good too.

"Baby boomers were born AFTER the war"

If that is the case the very eldest of these BBs are 67. So actually most BBs will not be pensioners and most pensioners will not be BBs.

Obviously we shouldn't generalise but as one poster said there are a lot of entitled baby boomers about. An ex colleague of mine (early 60s) always used to go on about how our generation have it so easy and expect all the latest gadgets. She said that when she got married they furnished their house in second hand furniture and didn't get a new sofa for 5 years. Her first home was a 4 bedroomed Edwardian semi in an affluent part of London, mortgage paid off before kids had finished school. I think she would have a shock if she was just starting out today.

Flangelina - I have 4x 20-somethings of my own, and we live in student-land. The only one of my kids who drives has a brand new car. My kids' friends have new cars. The students who live over the road from me all have brand new cars. (and there are a lot of them).

So perhaps I was exaggerating and not every 20 year old expects a new car, but a lot of them do.

The baby boomer generation live of the wealth of the previous generations and stole the income of the future generations too.

They didnt all work hard and none of them 'fought in the war either'. They were born after it ended.

The babyboomers were just lucky, right place at the right time.
I missed that particular generation by about 10 years.
But why is there so much resentment, isn't that what we all want when we get older?
We're just unlucky really.

I think the resentment is due to struggling families getting all the shit and DC's constant mantra re protecting hard working pensioners.

Many pensioners were hard working (as are many of us) but many weren't and most have been far luckier than most of us. Many pensioners are extremely wealthy and should be facing cuts like many of us not so wealthy.

We may want what they have but there is no chance that we'll have it not least because we're expected to fund this generation of pensioners perhaps in a way that is beyond our means.

We'll be lucky to have a state pension or the NHS by the time we get old let alone anything else. That seems to be perfectly fine,apparently it's only this generation of pensioners that any of us need to worry about not any in the future.

Most people want to protect and care for needy,poor pensioners-not all are and perhaps as a group as a whole they may have to accept a lot of what they've grown to expect isn't actually possible-it certainly won't be for us or our children.

The thing is Gladys you don't actually know if all the 20 year olds you know with new cars expected them, either. They may have all been surprised and thrilled to be given them as presents. Or maybe some expected it and others didn't.

Whoever said about younger generations not expecting as high a standard of living is right. I certainly don't. The pension credit amount now can be enough to be comfortable on, particularly if you're lucky enough to have paid you mortgage off. For a couple it's £908.70 a month. While not a handsome sum, that's a lot more than the income support figure for a younger couple, and it's more than a lot of young families have after housing and childcare. Of course, some pensioners are still paying off mortgages and other debts, which can be a big problem (I believe the number of elderly people with problem debts has spiralled recently). But then so are younger people who find themeselves out of work too. I doubt DH and I will have the opportunity of being so relatively comfortable in our early 60s, alas.

I think life is harder in some ways now, but in different ways. I think the baby boomers (mid 50s) have had it good - been taught great work ethics along with being a generation of mass home owners. They've not done that great by their children IMO; often discouraging them from higher education as it did nothing for them whilst not understanding the economy these people where thrown into; pressurising them to buy homes at almost any sacrifice; being dismissive of working mothers as selfish with no understanding how much has changed.

But they, like old people are good and bad like The rest of us; I work for a care home company and can tell you its not even uncommon to get riot police in when they start. My nurse sister has only ever been assaulted by geriatrics- although often they were sick.

For a given value of 'hard' there are some older people who may not have done. Same way that not all younger people work hard.

Not sure what the point of your statement is though.... ?

Ok. Read the thread now. I can see it's gone down the usual route of whingeing about how earlier generations had a nice easy life and how it's just not faaiiiiirrr!

Life is like that. Given the choice between my mum and dad's life I'd rather have mine. Mum was at home once she got married and, yes, they had a nice house. But they did everything themselves - they were about 50% self-sufficient in food, mum made all our clothes, she never bought any convenience food at all, did all the baking, never paid for anyone to do anything around the house. No money for luxuries at all.

If that is the case the very eldest of these BBs are 67. So actually most BBs will not be pensioners and most pensioners will not be BBs.

Thats absolutely true Lesley. However a hell of alot of BBs are retirees, able to finish work 5 10 or 15 years early because of their nest eggs, feathered off the back of the generations before and after.

Or, as has been mentioned before, you get people doing what my mum is doing. Getting to retirement age, getting income from here there and everywhere in pensions, having a nice wodge of savings in the bank, 100% equity in a large and valuable property AND taking a job from a younger person who desperately needs it because (in her words) it pays for their holidays! That is the only thing we have actually argued about because I think that is monumentally selfish, regardless that she says she has the right to keep working as long as she wants to. Its just another example of "I'm alright Jack". the row came about because I pointed out that I had been looking for aPT job for a long time and her job with her hours would be perfect for someone like me, so why didnt she retire and allow someone else the chance to earn some money instead of moaning about how her taxes pay for people who cant be bothered to work? She said that she wanted to keep her job and that I just needed to try harder to get one. I shouted at her that there were no fucking jobs because of selfish people like her! We didnt speak for weeks after that one. Sister says its because she was wrong, she is always happy to speak after a row if she is safe in the knowledge that she is right :o

PS, can you guess why I never ever discuss money etc with my mother anymore? She is on a different planet, I swear and her attitude to everything discussed on this thread pisses me off sooooooo fucking much! she is original entitled baby boomer.

There's a lot of them around Bogey I just smile and think of the inheritance (joke)

I think tbh a lot of you move in very different financial circles to me. I accept this is your experience of BBs, but not mine. I see many people living in private rented or social housing with not a great deal of money or savings.

And many of them will have had every opportunity to have amassed savings and property and blown it.
My step father springs to mind he has owned outright 4 properties of varying sizes and had to hand them all over in divorce settlements because he was violent when drunk, he probably looks like a sweet little old man to many though.

Won't you lot moaning about your parents and ils wealth inherit it all eventually anyway? Then you can go on as many holidays as you like.

I move in the same financial circles as Lesley.

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

Nah I Won't really need the inheritance when I'm in my 60s and half killed myself sending my children through uni and paying of my mortgage. BB are obsessed with inheritance- I don't think they've stopped to think how old their children are likely to be by the time they inherit

Actually I'm in my 50s and I'm offended by your assumptions

You could go on a saga cruise though Heswell

I could but that would make me as selfish as those who went before me, if I inherit it'll be used to pay off the children's student debt or send them backpacking around the world where no doubt they'll be kidnapped by pirates knowing my bloody luck.

Re the free education places, only about 6% went in my day (1979) as there were far fewer places (no golf course management or animal welfare in my day). Tony Blair wanted 50% to go, of course they could not all be funded.

My inlaws are old, they were worked at blue collar jobs all their lives, scrimping and saving. My own father retired on an enhanced pension (headmaster) at 55 as there was some "deal" going on that year!