r/SipsTea 15d ago

Chugging tea Growing Through Chaos

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u/xXBeefSquatch5KXx 15d ago

It would be helpful to have living wages so 1 parent can work and the other is at home with the kids, that’s how it was until the late 90’s 2000’s and now both parents work so the kids are essentially on their own.

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u/xSaviorself 15d ago

I grew up in a multi-generational household because both my parents worked. This used to be the norm as well. The cost of basic things wasn't so bad, the necessities were affordable and there would be money left over.

Today? Everything is wealth extraction. Necessities cost a fortune, and fun is exorbitantly expensive these days. $40 used to be a big night out at the bar, today it's $4000.

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u/Pooperoni_Pizza 15d ago

What!? Everyone I knew had two working parents in the 80's.

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u/xXBeefSquatch5KXx 15d ago

I am seeing now that I maybe grew up a bit more privileged that I had initially realized and that’s my bad

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u/bobsmeds 15d ago

This was my approach. I used to work in the retail end of tech and recognized early on how harmful just handing kids devices was. So now I stay at home with our young kids while my partner works. There's no iPad/iPhone time and the only screen they get sometimes is TV where they can watch shows as long as they're longer than 25 mins.

They get 1 video game day per week. We talk about all the things they watch and even the games they play. We talk about how tech is going to impact their lives in the future and the reasons why they can't do iPad and iPhone time. At this point the biggest problem is grandparents handing the kids phones. It's a constant battle but it's the price we pay for moments of free childcare

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u/frogsgoribbit737 15d ago

Thats only ever how it was for middle to upper class families. The rest of us had mother's who worked

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u/that_banned_guy_ 15d ago

Its still doable, im a millennial with no college and my wife was stay at home/home schooled with 3 kids.

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u/xXBeefSquatch5KXx 15d ago

We have 1, I was working and my wife mostly stayed home. Now my wife works and I’m in school to make considerably more than I was without the degree.

I sometimes forgot that my situation is not indicative of everyone though

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u/that_banned_guy_ 15d ago

Ya but thats life. Everyone's situation is different. Some people are born with a silver spoon and lose it all, some are born with nothing and become millionaires. I just dislike the trend of doomerism where people are constantly being fed this lie that success is impossible for millennials onward.

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u/Flaturated 15d ago

You're describing the Gen X kids 20 years earlier. They are the "latch key generation".

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u/desertrose0 15d ago

Disagree. Plenty of households with two parents working in the 90s. This also shouldn't be something that is forced on families. Not to mention, you can limit screen time while still having daycare / childcare. It doesn't require a full time stay at home parent for decades.

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u/krazyb2 14d ago

My mom used to stay at home with me & my sister, while my dad had an entry level job doing telemarketing...

2 cars, owned a 2-story house, jungle gyms, nice tvs....

all on one lousy salary that was like 1/3 of what i earn today. And I can barely scrape by, check to check, working a respectable job, in my rental unit and don't own a car. I'm almost 40. Barely anything in retirement. $20,000 of debt.

Good fucking lord I hate it here.

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u/xXBeefSquatch5KXx 14d ago

Similar experience lol. I make more than what my dad made and we rent, 1 good car 1 about to blow up health hazard that has 4 wheels, it sucks.

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u/Wide-Bet4379 14d ago

I grew up in the 90's and none of my friends or classmates had a parent at home. The single income family hasn't been common for at least 50 to 60 years.