Vent - My Mother (and her generation?)

seaspray10

missbiggles1 wrote: »

What our generation did have was living in the shadow of The Bomb and the fear of nuclear war breaking out.

Sadly, I don’t think that threat has disappeared.

Redlady.....

seaspray10 wrote: »

Sadly, I don’t think that threat has disappeared.

Being 12ish, and naive, at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, we used to sing a song to the tune of running bear..................

Kennedy is gonna drop one
Kruschev will do the same
Kennedy will drop another
And we'll all go up in flames..........:eek:

seven-day-weekend

missbiggles1 wrote: »

So did all the people who didn't buy our house.:o

I think it's the question of radiators that counts for some, people would've been happy if our multi fuel stove had run radiators.

Maybe. When we were selling our house, some of the viewers asked if the woodburner ran the rads. It didn't , but we also had gas central heating.

I must admit, I would not want storage heaters, I think they are very inflexible and give out all their heat when you don't need it, and it's not instant heat either. This is why my son changed his for electric rads.

In our house in Spain, we had no mains gas, and we hadn't got the outside space to store either large gas bottles or an oil tank for bottled gas or oil central heating. Our only option for any sort of ch was electric storage heaters so we just didn't bother. We did as the Spanish did and had a logburner for the main room and either portable calor gas fires (we had four!) or plug-in electric heaters for the others. We just heated the room we were in. We had a calor gas boiler that just heated the water.

seaspray10

Redlady..... wrote: »

Being 12ish, and naive, at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, we used to sing a song to the tune of running bear..................

Kennedy is gonna drop one
Kruschev will do the same
Kennedy will drop another
And we'll all go up in flames..........:eek:

Ha! Ha! A sense of humour (thank god for that).
Will send you a “thank you” as you made me smile!
BTW, I’m new on here so still trying to work things out, one of which is why do we refer to people as OP’s?

seaspray10

maman wrote: »

OP's view is obviously coloured by her own experiences but you're right there are 'good' and 'bad' examples in every generation and it's not helpful to stereotype.


It makes me angry that there are people in the mother's generation who are claiming benefits because they didn't make adequate or any provision for retirement. I know some of them personally who instead chose to spend all disposable income. Of course I know that's not all pensioners on benefits but they do exist.


Similarly (and probably because) many people of OP's generation were brought up with high expectations so they aren't satisfied with making do and waiting for all the trappings of a comfortable life. While I know many older people who started their first homes with hand-me-downs and kept them for years, many younger people want it all and they want it now and sadly much of it on credit.:(

My Nan was always buying things on credit, it’s not a new thing at all.


Wigfalls was one of the busiest stores in town, where you could buy (and I use this term loosely) just about any appliance you wanted and pay on the never, never!

mumps

Redlady..... wrote: »

Being 12ish, and naive, at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, we used to sing a song to the tune of running bear..................

Kennedy is gonna drop one
Kruschev will do the same
Kennedy will drop another
And we'll all go up in flames..........:eek:

I was at a Catholic primary school at the time, the Nuns had us all praying before lunchtime and told us if the Cubans didn't back down it would be world war 3 that afternoon. We were all quite excited, I don't know what we were thinking of. I remember running home for lunch and my gran was there, she never visited during the week and I couldn't understand why she was there but now I realise she didn't want to be alone and I am sure me running in shouting, "are we at war yet?" did nothing to settle her nerves.

NewShadow

seaspray10 wrote: »

...one of which is why do we refer to people as OP’s?

Hi SeaSpray,

OP means original/opening post/poster

If you're new to forums, this might be helpful: http://www.mumsnet.com/info/acronyms

It's a different site, but the acronyms are mostly the same.

missbiggles1

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Maybe. When we were selling our house, some of the viewers asked if the woodburner ran the rads. It didn't , but we also had gas central heating.

I must admit, I would not want storage heaters, I think they are very inflexible and give out all their heat when you don't need it, and it's not instant heat either. This is why my son changed his for electric rads.

In our house in Spain, we had no mains gas, and we hadn't got the outside space to store either large gas bottles or an oil tank for bottled gas or oil central heating. Our only option for any sort of ch was electric storage heaters so we just didn't bother. We did as the Spanish did and had a logburner for the main room and either portable calor gas fires (we had four!) or plug-in electric heaters for the others. We just heated the room we were in. We had a calor gas boiler that just heated the water.

They're useless when you're out at work but I've been thinking of putting one in on the landing where there's no heating as it'll be easier than adding a radiator. When you're at home during the day I think they can be useful.

missbiggles1

Petra_70 wrote: »

So what? Why SHOULDN'T they spend all - or most of - their disposable income?

You can't take it with you!

Imagine saving and scrimping for your retirement; never buying new cars, or going abroad, or just squandering on frivolous, fun things, so you can 'save' for your retirement, and then you die at 66?!

What's more, what the hell do you think your national insurance contributions go towards? Many people are entitled to claim that pension from the state. The state pension is not a benefit you know! And many pensioners are entitled to housing benefit too, whether it gets up your nose or not.

I mean, for all YOU know, many of these people you are berating, have probably paid 5 times more tax than YOU have!

Frankly, you sound a bit bitter.

Actually, it is.

NewShadow

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Actually, it is.

Sorry, but while I agree it's technically a contribution based benefit, I have to agree there is an entitlement and it's not good to call it a 'benefit'.

But...

Anyone retired now is (on average) taking more out of the (NI) pot than they paid in (partly due to inflation and partly because the forecasts were very wrong on projected life expectancy).

Plus, there seems to be a misconception that there's a big pot of money sitting somewhere, like a savings account - Sorry, but it's all been spent already!

I'm just waiting for this:

“For Generation Y, aged between 25 and 34, the message from the Government ought to be that the state pension is not viable full stop. But, of course, no politician can say this publicly.”

Millions of taxpayers under the age of 45 faced steep tax increases and would have to wait longer to collect a state retirement income, he claimed, while the under-35s should prepare for the state pension to be scrapped. "

Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “It may feel like you’re paying National Insurance to pay a pension later, but you are not. There isn’t a pot of money sat there, instead your pension will be paid by taxpayers of the future.

“This makes the state pension something of a Ponzi scheme and with the population ageing, it is coming under huge strain. At least it’s backed by the state, which offers some hope that future payments are secure.”

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/521244/State-pension-pot-empty-within-year