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Happy Retirement Families This scenario
reflects several future trends: society fragmentation, ageing populations, improvements in health, delayed parenthood, lifelong learning, increasing self employment, and the changing role of women.Emily, like most of her friends, left school at 17 with few qualifications and started work as a hairdresser while going to college for one day a week. She lived
at home for many years, enjoying her improving finances, and by the age of 25 she had 2 children, but had managed to continue working thanks to her mother who minded them during the day. Her mother remarried around
this time so Emily found a flat for her own family, and even went back to college to train in business studies, thanks to her continuing learning account. She was able after this to start up her own salon, which
also specialised in many other personal health and beauty care services. When she was in her late 30's, and her children were in their teens, she met Mark, a divorced father and self employed builder in his late
40's. Their romance flourished and despite the contrast between her successful business and his erratic work, they decided to marry and, using the new technology for post-menopausal pregnancy, to have further children
themselves. Mark retired from his building work to take on the role of main child carer while Emily continued to run her small personal services salon. All went well and their two young children started school, when her
mother suffered a stroke. The strain of caring for a young family, a disabled mother, a sometimes reluctant full-time father, and running her business began to tell. Emily reluctantly decided to sell up and retire to
bring up her second family full-time with Mark. They both rather enjoyed this late, full-time parenthood and even managed to do some ad-hoc work to improve their low income. Mark worked as a personal builder and Emily
as a childminder for her newly arrived grandchildren, while her own older children worked full time. As Mark's parents too started to need some extra care, they would have liked to find a large house to care for them
all at home, but small flats and houses were all that could be rented. Large family houses, often converted back from flats and bedsits, with home offices and nanny/granny annexes were unfortunately the preserve of the
middle class rich. As Emily and Mark themselves got older, they wondered just how much longer they could support their parents into their 90's, their children, who would still need financial support for may years, maybe
even their grandchildren for a while, and of course themselves. Created by Averil Horton |
