To think younger people do not appreciate their lot

[VictoriaLudorum]

I know I didn't when I was younger, but now that I am older, I most certainly do.

"Youth is wasted on the young"

It was wasted on us and now we're old and living clichés.

I think younger people don't have a great deal to "appreciate". Having smart phones and gadgets don't make up a lack of basic security in life - a home that they own, a job when they leave school, ability to study at HE level without being in a ridiculous amount of debt before they even start their careers.

I find it's the older generations that lack awareness and don't appreciate what they have. They are also goady fuckers too.

Yeah, sky high house prices they’ll likely never afford, and similarly sky high rents that mean they’ve got no chance of saving up to pay the sky high house prices, plus the reality of spending the rest of their lives’, and probably their kids’ lives’ paying to protect granny, who’ll be long dead, from a global pandemic that has the same likelihood of killing them as a lightning strike at 3pm on the second tuesday of lent in a leap year. Oh, and don’t forget climate change and a horribly fucked up planet.

I mean, how dare the little shits be so ungrateful?

I feel old saying it, but I feel sorry for the younger generation. Huge university fees, expensive housing, zero hours contracts that don't even guarantee you a paycheque. At least when I was in my early 20s university costs weren't so high (fees had just kicked in a couple of years before) and a job guaranteed you a certain number of hours a week. Housing was still expensive but not quite the ridiculously high prices it is now and most people did manage to save a deposit within 5 years.

I’d hate to be a teenager now, mainly because of the trends with gender and sexuality as well as social media pressures.
But otherwise there are more opportunities now, my children do so many extra curricular activities because there is more choice and we can afford more than my parents could despite similar professions. They get to travel more and have more holidays than I did. They will get the same education opportunities as we will ensure we can afford university for them and we are saving up for a house deposit for them to give them help with the housing market.
When my Grandparents married they were still making mattresses out of hay so we’ve come a long way.

They've had their education disrupted, social lives restricted, travel abroad halted. My 19 year old has never had a proper club experience and is paying £9k a year to sit in her tiny box room at uni, staring at her laptop literally all day. Their exchange years have been halted until Brexit is sorted and she will graduate into a world where the housing and job markets are appalling, and entry level corporate jobs pay a pittance. On top of the worsening pollution that has caused all of my kids end of trouble with their chests.

Get your head out of your arse op.

I was 23 when lockdown began and will essentially be 25 when this ends. Now that I’m mid 20s with the lifestyle of my grandmother, I definitely didn’t appreciate what I had in my early 20s looking back. It’s weird having everything synonymous with being young suddenly stripped away from you. I didn’t get that gradual transition/gradual life slowdown that average adults do

The young are having a shit time at the moment

I think everything was much easier when I was younger. 52 now. No problem getting a job or house. It’s shit now for the younger generation and the last year has basically shown how little this country is bothered about its youngsters. Shut up and pay up seems the message but don’t expect to own your own house or get a decent pension, plus a bunch of snowflake insults chucked at them as well.

I don't think their lot is very good at the moment. So I think YABU

You can only appreciate what you had in yourh when you are older and mature enough to reflect on it.

@JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil

Yes because I’m sure some kid from a sink estate, growing up below the poverty line and going to a shit school with few prospects beyond becoming a Deliveroo cyclist should be grateful for the cards they’ve been dealt.

If the ladder hadn't been pulled up in the name of political expedience in the 1960s/70s, ie the grammar schools, many of those young people could have had greater success. It was a levelling down process that has failed dismally and I speak as one of those who without it would never have had a chance.

Huh?
Having spent the last year locked up for a virus that barely affects them? School, uni and every day life compromised? Leaving the EU? Environment concerns? Life under Trump and Boris? Inflated property prices, university fees...
I would not like to have been born after the year 2000.

Most stupid thread I've seen in a long time.

What the fuck are you on about, op?

Depends what you mean really. I miss being healthy and having my whole life ahead of me and full of possibility. I miss being able to eat whatever I wanted, having endless energy and never getting a bad back. Equally, being a young person today may be nothing like what it was for me, and even in my generation there were no guarantees of health or opportunity.

Has OP been back to clarify what they mean more clearly?

I'm not sure what young people are meant to be appreciating.....unaffordable house prices, student debt, high unemployment, covid restrictions, brexit ....ungrateful buggers.

Starting salaries are as low or lower than when I left uni in 1998. Uni is £9k+ a year. There are market interest rates charged on student loans
The young are fucked. Never mind Covid

And they'll be paying for Covid until well after I am dead and gone and I have another 20 yrs at work plus

On a personal level. If I'm honest I don't think I realised how tough I had it when I was young. It wasn't until I had children that I have rethought a lot of things and seen how unfair things were, and that I wanted different for my children.

As a generalisation I think this generation of teenagers have it relatively speaking, very tough. The pandemic, housing, global warming Just off the top of my head. Services that were in abundance a couple of years ago have been hacked to pieces with budget cuts. The pressure they're under to be the best/ perfect can't be nice either with social media.

On a positive side I actually think this generation is going to make big changes. They're not afraid to stand up to racism, global warming, homophobia (or at least not as much as before) and (obvs generalising again) they're so much more accepting of difference.

Sounds like an ageist, entitled and downright offensive statement.

Who are you to determine an entire generation's lot?

A failing economy, the highest unemployment in recent history, sky rocketing mental health and homelessness, unattainable house prices?

Yep, who the hell are we to complain?

I'm in my mid 40's and I reckon young people have had a really tough time.

I'm very glad I got to be young with cheap study, easy travel and work in the EU, cheaper housing and no pandemics.

Poor sods.

To think younger people do not appreciate their lot

Older people used to say that when I was young: "You don't know you're born/how lucky you are", etc.

It was tedious and irritating then and is now.

Do we want young people to go around being eternally grateful for what is rightfully theirs?

@TheSmallAssassin

"Youth is wasted on the young"

It was wasted on us and now we're old and living clichés.

Yup. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

My three DC are in their 20s. They are having a much tougher time of it than I did at their age, and are needing a lot of emotional and financial support.

I was lucky becoming an adult in the early 80s. No university costs thanks to a full grant, walked into a good job, houses were affordable, no pandemic... so easy compared to now.

I feel so sorry for young people.