Nice People Thread Number 10 -the official residence of Nice People

zagubov

tomterm8 wrote: »

It's certainly true that University is far more expensive, but if you go back thirty years almost no one went to university.

So, I'd put it down to expectations (not just the individual or families, but society expects people to be more qualified than they really need to be for a lot of jobs)

Edit: Travel costs are essentially voluntary. I didn't go abroad until after my sixteenth birthday, when I did so with money I earned myself. It's a choice people make.

That's true- it was about 10-16% depending on where you lived. I don't know how many people went to polytechnic but probably less than went to uni there were fewer of them.

SingleSue

PasturesNew wrote: »

I learnt the small recorder at school, got one of those when I was about 8. I had piano lessons for about a year until we moved as they were 12.5p + a cheese sandwich from a really old bloke (aged about 80, he'd turn up on his bike and had a flat cap). I played the neighbour's piano, then they sold it to us for £5 and I got the lessons.

Did one sport outside of school, my dad's choice/passion .... hated it. Did that from age 10 to about 15.... dad/sis were already going, and so I was dragged along to do it too; too complex to have more than one activity in the family.

Never went abroad; our holidays cost about £14 and were in a caravan in a farmer's field, not on a site; chemical toilet next to the van and gas mantles for lighting. Days were spent sitting on the beach if dry and traipsing round the town if wet. Evenings were in the caravan, with a once a week visit to the local pub for a coke in the children's room.

No horses, obviously.

We were "posh" as dad made us a TV, so we had a telly and we had some carpets on the floors. We also had a car, from when I was aged about 6, cars cost dad £40 as I remember him saying when I was about 20 that the total cost of his cars to date had been £40.

As a child, I took up a lot of mum and dad's disposable money through my dancing. The term fees were not too bad but the clothes needed for the shows and the cost of them, was eye watering. They finally called a stop when I was 15 because the last show had almost bankrupted them, I had 7 outfits and each one cost about £50 to make...back in 1985!

I also had guitar, horn, cornet and trumpet lessons which had to be paid for, would have loved to have had piano lessons (as would my parents) but the money was just not there and there was no way I would have given up ballet for piano lessons. Mum and dad still regret the decision not to send me for piano lessons.

We didn't holiday abroad, our holidays were camping ones at the cheapest sites my parents could find which also had activities for the children...they always chose brilliantly, my memories from those holidays are amazing.

I did have the horses, or the access to them anyway, had riding lessons at about the age of 11 or 12 and rode every year on holiday at a wonderful camping site which had horses on site.

As for mine, James is not musically talented, so no music lessons there. He has had riding lessons and has ridden horses although not in recent years. His activties were more cubs, scouts, swimming lessons/club (he is a very very good competitive swimmer and wons a fair few titles at county level) air cadets, army cadets and karate.

Middle had some music lessons for the drums but found them too restricting and time consuming, hence me buying his first drum kit...he moved on much quicker then. He went to cubs for a while but he didn't much like the camping aspect of it, he also went to a swimming club but again, wasn't amazingly keen (he got thrown out of swimming lessons at our local leisure centre!). For all his other musical instruments, he is entirely self taught.

Youngest tried Beavers, didn't like it. He tried gymnastics, completely freaked out because of the acoustics in the gym hall. Did well at swimming club but couldn't cope with the noise in competitions, the amount of people in the changing rooms afterwards, so had several complete meltdowns and it was decided the best thing would be not to force him. He didn't like horses as they moved and he couldn't predict when they would but he did have a few lessons.

SingleSue

lostinrates wrote: »

Actually, I'm not keen on Catteries either, but there are excellent pet sitters. I have no problem with that as a solution.

I've found a brilliant cattery just up the road from us who look afer Jasper just like he was their own.

He always comes back from there well fed, looking very healthy and happy.

SingleSue

LydiaJ wrote: »

Does that mean that today's UK kids have better survival chances than today's kids from all other countries? Or just that the UK is one of a number of countries currently sharing the best ever survival rate? Either way, it's good news.

With retrospect, the way I travelled as a kid is quite scary. As an adult, I came to think of seatbelts as "what you do because it's the sensible thing" but they became something I'm passionate about when a policeman explained to me that my kids would be dead if they hadn't been wearing theirs that day 4 years ago. Apologies if I'm repeating myself, but any NP with influence over any kids, do make sure that some adult in their life has taught them they must always always keep them done up.

I had an incident when I was a teenager where the lack of a seat belt being worn actually saved my life. If I had been wearing one, I would not have been able to duck out of the way of the blooming great thing that came swinging through the back window in time because the seat belt would have stopped me moving so quickly and so low and I would at best, had a completely caved in skull, or at worse, been decapitated.

That said, I NEVER go without a seat belt now and neither do my boys. What happened to me was a one in a million thing, the risk of going without a seat belt far outways the risk of that happening again.

SingleSue

silvercar wrote: »

Even with childcare there is a lack of career progression. Unless you delegate a lot of the child rearing to outside help, there are times when you prioritise your family over your career. Luckily a second career evolved for me that I have been able to work around the family, but it has meant taking a completely different path.

In pure financial terms the most expensive things in our lives has been the boys. Not regretting it, because money isn't the answer to life, just saying.

For me it is loss of earnings.....I was a high rate tax payer before James came along and then, just when I had climbed part way up the tree again, working became impossible because of the needs of the boys.

But I don't regret having them, not ever!

SingleSue

tomterm8 wrote: »

It's always worth checking out the clubcard vouchers for "special" days out. They can make them substantially cheaper...

Very true, unfortunately, the organisation of doing one of these days is also a factor. I would need an additional carer to help with the boys as I would have to spend a lot of the day trying to keep youngest calm and not going into meltdown whilst also watching out for middle son who although 17, has difficulties around stranger danger (in other words, he is very naive about other peoples intentions)

Plus, I would need to shop at Tesco more regularly to get the points in the first place! :rotfl:

PasturesNew

When seatbelts first came in, I never used to wear them.... then, for the next few years I'd only put it on when going through town (as the chances of being caught were increased) - and then I moved onto tucking it under my armpit.

The problem with seatbelts is they don't come over my shoulder - they cut into my neck, the middle of my neck. If I were in an accident it'd probably break my neck. They are uncomfortable and leave me with a "lovebite" after every long journey.

PasturesNew

SingleSue wrote: »

Plus, I would need to shop at Tesco more regularly to get the points in the first place! :rotfl:

And spend a fortune on food... nobody ever mentions the total spend to get these points.

I've been using my nectar card at every opportunity for over a year, I think it's got £2 on it.

tomterm8

SingleSue wrote: »

Plus, I would need to shop at Tesco more regularly to get the points in the first place! :rotfl:

Depends how chavy one is... I've heard stories of people who don't go to tesco collecting clubcard points by picking up unused receipts and going to the customer service desk.

But you'd have to be pretty tight on Martins tightwad test to do that:)

poet123

Undoubtedly seat belts are vital but if you are short they may not protect you as much. I am 5ft 1" and they cut into my neck too. So, I am often guilty of tucking it under my arm.