To think young people have been totally forgotten ??

[Mossang3l]

I was watching something earlier and it was the very elderly talking about how the community has come together to take care of them. Christmas dinners, companionship, gifts, phone calls, check ins etc. Wonderful. I’m very happy they are being looked after.

But it’s really struck a chord with me. There is NOTHING like this to look after the young even though they are sacrificing so much for everyone else.

They don’t have careers or adult social connections, they’re probably single, they’re missing their educations and exams, they’re probably the highest percentage to have lost their jobs, they can’t see their friends, their future prospects have been reduced massively (through the economy, educational inequalities, brexit etc).

They’re all lonely and isolated and scared and all that adults seem to do is bitch about students and the young. They’re moaned about and criminalised just for being young (well they were is September anyway but it’s stuck I fear). Far too many of them are committing suicide and yet still nothing happens.

My daughter (20) lost her job and can’t get a new one, hasn’t been into uni once and is so lonely. She signed up to volunteer with every organisation she could find and hasn’t heard back from a single one.

Surely we need to be doing more to help the young ? I fear they are being totally forgotten and may be having the worst time of all.

@furonthecoat you are not pointless or worthless. Please don't stop believing in yourself. You are our next generation of brilliance. We need you. This moment in time is shit but it will pass. Believe in yourself and the future.

I totally agree that younger people have been completely left out of policy decisions. It's actual awful. They will be picking up the bill for Brexit and Covid. They will have poor pensions and expensive housing. It's utterly depressing to hear them maligned by the generations before them who have benefited from so many things.

@furonthecoat I really feel for you, totally wouldn't want to go to uni atm tho I didn't meet my long term partner or mates at uni & have survived to have both but agree with your sentiments, Ive had the conversation with DH it seems utterly pointless now for what you get pandemic or not, we did think that maybe apprenticeships were the way forward a while ago though & id look there afterwards.

I think the "friend support bubble" idea is great but you can do that anyway in most tiers just outside for instance @Itstheprinciple it's the same for adults?

Something I have been saying for months.
I'm in Victoria Aus.
Kids began home learning in March- 6 weeks after school year began. Easter hols, winter hols (july) and spring hols (Sept) they were all trapped at home.
We had 112 days of total lockdown in Vic - only allowed out for 1 hr of walking/running per day. Within 5km of home, so about 3 miles. So many friends were outside this. This was after months of almost total lockdown no difference for kids except parents were not allowed to work.

After complaints, one of the first things to open were playgrounds. But for kids over 10? Nothing
Secondary school kids spent lots of time online but that is not the same. When they did go back to school (5 weeks before school year ended) there was lots of bullying, meanness. I think they forgot how to cope.

So many teens are struggling with mental health right now. I fear for the longer term effects of being locked up for almost 8 months with no friendship interaction.

So sorry @furonthecoat I wish I could give you a hug as I totally understand what you're going through and agree your generation has not just been ignored, but crucified. I've told my son to just be grateful for his health. I know that's no consolation, but he's seen many in his 20+ bracket fall ill to Covid on top of their home / economic problems.

Please God this mayhem will pass as quickly as it arrived and may our young people have new opportunities to shine and show their worth. Sending positive thoughts. I'm old enough to be your Mum, and I really care.

I have 2 teenagers and a 20y/o. Significant birthdays passed with no parties, concerts and holidays cancelled, months of missed education.
Yes, I am angry and appalled at what young people have lost. I feel contempt for friends who are ardent lockdowners with no ability to see the collateral damage they cause.

I have a teenage son - he hasn't been 'locked up' for 8 months, he has social interaction with his family, his friends - also on zoom and other internet platforms. He will go to university next year and hopefully there will be fewer restrictions. Opportunities will be different but there will be opportunities - It isn't great but it isn't the end of the world either. The future isn't totally bleak, he hasn't been 'shafted' - he has lived through a pandemic. The world will be different. Our young people will need to be strong - but I am afraid that is life, it isnt easy and no amount of anger on an internet forum is going to change that.

@furonthecoat That is terrible and I feel angry on your behalf. I hope you can keep your self-belief and that soon this will be just a memory. for you.

YABVVVU to massively generalise like that.

I have 3 dc in the 16 - 25 group.
Youngest caught up in the exam fiasco in the Summer and now in her first year at university. So many of her friends missed 18th birthday celebrations, all missed those 'rite of passage' things like the holiday after A-levels. She lost on her Summer of work which was going to build up a fund for university. She missed her driving lessons and test.
1 finished her degree in the Summer - no Graduation ceremony. No prospect of anything resembling a graduate job and has lost 3 jobs since June due to the pandemic
1 who has a job - furloughed for many months and has been unable to secure any of the jobs he has applied for in the last year. His gf has lost two jobs this year.

So 3 very much affected, but I still think you are BU to generalise like you have.

There is NOTHING like this to look after the young even though they are sacrificing so much for everyone else.

They aren't 'sacrificing' anything any more than anyone else. They are being limited and restricted by the pandemic, like everyone.

They don’t have careers or adult social connections

They have friends and social connections to the same extent that people of all ages do. Some will have dozens and dozens of friends, others fewer - just like people in their 30s, 40s,50, etc. Difference is, they are used to connecting on Social media all the time, whereas (typically - I know there are exceptions) the over 70s are more likely to rely on 'going to.....' their social connections, and don't tend to chat through the evening on their X-boxes, or via snapchat, facetime, or whatever their choice of SM is, so there has been far MORE social connection for the 16 - 25 yr old, not fewer.

they’re probably single

eh ??
Any evidence for this ? I think this might be a made up fact

they’re missing their educations and exams

Again ???
Yes, my dd didn't sit her A-levels, but she is at University now learning a lot.

they’re probably the highest percentage to have lost their jobs

Finally, one I can agree with

they can’t see their friends

See above. They are under the same restrictions as all ages - which, over the year, has varied considerably. Many from this age bracket are living in shared accommodation and having a ball. For all in this age group, they can spend hours video calling their friends throughout the day and night (+ all other SM)

their future prospects have been reduced massively (through the economy, educational inequalities, brexit etc).

As have everybody's

They’re all lonely and isolated and scared and all that adults seem to do is bitch about students and the young.

Absolute bull.
I'm not saying that you don't know someone who feels that way, but it is ridiculous to then say everyone feel that way. Utter rubbish.

They’re moaned about and criminalised just for being young (well they were is September anyway but it’s stuck I fear).

Has ever been thus, some people demonising people for being young

Far too many of them are committing suicide and yet still nothing happens.
Please link to some actual research showing that suicide rate has increased amongst 16 - 25 yr olds since March. This has been bandied about and refuted on many different forums. I've seen people produce evidence that the suicide rate amongst young people was actually lower in 2020 than it was in 2019.

Sorry for the long post everyone, but there is so much of this generalising up from one person on MN over the last few months.

They are not under the same restrictions as everyone else. My aunt as a single parent of a 16 year old can bubble with another household because it's sooo hard not to have adult company, but the 16 year old doesn't have any say in who that household is and hasn't legally been able to see his girlfriend indoors for months.

So given the original thing in the op was about THE COMMUNITY, what does everyone wants to see in place for young people?

Yep. 2 DC at uni and secondary. No jobs, uni online but still £9.5k pa and £500pm rent. No social life . Mil in 70s out at every occasion and taking holidays even with a quarantine that she doesn’t stick to. Makes my blood boil.

I agree, it is awful for young people. Toddlers won't remember this time but so many youngsters have had their education and exams disrupted, and important social connections stalled. My son is in year 8 and didn't settle well into his school in year 7 due to the school being massively overextended as it was very popular - so hardly any space and hugely crowded. Then into lockdown and into a new, smaller school in year 8 which he loves but he hasn't had a single school trip since starting secondary and all his lessons are held in one of two classrooms - he has yet to do a practical science lesson and thinks he hates chemistry, yet it should be so exciting :-( It's terrible for university students, especially.

@BackforGood I also have children in roughly that age bracket, all at uni or at school.

I am genuinely curious to know if you think our children will benefit from all the social spending, safety-nets and law-keeping that older generations have been used to.

I feel depressingly sure that they won’t because I cannot see how the shrinking economy can provide what we have come to expect. I would be interested to hear how you or any other posters think society will continue to function and to finance itself.

I agree with your post @BackforGood. It's really dangerous to generalise like this.

I agree this is awful for many young people. It's awful for many people full stop. But I think many have got caught up in this (badly evidenced) narrative of 'sacrificing for old and sick people', as if to say that the lockdowns and restrictions are all to save lives of people who are going to die soon. They are really, really not for that. They are, and always have been, to keep the NHS ticking over so that it doesn't get overwhelmed and send the rest of society spiralling even further into chaos. So when you say the younger age group get nothing out of their sacrifice, think about how what they actually get is a society that hasn't collapsed. They still (just) have an NHS they can go to and get treatment if they get ill or have an accident. Really, the way people are speaking of it is so black and white. They are pitching the vulnerable against the young and the healthy and it smacks of eugenics. I'm ECV myself and not about to kick it yet, I hope, but find myself time and wearying time again lumped together with these poor oft cited 80 year olds who are spoiling life for everyone else with their propensity to die of Covid and take up hospital space (it's always the 80 year old, isn't it, not the many 50s, 60s, 70s many hospitals are at present overwhelmed with.) The 377 is a red herring too, a starkly ableist piece of propaganda that discounts anyone with any condition whatsoever as being Not Worth Counting. Asthma, learning difficulties, psoriasis, obesity, many many more, not applicable to this situation because they are underlying conditions. Even the much cited cancer patients who suddenly seem the focus of everyone's concern in their lack of treatment; they are counted in the vulnerable so don't actually count either in this very stark narrative of the survival of the fittest. It's sickening.

My young adults have suffered, like everyone. My dd who is 20 has only seen her partner twice since march. Ds missed GCSEs and misses seeing friends. But both of them, and, they report, most of their friends, don't see it at all like the vast majority on this thread. They see it as an exponentially growing virus we have to contain in order to keep life going as well as we can for all sectors of society. DD rails at lockdown sceptics and believes passionately that we must contain the virus in order that all of these things don't get even worse. For those who want their freedom at any cost, they are the ones stretching this thing out.

As for those complaining about vaccinating the elderly first, that isn't about Tory bleeding hearts, I can promise you that. It is simply logistics. Once the population who get the sickest are vaccinated things will start to improve for everyone else. So no, it's not about forgetting the young but about prioritising groups that will mean everyone can be set free in the quickest time possible. If you really cannot see that then I give up.

Op, yanbu that it's rubbish. I hate every day of it and hate it for my kids. But what is the alternative? What would you like society to do for this age group? What more could be done?

I agree. I think this is ruining what should be some of the best times of their lives and they are going to be paying for it for years. I grind my teeth every time I hear about the young are causing all this with their partying ways.
Particularly from a generation who has enjoyed a welfare state their whole life, final salary pension schemes, state pensions, cheap housing- things I doubt my kids will enjoy. I see a lot of people on SM demanding for schools to be shut down the minute there is a rise in cases and when I point out how many young people (particularly from poor backgrounds) this will effect, I am casually shrugged off as a teacher/granny killer.

I agree. My 19yo has just spent what should have been his first year away at uni - living in halls, making friends, having fun - at home doing uni online, meeting no one. I feel so sad for him when I look back on how carefree and fun my uni years were.

And this is in Australia where the restrictions are now much less. I can’t even imagine how difficult it is for kids in the UK.

Government raised retirement aged to 66. I think it would be the decent thing to vaccinate this age group first - those aged 60+ who still travel to work on public transport to large workplaces - some are classified as key workers, but working in manufacturing so can't do so from home. They're vulnerable in terms of their own age, but also in view of passing any infection onward. This also seems to have been overlooked, yet those aged 80 to 90 who don't go out much, have already been vaccinated. Sorry, but can't see the logic.

I also think it's dangerous to young people to perpetuate this story that the grown ups (anyone over 29 apparently) have ruined their lives. Whilst they're are without question those who feel that way, and those whom deserve alot more support than they're getting, the same is true of every age bracket. Telling them they're the hardest doing too, no one's feeling it as hard as them, they'll be paying for this forever etc is hardly helping to build them up to fight through for a future they deserve. It's putting them all in a victim bucket and saying well why try, you're live is shot now

. Won’t be many 21yo remortgaging their houses etc.

Yep. Or having to go to work on public transport to do a public facing job in order to keep their homes, as lots of people in their 50s/60s are having to do, for low wage. When I think of the friends in my circle who are doing just that, I'm sure they'd rather be accessing lectures online, even while paying for accommodation. Not that they ever accessed lectures in any shape or form anyway. But, you know. They're not exactly having fun times.

And in fact I wonder if this narrative about young people being most impacted is driven by the middle class perspective.

The parents who feel that most has been lost by students are maybe middle class professional parents who have been able to work from home throughout and so the only people in their immediate circle whose circumstances have been affected are their own children?

Because actually where I'm standing, with lots of friends on minimum wage, all of us older, so precarious anyway before you even factor in the effects of covid exposure and possible economic national meltdown during middle age, it's been a lot more than what you do with the spare bedroom that you don't have anyway in your rented house.

I massively agree with you OP. My parents and in laws who are over 75 have not missed much except for some family socialising and perhaps a holiday whilstmy young adult children have missed nearly a year now of milestone once in a lifetime events. Both have lost peers to suicide. The young should be prioritised. This is all I ever think about.

It is tough on everyone regardless of age. I just heard the long awaited AstraZenica vaccine could pass approval this week. The quicker we all get the vaccine the quicker we can get back to normal.

@Xenia

Yes, we (the world not just the UK) chose through lockdowns to sacrifice theyoung for the old and sick. It was the wrong decision.

"377 people aged under 60 with no underlying health conditions have died of Covid-19 in England's hospitals since the start of the pandemic."

377 v the destructions of so many lives and the huge financial cost to the nation never mind biggest breach of our human rights in our history.

👏🏼 👏🏼 👏🏼 I have said this many times and have been called all sorts of names! Thank you 🙏