The world is changing

[Breedlove]

I don't want to stir up a Rant , this morning I heard the average college student graduates from college with a 35K debt . Now talking with my neighbor boy ( great kid ) he has done his first two years at a community college waiting to be accepted to Rice . He tells me all of the kids are getting credit cards so they can afford spring break . I asked how much spring break costs , he said at least 2000,00 . Times have changed .

This is my opinion because a lot of these kids have not worked to this point in life and have run a debt . Tell me what they want next ? LOL

 

[2017ish]

I don't want to stir up a Rant , this morning I heard the average college student graduates from college with a 35K debt . Now talking with my neighbor boy ( great kid ) he has done his first two years at a community college waiting to be accepted to Rice . He tells me all of the kids are getting credit cards so they can afford spring break . I asked how much spring break costs , he said at least 2000,00 . Times have changed .

This is my opinion because a lot of these kids have not worked to this point in life and have run a debt . Tell me what they want next ? LOL

Ummm, $2000?!?. Not all the kids at Rice. I doubt Son 2 spent that much on all breaks combined in his 4 years there (graduated in '12, I think?). His gal may have--but she would sometimes fly home to see her mother (in Santiago, Chile), which ate some dollars.

 

[street]

I didn't know kids had a choice any way in my family. When the grass needed cut my dad said to do it and of course there was no excuses or other discussion on it. Sometimes he said to do the elderly neighbors lawn also so that is what we did. I'm not saying we were better then anyone else what I'm saying is it was part of teaching and our duty to help.

 

[Cobra9777]

My parents paid a small allowance in exchange for mowing and several other chores around the house. At 16, I got a job at a fast food place, but I also continued the mowing and chores. I never had a car of my own until 3rd year of college. But during high school, my brother and I shared a beat-up VW bug that our Mom had driven when we were young kids.

Our kids worked summers FT during high school and college, occasionally PT during the school year. We bought them inexpensive used cars and paid for insurance, but ongoing use of the car was conditioned upon GPA and other things. We gave them laptops and cell phones as gifts, but we never gave them cash spending money. So if they wanted the freedom and independence that all teenagers seem to want, they had to work.

 

[aja8888]

My husband .................(snip)....Now he can't/won't cook anything except scrambled eggs.

Wow, I wish I could pull that one off!

 

[aja8888]

We had to grind our own sand from large granite boulders.

We had to dig in the hard soil just to get to the boulders, then lift them out with rope that we made from old rags!

 

[Nemo2]

We had to dig in the hard soil just to get to the boulders, then lift them out with rope that we made from old rags!

You had rags?

 

[Teacher Terry]

My 3 boys were allowed to have a p.t. job as long as they kept their grades up. We gave them an allowance and they rode the bus to school. We had an old extra car that we would let them drive sometimes. They all had chores. I agree that many kids today are entitled and spoiled.

 

[Walt34]

My husband didn't have indoor chores growing up. Now he can't/won't cook anything except scrambled eggs. DS knows how to cook. Knowing how to take care of yourself is important.

That reminds me of my condition when I got my first apartment. Except for frying/scrambling eggs, if it didn't come out of a can or box I had no idea of what to do with it. While I'm certainly no gourmet cook, now at least there's little chance of my dying of malnutrition or starvation.

The year after I graduated HS in 1968 they took the old standard Home Economics class for girls (boys weren't allowed in) and renamed it Bachelor Survival with the identical curriculum. I was so eager to be on my own I would have signed up for that class in a heartbeat.

 

[RobbieB]

I don't see the world changing at all.

Just see a bunch of grumpy old men complaining about young people.

Same as it ever was.

 

[travelover]

............Just see a bunch of grumpy old men complaining about young people.............

Don't be sexist. There are grumpy old women here, too.

 

[HFWR]

I don't want to stir up a Rant , this morning I heard the average college student graduates from college with a 35K debt . Now talking with my neighbor boy ( great kid ) he has done his first two years at a community college waiting to be accepted to Rice . He tells me all of the kids are getting credit cards so they can afford spring break . I asked how much spring break costs , he said at least 2000,00 . Times have changed .

This is my opinion because a lot of these kids have not worked to this point in life and have run a debt . Tell me what they want next ? LOL

Who in their right mind would give broke, unemployed college students a credit card?

 

[NYEXPAT]

It all changed when the definition of "Dealin" in college, meant selling computers out of your dorm room.

 

[haha]

I don't see the world changing at all.

Just see a bunch of grumpy old men complaining about young people.

Same as it ever was.

The world always changes, nothing new about this. As regards jobs for teenagers, I was advised by an uncle who owned a sand and gravel and concrete business. He said "never do anything just for money, if you can help it. Always try to learn something useful while you are working."

Sometimes I followed this, sometimes I just wanted money for immediate spending. I never tried to save a lot of money for college, as I thought I was better off trying to get more scholarship money, whether gift or loans, and grades led to more scholarship money.

I told my sons the same, try to avoid teenager jobs, try to get jobs using professional skills. And they did, and it has worked spectacularly well for them.

To some extent I think living cheap while young may even be negative. There is surely the danger factor. The first responsibility of a parent it to get his kids to adulthood alive and well. Some of the jobs being put forward on this thread as good for kids IMO are not good, and never were good. If we were in the middle of the Irish potato famine, sure, time to take big chances, cause we are on a course for starvation. But that is not today.

Ha

 

[skipro33]

Ever seen the TV show called, "That 70's show?" I'm Red Foreman. Or was. I've mellowed into the guy on "Last Man Standing". DW and I watch that show and she can't stop laughing and shouting, "that's YOU!" Ha!

My kids saw the movie, "Grand Torino". They asked if I seen it, I said no. They said it's pret near me portrayed. Right down to the 45 tucked into my belt.

Here's where I think things have taken a turn (for better or worse?) No draft. Conscript young men into military. Put them on a flight deck, in an APC or under the ocean in a sub and see how their perspective changes. Nothing, including a very tough dad, prepared me for the battle field, and nothing put life into such perspective.

So we wanted a better world for our kids, but they didn't have the perspective of what we and our elders went though to provide it for them. Not their fault although I do put some blame on our society for not putting senior/elders on a higher pedestal. I think the thing I am more disappointed in with today's youth is their lack of respect for elders. I've got so much to offer and so few draw from my bank. Sometimes the kids come over, want me to fix a lawn mower or look at their car. They don't own a tool to their name. I made sure they spent time in the garage to learn how to recognize if not repair problems with a car. They just figure old dad will be there when we need anything like that. Hmm...
Best thing I ever did was retire and live far away from the populated areas. The only dumbass's I run across are mostly on the TV. Ha!

 

[scrabbler1]

Who in their right mind would give broke, unemployed college students a credit card?

Back in the early 1980s when I was a student at NYU, there used to be AmEx CC applications inserted into our plastic bags when we made purchases at the NYU bookstore. It caused a minor flap for a while but I don't recall if that practice was discontinued.

I worked as a page in my local public library when I was in high school, starting in the 11th grade (age 16). It paid below minimum wage, $2.25 an hour (in 1979). (MW was $3.10 at the time.) Between annual COLA raises and raises for working every 500 (?) hours, I actually got up to $3.35 an hour by the time I left in 1981 to go off to college.

It was nice to have some money coming in. I wasn't a spendy person to begin with. My biggest purchase was a 10-speed bike I used to get to the library and to school. When I got my drivers license in 1981, my parents planned to get rid of the old gas-guzzling clunker and get another car. But they kept both cars (and a third one) so I had one to use that summer while I taught myself to drive a stick-shift car before they sold the old one.

 

[razztazz]

Who in their right mind would give broke, unemployed college students a credit card?

The "free market" and the banks who profit from it

 

[Jerry1]

I echo the sentiment that when I was young, if I wanted money, I had to work for it. As I got into my older kid/younger teen years, I became aware that mom didn't have any money. Asking her for it would have been futile bordering on stupid. There's something to be said for necessity being a great motivator. In watching my children and their generation grow up (kids are now 30 year old adults) I was concerned where the motivation to succeed would come from. Some don't ever get it and some are naturally ambitious. Also, oddly enough, expectation, while not a motivator, is a path to success.

 

[Breedlove]

Who would ever give a credit card to an unemployed grumpy old man . Still trying to learn the words to ( Louie Louie ) LOL

 

[Hermit]

Wow, I wish I could pull that one off!

I was pretty much banned from the kitchen (except for doing dishes ). I did a respectable job of cooking before DW and I were married, but she really liked to cook and preferred I stay out of the way. Now it has been such a long time since I cooked and with it just being me, I really have no interest, so very little cooking for me. I did make dinner the other night when DD and her husband came up. That was an accomplishment!

 

[meierlde]

Things have changed indeed. When I was in school there was a small parking lot for the teachers. There were maybe 3 students that had old cars but they didn't drive to school; most out of town kids rode the school bus. I went by the school yesterday and there are now 3 large parking lots filled with relatively new vehicles and there are fewer students now.

Note quite the way it was in the 1960 where I went to High School, there was a large student parking lot. (michigan). so depending on where you lived even 50 years ago having cars as a high school student was common.

 

[Walt34]

I was pretty much banned from the kitchen (except for doing dishes ).

Following complaints from my two sisters Mom insisted that I, too, would learn to wash and dry dishes. After I dropped and broke three or four of them I too was banned from the kitchen except for taking out the trash.

 

[haha]

I have little interest in cooking, but a lot of interest in eating, so since I live alone, cook is what I am .

Ha

 

[exnavynuke]

That was Warren Buffet time. I paid my nephews $25 an hour for 4 hours max to help with my garden, they are tall strapping boys, 6'2 and over. While they like the cash but they didn't seem to latch on the part that while they are young they should do some physical work to earn money.
Only my kids drove old beaten up cars when they first started driving, everybody else in my immediate family has nice car.

Wow, that's a lot of money for gardening. I put an ad on craigslist last year for labor to do landscaping/gardening and offered $15/hour. I had to take the ad down within an hour because I was getting so many people wanting to do it. This year I'll be offering $12/hour as apparently (based on the response rate) I was overpaying for the job.

 

[2017ish]

Following complaints from my two sisters Mom insisted that I, too, would learn to wash and dry dishes. After I dropped and broke three or four of them I too was banned from the kitchen except for taking out the trash.

DW fixed this for me many years ago: Correlle dinnerware is quite hard to break. Unfortunately, haven't found good wine glasses that we can say the same for; we keep extras of those!