As a parent...

And as a parent to a young family.

I ask myself, what world have I fetched them into,
It's such a scary place.

 

It used to be worse. I suspect here was a good chance that the majority of our ancestors brought their kids in to abject poverty and depravation.

 

You ok lad

 

oops...meant "there".

 

It's only scary if you want to make it such.
Take 'calculated' risks with a bit of common sense and it's ok.
I'm at that stage now wi my lad. You're damned if you do etc etc

 

A couple of hundred years ago, our kids would have either been working dahn t'pit or married off before most of them leave school now. We just have to try and make it better for the next generation and hope they do the same for the one after that...

 

You bring them up to the best of your abilities, teach them right from wrong and, hopefully, they live long and happy lives.

 

Kev b, I'm a father of 3 girls aged 20, 18 and 3. (Yes there's still plenty of life in they old dog yet) and I've often thought that. However, providing the care and honesty they deserve will stand them in good stead. The main things that worry me for our future generations and (I truly don't want to turn this into a political thread) is the way Education and Health are going. Always tried to preach to them that money is not the be all and end all.

 

I've got two grandsons aged 13 and 4. I've often thought about the world they are growing up in, and there is no doubt that it can be a dangerous one. However, in my view the world always has been dangerous, and we are lucky that in many, many ways we are living in the times that we are. Looking at the kind of lives my parents and grandparents had, I feel lucky. My Dad left school aged 12 to go down the pit. All my relatives had to fight in two world wars as well as in Korea, Cyprus and Malaya. I've never had to put on a uniform and risk killing or being killed. In the 1920s my grandparents lost a baby to a childhood illness that is now commonly cured and means a few days off school. Think about what that must have been like. I'm not a happy clapper by any means, but I do think that we read far too many "news" papers and we get a very one-sided view of life. Perhaps our political masters like it like that - it used to be called the Mushroom Grower's method of control; keep them in the dark and shovel **** on them. I'm trying to teach my grandsons to look out for the risks and pitfalls and to navigate round them, just like I did for their mother. She's just passed 40 and is still in one piece and enjoying life.

 

We're at a fork in the road at the moment, on the one hand you shouldn't believe everything the media tells you about the world, but there is definitely a threat somewhere.

 

2 world wars, the cold war... always been a dangerous world - problem is now it's a danger of George & Tony's making. We needed something to scare the masses and keep them in check, and by their actions in Iraq they've got one.

It works perfectly - they can scare us and introduce all sorts of wonderful surveillance legislation to keep us thinking every brown person we see wants to blow us up.

 

No you were right first time !

come on Barnsley !

 

My concern for the youth of today is how the hell they find work and afford a home once they've grown up. That's the scary part and it'll only get worse.

 

No it isn't. This is what rolling 24 hours news does to society.

Watch the thread about the kid with cancer playing for Villereal. Don't let the 0.00001% spoil it for you.

 

Yup, that's the real problem. Kids are much safer nowadays. All the statistics show that crime is falling and has been for years (whichever party is in power before anyone goes off on a political rant), it's just that the media coverage of it has continued to escalate. Show the public that people are getting killed, mugged and raped 24 hours a day on an endless loop and it's no surprise they think the world is a scary place. However, youth unemployment is at record levels, wages for young adults are awful, while house prices, despite the economic crash, are still way out of reach for many and that's their real curse.

The average house price in the UK is £265,000. The average salary is £26,500. Mortgage companies will generally only lend 3 times your salary. So that's just the £180,000 you need to find for a deposit. To get an average house. How the **** are you supposed to do that?

And let's be reight, a salary of £26,500 is way above what most people get. The national average is boosted considerably by what the fat cats on £millions earn. Minimum wage gives you a salary of just over £13,000. Anyone know where you can buy a house for £39,000? And you can't rent, council houses have gone, any available rightly go the most vulnerable, usually people with kids, while private renting is run on a buy to let system meaning tenants have to pay more per month than if they had a mortgage. They can't afford the mortgage so how do they afford the rent that's higher?

London and the south east bring up the national average of house prices too like, but if you ignore those areas it's still £211,000.

Our children are ****** and not because someone is going to kill them, but because they'll not be able to afford a home until their parents die. They might never even get a job.

 

Bang on, and depressingly so.

Already started a pension for the little'un and a fund for Uni education (if she wants to go) because I'm kidding myself if I think the state will have any contribution to make when she's that age. Funny how we can't afford 'normal' stuff but can for the banks. Hey ho.

 

This.

I'm only 26 but found part time work whilst at college easy to come by. I was supported whilst at college because of my parents circumstances and whilst I f.cked it up I got opportunities.

My brother is 19. No financial support at college. Dropped out. Jumped at an apprenticeship in a job he wasn't that arsed in. It was ****. No support, a basic way for:

1. A training provider to get loadsa cash from the government for no real training
2. A company to get loadsa labour for next to nowt

How long is it going to take for him to save for a deposit on a two up, two down? F.cking ages. And then he's not guaranteed to get a mortgage without credit history. How do get credit history? Get in to debt. Vicious circle which is ridiculous.

We're not f.cked. Our kids are. And your kids are even more f.cked if you don't bring 'em up in Barnlsey. For all it's ills, there's still some relatively affordable homes. Don't take the piss/slag it off and then take the benefits of a house that cost you £25k 10 years ago. Think about that the next time someone starts a thread on scrotes in Town centre.

 

I remember thinkg exactly that when my daughter was born

she is now 39. The world has always been a scary place. Some parts scarier than others. You could live in one of the many areas of conflict, with poverty, no education, no good sanitation...... aye Dodworth ! just be thankful matey for small mercies.

 

People forget about the savers as well. The savers rates need to be five to six percent to be at the point before the credit crunch. Get back to this and the kids are fecked trying to get on the housing ladder. Dont get back to this and more people will have spent their savings and later life will have to be funded with nowt to hand down to the kids.

 

The scariest bit of all this

Is that Dyson is only 26. You didn't mention your 50 mile, 2000 copy paper round in your post.