intergenerational warfare? I hope not

It's that Intergenerational Foundation again, I bet! They are peddling dangerous, nasty stuff in the guise of trying to ensure 'fairness between the generations'. In fact they are causing resentment and nastiness.

Quite honestly, I could never have afforded what some of these younger people seem able to indulge in these days when we were struggling young marrieds and parents.

The poster on mumsnet says: Yes I know I have the spelling and grammar of a ten year old, this isn't about writing

Perhaps if she improved her spelling and grammar she could get a better job with more pay.

The responses on the thread are all very reasonable - apart from the last one.

Perhaps we need to keep an eye on their discussion, and if it turns nasty some very brave and well hard-hatted could go on there and tell them what's what.

I, however, am not volunteering to be the stupid outspoken one. Not over there. >>shake<<

hard-hatted GNrs

Having just read the thread on Mumsnet the responders make it clear that they do not share the views of the OP and really, they are very nice about us.

They know they need to be as many of us do the childcare

Yes. It was just that last post (warty someone) made me wonder if the tide was about to turn. However, the thread has gone quiet.

It's good that even her technology disagreed with her. Most of the thread consisted of her trying to get it to work.
She also said that's what it's like in the South East. Perhaps the Northerners should tell her it's all working okay up there. They all get on okay and help each other out.

I think there should be a Mumsnet/gransnet thread like the DIL/MIL one. They seem not to know what they are talking about. One said you couldn't get a mortgage if you were a woman before the 70s . Not true my maternal GM (who ran away to sea at 16) had a mortgage inn her name. I treasure the letter.this was pre WW I. It was a terraced house in Liverpool. We have helped out financially with holidays and previously been to the Galapagos! We are also providing Four weeks of childcare for working parents to keep the economy going. And all this through very hard work and sensible saving and a mortgage that we could afford not one that we expected to make a killing with when we sold.

We were the same Stansgran we bought a two up two down in the 70's then a three bed semi in the 80's where we still live, we could have moved onwards and upwards from here but we had all we wanted. Why take on a larger mortgage just for a better looking, more valuable house. Prior to paying off the small mortgage in 2008 we were paying £157 a month DD finds that very hard to believe.
DD couldn't get by if we didn't do 4 days a week free child care.

Fortunately, there are sensible comments countering that argument. I was heavily in debt by the time my children finished university - they weren't. Took me a few years to clear it, by which time they were all in their mid to late twenties and had their own houses, cars etc.

Was referring to the Mumsnet thread there, not nina

WFA again! Doesn't anyone remember that was introduced instead of a rise in pension that year? It is not a gift!

own up - are some of you posting 'sense' on the mumsnet thread?
have been tempted to register and try and set the record straight that because their in-laws and parents are well heeled and of a certain age - this necessarily applies to all pensioners.
I wish they would get rid of WFA too nonnie although I would miss this small help with my heating/utility bills it might stop some of the harping.

You mean you actually put your WFA towards heating costs, mollie?? Not as a deposit on a cruise?

ana my total heating/utility bills are in the region of £900 pa - that is heating oil (£300) , electricity(£400), firewood (£125) and water (£180) - and believe me I am very frugal with all of those.
wish I could put a deposit on a cruise but would have to find the 'rest' of the cost and spend 2 weeks in the sun with a lot of old, well-heeled final salary pensioners. prefer a week by the sea in Cornwall any day

I wasn't being serious, mollie - that was just what someone on MN assumed we all did with our WFA!

Our utility bills are high too - the Allowance hardly touches it, but it's better than nothing, I suppose...

The point of the WFA is surely that it can be taken away from us when necessary, unlike the rise in pensions. I wonder when they will twig that we get a £10 bonus every December and complain about that too.

I resent the poster's analysis of our generation. We have given quite a lot of financial support to our children, and would give them more if they were more money savvy, but my personal experience of my own children is that they have been irresponsible with money at times.

Of course we are all a product of our time, whilst initially I wasn't very astute with money when I first went to work, I did eventually work out what it was I had to do to keep out of the red, essentially spend lot less and have quite a few quiet nights in. I think many of us were imbued with the notion that sometimes you have to wait for the important things in life such as getting on the property ladder, having children could seriously hinder that possibility. There was less of a "I want it and I want it now mentality" and of course the mobile phone and other such technology were still a generation away when I was in my 20s, hence the comments we get now "but how did you manage" we just did and I have also pointed out that when we went out we actually talked to the person we were with.

I can see the youth of today have suffered from the advent of student fees, the march of technology that have made some jobs obsolete and having to compete in a global world. I don't think the blame for this can all be laid fairly and squarely on us. Sometimes, on occasions, from my own children who are 20 somethings and their contemporaries I detect a jealousy of their perception of us as "the have it all generation", in a sense I can understand why they feel that, I certainly feel luckier than my parents' who had World War II and my grandparents the Great War to contend with.

ana - I know you were tongue in cheek - it is a sometimes assumed that us 'oldies' do not have 'must be paid' bills and have all this free to spend 'dosh' - if only
don't mention the £10 Christmas box - or we will be accused of 'wasting' that on frivolous living as well.

"EastshitDerek" strange sort of pseudonym!

I've read pages 1 and 5 and most posters seem to oppose the OP.

Loved JenniferJo's post!

Pinkrose1's got it spot-on.

I have two daughters who are four years apart. One has a mortgage and mostly second hand household goods, the second is still in rented and only buys new household goods. They both had the same upbringing but have different perceptions of their must haves.