Are pensioners perceived differently now?

Another one of your incredibly harsh and insensitive remarks.

That's a bit much notanan! Anyone would think the younger generation were a species of weaklings facing insurmountable adversity. Get real!

The HALF of the paragraph you quoted was in the context of everyone "minding their own business" as if how we live doesn't affect each other.

Your reply wasn't in keeping with the context of the quote. Do you think that nobody should care about how anyone else lives? And everyone should live in selfish little self serving bubbles and sod the effect your choices have on anyone else?

the younger generation who have to try to forge lives in this society/planet

Ye Gods!

That's a bit much notanan! Anyone would think the younger generation were a species of weaklings facing insurmountable adversity. Get real!

However, your 'the world - and uk- is in a horrible condition' pessimism that the left uses to shame those who 'have' and get by. Our generation had to struggle, budget, go without, care for elderly parents, raise families and faced periods of economic uncertainty.

When I grew up we lived on bread and dripping and wore clothes others had worn before us, in a world without TV. Oh for food banks then! We knew poverty and hardship too. Today's young may struggle too, but they have many advantages my generation did not.

I refused to be shamed about growing old and owning a house. I worked damned hard for everything in days when youth weren't even recognised or talked about. Now, the topics of youth, growing and ageing are aired most weeks in newspapers, TV and on social media so awareness is high.

I dare say when my own AC are in their 60s, they'll know a world where care of the elderly is so much better. Do not forget Gransnet has so many threads devoted to hardship, illness, the worries of shouldering childcare for their AC, fallouts, and the stress and exhaustion of keeping everyone happy.

I am happy and I get by. Many of the younger generation can say the same.

For every young person struggling in life there is an old person facing difficulties too. We are all products of our times. This generational 'war' issue should be put to bed.

Most of our generation would say life hasn't been easy. Life often isn't easy. Many people struggle. Life is often hard and every generation knows it. Full stop.

But perhaps it explains the huge divide that people are complaining about notanan2, and perhaps if, as we are supposed to be older and wiser, we bothered to look at the realities for many young people we would recognise the problems they encounter, rather than condemning them as many have on here.
There is much on her about how in the past older people were poorer. My gran always said that she was better off as a pensioner than she ever had been. But then she scraped by working all her life and nursing a sick husband. So I suspect some of it was to do with expectations. Oh and she lived to be 90 so took full advantage of her pension.

Everyone "minding their own business" is not a good way forward... especially for the younger generation who have to try to forge lives in this society/planet.

Well anyone (of any generation) who is spending their money on cruises is making it everyones business by ruining the planet

Just like anyone (of any generation) who hoards badly kept investment properties or vacant holiday homes are making how they spend their money everyones business.

We dont exist in a bubble. How we live affects others.

Perhaps it’s true that our generation shouldn’t criticise the younger generation for the way they spend their money Paddyann, but perhaps it’s also true that the younger generation shouldn’t criticise the way our generation spends its money, votes, takes holidays, or owns property. Quite right, it’s nothing to do with us how they spend their money, and it’s nothing to do with them how we spend our money. So perhaps the Twitter users, The Guardian readers and so on can leave our generation alone, and get on with their own business.

I think that nowadays people realise that the term "pensioners" is quite broad, and there are pensioners from several different generations. A 99yr old pensioner isnt from the same generation as a 67yr old one. There are pensioners whose parents are still alive.

Don’t agree. Humour not so long ago in tv comedies was horribly ageist. Mother in law jokes etc. Even likes of Joan Rivers saying how she hated old people.
Pensioners or near that age are now fitter, smarter, doing all sorts. Younger people I speak to have great respect for me and my equivalents. And are happy to spend time with us.

librarylady I personally am very aware that being young today is NOTHING like being young in my day. I havent experienced the world my children are facing as a young person. I really worry for them and feel sad that they can't have the outlook that my generation were able to have.

Its a terrible time to be young. IMO.

An interesting discussion. The thing I find really odd is that the young of today don't seem to grasp that they will be the elderly of the future - and a lot sooner than they think. On the other hand, I don't wonder why they seem to have no concept that the old were once young - because I have been young.

Woo Nonnie it isn't my fault if you have a narrow circle of friends but actually I didn't say anything about the people you know only abot he people who post on GN and who sometimes post views that contradict all the caring things they are claiming on this thread.
I do know people from all walks of life and one thing I have noticed is that those who have the least are often the most generous.

Yes PECS I reckon you right.

Nonnie ,thank you .

I must admit I don't know a lot about the Internet and only found this site by accident when I googled Anita Manning who is on Bargain Hunt and ended up here.

If I had to rent near enough to my work NOW it wouldn't leave me any of my salary.

Back when DH and I started we were able to rent a comfortable flat with money left over to save.
Honestly the situation is so hopeless for young people that I think there would be something scarily apathetic about them if they DIDNT complain!

A basic on road parking terrace in an area thats commutable to the main centres of employment round here is now about 300K!
There are FLATS on the market here for 250K! (Not luxury penthouses I might add)
How on EARTH can a couple on average incomes get a foot in by themselves??

Expectations are different now and I do think some people feel entitled to have financial and practical support from their parents.

Its not so much that they expect it.
More that they realise that it is only their peers who have family help who have a hope in hell of owning a traditional family home.

I only own because I was able to get in on the market back when it was still doable without family help. If I were starting out now I wouldn't stand a chance.

Oh notanan2.....so you expect to retire in you 70’s.....well when did you start work ....17/18/19/20/21...

15 for fullish time hours. Babysitting since 13.

Many young people are being raised too dependent these days. They are being systematically dis-empowered by a false sense of entitlement and that their mundane problems will always be solved for them by others.

IMO the first part is right but the rationalle is wrong.

Young people are FORCED to be dependant.
When I was a teen I had waitress, shop & childcare jobs.
Jobs which teens can no longer get.
I had friends who had worked their way up to management by 18/19. Now you have to stay in full time education or exploitative "apprentiships" until 19.

We had freedom AND responsibility. Nowadays they just have responsibility with no freedom.

It is not down to young people having the wrong attitude, they do not have the OPTIONS I had at their age and they are RIGHT to be disgruntled about it.

Oh notanan2.....so you expect to retire in you 70’s.....well when did you start work ....17/18/19/20/21....my mother started work at 14 in a mill.... my grandmother started work at 12 and worked 10 hours a day...my father started work at 13...worked 10 hours out in all weathers on a horse and cart...6 and a half days a week. What a terrible thought having to work til 70. I’m 68 and still working.... and I started work at 11... on a milk round starting at 4 in the morning , working til 8 going to school. Made me the independent woman I am today. Certainly not a whiner!

Many young people are being raised too dependent these days. They are being systematically dis-empowered by a false sense of entitlement and that their mundane problems will always be solved for them by others. For some, life often ends up teaching them the hard way, but others never grow up.... these are the ones who still expect 'someone else' to bail them out of a serious problem, and 'someone else' to blame when that doesn't happen.

Seniors are vulnerable. It's easier to accuse the elderly of hoarding money and resources that dis-empowered young people mistakenly feel entitled to by virtue of their 'meritorious' existence. They need to understand the concept of 'earning' and that hard work is only part of the equation.....many lack the needed vision to recognize opportunity and that ultimately there's luck....and the fact that life is not always fair.
Lacking the tools they need to succeed in life, they instead get angry and respond negatively towards those who achieve.

Having said that, I also believe that what goes around comes around. Give it another generation or two plus a little bit of attitude adjustment and there's still reason to hope!

Lancslass no reason at all why you need to contact people you know, it is personal choice. I have friends all over the country and in other countries who I don't see very often so we all enjoy updating people with updates of what is happening in our lives and to share amusing stories.

I have no idea where the information comes from for you to get those emails. I have never had one but I have had friend requests on Fb and I decline them if I don't know them or if I don't wish to communicate with them. I have also been known to 'unfriend' someone when I didn't like her opinions. I think that we read too much about abuse on social media which is of course very difficult for teenagers who feel the need to do what their peers do but when we are older we can pick and choose who we 'speak' to on SM,

My mother did all she could to help me with my kids, although she worked into her 70’s , didn’t drive, and lived thirty miles away. She was there when I had my first stroke in my 30’s , came to stay and took on a five year old and a 17 month baby. My husband was and still useless with any domesticity. When I recovered she left us to get on with it. No expectation of reward or even thanks. A proper mum. My mIL on other hand lived 3 miles away and did not once step into our house to wipe a cup up, let alone cook clean or childcare. She was 15 years younger than my mum....and wouldnt lift a finger for me , her son or my kids. Mind you her son is the same . Some families never change whatever the generation, they jump in...do what’s needed and help! Other families are crap, they will watch you struggle and scrape and sometimes sink under the weight of it all! Nothing to do with generations and everything to do with humanity and upbringing.

trisher I would never be so rude as to call someone's opinion 'tosh' therefore I cannot comment on what you think of other people. You must mix with the sort of people I don't have anything to do with so I bow to your superior knowledge and am happy to mix with much nicer people.

My gran never looked after me. Even though we lived with her, at the time, when my brother was born in hospital in the 40's because my Mum was an"older mother", 33. I was sent to a home for six weeks. Mum had other problems and was kept in hospital for six weeks so my new baby brother was put in another care home. I remember going with my Mum to collect him.

Young people today don't know how the other half lived in the 40's and 50's.