Having listened to various weather forecasts, I was fully expecting really nasty weather this Easter weekend. However, yesterday we managed a walk in the sunshine and today has been bright and fine so far. A bit on the chilly side but at least there is some blue sky. Amazing!
The writer Andrew O’Hagan has been writing about young people leaving home … or not leaving home, which he says is more the case with the current generation of young people. Leaving home, he maintains, is no longer the rite of passage that it used to be. Between the British censuses of 2011 and 2021, he tells us, the number of adult children living with their parents in England and Wales rose by almost 15%.
Of course, there’s the matter of affordability. Andrew O’Hagan is younger than me but still young enough to have benefitted from free university education and other such benefits. He confidently expected to be able to be quite easily independent something today’s young might not be able to hope for. Goodness, it’s difficult enough nowadays to consider going away to university. As for me, I went away to university and never permanently went home again!
Cost is one thing but I think another factor comes into play: having a room of your own, which Andrew O’Hagan does mention. Looking back, one of the big factors for me in seeking independence was just that - having a room of my own. Throughout all of my childhood I shared a bedroom with my sisters. It wasn’t MY space at all. We didn’t play there. With three beds lined up, there simply wasn’t room. It was just a place to sleep. It wasn’t until I went away to university that I had a room of my own.
I’m sure that is still the case for many people but also it much more common for children not just to have a room of their own but to be involved in the decorating of that room. It can be a kind of lair, a place to escape to, a place to do your dreaming and imagining. It’s certainly the case for my grandchildren.
Looking at it from the parental (and grandparental) point of view, there is a certain advantage to offspring leaving home. It’s wonderful to have children and grandchildren who enjoy visiting and want to spend time with us, but there is also that feeling of peace when you have the house to yourselves again - the same freedom we baby-boomers got from leaving home in the first place.
Now, there seem to be some delicate balancing acts going on. Politicians are practising the less than noble art of fence-sitting. I hear that Keir Starmer is facing some criticism from his MPs about election fliers emblazoned with Union Jack flags. He wants to appear patriotic - apparently this will attract pro-Brexit people disillusioned with the Tories!!! - but there are fears that it may alienate ethnic minority voters. There’s a bit of stereotyping for you; who says BAME voters are not patriotic! Even flag-wavers! Then there’s the matter of wanting to have more BAME MPs and so on, while at the same time still not restoring the whip to Diane Abbott and, indeed, getting a bit grumpy about the likes of Zarah Sultana with her outspoken socialist, egalitarian views.
Keir Starmer is not alone in his fence-sitting. Across the pond we have President Biden. On the one hand he urges Netanyahu to stop killing people. On the other hand he agrees that the USA will send huge amounts of weapons to Israel. Perhaps each bomb and missile should have a health warning, like cigarette packets.
The mind boggles!
Here’s an Easter cartoon to close with.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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