witterings on OS life

mumoftwo

Excuse me, no need to rage, we all have choices. I didn't have a well paid job to leave behind and neither has my OH, actually he is blind and is in a job, rather than sitting at home getting benefits, I have worked before we had kids and on and off since I have had the children, one of which has a disability and needs me. We manage because right from the beginning of our married life we decided not to get into debt, to buy a house, car we could afford, we started with buying our council house and upgraded 10 years later, nothing very fancy, no ensuite, or conservatory, but something we could afford. No expensive holidays, usually Holland to stay with family, but it something we chose to do.

You still had a choice, if you wanted a higher paid job you should have made sure you studied for it. I made this choice, I wanted to bring up my own kids and have to do without the big fancy car, holidays but still manage to have a house and car and live within our means.

rosieben

Pennyless_Father wrote: »

...
Please stop going on about how you gave up your really well paid jobs, some of us haven't had the luxury of that choice - we've never had well paid jobs.

Yes, I came on here looking for thrifty tips and I'm now in a right old rage.

I brought up 2 children on a single woman's wage - never got a penny help from their father and I can assure you I know a lot about the real world, like how to feed 3 of us for a weekend on 27p. I never had a job that paid £30k a year, often wondered where the next meal was coming from. And I was and still am a Feminist!

Its unfair to make sweeping generalisations and attack people because their situations. job choices and ideas are different to yours; I don't believe anyone on this thread is actually responsible for your economic situation. Some women have given up highly paid jobs, some decided to stay with their highly paid jobs and good luck to them all!

mardatha

dont get in a rage, just get on with it !

anguk

Pennyless_Father wrote: »

Some of you are putting me in mind of the 1960s weekend hippies, you're the weekend hard up.

Feminists, I've met a few - all highly intelligent, very nice, charity giving women, with not a clue about the real world. They've all had jobs on at least 30k - usually substantially more - and had satisfying careers.

I'm in my 40's and have been with my OH for 25 years, in all that time our household income has never been over 15k. I haven't worked for 23 years, I gave it up when I was pregnant with our eldest, at that time my Oh's wage was about 7k a year.

We managed, yes at times it has been a struggle, we don't have the latest electrical gear (our current tv cost £20 off ebay), we don't have designer clothes and in the last 25 years we've had 3 holidays, 1 week in Scotland 16 years ago when my OH was made redundant then two Sun £9 holidays since then.

Do I feel poor? No. Do I feel hard done by? No. My family has never done without, we may not have had everything we wanted but we have had everything we needed. As others have said it's all about choice. I could have gone out to work and we'd have had more money but it was our choice that I stayed at home to raise our children.

One thing I don't do is worry about what other people have or how much money they've got, all that breeds is bitterness and resentment. I'm happy with my lot and if I wasn't I'd do something to change it.

maryb

I'm sorry if you felt I was being insensitive to your situation. My mother was an infants teacher with three children in the days before equal pay and I grew up far from rich especially as she died when I was 16 and my brother and sister were barely earning enough to keep themselves let alone me as well.

The point I wanted to make was that we have choices now that were usually not available to my mother's generation. Yes some have more choice than others, that will always be the case. Overall, my generation have had more choices than my mother's generation and I hope my daughters will have more choices than my generation. I hope they will make wise choices because at the end of the day we have to take responsibility for our choices. My friend chose to throw away her education and qualifications. I don't expect your heart (or anyone's) to bleed for her.

Edit By the way I would not have called it throwing away if I didn't know she quit because she didn't like her job at least as much as she wanted to be with her children. Who wouldn't think that a yummy mummy lifestyle beats working? But she regrets it now.

mennie

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I can't believe I'm reading this

Maybe Adam Hart-Davis needs to do a new series What has feminism done for us? :rotfl:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

InfamyInfamy

Who needs telly...this threads better than Eastenders! Lol!
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

lesha

Where can I find the Calendar to print off?

Pink.

Hi lesha,

Welcome! :hello:

If it's the Old Style calendar you want, you can find links to it in the first post in this thread:

2010 Old Style Calendar

Pink