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 ...

Agree, the baby boomers are responsible for all the ills in the country has parallels to me with the idiots who shout Zionist and Nazi at any sign of an opinion different than their own. Tedious.

Oh god don't bring logic and maths into it, you'll make her head explode.

I did the same at 60 after 42 years. Retirement is great. You deserve it so enjoy!

Ignore her - you more than deserve it x

OP is actually one of the youngest of the Boomer generation (1946-1964) if she was born in 1964 and her mother may well belong to the generation before unless she was a very young mother.

My hat off to you OP for surviving so long in the NHS. I didn't manage it & I wouldn't survive a single shift now. Just pay no attention to your mother, she's got her own reasons for her weird view.

Good for you, that's nice to hear. I'd like to think (hope) that many NHS staff do love their jobs.

It can be very physical and demanding tho, so i'm not surprised many need to retire earlier, completely understandable.

Exactly this! i am at a complete loss how I as a boomer who worked for just under 50 years, many of them as a single parent and sole breadwinner had the time, energy or indeed the power and influence to shape the society for which my generation gets so much flack for. All this stuff about us being SAHMs is not part of my experience, I and all of my contemporaries worked, in fact all our mums did too and in their day they were paid less than men who were doing the same job. It's the people at the top regardless of what generation they are from who make the laws, shape the policy not the "ordinary" people working hard and often raising kids too. Personally i think that young people today have a very tough time and that they face real struggles with employment, finding decent afforable housing and being able to plan their futures

Agree.
Also some people in non public sector jobs retire early. We lived overseas to facilitate early retirement and Dh retired at 53.

TBF Those Shanghai days were great if you were with an international company and well looked after financially.

We weren’t in Shanghai, but, yes, those days were great.

I'm not sure that's necessarily true, maybe for a certain section of the middle classes, but not across the board.

My mum is 81, she worked full time all through my childhood, and her own mum was still working full time when we were small too. Both in low paid admin type jobs, neither of them retired early. In addition, they ran choirs, youth organisations, did the church flowers, made sure their elderly neighbours were looked after. I think sweeping statements about having it easy are a bit daft.

Also, I'm mid fifties and the only ones of my contemporaries that have been able to retire early work for big business (eg oil companies).

Well they could train and work the for public sector maybe

51 and 35 years here hopping they with let me go at 56 with 40 yrs . For all the love it’s not the place it was is it x.

@Vengefulpomegranate Enjoy love your mum knows nothing of your service x

Congrats and enjoy!

@Vengefulpomegranatei hope you took your '95 pension at 60. If not you have lost 2 years of this pension. I retired at 60 3 years ago and missed one month of mine as I left in the August one month after my 60th birthday.

Two things can be right. You can have enjoyed a job (NHS or otherwise) and still be ready to move on to something else which you will also enjoy.

I think your mum feels a little miffed that her own DD is retiring! I would ignore these comments OP.She will soon get over it. My mum worked all her life .At one point in the 60s she worked 9 to 4 and was told that was part time!

Enjoy your retirement to its fullest and thank you for your hard work

I'm 50 and would happily retire now if i could afford to. It'll be almost 70 for me :(.

My collegue recently retired mid 60's and looks happier, healthier and younger in the months since.

I retired at 59 after 40 years of nursing, I wasn't one bit sorry and was absolutely certain it was what I wanted to do. I've never regretted it for a moment. Remind your mum that no one can take your nursing qualifications or knowledge from you, you just won't be on the nursing register

Congratulations! Take your retirement, live your best life, and don’t look back. 40 years is more than enough and well done for having dedicated 2/3 of your life to the nhs. Feel no regret, live your life and dreams to the max! Best of luck and make it fabulous x

ENJOY YOUR RETIREMENT!! You’ve earned a nice long rest! Don’t let anyone take the shine off it, 40 years hard graft is amazing!

Congratulations, what a strange comment for her to make after you’ve had such a long career, sounds like an extremely well earned retirement!
I had to give up my NHS career for a few years when I was much younger due to an unplanned pregnancy and people banged on about what a waste of my training etc, even saying I should get an abortion etc. Well I did return to my career eventually and that lovely baby is now an adult doing brilliantly in their career in the NHS and a couple of times when they have appeared on their trust social media, patients their have been lots of lovely comments from patients they have cared for, the irony always makes me smile. Hopefully you’ll have a good rest and get to enjoy some time for yourself but who knows what other wonderful things you may go onto also do in retirement

Hell no. Enjoy every minute, you’ve earned it.