Parents in law on holiday

[Anxiousmuch]

Every year myself and OH take our young children camping in Cornwall
It's our one holiday and we hope to spend the week on the beach (or in rain at soft play)
Today I've found out his parents have asked him what dates we are there because they want to find somewhere close by and be with us
I want to cry. This is my break and with them around I won't be able to relax. They'll also have completely different expectations of what we'll do and aren't agile enough to go on the beach
Am I unreasonable to expect my partner to say something to them? I'd be happy to do a weekend away with them another time

Nope, I'd have been grateful for it.
But then I wouldn't have deprived other generations of the same privileges in order to vote for governments that kept my tax bill low at the expense of providing the same quality of life for people who are younger than me

But most organisations can’t afford final salary schemes. Labour wanted 50% of 18yos to go to university, but with those numbers needed fees to pay for that. And those fees aren’t enough now, so who knows what will happen.

When I went to university only about10% of 18yos went to university, would have been even less in the Boomer generation, think it was 4% in early 60s and a very uneven gender and social split

Would you want that still to be the same?

There are some wild sweeping generalisations in your posts OP. Not all "boomers" have the same shitty attitude that you seem to be implying.

There are plenty of self-serving and shitty Millennials too, as there are in every generation.

I'm not a boomer myself, but I do object to lazy tropes and those of the "ok, boomer" variety are pretty unpleasant.

Women of the boomer generation actually had a pretty shitty time in many ways. Women weren't allowed to get credit cards or a loan without a signature from their father. Women weren't even allowed to open a bank account without permission from a man until 1975. It took until 1990 for the law to allow married women to be taxed individually, and not as an extension of their husband.

Statutory maternity pay wasn't introduced until 1987 and wasn't made compulsory until 1993.

Until 1982 women could be refused service in a pub, simply because they were a woman.

And let's not even touch on the subject of rape and sexual assault. Marital rape didn't become illegal until 1992.

Lots gets written about how the current generations won't enjoy the same financial benefits as the boomer generation but there are plenty of things that are better today, especially for women. That's why it's lazy to cast aspersions on the boomer generation as it fails to consider the full range of circumstances that were present.

If you want to criticise someone, make it personal, don't suggest it's because of their age or generation. It's unfair and insulting.

Taxes for boomer generation were very high actually - after WW2 highest rate of tax was 99%.
1950 - 60s - 97% was top rate.
1971 - top rate dropped to 75% but in 1970s there was also a surcharge 15% extra on investment profits - that's why people like Rolling Stones lived outside UK.

Boomers got free higher education, final salary pensions and eye watering home equity.
First generation to leave their children poorer and with a worst quality of life.

I'm not a boomer but this is utterly knobbish.

I'm looking from their point of view. This could be an amazing time for you all to enjoy each others company in a different place. If they are elderly, I would doubt whether they will be on the beach etc every day.
If this were me Id encourage them to come down for 2 nights in the middle of the break.
Families are what it is all about in the end, if there is something specific about them that you don't enjoy and haven't mentioned then NO is the answer, otherwise be a bit more flexible.

Boomers got free higher education, final salary pensions and eye watering home equity.

That's a deeply unpleasant, lazy generalisation.
I am close to retirement age now. I did get fee-free HE yes. I'm grateful for it. I went on marches protesting against the abolition of grants for those of you who came after us. But only a minority of us went to university at all. The majority went straight into work after leaving school or went to college, often on day release.

I do not have eye watering equity. For years I lived in expensive, shabby rentals or the same kinds of house shares as when I was a student. When I finally bought a tiny flat with my BF at the inflated prices of the late 80s, mortgage interest rates were sky high and rising. Our monthly payment was almost all of my monthly salary. It was the era of repossessions and we came close to losing our home in the way that many people did.

I do not have a final salary pension. My employer stopped offering one years ago because they became unaffordable. I have no lazily accumulated wealth. I've worked hard for my whole career, and for many years I was low paid.

I'm sick to death of hearing I'm undeservedly rich and to blame for the money troubles of younger people. I live very frugally. I'm currently supporting my adult children financially through university and will be continuing to support them when they get jobs and homes. No doubt you think whatever I do isn't enough.

You don't see any of what a lot of us went through. You just look at the better-off retired people, assume everything they have fell in their laps and was unearned, and assume we're all the same.

I'm stressed on your behalf. 😕😫

So a boomer is someone in their 60s? Or someone born in the 60s? Not guilty of either of those

I hope this labour government does fix housing and if it upped inheritance tax and used it to directly fund more affordable housing I'd very much be in support of it

Why should anyone who is lucky enough to inherit some money or a house have to pay for someone's home. What's your definition of affordable housing? For those of us who don't qualify for anything and buy on the open market we need what our parents leave us because we pay our way in life and need every penny to make it in life. If you're talking about the super rich they won't suffer. Get off your high horse because you don't really know what you're talking about.

It’s someone born between 1945 and 1964. The oldest are 79 and the youngest are 60.

And never has a generation been so vilified.

And never has a generation been so vilified.

It's ageism imo. I'm waiting for them to start on Gen X although people mostly seem to forget they exist and move straight on to Millennials now that they're hitting middle age.

@Anxiousmuch

your poor in laws

OP, a lot of what you say about the boomers is so cringe and cliche. I wonder if it’s something you’ve heard somewhere and blindly accepted as fact.

You’re all going wrong by discussing your holiday plans before they’re made. We don’t reveal ours until it’s booked, then we’ll be purposefully vague about the dates until nearer the time. Basically when it all becomes too expensive and last minute 😂

We are already on our way back there. UK higher education is imploding.

Certain colleagues in the sector appear to be under the impression that Labour are going to ride in on their white horses and save the universities. I'm unfortunately under no such impression that anyone's coming to rescue us. In my prediction, the struggling institutions will be allowed to sink and courses will be cut back, until we are back in a position where far fewer people - likely those who can afford it - will have access to higher education.

Meantime we can't continue with a situation where recruiting and teaching undergraduates costs universities money rather than making it.

Last minute’s dead cheap if you hold your nerve so that could backfire badly.

There’s no mileage in attacking us Gen X folk, because, as everyone knows, we don’t give a fuck. 😄

Wait until it starts and it’s relentless.

My parents were of the boomer generation.

I have more wealth and significantly more opportunities than they ever did.

Say no, this is an energetic beach holiday for us and the children to blow off steam, run about together.

Let's book something for us all later.

@Anxiousmuch you do realise that only 8% went to university in the 70’s compared to over 30% now.
So you’re jealous of 8% getting free higher education. But blame it on 100% of that generation.

The fastest relative price increase for housing, 70%, occurred between 1971 and 1973, most boomers would have been teenagers.
In 1992, 75000 homes were repossessed, 400000 during the decade. The average now is 3000 a year.

I agree wholeheartedly that boomers had opportunities and benefits that are not available now. We benefited from cheaper private homes. (My dh walked around our city for days trying to persuade a building society to give us a mortgage, they wanted a 20% deposit, we could only afford 10%).
However working class boomers, those made redundant, steelworkers, factory workers, miners etc have not benefited.

You sound very bitter op.

@Poolstream also the majority of people (in Scotland) lived in social housing so no generational wealth being passed down.

Boomers got free higher education, final salary pensions and eye watering home equity.

🧐

Boomer at 61. ✅
Student grant.✅
Final salary pension.✅
Eye watering equity. Well, it's worth a lot more but I still will have to downsize because even so, I won't be able to pay off the mortgage because of what happened in between with financial crash, redundancy, loss of business in lockdown.