To feel poor compared to when I was a child growing up

[Keepgoing88]

I'm curious to know if there are many people out there who as a family are less well off than when growing up? We are not poor but I do feel a lot less well off than my parents were. We haven't been on a foreign holiday for few years (prob could afford a not so fancy one though). We could never afford the house I grew up in and sometimes struggle to break even on a month (large mortgage etc). It gets me down that I feel the standard of living we have is less than when I grew up. Does anyone else experience a similar situation? My DH feels fine but we are considerably better off than he was growing up.

Very interesting thread!

Im not sure if we are worse off or not, maybe we are on par. However I think a lot of it is down to the economy why our generation isn't better off!

Grew up very poor in another country, orphaned at the age of 9.
Poverty is my greatest fear, so I’m constantly pushing myself to do better.

It's all relative though user

If your children are warm, fed, and clothed with somewhere to sleep, they're fine. Comparison-living is the quickest way to misery. Focus on what you have now, and stop worrying about whether it's more or less than anyone else, even your past self.

No, we struggled when I was a kid –parents had multiple jobs to make ends meet, cheap frozen food, holidays were rare and usually of the caravan-in-Skegness type. No money for the things I wanted as a kid/teen like the 'right' branded bag and trainers etc; we had all cheap stuff.

I'm not wealthy now but do feel better off than that.

Why aren't these well off parents helping their children financially instead of sitting on their money?

Better off now but definately not comfortable or rich.

I could have had a much more comfortable life than I do now if I my dad hadn't been such a compulsive gambler.

I thank my blessings everyday.

I’m not wealthy in any means but I can provide food for my children so in my eyes, that’s enough tbh.

It makes me feel awful when I see people on here who are struggling to buy nappies/ food and basic things.

If your children are warm, fed, and clothed with somewhere to sleep, they're fine. Comparison-living is the quickest way to misery. Focus on what you have now

I don't find this helpful at all. This is the UK in 2019... surely we can do better than this?! Surely children should be entitled to more than just food and a roof over their head? The fact is that standards of living are going down and cost of living is rising...this is not progress. Two working parents should not be struggling.

No I’m much better off
As a child we lived in a tied house that went with DF job (manual labour)
We had no carpets or central heating
Free school dinners and bread and jam or margarine for ‘tea’
Holidays were camping or staying with relatives
I earn above average wage - own home although with mortgage - have at least 1 foreign holiday a year etc

My parents are and were much much better off than me but they didn't spend much on me or my siblings as children so I didn't feel well off as a child apart from the fact we lived in a huge house. I didn't want money to be spent/given to me and am very independent but I have always felt annoyed at people who think I had advantages compared with them.

I am way way better off than my parents. We were dirt poor when I was a kid. Never enough food to eat, scrappy clothes on our backs. We didn’t even go on day trips let alone foreign holidays! My “treat” was being taken to the pub and left in the car while my dad drank and periodically brought me coke and crisps! (His drinking took most of the little money we would have had).

I’m not rich by any means. But I have travelled extensively, my DC have always had everything they needed. I have a lovely home and I have enough money to comfortably pay my bills, buy what food I want without having to count the cost etc.

No not at all. Both our parents had council houses, we own ours. We had no money growing up and no car. No holidays either.

I think the important question and what I worry about for my kids, is that for those of you who do feel poorer than your parents - has it impacted on your happiness and/or your mental health?

I'm a millionaire in comparison to my parents when we were growing up. I'm not in reality of course but we had nothing, so everything i have now is is better.

We are much better of than I was growing up. I was a latch key child and my parents divorced my mother I know at times struggled to get food on the table. I had most things second hand or home made until I was in my mid teens where money got better but never huge.

DH grew up in a huge house with private education for 3 children. So he feels we are no where near as well off as his parents were. Its interesting sometimes how differently we view things.

I grew up in what would then be called an 'upper middle-class' family. I wasn't spoiled but I would always get a lot for Christmas, my parents never cringed if there was an expensive school trip to pay for. The cupboards always had food in, we didn't run out of stuff and I wouldn't be told 'we'll have to wait until payday to get more crisps/drink/biscuits'. We're not poor by any stretch of imagination, our bills are always paid, we have food for meals etc, but I do sometimes have to say, 'we're skint, you'll have to wait a couple of days until DH gets paid' and it's really hard. I think growing up with money not being an issue, makes it tough when you've got your own kids, you compare what they have to what you had. The DC's never go without, they have everything they need, which is why I walk around with shoes and clothes with holes in, go years between hair cuts etc, because I'd never let them have to. However, I was an only child so my parents only had me to splash out for at Christmas or school trips, I have 3 DC so when I spend less on each than I used to get, I feel like I'm being tight. We never went on holidays and very rarely went on day trips, I missed out a lot of family warmth and affection whereas that's the area I try to focus on. My kids can all talk to me if they have a problem, we can't afford foreign holidays but we try to go away every year, even if it's only a couple of nights in a Travelodge and a day at a theme park. Thinking about it, I'm much happier with how my DCs are being brought up than I am with how I was brought up. Hopefully in years to come, when they're older and have their own families, they'll agree that we did ok.

On average people are better off than a generation ago. But it would be surprising if everyone was better off. Especially those who had very comfortable childhoods.

We have a much more luxurious life, certainly. Though not so different from my youngest sister's childhood/teens 11 years later, when my parents were both working full time and further up the career ladder. But I had left by then.

Many people will be worse off if you compare luxuries as the economy is worse.

Although I would agree that the economic prospects have been and continue to be grim for the UK, strangely many people are better off materially. What has got much worse is social and economic security.

Although I grew up in a comfortable middle class home and I had wealthy grand parents, my economic circumstances are worse than my parents. However my levels of comfort (heating, food, etc) are better than both those previous generations.

What will really destroy the less well off and their standard of living in the UK is if we continue to allow the creeping privatisation of the NHS. Health care, or the lack of it, is the single largest reason for bankruptcy in the USA.

My parents owned their own home, we had a swimming pool in the garden and went abroad a few times on holiday, but we also wore clothes from jumble sales, had 2nd hand toys and my mum shopped in the cheapest shops for food (quick save). People assumed we were rich but things were pretty tough at times even though both my parents worked.

I don’t own my own home, my kids have never been abroad but they have a lot more than what I had as a child in the way of clothes, toys and gadgets. So I don’t really feel poorer.

I think we’re on par with my parents, I feel we’re better off on a day-to-day basis, but they could afford a normal mortgage as we’re on a shared ownership scheme. So they might have been paying more on the mortgage but now they own the whole property. And I have no idea how much they were/are able to save, as we don’t seem to be able to save much, and dip in our savings quite regularly.
And I think we’re also similar to DH’s parents were at this time of our lives, although they are now quite a lot better off than us.

But our house is warm, as it’s a new build, and I don’t stress constantly about money like my DM used to.

No I'm much better off than my parents even after I divorced. Although the enormous financial help that they had from my grandparents should mean that they should have been far wealthier than me but they spent it all instead of investing any. They also never passed down any of the wealth but used it all for themselves. I think the other main reason was I had half as many kids than them. I also have always worked, whereas my mum only had a part time job for a few years before retiring early. I was more way more ambitious than either of them and I invested in property too.
It is why I won't give too many monetary hand outs to my grown up kids until they achieve themselves first, I've seen how lazy, entitled, selfish and undriven it made my parents.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. My mum was the main earner - a high earner (approx 50k) my dad did not earn as much but I remember thinking and feeling like I was defiantly one of the wealthiest people I knew, we had two cars , foreign trips. Times were slightly harder when my dad lost his job but we still had financially speaking a good lifestyle. My parents house would be worth around 900k now. My husband has a decent job and our house is about half that but I literally have to budget everything . I rarely treat myself to new clothes as my own mother was able to which I find hard and I shop in Aldi constantly to try and keep food costs down. On the other hand I work very part time out of choice. My mother did not and I missed her terribly, I would rather have lived a worse lifestyle than to have gone without seeing my mum as much which is what happened... I try to bear that in mind when I'm worri3d about money. Altho with childcare costs I'm not sure it would even be financially viable for me to work more .. but maybe that's the topic of another thread!

I'm an eighties kid BTW

Much better off, I grew up relatively poor. At least now we don't need to rely on churches dropping off food parcels for us. So I'm always grateful for my standard of living, even when I can't afford holidays or to get on the London property ladder etc.