Mumsnet paused a “boomer” thread this morning, and…

[CurlewKate]

…just for a second I thought ageism was being taken seriously. Sadly, no.

Haha well your username checks out because you have matured!

I'm 62 and just scrape into the Boomer generation, so not a significant difference.

That is a good point about maternity leave and I had the same (aged 60 now so almost a Boomer). Plus no free child care whatsoever. And no remote working as it wasn't a thing then apart from certain specialist jobs.

I know my generation still had things better than the current generation of young people, in lots of ways. But every generation has it's challenges and it's not our fault it's all just government policy on multiple things that changes over the years.

Absolutely, because that's the way it is with society.

Apparently you're allowed to post goady ageist threads and double down by correcting people's spelling.

There has always been a group of people who society deem it acceptable to deride, mock, silence, subjugate and exclude.
The group of people changes through the generations but the behaviour doesn’t.

It never ceases to amaze me how subsequent generations don’t see this when they’re appalled by the previous generation’s treatment of other groups, instead they replicate and choose their own “out group” to belittle.

Is this the totes genuine poster, self describing as an over 60 cashier in order to whine about old “boomers" paying in cash rather than going cashless (and making them redundant)? I particularly enjoyed the secondary complain of customers wanting their receipts, presumably ignorant of most supermarkets reserving the right to check receipts.

The internet is a wondrous thing - it allows me to be Pope Leo when I wish it. Some idiot will believe it.

Gen X were in adulthood before mobile phones were widely available. They did exist in the 1980s but in the form of suitcase-sized analogue ensembles carried by rich businessmen. It wasn't until the mid-to-late 90s that mobiles started to reach the masses, by which time even late Gen X would already be adults, and the earliest Gen X would have been in their 30s.

And even in the 90s mobile phones were not that common and were “dumbphones”.

My young end millennial children went through school with BBM being the height of excitement until very late on. The first iPhones were only announced in 2007 and were very niche for several versions. Smart phones/hand-helds by default is a very recent phenomenon in generational terms.

Exactly this! I’m GenX and many of us genuinely thought we were going to die from AIDS or a nuclear attack. Unemployment was high. And we had no means of communication except for the ‘house phone’.

But some people really seem to hate boomers and think all the wrongs in the world are down to them. It was just the high birth rate after the war as people tried to pick their lives up, which had often been on hold for 5 years the boomers had a rough time really not enough schools, huge classes in schools, rationing, anyone would think they were all born with a silver spoon.

So if right place right time doesn't = lucky, what does ?

What terms do you use to describe different generations?

the terms commonly in use are:
silent generation
boomer
gen X
millenial (gen Y)
gen Z
gen A / gen alpha

Most people know what these mean.

Yes, my then-partner first got a mobile in about 1997 - it didn't text and only contract mobiles were available. I got one about 2000 that would send text messages and had a little aerial you pulled out, that was a PAYG, then after that I had the classic Nokia one that they still make and then various little clam phones and the like. My first 'smart phone' was a Windows phone that I got in 2014, they don't make them anymore.

Exactly! Ageism exists in the same way that any other nasty prejudice.

Boomers had the nuclear threat too, the cold war. I remember waking up terrified about nuclear mushroom clouds as a boomer child in the 50s. We didn't even have a house phone, the phone box was half a mile down the road! And then a bit later in life we had the three day week, fuel rationing, miners strikes, steel workers strikes bringing the country to a stand still and mortgage rates at 15% plus.

Most of MN are going to get old one day, and the next generation will take the piss / moan about them. Every generation has slagged off the previous one in one way or another. 18 thinks 30 is ancient, 40 wouldn't date 60, 70 is worried about getting to 80 and over.
Knock on effect for the future Gen X, Y and Z. Age is coming for you. 😉

Exactly! It’s pathetic how people (despite having access to more information that ever before) assume that anyone born GenX or before lived in a fabulous utopia and make things harder for following generations just for fun.

My parents are late 'silent generation' and personally I think that was a good time to be born, provided your family had got through WW2 unscathed. Entering adulthood at the start of the 1960s, it was an era where things were on the whole 'getting better'.

Yes, there were challenges such as the high inflation of the 70s making mortgages crippling, high unemployment of the 80s (although in a job-for-life era that was more likely to affect later boomers and Gen X) but in the main able to retire with a decent pension at 60 or 65. Covid striking very late in their lives.

I think of the reign of Elizabeth II which started in their childhood and has often been described as a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity.

Aptly for their name, you do not hear much about 'the silent generation' probably because their numbers were heavily in decline by the time social media sprung up. Even the tail enders are now in their 80s.

I always think it's shit aging but then again, better than the alternative.

Sure, no abelism, or racism, or homo phobia, transphobia is every allowed on the site. Not once. And we never see any threads about how terrible young people are.

So call it when you see it.

Trans issues are more complex because they can be reframed as ‘pro women’s and girls’ rights’

Ah, the ignorance of youth! They'll find out 😆

Do you ever see anyone younger doing this?

Rampant and overt sexism and racism, no protection under the law and it was illegal to have an abortion, and illegal to have a homosexual relationship, even consenting.
I don't think it was a happy time for everyone