Reality check: Is this the hardest time ever to grow up?

FTBFun

I expect growing up in the 1930s wasn't much cop. First the depression, then 6 years of either getting your home town carpet bombed and/or you then being shot at by the Nazis/Japanese.

Wheezy_2

Really2 wrote: »

Yep, ask me when I was 10, 12 or 14 I thought I would never see 20-30 years old.

Strange, when I was that age, I was more worried to gather the funds for the latest Judas Priest album or tweaking my Honda SS50

Graham_Devon

Really2 wrote: »

Hard time to get a job, yes, easier time to grow up, quiet possibly.

I had my first new push bike at the age of 12 years old, my son had his a the age of 3.

It's all relative, kids have pretty much what they want are are brought up to expect to achive high.

there was a sensible lad on the radio, he was saying how it is drilled in to them that you go to uni and earn well, so they apply for the top jobs when they leave.
He did some TV show and realised he was aiming to high initially and needed to lower his sights and work his way up.

We have told our kids do well in education and you will get a great job.

What we should have said is do well at school get a job and work hard and you will do well.
We seem to forgot about the working bit and how important that is.

We also have seem to forgot not everyone can have a high paid job.

I had my first bike age 4. I don't see the relevance?

But it seems we are back onto the "iphone thing". This isn't about material posessions. It's about financials, housing and jobs.

For every single problem we face, we can suggest things are better, because of technology. Poverty? Oh, well they have iphones. Poverty in Africa? Well, they do have running water in some places, therefore it's better than it used to be. Banks collapsing? Well at least they are not physically collapsing like in the war. Youth's stabbing other youth's to death? Well, at least they didn't face torture and slavery, should think themselves lucky.

As I said, everything can be compared to something. But this isn't about comparisons to material posessions.

lynzpower

What ever happened to Cameron's happiness index? Surely this would have told us if we are happier now than we were last year?

Has this idea fizzled out? haven't heard anything about it for ages?

abaxas

lynzpower wrote: »

What ever happened to Cameron's happiness index? Surely this would have told us if we are happier now than we were last year?

Has this idea fizzled out? haven't heard anything about it for ages?

Nothing is more British than being unhappy all the time, but keeping up the appearance of being.

No point having an index that measures how much someone can lie.

Conrad

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I had my first bike age 4. I don't see the relevance?

But it seems we are back onto the "iphone thing". This isn't about material posessions. It's about financials, housing and jobs.

For every single problem we face, we can suggest things are better, because of technology. Poverty? Oh, well they have iphones. Poverty in Africa? Well, they do have running water in some places, therefore it's better than it used to be. Banks collapsing? Well at least they are not physically collapsing like in the war. Youth's stabbing other youth's to death? Well, at least they didn't face torture and slavery, should think themselves lucky.

As I said, everything can be compared to something. But this isn't about comparisons to material posessions.

In terms of future uncertainty there were plenty of other comparible times - think how you would have felt in 1973 - OPEC crisis, mid est wars, worldwide famine predicted as a certainty, 3 days weeks, strikes, power cuts, worries about immigration which for people then was a new experience they were told would lead to rivers of blood, nuclear armagedon - sorry Graham, this is just the usual psychology at work.

Ok, it possibly is a little more worrying right now, but I can't say so for sure.

Would you agree with the point that people will always say tomorrow looks worse than yesterday?

lynzpower

abaxas wrote: »

Nothing is more British than being unhappy all the time, but keeping up the appearance of being.

No point having an index that measures how much someone can lie.

I am taking part in a European wide study of "happiness" I think they do the indeces yearly. ( I just started last year) #

The questions are not much different from other surveys:

On the scale of 1-10 how happy are you right now as regards to:

My job
health
money
etc

Questions are straightforward with no bias.

Online ones like this though are intrinsically biased so the difficulty is how to make sure you take a representative sample.

Tiddlywinks

I heard a young guy phone into James Whale (London radio show) just after the riots complaining about the "poverty" where he lived - he was talking about the lack of "tech" as a reason for kicking off. He genuinely believed that not having Sky tv meant that you were impoverished. He seemed to think that having "stuff" was an absolute right and that it shouldn't just come to those that work for it.

It was obvious that he believed that he needed and deserved the big car, the plasma screen and the latest iphone. When asked about jobs he said that he didn't work because he wasn't going to work for minimum wage as he had too much self respect for that.

Hearing that show just made me mad beyond belief - when did kids start to believe that they deserved everything without working for it?

Cleaver

Reality check: Is this the hardest time ever to grow up?

No. .........

atush

I don't know where those kids grew up and if they had parents? Mine get 5 quid a week and have to do chores for it. they think I am mean lol.

when my 17 yr old wanted an Ipad for xmas, I said no it is overbudget. So he agreed to pay half (from money he earned when he set up his own business). So he got it. the other one want's a 600 quid guitar but has no earnings so can't get it- tough.

Spoiling kids, and not teaching them about work and respect for others has brought us where we are as regards youth behaviour. They have to learn about work and the self respect and gains they can make by working hard. and if the parents won't do it, maybe they shouldn't be allowed to parent.