Are Some Students Over Indulged By Their Parents?

[dave50]

My teenage daughter who is at college recently informed me that there are a few girls at her college who have had new or nearly new cars bought and insured by their parents as an 18th birthday present. Also I have heard of parents re-mortgaging their homes to pay for their offspring's university fees and living costs. Now I cannot afford to buy her a car and there is no way I would re-mortgage to pay for her university. Are these teenagers way too pampered or am I being mean? What are your thoughts?

[Hopkirk]

It is a useful part of one's education to have to look after the pennies, and travel as cheaply as possible.

[jackthehat]

In the 50's and 60's.......so pre-Beeching and at a time when there was a joined up, accessible and affordable public transport system?

[Sqad]

gness

\\\\.you don't know my daughter..... yet you consider her indulged and pampered..... \\\\

Where did i mention YOUR daughter? My comment was a general comment which included the phrase " that some, if not the majority ".......your daughter was clearly the exception...............

\\\\Does your method for bringing up children produce good, caring adults....always? \\\\

I have no idea, as when they leave home, they develop their own philosophy, but to answer your question.......3 are caring adults (whatever that means) and the fourth is a waste of space.

\\\\Does mine always produce whatever you're thinking helping them out at uni produces?\\\

Sorry....have read that half a dozen times and i cannot understand it......

[ummmm]

And the father of the year award goes to........

[237SJ]

I don`t know whether it`s a new thing. I remember kids in the 6th form having cars and driving themselves to school. I presume their parents bought the cars. Some kids have always been overindulged. My friend`s loaded and her son has always had everything he has ever wanted and consequently, has never had a job. Why work for £10 per hour? He`s decided to get his act together and go to uni before it`s too late and she will be paying everything for him. She`s making a rod for her own back because he is never going to understand the value of money and it`s management. The uni that he is going to won`t allow students to have their cars there for the first year so at least he will be using public transport for the first time in his life (at her expense, probably)

[ummmm]

My dad bought me a car. There were conditions attached though.

[B00]

"Also I have heard of parents re-mortgaging their homes to pay for their offspring's university fees and living costs."

Thought students took student loans?

[bhg481]

Some parents I know didn't want their son to leave university with a debt, Boo.

[B00]

Well more fool them for re-mortgaging their homes then.

[New Judge]

I think the biggest way they are pampered is by being allowed to go to university in the first place. Only about 10% of jobs in the UK require an education to degree level. About 40% of young people attend university, meaning three quarters of them will end up doing non-graduate jobs. A large number of these will, in fact, end up doing very much unskilled work.

This is a ludicrous state of affairs, especially bearing in mind that much of the cost of this indulgence is being met by taxpayers and the students themselves (by way of student loans, many of which will never be repaid). The nation needs to return to a situation where universities are attended only by those who, having set their minds on a career, need to go. Choosing university as something nice to do for three years and ending up with a fairly worthless "degree" from Huddersfield Polytechnic (sorry, "University"). (Subjects on offer there include "Fashion and Textile Buying", "Film Studies", "Social Work", "Sports Journalism", "Travel & Tourism Management", "Urban Design" and "Youth & Community Work").

Good luck to the parents of offspring who can afford to pamper them in the way described. There is no reason why the rest of us should assist them.

[bhg481]

They didn't need to re-mortgage.

[ummmm]

My older two children, although not completely daft, were never encouraged to go to uni.

My younger son is though. His English teacher wrote to me. He's taking English, History and RS at A level. His English teacher thinks he'll be wasted if he leaves school with just A levels.

[Prudie]

I just think it's a sign of the times and how things have moved on. At Uni in late 70s probably about 4 people on campus had cars and 1 in 500 had a TV in their rooms - they were all very popular people. We didn't leave with huge loans though and most went into professional employment that allowed them to buy their own cars and get mortgages. I did buy my daughter a banger for her 21st so not so much pampered but helping her not to be disadvantaged to her peers wherever possible.

[Hypognosis]

I got to study thanks to the student grants system, so it was not parental indulgence but societal indulgence. I offer my belated thanks to the taxpayers of the 1980s, for that.

Sadly, because I wasn't as smart as the others on my course (many had come in through clearing, having failed to get into med school but could still make me feel like a thickie), I never got the required grades nor that fabled high-paid job at the end of the rainbow.

There's been too much going on in the news, lately, but I am really keen on seeing some solid stats for graduates currently mouldering along in low-paid non-vocational work, too exhausted at the end of the day to get serious applications to the kind of jobs they got themselves qualified for. I suppose writing off £27k per graduate is just peanuts compared to the costs of building roads, railways, hospitals or aircraft carriers but, if there are thousands of them, accumulating year-on-year, then we need to slow down the conveyor belt, so to speak, don't we?

[New Judge]

"His English teacher thinks he'll be wasted if he leaves school with just A levels."

Which is a sad indictment indeed on the state of 'A' Levels.

[ummmm]

I don't think so. His English teacher thinks he could be so much more. He studies hard, he has 100% attendance....I did say no to becoming an astronaut though....

[gness]

My daughter went to uni to study the subject that had fascinated her all her life.....she studied hard....and played hard though without the help of cigs and alcohol......(is she really mine?)....she loved every minute of the four years.

This led to a wonderful and interesting career.......not highly paid.....but something she loves doing.

I'm glad I've helped her to achieve all this because god knows.....she won't have a long retirement to enjoy the way I have....x

[Hypognosis]

We seem to agree on one point, New Judge (and I type too slowly, it seems!)
We will be barraged by the 'E' word, shortly, no doubt.

It strikes me that all these flakey course titles only ever served the purpose of enabling Tony B'lend to proudly announce his graduates stats.
It may be a truism but, wherever stats are held to be important, behaviours change in whatever ways are expedient to 'pumping' those stats. Especially where actually performance bonus payments are concerned. Core aims tend to go down the pan.

Still, all those thousands of Media Studies courses means that we can crew so many additional channels that I can miss as much as 300 hours of TV/radio per hour. Amaaaazing, innit?

[DTCwordfan]

Sqad - I have met gness's daughter and there is nothing wrong with her, she's bright, witty and has her opinions, expressed well.....she certainly did not come across as spoilt. The same uni, the same area and friends of mine got their daughter a moderate banger after the incident.....

As to me, I ran a car at Uni - I worked in the North Sea on specialist down-well measurements in my what-is-now-considered as the gap year, having done my As at a young age and earned enough to buy a Morris 1100 and insure it. If I needed some extra dosh, I used to zip up to Aberdeen and put in a few shifts and got relatively handsomely paid.....

[BRIGHT SPARK]

But without all the 'graduates,' KFC for one, would cease to trade!