Toonpack

It's a deep rooted societal problem IMO and there's a question to be asked around "do people even want kids" my eldest certainly didn't/doesn't and he's 43 now. Leaving aside the financial impacts, as you say, do people even want to settle down, let alone have kids, these days 🤷‍♂️

I know of no-one who thinks/talks that way outside of Tory politicians/radio gobshites tbh. There's hard in different ways, it's not all about financial things, there's stuff like central heating and double glazing versus breaking ice in the bog and ice on the inside walls on the back stairs (am speaking from experience) having to go to the shops irrespective of the weather (fucked on a Sunday if you need anything) versus home delivery same day/next day etc etc etc. On the financial side we were absolutely skint when first married and then couple of years later we had kids which perma-skinted us even as my career progressed. Just as well there was fuck all to spend money on. If you solely look at property sure it's harder now but even back then it wiped you out buying it, and so what it's worth a few hundred grand, that's only realisable when you're dead, there's an awful lot of other stuff that's lightyears better today. Every generation has it tough in different ways IMO.

@sammynb All the best mate, hoping you have a full recovery

I am well aware that pensions are paid by those working today, I paid for pensioners for 45 years. As an aside, I also paid tax to pay off the debt from reparations paid to slave owners when it was abolished - as did anyone who paid tax up to 2014. Again you can't tar everyone with the same brush, how would a shopworker (for example) pile money into a private pension to "not need" the state pension ? Yes older people (particularly down south) vote Tory, I get that but to extrapolate that into wealth redistribution is just a teeny bit of a stretch and don't forget pensioners were contributing working people for at least 35 years to get the state pension. Aye it's a problem but I have no idea how to fix it, short of euthanasia for us old cunts. As for your "anecdotally" as quoted, step back and have a bit of a think because maybe, just maybe, those families eating home made sandwiches actually chose to do that, you know wrap up, go to the seafront (I assume that's where you mean because I see no-one eating sarnies in W/Bay itself) and have what's called a picnic with the kids, if it was very cold I'd guess they'd stay at home. As for the Eggs Benedict, did you go into any of the cafe's and see this or did you imagine it? Because I go for breakfast/brunch, once a week at the coast, with a mate and we have probably just about worked through every cafe down there: Some highlights: Foda - Monkseaton (before it closed down) invariably we were the oldest in there lots of "mums" and tots though. Allards - West Monskeaton - good mix of ages, less tots because it's primarily a bar. Kith and Kin - Park View (lush food but comparatively pricey. always rammed) it's like young mum's central, full of them. Kitchen 91 Cauldwell Lane - cheap and cheerful been twice both times the oldest one's in there - lots of young manual workers in for brekkie though. Earsdon Plants Centre - what a laugh, canny breakfast though but fuck me I felt young in there compared to the tea drinking hordes (which is what they do, they go somewhere and drink tea and cackle). Earl and Eve - Whitley Lodge (last Friday) pretty old clientele although a couple of mums, one table of 6 old dears who did nothing but drink tea and cackle - much to our annoyance, food average, won't be going back. If you want a decent brekkie, Kith and Kin if you can cope with the tots, The Boatyard (Cullercoats) middle aged clientele, Dill and The Bear (w/Bay station) mixed customers and a lush breakfast bagel are the best. Room 308 is canny if you fancy a Turkish breakfast. I will admit I am not averse to an eggs benedict myself, but I would also point out it is, outside pf a plain bacon butty, one of the cheapest menu options in most places which do it. Perhaps you should have said Steak'n'eggs (£18 at Kith and Kin).

Adidas must fucking love us, they're making money they missed out on when they weren't our supplier by flogging remade stuff from last time they were !!!!

Not in doubt, most critiques of our performances totally ignore the fact we're missing both our best fullbacks, who also happen to hugely contribute to our attacking capabilities. We will be cooking soon.

One step at a time, there's always a St Mirren, waiting around the corner, to get hammered by just the right amount.

* Maroon if you please. Anyway it's Sunday and so it's Packers sweatshirt day, otherwise spot on. HHGH !!!!

I can't conceivably be a Tory, I didn't have a nanny.

I'm not insecure at all, I just get mightly peeved when people label a whole fucking generation because of "some" and by some, I mean a few. Housing prices are not cash in hand, it's in bricks and mortar, you sell and buy somewhere else which has also gone up in price, it's not a jackpot. Unless you downsize significantly, which in turn is a reduction in your living standards. Are we (boomers) lucky in respect of proprty, sure, but it wasn't easy and there was shitloads of stuff we didn't have the benefit of that exists today. You go on like they gave houses away. Do you ever stop to consider what your postman/housewife parents went without to afford their £90K house and bring you up ?? Life is tough most of the time. Anyway will leave this before it gets even more heated. Nothing is simple, future generations will do what every generation has done since time immemorial, they'll get through it.

I absolutely did not "wave it all away" people aren't having kids for many. many, reasons and it's NOT solely down to affordability, it's multi-faceted, society has fundamentally changed, not long since, the whole point of existence was get married/have kids, that was your life aim. Women are now "liberated" (as it should be) and have meaningful careers/fuller lives that they don't want to give up and the wages that used to support a one worker household have not kept pace (even back then, for many one wage was not enough) and that's down to the upwards drain of wealth, which has always been there, but these days it's on an industrial global scale. As for "unique challenges" EVERY generation faces their own challenges, if you look at the whole piece around standard of living every generation has it better than the last, the biggest challenge facing the younger generation is going to be climate change and the massed migrations that will bring, together with the fact vast swathes of people are going to be little more than unthinking drones (lies are the new truth see the rise of MAGA/Reform etc.). Regarding "no-one should worry about having kids" - there's never a good time, it's fucking tough (unless you can afford Ewerk's nanny). If you're waiting for the perfect time, it'll never happen. In some ways it's easier to have kids these days because there's maternity/paternity leave and fucking childcare - unheard of when mine were little, and yes it's expensive - why is that ?? Because there's profit to be made. Housing - Whilst I am against the way the rental market runs/is owned I don't get at the basic level why people don't feel they have a roof over their heads when renting. two thirds of people in Germany and Switzerland rent for example. And @Renton who exactly looks down on renters ??? Birth rates are falling everywhere in developed nations, it seems the less developed the higher the birth rates (in Europe that'd be Bulgaria) so the less affluent seem to breed more rapidly than the more affluent. To me that certainly point to it not just being a fiscal issue. And no you didn't single out a single generation, well apart from when you slagged off your parents for "house hopping" and pocketing their £50-£100K as if everyone did it, Oh and a few weeks ago when you stated "I hate boomers" (in this very thread) apart from that, no siree, you didn't. So forgive me if I misconstrued/took your comments as personal.

Oh I have empathy, but I take great exception when the ills of the world are laid at my feet and those of my similarly aged friends who are anything but bathing in Champagne and smoking big cigars. It's the upward sucking of wealth that's the issue.

Who the fuck mentioned council housing 🤷‍♂️

Bollocks.

I know some who did, from my kids generation, well under a rented roof. If you want kids, have kids, there's no easy time, ever.

I did, decades away from home, sunday night (or crack of dawn Monday) to Friday.

Your parents and their property trading profits are the exception, not the rule. I know of no-one in my circle anywhere near that, my best mate is the only one I know who is completely mortgage free and they've lived in the same house 40+ years. You can't tar everyone with the same brush.

It's all down to lack of housing stock and when housing is built it's all bought up by private fucking equity, lots of it from abroad, there's one(at least) house in fucking Holywell owned by an Australian property company. New Estate in Wales recently, only 40% of the houses were bought by private buyers. Wish I'd kept the link. Every generation has it tough in and of it's time, to blame one generation for all the ills of other subsequent ones is preposterous.

Of course it is, but no-one goes down to one wage anymore. Housing is a whole different ballgame.

The knee thing is because the players want it to continue, it's not mandated by any other authority. The boo's would suggest it's still needed.

Why? Because it's not. For starters 12 months PAID maternity leave FFS AND your job kept open for you, but aye it's harder these days 🙄 I know of no-one, of any age, who wanted kids who hasn't had kids, similarly I have never heard anyone say "we'd like kids but can't afford them", it's nothing more than a choice.

Disagree, he'll play an 11 he believes can win the game but he'll rest those who need it.

We missed four, FOUR, Absolute sitters so it's not like were not creating, even when we're sloppy as fuck. No easy games in this league. Onwards and upwards. Big Joe started to look like he's getting back on it as well.

I wouldn't call 2 jobs easy personally.

Easy aye. Which part of his "supplement with a second job" did you miss ?? 🙄