They do see to be quite angry, although not all of them. They have no idea what it was like to be growing up in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. We lived uncomfortable lives compared with the standards of today, without washing machines, refrigerators, central heating, telephones and cars to name some of the things taken for granted now. Many of us remember with rueful amusement ice on the insides of our bedroom windows on winter mornings. We regularly wore hand-me-down clothes and had one winter coat every few years. Girls were advised to become nurses, not doctors, secretaries, not entrepreneurs, assistants, not bosses and I can remember being turned down for a job because I was a woman. They have no idea of the kinds of lives we led. They have no idea about paying 14–15% interest on mortgages, but, yes, the deposits were easier to accumulate if you saved. Yes, we did have advantages that they don't have. For example, those who were fortunate – and clever enough because only a small percentage of the brightest could go to university – didn't pay tuition fees.
And how many of us have made "loans" to our children that we know will never be paid back. Some of us in fortunate positions have been able to help the next generation a little more. I bought my daughter a house for her 21st birthday and still find my bank account being plundered now she is quite a bit older. My parents and the rest of my extended family mucked in to help me. I do the same for my daughter, including many hours of childcare that wasn't part of my young womanhood.
Each generation has to make its own way. Each set of parents does its best to help. Perhaps we boomers were not as grateful as we should have been, but I don't think we blamed our parents for the hardships and difficulties we found in our adult lives.
