To ask - Which living generation do you think has had it the hardest?

[catsinpinkhats]

• Silent Generation: Born 1925-1945.
• Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964.
• Generation X: Born 1965-1980.
• Millennials: Born 1981-1996.
• Generation Z: Born 1997-2012.
• Generation Alpha: Born 2013-2025.

I think each generation has had varying degrees of things that are hard, socially, financially, politically etc.

My grandparents were of the silent generation and there's no doubt their childhood and young adulthood was hard during and after the war. Plus many men still did national service.

I am a millennial and most of my generation is old enough to remember life pre-internet but also young enough to embrace it. Things are hard for my generation and younger due to house prices etc, but society is more open generally with more possibilities.

We all think our generation has it harder, but what do you think if being objective?

It was- themes, nuclear aniliation, murder, rape.Obvious choice for pre-teen girls...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_for_Zachariah

I am Gen X and was discussing this with my Mum (Baby Boomer) recently. Her generation generally had a much poorer childhood than either my own or my DCs. Swings and roundabouts with mid-life - much easier to get on the housing ladder, most families could get by on a single wage but there were periods of unrest and high interest rates. Not so many opportunities for women. They have almost certainly had the golden age of retirement with many being able to retire in the early 60s on a generous pension with increased likelihood of good health into their 70s and 80s.

As Gen X I feel most of us had better childhoods than our parents and benefited from the last years of free university (although education in the 79s and 80s was generally crap). Getting on the housing ladder was achievable more easily than now. I don't think we'll have the same retirement experiences as our parents' generation.

Feel sorry for my Gen Z/Alpha DC. Materially they've had a pretty good childhood - although not noticeably that different to mine other than technology-wise. I think employment/housing/having children will be much harder for them especially with things like AI and climate change to worry about.

I think the earlier man kind was born it was harder.yes war years were hardest for sure. But thinking ahead I can't imagine life without TV, kettle, microwaves, duvets, coomers, radiators. We take things way to much for granted these days.

You really don't get it do you? There is no arguing with someone like you. Interesting that the majority of people on this thread agree that the silent generation had it the worst, but of course you know better.

Oh dear heaven. Being at risk of bombing is nothing like actually being bombed. My question isn't nearly as dumb as your answer. I suggest maybe you read a few history books. (knocks head against table in despair!!!)

I think we can all agree that the Silent Generation who fought in WW2 had it worst. And obviously the Boomers who lived through the longest period of peace and economic prosperity in recorded history had it best.

My generation is late Gen X / early Millennial, and our main problem has been lack of jobs and high house prices. We were all pushed to go to university at great expense, only to discover there were no graduate jobs for many of us. This led to widespread depression and feelings of failure. Add on the fact that house prices shot up so we couldn’t afford our own roofs over our heads, which meant we had to delay things like marriage and kids. We are visibly worse off than our parents were and it’s just been a constant struggle to pay bills and survive.

Any graph I’ve ever seen which reports on “the age at which people are happiest” has dipped down on my generation (X). When I was young, I thought I’d only have to wait a few years and then things would be easier, when I was in my forties or fifties or whatever. But the charts kept coming and the dip moved with my generation.

I think it might be because we were brought up when expectations were high, over life being improved by technology and perhaps, for women at least, the expectation that women would have equality at some point in our lives.

I haven’t seen one of those charts recently, but I also feel my younger children’s generation have it quite hard, because of social media and the incredible toll it seems to have on young people’s mental health.

So I absolutely get what people are saying about living through the war, but those people also got to live through (and perhaps benefit from) the stable period after the war, when jobs for those who survived, were easier to find and housing was cheaper and many people’s lives went from not great, to being better. My parents and my ex husband’s parents were in that generation and both rose up from their working class roots to having a very comfortable existence. They got to retire much earlier than I’m going to - it wasn’t uncommon then to retire at 55.

You describe yourself as " late X" being born in 1979 is the cut off for free University- although it was more gradual ( loans replacing grants first). Assuming you were born 1980 onwards I would think you were more a millenial.

This. Absolutely this. When I think of my life and lifestyle, it’s a world away from their unimaginable hardship.

When I see news stories of this generation, with all they’ve suffered and seen, being mugged or killed it’s particularly heartbreaking.

Silent generation and those before them. Growing up, fighting or raising a family and getting by on war times has to be the most difficult thing to endure of all of them.
Then, I am going to say generation X, because of the amount of change that we have to adapt to. I am starting to think there is nothing we cannot take on our stride! Changes in political system, change in finantial system, change on technology, change in social values and aptitude and on and on!
If I stop and I remember the society I knew when I was a child, then a young adult and now, they are miles miles apart!

One set of my grandparents survived the WW2 camps. Hearing the stories that is worse than "just" living or fighting through a war. Their stories are massively different trauma-wise from my other grandparents and includes torture.

The silent generation definitely.
No NHS, world war, rationing and so many lives lost to war and disease (tb was rife too)

All generations have face difficulties, but being at war is probably one of the most challenging things a person could face, especially if you were of fighting age!

My grandmother and her siblings had to run and hide in the woods when soldiers attacked their train and shot her father.

Silent generation, no doubt.

My grandparents were teenagers during WW2. Old enough to understand things. Nan was evacuated and my grandad did national service. They had no money really and nan had to economise constantly. She also cared for my great grandad at home too.

On the other side of the family (in another country), my nan died very young in her 30s (no medical care) and my grandad was poor. There was no running water/electricity at home until the 1960s.

Definitely the silent generation had it worst. But after that I would say genX we lived in a time of extreme terrorist activities via the IRA the miners strikes and massive unemployment then we had the gulf war then 9/11 then Afghanistan then Syria now it's Israel and Palestine again GenX have never lived in a time of peace where there is no conflict and no threat of war hanging over us. My mum used to worry about them bringing conscription back it got so bad at one point. Also recession (twice) the financial crisis 2008 now the mortgage rate issue. Gen X is now mid 40's and have been working age since the mid 90's. Brought up by boomer parents and expecting similar quality of life and it's just not.

Silent generation bad it harder imo

Silent Generation. My dad born 1930 was nearly put in an orphanage after his dad died suddenly because his mum was essentially destitute. They had no state health care. He used to have to go poaching as a young teen to get food for his siblings. His childhood home was destroyed by a bomb.
Mum born 1939 also grew up in relentless, grinding poverty.

Gen Z and Silent - my parents and my children.

Can I ask why you say Gen Z please?

My kids also fall into this bracket and I wouldn't say they have it hard.

The people who had money were fine in any generation. You have to compare those working classes without money.

Generally the later you were born the better.
Better housing, indoor toilets, to multiple toilets, coal fires, to gas fires, to central heating, double glazing and better insulation.
Better health care, I can't imagine anything worse than watching a sick child and neighbours trying to scrape together the money needed for a doctors appointment- and the limited care the GP is able to provide- no antibiotics.
Better schooling, the boomers had massive primary class sizes, lots of SEN kids must have slipped under the radar.
Better working conditions, Health & Safety has got better in time, holidays, maternity benefits, sick pay etc.

Things that have seem to have gone backwards less good paying working class jobs available.

There was a time in the 60s onwards when big heavy industries were paying decent money, shipyards, steelworks, mining, etc all provided harsh working conditions but secure employment to millions.

Now other than construction trades there seems to be a lack of good paying working class jobs. Any decent job now seems to need a degree or your struggling by on NMW possibly not full-time with top up benefits.

People always point out on MN that folk could buy a house on one wage. Banks wouldn't allow women's wages to be taken into account. Women couldn't buy alone.
Lots couldn't get a mortgage because they were hourly paid and relied on bonus money.
So many were stuck renting forever.

We had no WW2 in Ireland but we were off the back of famine 2 generations before, a war of independence from the UK, an utterly destructive civil war and partition that has caused so much damage.

The waves of inter generational trauma, abuse of alcohol and advent of drugs is still felt from all of that trauma. Parents not being able to give what they never received themselves means all of that trauma flows downwards.

My generation Gen X have pendulum swung from our parents typically authoritarian parenting arising largely out of trauma and have left our children with very limited resilience which is a part of the mental health struggles recent generations of children are experiencing.

People who had money were fine in any occasion unless like my grandad’s family in Germany the Nazis took it all due to his father being dual national British/French (married to a German woman and with a Luxembourg born son). But then others also lost money, eg if you were Jewish then your property was taken away from you by the Nazis.

I’m sorry but it’s a nonsense about being fine if you had money. If the medicine or medical procedure hadn’t been invented then money counted for fuck all.

Here too

Plus they likely would have gone to war if silent generation. That he’s studying happily at a university instead is heart breaking when you think of the realities