SultanOfSwing

Oh god I don't want to be reincarnated at all, imagine having to do this shite all over again?

But yeah, it is a load of crap. You get a nice 18 year free trial, where you're sucked into thinking this is actually OK, your parents seem happy and there's lots of cool things to do, and summers seem like they will never end and then all of a sudden you're slapped in the face with the whole 'lol JK, you're screwed' and you realize that your parents were just good actors putting on a brave face for you. And you get little snippets of good stuff like your children, and then you look at your poor little 10 year old and realize that in 8 years, she's going to go through the same thing and it is all your fault.

spouse of scouse

Hey, your 10 year old might be a teflon person, sailing through life with no crap sticking to her. Plus she has an awesome dad so she has a good head start.

SultanOfSwing

She's really smart and her artistic ability scares the crap out of me with how good it is, I'm sure she'll be fine. But I can't help but worry for her. My son's been finding out how shite post-school life is for the last 4 years, and I was powerless to stop that

spouse of scouse

You're always going to worry for them, it's a parent's lot in life. I think the 18 - 30 years seem the hardest for our children, it takes time to find your niche in the big bad world. Most of them do though and at the risk of sounding wanky, a few knocks along the way really can make you a stronger person and also help you to appreciate the good times.

SultanOfSwing

Yeah, I know. Problem is what we're going through now is naturally occurring and we'll deal with it. Most of the rest of the 'bad times' are artificially maintained by society just so a handful of people can get rich off the back of others. It's a bad time to be idealistic - we're just on the cusp of the kind of technology that can genuinely improve the quality of life for everyone, but the people in control of how it gets used will make sure that doesn't happen because of a few precious percentage points.

Lion in Winter

This is what I kept telling mine - at school, you cruise through with others providing the structure. After that, you're on your own so the more options you can create for yourself now, at school, when you least think it matters, the better. He's bright enough, but I think is only just now, at 20, discovering the benefits of working a bit harder. In high school he seldom did more than he had to, and just relied on native ability and any background knowledge he had picked up along the way, with mixed results.

Lion in Winter

And it's all completely unnecessary. Societies don't have to be organized this way and the whole house of cards is presented to us as though it had some sort of innate moral virtue. It doesn't.

scrubbedexpat091

I would do my 18-25 years over and over, turn 25 and wake up 18 again. I might be the odd ball where those years were pretty stable, had a job I didn't hate, and overall not bad, certainly the peak of my life, 25 onward though, can't these years have been great, but 25 is when I ventured to Canada, and I think that played a big role, and looking back was likely the biggest single mistake I made in my life...lol

Or I am just weird and my early adult years was when I had things figured out, or society in general just started going downhill in the early 2000's. Who knows, but does seem harder every decade for the next generation to start, and now we expect people to start their adult life tens of thousands in debt, so they can earn 35,000 a year with a college degree vs 20k-25k without.

Crazy world really humans have built, and seems more and more like a MLM scheme each day during this pandemic.

Maybe as I got older I realize more now that hard work wont get you anywhere without the right education, and knowing the right people in the right places. I used to go way above what was expected of me at jobs, but that only burns you out, doesn't seem to get you anywhere...ha ha, oh well.

retzie

Sorry for being slow. I don't think this is off topic at all, since it has got a lot to do with international travel. But if you mean "off topic" in the sense of "not abject drivel", then yes, I would tend to agree...

As my sister said early in the piece "we are so used to the world feeling so small; now it feels really, really big". I don't know about you, but I have been very complacent about being able to up sticks and go home "whenever". And I think this is what has let me keep dithering for so long. I am hoping that one positive to come from the sudden removal of options is that I will become more decisive once any kind of avenues open back up. When that will happen is not at all clear, but on the basic logistics of immigration/quarantine, I would say one-way repatriations will become viable a lot sooner than leisure travel. So perhaps your move is still on the cards (minus the reconnaissance mission)?

Of course, there will be other factors than the mechanics of actual travel. But for me at least, I could find "other factors" 'til the cows come home. Maybe this will make me stop waiting for the perfect plan, and make do with the good, or even just mostly-okay plan?

At least, these are my musings, as extrapolated from my supermarket purchases in the early days of lockdown

It might take you a little longer to get back up from the initial hit, but that doesn't change at all that you know how to do this. Maybe you had planned not to have to call upon your resilience quite so heavily at this particular stage in life, but it sounds like you know exactly what to do. Who knows, maybe some forced, heavy curation will make it a better plan anyway?

Lion in Winter

I'm trying to do some "how do I turn this mess into an opportunity" thinking myself, with return in mind. Retirement in the US if you don't have a lot of money is a pretty sad state of affairs. Medical care is a big worry. Overall, the obstacles are huge but I don't fancy the option of not overcoming them at all.

andyrebell

And so it begins. France is protesting USA attempts to secure the vaccine first through a French company.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52659510

civilservant

At least you're quoting the BBC now and not that bog roll you were quoting before.

Rete

Bull Dinky! I have far from a lot of money and have a lovely life. No worries to date on the medical care front either.

Lion in Winter

I'm glad you are in good shape, but with respect you don't know what my situation is and what I'm trying to solve.

spouse of scouse

I like the way you're thinking. We need to find you a kindly benefactor to gift you £62,500, if I'd won last weekend's Lotto ($20,000,000!) you'd have had it. I'll keep trying though and you're very high on my 'share it around' list I know it's not much of a plan but miracles do happen!