So do your children "interrogate your finances"?

I think he thought it was partly tongue in cheek but I think it does reveal a lot of what he actually feels. One line I noticed particularly ,,,he chatted to a uni professor about teaching and so decided to do a masters. Now as you don't need a masters to teach in schools did he think a) that was beneath him b) too much like hard work or c) a and b.

Both of my DSs worked when they could. The morning DS1 was to start a paper round, he broke his leg! But he later got work in a hotel kitchen which started his first career as a chef. DGD1 did part-time jobs from 13 and through Uni; bar work and cleaning until she got work that used her qualifications. I wouldn't dream of interrogating her finances!

I know one or two who did not Penstemmon, enough said, - not mine I hasten to add!
They gain valuable experience, not just work experience but how to deal with difficult people too, as well as earning money.

Both DDs always worked in p/t jobs as soon as law allowed from school through uni and when not working f/t because of babies..mostly in retail but also childcare & bar work. I thought everyone's kids did??

I hope he shared the fee with his mother.

Not everyone blames us oldies.

www.24housing.co.uk/opinion/are-older-people-to-blame-for-the-housing-crisis/

It isn't their right to have handouts. I think the guy in the article a scrounger, needs a reality check.

Maggiemaybe that almost made me spit coffee all over the keyboard!!

I think lots of students do that and good for them! All mine worked at various jobs through university (and in the sixth form too).

My DD worked her way through university.

She took a job at McDonalds.

I think he makes it everyone's business when he writes about it in an article for the Guardian. For which he got paid, presumably.

If it's not just a amusing £joke, it's still not any business to any of us? Unless he is our son.

To me it's easier to view it a £joke, and be delighted with my own life.

DS2 occasionally asks what our house is worth....even he doesn't ask about our other finances. He thinks we need to have 'a plan'. Quite what for is unspecified. Old age, maybe.

Fortunately both DSs are solvent and self sufficient. We helped out in the early days when they were starting out. If we lent large amounts, we required a repayment plan.

They are now in their 40s. I think DS2 would like to delve further into our finances but we have fended him off so far.

Imo, the writer of the article in the OP is either so full of entitlement that he really can't see how he might support his family without sponging off his parents or, as has been suggested, it's a wind up.

Glad he's not my son.

And now students go to uni in their own cars

I have just looked it up and that £100 is equivalent to £1,500 now. About £120 a month.

During our first year of marriage we both lived solely on my student grant which left us with £100 a year for living expenses after the rent was paid! We ate an awful of of cheese and potato pie!

It is a fine balance between 'helping out' occasionally and 'being reliant' on handouts from mum & dad. I am sure most parents, if they have the means, try to treat adult kids sometimes. Maybe a contribution towards a holiday, or paying for an unexpected car repair bill and even a deposit for a home. However once an assumption is made, by an adult child, that they can depend on parental income to bail them out regularly they remain a dependent child not an adult!

When exhusband and I returned to Scotland to undertake teacher training my parents very kindly paid rent on our little one-bed flat for the year we were both students so that we could save a bit. He carried on with the 4year BEd when I graduated with my PGDE. Soon after we bought our first flat and my salary paid the mortgage. £2900 seemed quite a hefty mortgage then!
Although we rarely needed help we knew that they would be very supportive if we did need it. That 'legup' for a year made a huge difference.

Well, I had to get a job and went to college part-time and to night-school (has the spoilt brat gentleman in the OP heard of working full-time and going to night school?) because my DF retired when I was 18 (he was 65 and deserved to retire).

Bringing children up with enough resilience to stand on their own two feet is a big part of a parents job! Not always easy though!

Luckygirl, my parents were supposed to pay £2 a week towards my student grant, but when it got to the end of the first term and I cautiously mentioned it, I was told they wouldn't be paying it as they'd decided to take cheap winter holidays now that I was off their hands so couldn't afford it. I was told I'd just have to manage or get a part-time job, and I did (both).

I can't recall feeling particularly aggrieved when I saw those photos of them perched up on donkeys and swigging sangria in Benidorm, though I could have done without the one of my mother sunbathing topless on the beach .

Ah! but whilst I never expected I was fortunate to be bought a twin tub washing machine when I had my DD1 so no more launderette. I also got parent's old sofa bed.

Though parents did continue to pay my student grant for the year (term time only) after I married..which I was not expecting but we were grateful for the extra £5 a week making our monthly income a grand total of £83. But it is all relative..we paid £5 a week rent for 3 bed house and so could make money in the holidays by taking in foreign students. As they were temp. it was not considered sub-letting!

It is also interesting that so many of us are happily helping financially when we can, but that we ourselves did not get the same sort of help from our own parents - and did not expect it.

My parents paid their assessed amount towards my student grant, but when that came to an end my Dad was clear that that was that - I had to stand on my own two feet from then on. I did not feel hard done by - that seemed reasonable to me. When they inherited small amounts on the death of their parents, they did not share any of it with us (as we did with ours), but again I did not expect them to.

No sense of entitlement I guess!

Luckygirl Wed 05-Apr-17 I agree entirely! We worked hard for what we now have. We looked after one of our grandchildren until he was 15yrs old, so that his parents could go out to work. Only during the holidays I mean, but sometimes he also had tea if they were going to be late home. We could not do that for the others as they live too far away.

I do sympathise with the youngsters that find it hard these days, but it wasn't easy for us either. Women of course had sexism to cope with as well in our day.

I used to love the advert, for Specsaver's I think, when the son notices that his mother has a new pair of glasses. She tells him not to worry about how much they cost because of where she purchased them and not to worry about his inheritance because she's leaving everything to the gardener. The camera then focuses on a young handsome, complete with six pack.

As so many of you have already posted, I'm just glad he's not my son but if he were I'd have a few choice words for him and not the ones he'd want to put in his next article.

My son is 48, he is not on the property ladder but is lucky that he has a decent council house. His wife is disabled after a stroke at an early age and he took on her two young daughter and has managed to get a degree as well and also worked though not always full time.. Life has been a struggle but never has he asked for a handout or questioned us about our money and lifestyle. I do help him out by taking or giving the family a holiday every year and other things. He in return does a great deal for us without asking andI am so proud of him. This son in the post sounds like he needs a kick up the bu and told to grow up.