To think our quality of life can’t keep going up forever?

[Wildflowers99]

I saw a post on a thread which said if you have 3 children (for example) you NEED 4 bedrooms, because children sharing a room is unacceptable in terms of their quality of life. And another saying being able to eat things like peppers out of season is essentially a right, and therefore they should have a price cap.

It got me thinking because what we expect as a basic quality of life seems very very different to even 50 years ago. But the problem is with the advent of climate change, cost of living, ageing population and so on, is it realistic for expectations to keep going up? Have we now reached a point where our quality of life will have to plateau or even reverse a bit because the economy and world cannot support what we have come to expect?

Hope that makes sense, I’m a bit zombified after a 5am start with my toddler…

I can’t recall my mother being without a washing machine and she was born in 1938 and had me in 1964. They had twin tubs. Otherwise, launderettes.

Yep I think in a hundred years time the UK will become Islamic .

I can remember twin tubs the washing could take up the best part of a day . I can remember when I got my first automatic washing machine . Just pop the clothes and detergent in and shut the door and press a button . On the instructions said now put your feet up and let the machine do all the work 😂

You only have to look at the state of our roads , decaying town centres , waiting longer for medical and dentistry care , all our industries gone , people having to rely on benefits to top up their wages to see that we are becoming a basic living standards country .

I think at the moment it is plateauing - COL, life expectancy plateauing and old fashioned things (that should have been left in the workhouse) such as rickets returning which is obscene and suggests an insufficient social safety net. Both my sister and I in totally different financial circumstances have had to acknowledge that what we’d been able to do 3-4 years ago isn’t the same as what we can do now - fewer holidays, savings or treats for me as on paper we are very comfortable- she is having to consider a second job in addition to her full time one, but also that we’d been in a bit of denial.

to see that we are becoming a basic living standards country .

But paying high taxes

Never has a username so well matched a comment. Bravo.

I'm 53. I can remember how things were 20 years ago from an adult point of view. And yes it was still common in the 2000s. Maybe in not some elite areas but look at any council estatw

I was an adult 20 years ago too and can’t think of anyone who shared a bedroom beyond primary.

Well my daughter's did until they left home. They were born 91 and 95.

It was about 50/50 amongst their friends and I live in a fairly affluent area.

It's probably both.

Yep - I remember thinking as a teenager at the time that Blair's "50% to university" mantra was ridiculous.

Really? Loads did, loads STILL do despite all on this thread claiming everyone these days expects a room and en suite for every child.

On a side note I think some on this thread just don't realise they've surrounded themselves with spoilt brats and not everyone the same age as said brats is like that.

given councils count living rooms as bedrooms now. Many will be sharing.
many renters have to share as supply has decreased and prices increase.

Growing up in the 90s I knew people that shared bedrooms and I think it was seen as a bit of a disadvantage. The only wanting to have the number of kids you have rooms for isn't unreasonable as a preference.

I wonder if having loads of kids sharing a room worked better when kids were more free range. If you needed alone time you could probably find a spot in the park or a derelict building if my own parents childhood is anything to go by.

That’s a fair point. If you’re sharing a room and gaming / need a desk for school work it’s very different to the 90’s when you’d be outside or watching tv

I can see how smaller dwellings and apartment living would be a different thing when you could send kids out to play for the day and the only time you'd all be using the home is for eating and sleeping. You'd also find it easier to get away with less toys and stuff to try and keep them off the screens.

The point is I think it's really hard to draw comparisons between different times when the norms around childrearing have changed so much.

Oh definitely I know loads of families where siblings sharing, I also know families where they live in a studio apartment and the whole family shares one room. I don't recognise what people are talking about on here when they say "people these days expect each kid to have their own from and en suite" well yeah maybe that's just the type of people posters have chosen to surround themselves with entitled brats.

Siblings sharing rooms was also common twenty years ago, thirty years ago etc basically forever.

Posters surround themselves with either very obnoxious older people or very obnoxious younger people than use their experience to be ageist and talk as if everyone that age is the same.

Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise 🥰

It will be if we absorb many more low wage workers and dependent migrants! More people sharing a smaller pie in every sense,

You only have to look at the poor quality of the front bench now to see that Uni is nothing more than a scam.

I had a twin tub into the 90s and I loved it, and it certainly didn't take the best part of a day to do the washing.

I would love to have one. They washed much better than automatic machine and they were fun. I had one in my first flat

I agree that they washed better, and I would love to have another one too, and yes they were fun. I used to enjoy washing day with my twin tub, now it's more of a non-event.

Were the top loading ones that you could open when it was still washing? I think my grandparents had one. I remember my gran had a stick she used to move clothing about.