To be delighted I'm retiring

[Vengefulpomegranate]

I will be retiring from my coal face NHS job in April 2027. Ive done nearly 40 years, full time except for my preganacies and short mat leaves (5 months longest at that time). Im just finished, I have nothing left to give. My mother started on about 'all my training' and I'm 'still young' - I'm almost 62. For context she retired from her part time secretarial work at 54. ... taken the shine off it a bit from me ...

Also, it doesn’t help your argument to call people cunts. But you know that.

Go for it. Ignore your mother. I retired at 57. My mum said if I could afford to do it, I should.

You have put your training to good use for long enough. Enjoy your retirement, you deserve it 💐

Good for you,I was nursing over 40 years,a lot of it in the NHS. I retired at 65. I worked ft nights for 30 years,had 4 dks, also looking after grandkids, then a terminally ill f, after a night shift,a friends 4 kids. Looking after children for social services. My best friend and youngest son who was 33 said I would go mad with boredom, I haven't! I have a very small NHS pension, the interest rate kept to 16% when ds was born..ex h fled leaving me with a huge debt.i frequently had 3/4 Jobs.Second DH was made redundant 5 times in 8 years. Therefore, my contributions 12, I couldn't afford to pay in to the pension,get the serious rage at being called a Boomer.

Congratulations on your retirement- you’ve absolutely earnt it!! Tell your mother to sod off 😁

We've just had a sudden bereavement in our circle of friends (66, aggressive cancer). Live your life while your young (and fit) enough!!

YANBU at all!

And thank you for your many years’ service, as others have said.

Your Mum is being U but maybe it just makes her feel older to have your retire? Even unconsciously?

Yes it’s a loss for the NHS when someone very experienced retires but you are human - your not just a robot that someone has programmed to a certain level and now that needs to be used until you can no longer run!

Enjoy! Life's too short 😀

Congratulations. Not long to go.
Im finishing next. I'll be almost 63 and am planning to move to Spain with my dog.
DH is already there, and I will be going for 3 days next month

Next year, bloody fat fingers

Absolutely retire, enjoy it, and either shut her down, or shut her out, i.e. deflect and ignore her comments.

My sister was a nurse in the NHS, one of those whose speciality was hit by the reduction in elective work during Covid. So she had one day of training and went to work in ITU. Six months later, she put in for her retirement (at 58)

I worked in a different field and found the pressure was destroying my mental health. I retired at 57 and couldn’t be happier.

Our mother was a nurse and continued working past 60 (retirement age for women then) because she enjoyed it. Until a change of manager a couple of years later meant she didn’t. So she retired.

If you’re able to, and you want to, then you absolutely should. And it’s nobody else’s business, unless your doing so will be putting unreasonable demands on that person. Which it won’t.

Of course I didn't miss that bit, I was responding to your assumption that because the OP's mum had retired at 54 from a less demanding p/t job and was making critical remarks to the OP that she must be "yet another baby boomer with a short memory who forget they've not had to work nearly as hard as younger people to enjoy the same standard of living" Did you read that i pointed out it is highly unlilkey the OP's mum will be a boomer and the examples i gave of the years that I and my sister (both boomers) worked in the NHS? Please stop generalising about a certain demographic and instead stick to commenting on the facts. The OP's mother's remarks were insensitive and out of touch, that was all you needed to say instead of making cliched comments about an entire generation whose lives will be as diverse as those of whichever generation you belong to. I slogged my guts out a single parent whose ex did not pay any child support/ For several years I did two jobs to make ends meet and studied to obtain futher qualifcations. Hope this encourages you to be more flexible in your thinking.

Congratulations OP, and many thanks for your dedication to the NHS. Don't let your mum's comments spoil it for you; I remember a colleague saying on his retirement that his mother didn't think he was old enough to have a job, let alone retire from it.

spot on

So sick of these 'hard done by' BB who have no empathy for any other generation. My mother will have received at least 70,000 - 80,000 more than me in her 'pot' from her pension she got at 60 than I will when I get it at (hopefully) 67

Congratulations OP. I’m almost 56 and burnt out due to workplace bullying in the NHS. I’m hoping to partially retire soon and go part time as I can’t afford to fully retire yet

Hi@Vengefulpomegranate
Congratulations!
You will love it no more shifts buzzers Dr's rounds EPIC to deal with it's fab.
I retired in March after 40 yrs too nurse then midwife for over 30 yrs. I don't miss my work it had become very dangerous.
Enjoy this time you've more than learnt it.💐

People worked just as hard then. I know costs are higher now, but people aren’t working a hundred hours a week today, they’re still doing the same type of hours. How hard you work and what you get in return are not the same thing.

And yes OP enjoy every second of your retirement. I worked for the nhs for nearly three years and that was enough for me, you deserve a medal!

Earned it!!

@Vengefulpomegranate
Firstly thanks for your 40 years of valuable work in one of the things this country should protect at all costs.
Secondly enjoy your retirement & don't let anyone spoil it. My M-i-L was like that as I retired at 57 due to a very generous redundancy package.
I do have a part time job now as after 3 years I needed a bit of routine?
4 mornings a week gets me out of bed and because I'm twice or 3 times the age of my co workers enjoy training them in skills they need.

Exactly the sort of thing my mother will say! I can’t wait to retire from teaching. Good for you. Enjoy it!

Congratulations OP. I retired at the end of July, aged 63.

It's taken 10 weeks so far and I'm still waking up at the crack of sparrows. Still feel like I'm somehow skiving. It takes time for the stress to dissipate. Take it slowly and enjoy your freedom.

One of the most glorious feelings I have ever had was the day after I retired and my alarm went off at 6.30am and I just lay there and thought "never again will I have to get up and drag myself out of the house in all weathers to get to work, work all day and then get in at 7pm feeling worn out and get ready for another day at work"

So sick of these 'hard done by' BB who have no empathy for any other generation

Me too.

A lot of women the OP's mother's age very likely never worked full time, many probably didn't work that many years at all, and many very likely never went out to work til their youngest child was in their mid 20s. Very few in the OP's mother's generation HAD to work full time because she couldn't afford not to.

I don't like babyboomer bashing, and not ALL of them were/are privileged, but sometimes the criticism is justified. Also, Gen X women are the most screwed over demographic in my opinion. A generation of women who HAD to work whether they wanted to or not, and who were made to feel less than if they weren't high achievers at work, with employers pushing training and 'bettering yourself' on them.

Also only 14 weeks maternity leave, and being expected to still achieve high at work when you're a mother, and side-eyed and slated if you needed an hour off to be with your child. Also, no help with childcare fees, no tax credits, no free school meals for their kids (as they worked!) and no empathy if you had post natal depression, or were really stressed, with 'you women fought for equality so suck it up' yelled at you.

I will be SO glad when I've retired, and will do so at 64 if I can... GenX here, can you guess?!

I don't know why some mothers are so coarse and critical. My mother was the same @Vengefulpomegranate laid into me for getting married 'young' (25!) even though she was 19 when she got married, and sighed and rolled her eyes when I said I was pregnant 3 years later, even though she'd had 3 DC by the age of 25! Also, when I said I was going part time (when my DC were born/were toddlers.) she shook her head and said 'that's lazy that is, you're a bad example to your kids only working 22 hours a week!' even though SHE never worked until she was 42, and that was only part time - 16 hours a week, then she retired at 60!

.

I so agree, that was how I felt at first, as if I was going to be found out for sneaking off work! . Adjusted quite soon and feel so relieved when i see the stress that the colleagues I have stayed friendly with are under.

Enjoy your time.
I am planning to retire at about the same time next year & I will be 52. Your Mum probably doesn't mean it that way but they also forget I think.
@MeetMeOnTheCorner I am not public sector so it's not just those who are who can retire early, everyone circumstances are different & just because I am retiring early doesn't mean my life has always been a bed of roses, for example I was widowed at 42
Good luck OP I hope you have as much or as little planned as you wish

Congratulations. Enjoy your retirement and next time your mother asks you to do something for her, laugh and tell her "oh I'm far too highly trained to do THAT".