The Age of No Retirement-I hate this name!

Thank you jess

With regard to SAHMs, I seem to remember that circa 1987, Legal and General estimated that the financial contribution made by a SAHM, in terms of the domestic work which would have to be paid for in the event of the demise of a SAHM, at the time was about £19K.
Being an insurance company, they would tend to overestimate, but even so, it was more than my DH was then earning as a professional engineer.

kitty you can take your tongue out of your cheek - I'm not getting at you either - my gran excelled with a needle and thread and she eventually made a career out of it, late in life. She was one of the first people in our area to perfect doing embroidery on a sewing machine - I still remember how my granddad adapted the embroidery frame so that she could fit it under the foot of her Elna by carving a chunk out of it by hand.

Because of her prowess and excellence (she would win prizes at the annual agricultural show), the local sewing machine shop appointed her as demonstrator (she used to sit in the window embroidering and her 'free style' approach was much admired) and she gave lessons in the shop. She was very proud of and happy in that part time job. She was also the town's most sought after "invisible mender".

Silverfish - you seem to be extremely judgmental and I take exception to your description of SAHM. As you will have guessed, I am very proud of my SAH status and the contribution I have made to my family and also to the wider community.

Read Elegran's posts and think again! Not everyone can, or wants, to be a SAHM but I stayed at home as my contribution to our family 'team' and I'm fairly sure my brain still functions.

Now, you must excuse me while I go and sip tea and embroider tray cloths!

I agree with Jane - this is a PR initiative by a company. They want to have a conference to publicise themselves and they want other people to pay.
Thrust of conference seems to be that society is losing out on skills and knowledge when people retire - which is a valid point. But younger people might, understandably, see this from the point of view of older people blocking jobs.
The title is silly for all kind of reasons.
I do not think GN should be supporting this.
Obviously difficult to discuss this issue as people's individual circumstances vary so very much, as do their attitudes to work and whether they would like to continue, or need to continue.

Unfortunately there are those of us Tegan who had no choice but to go to work when our babies were a month old and I was one of them. I had my son at 18 and sadly had no choice. There was no extended maternity pay and my job was kept open for me for 1 month in a huge office that processed the accounts for various supermarkets. It certainly wasn't a decision I made because I wanted to it was a simple case of work, go onto benefits, or starve. I didn't have anyone to "keep me" Likewise my DiL was back at work within 4 weeks albeit with slightly reduced hours.

Silverfish there are many on GN who have had ( & still do) very interesting, high powered, stressful and demanding paid employment. Through that we learned that it takes all sorts to make the world go round. I had the choice to stay at home or return to work when my babies were small and I made a choice to be an active home based parent for a few years until they went to school. In that time I learned a great deal. I became a gardener, cook, seamstress, decorator as well as having a huge amount of fun with my children. We are all different. I returned to paid work (having also done various voluntary or home based jobs when being a f/t parent) and had a successful career. Semi-retired now and able to choose how much work I do. A great luxury.
Women who had the choice, because partners earned sufficient for their needs, to be a full time house keeper and parent and did so probably had time to rad newspapers, books, listen to interesting debates on the radio, go toAdult Ed classes and learn new skills, walk in the park in the sun whist i was sweltering in work etc etc. Don't be jealous. It makes you bitter.

There are far too many variables here for there to be any conclusion drawn surely? If I take my group of friends that I have known for many many years none of us were sahm full time - some went out to work part-time, some full time whilst the children were small. All worked full time once the children were older. Now we are all in receipt of our pensions, some of us are doing voluntary work, some part-time paid work and one nothing at all. I enjoy the company of all of them - they've remained bright, articulate, interested in the world - and always have been. Those of us who still do paid work do so because we really enjoy it as do those who are doing voluntary work. I think the really great thing is that we are lucky to be doing what we choose to do

Ana Thanks for the link. I don't usually look at those things on the right hand side of the page

Back to the OP. I'm afraid I agree with Trisher and others who have said they dislike the term 'Age of no-retirement'. I too am enjoying every minute of my retirement. I am equally sure that my brain didn't atrophy during the years I spent as a SAHM.

I've looked at the link - can anyone explain to me what 'Britain's first ever national debate & exhibition to discover the value in society in which people are living and working longer' actually means?
Am I missing something here? What value in society?

GNHQ Why are you supporting this? It is being organised by an organisation called Trading Times https://www.tradingtimes.org.uk which appears to be nothing more than an employment agency.
Not only that, they want people to donate to fund the cost of their conference or whatever it is.
Come on, GNHQ. We weren't born yesterday

Or a under stimulated brain jings

A favourite aunt of mine was a newly qualified teacher when she married my uncle and went to live with him on his farm in a remote rural area. Growing up I was impressed with how industrious she was with various cottage industries - selling vegetables she had grown at the local market (keeping meticulous stock and financial records), teaching the children of the farm workers, running a basic clinic for them too, and finishing her doctorate in philosophy much the same time as her eldest finished school. Oh yes of course she was a stay at home mum who didn't go out to work.

Silverfish, you are talking through your hat.

Sorry for the 'e' there. #bedtime

Silverfish, how are you with a sense of humour? Managed to develope that at all?

Go on! Have a little laugh at yourself.

I must apologise for my previous post - it was just a homeopathic dose of one's own medicine!

silverfish honestly your asking for trouble by being so derogatory about women who stay at home. Many people have been imprisoned in solitary confinement for many years and their brains don't turn to mush. If a women stays at home and allows herself to become in your words 'a cabbage brain' then unless there is some form of domestic abuse going on then that's through choice. There are many ways of of stimulating your brain and you don't need to go out to work to do it. Even when I didn't work I had my own opinions. I was never the sort who'd say" my husband says" on the other hand I know a very respected school teacher who's worked all her life. Who tells me I can't come and visit because my husband " doesn't like me to travel on my own on the motorway. I feel like shouting " who cares what your husband likes or doesn't like" I suspect that the husband can be very controlling and she wants a quiet life. Who am I to judge.

It's just as well we are not all the same, or no-one would want to look after children all day, no child-minders, nursery nurses, pre-school teachers, primary teachers, secondary teachers, paediatric hospital nurses . . .

There's a thought, now. These people are working for a living. Do they all have cabbage brains too, with all that contact with children? How on earth do they do their jobs!

I have just seen on another thread that your career is reflexology - is rubbing feet more stimulating than washing dishes?! Just asking.

I think that silverfish is just trying to wind people up. It is not really possible that anyone could hold such bigoted views.

I know many people who stayed at home to look after their children, and they set about opening their little ones' minds to what is out there in the world and at the same time expanded their own horizons. Silverfish clearly never gave herself that a chance - just imagined that being a mother was about domesticity.

During the years that I was at home with my children, a cursory glance at our house would have indicated the low priority that domesticity played in my life. Believe it or not, I learned a great deal from my children, both by learning alongside them by following their interests and helping them to find answers to the questions they asked; and by observing their passion for the world and rekindling a sense of wonder.

All my experiences as a mother stood me in good stead when I returned to my career. I am sorry that you missed out on all this silverfish. It is your loss.

I could be wrong but I think that Silverfish has said in the past that she likes winding people up [is that not the case Silverfish?] which is what she's doing here. But , then again, I have the memory span of a goldfish, having spent so many years staying at home with my family.

Maybe your brain was like a cabbage while yo looked after your children, Silverfish. Mine was very active. Perhaps I was lucky to have that type of brain.

Well there you go, I actually think that looking down on people who don't work is rude. Quite a few Gnetters may not of done paid employment, and ...you look down on them

Newist, you are demeaning yourself by being so rude. have you ever had responsibilities. I have said several times that someone who has the stimulation of going to work regularly must have more informed opinions than someone who has the daily challenge of what to cook or to do the washing/ironing etc.

Have you never heard of cabbage brain which is what many women feel like when looking after kids all day.

Jinglebell, you don't need to he he he, have you worked or had responsibilities.

If a woman says to me 'my husband says ...' then I will ask her if she has a mind of her own.

He he he!!!

Ouch!

Silverfish if in your opinion, only woman that work can have intelligent opinions, what went wrong in your case

I stayed at home while my children were small (in the 70's) because I couldn't afford to pay for childcare. I didn't feel stifled or held back in any way, because I have a mind and a brain! I read. DH worked at 2 jobs (both quite mind-numbing, come to think of it, but this is what he did to keep the family clothed and fed). Once the children were a bit older I was able to get into work/college, etc, and it was easier to find childcare (mainly friends - we all helped each other out that way). Some of the jobs I did in the early years of getting into employment were actually dull - and I have to say, were mind-numbing, if you consider that sometimes the main topic was how expensive soap powder/mince/margarine was in this or that shop. The only type of work that was open to me at that time was factory work and heads were down at all times, trying to make enough money to make a difference at home again. So - I suppose I may have been better at home, in that case, Silverfish, because the people I worked with were working flat-out, trying to earn a bob or two extra, and there wasn't any time (or inclination), to discuss matters of the day, the state of the country etc. I know I was capable of something more mind-stretching, but it wasn't available to me then.
Perhaps you needed the stimulus of working, Silverfish - I didn't. Before I went back out to work I had the imagination to be able to understand the reason for the strikes of the early 70's, by reading and discussing the problems that the country faced with like-minded intelligent friends. Meanwhile, my DH contributed to my lifestyle by paying enough taxes in his two jobs to fund it.