Turn back the clock a bit

How much of it is our own undoing? When I build my first house, there were no curtains, not floor coverings, no fence, no driveway and no gardens. These were all things we saved for and put in as we could afford it. Friends lent each other furniture to get you set up when you first moved in and they all came around to help pour the driveway slab and paint the the interior of the house. Lots of beer and BBQ's with the mates in the back yard after each days project. And we all did the same for each other. Going out for a meal was only on special occasions, air conditioning in a house was not a standard item and neither were swimming pools. We had a burner in the back yard for the rubbish instead of feeding it to the fish or exporting it to Asia. We turned the lights off when we left a room and didn't have ****loads in the garden just to make the place look pretty.

We (not me) buy our kids their first car and can't understand why they have no respect for it. We have them stay at home so they can save for a house, but they never save. Life is so easy for them that some have no incentive to work or find work or even get out of bed.

And we now believe the answer to our problems has to be solved by someone else.

It's like a drowning man asking someone to pass him a brick (and then another).

I dunno. I feel like im doing ok.

whether or not im having a better time of it than my parents were, i reckon im probably more relaxed than they were at this stage.

I also think happinessand stress are subjective, it is to a degree your own choice how much stress you create for yourself, what you stress about and how you remedy that stress.

we have this younger guy at work, never does overtime, and each friday tells us about how he's already figured out what he's spending mondays pay cheque on (new gaming console etc). He has minimal living expenses, always share houses and keeps himself detached as possible from responsibilty. Recently he's been bragging about how he's moving into his girlfriends new house to leech off her. He's not planning on moving in to make a life together, its just a convenient situation that will allow him to keep his lifestyle. Its infuriating.

then there's another guy where i work who has a family, lives in a rental and lives pay cheque to pay cheque. He earns more than the younger guy, but has chosen a path that means he has a great amount of responsibility to carry. He wants to get a house, but he's on struggle street to get there.

I admire the 2nd guy a lot more, but i can't help feeling the younger guy has more of an idea on how to live in the brave new world. We hassle him quite a bit about how he regards his girlfriend though. It seems to be a relationship of convenience for him.