““If hard-working young people have to live at home while they work and save, why should it be any different for those who don’t?” Cameron asked, to wild, blithe applause.
It takes a blithe man to ask this question. Someone for whom “at home” is Mum and Dad – careworn, but still loving – wryly opening a bottle of wine while their postgraduate children camp out in the spare room, saving for the deposit for a house.
Sure, there will be arguments outside the bathroom when the hot water runs out; and the awkwardness of having massive adult bodies in the room that once held a toddler never quite goes away. But in a world where the money has disappeared, families must stick together, and help each other out. Austerity measures mean feeling cramped; not having much privacy. Cancelling a holiday. Delaying your life plans for a decade.
If you are blithe, it would never occur to you that there are homes that are not a refuge at all. Rather, that “home” is actually darkness or a trap, and Mum, or Dad, are not welcoming, but dangerous. It’s a blithe man who does not know how much damage can occur before the age of 25 behind the family doors. You can be blithe if you’ve never been in a flat so tiny the place feels like a pan coming to the boil, filled with grease, smoke and sour anxiety. If you’d never been somewhere so small that there is nowhere to work and save.”
- Caitlin Moran (via alwaysdrinktheblood)
It takes a blithe man to ask this question. Someone for whom “at home” is Mum and Dad – careworn, but still loving – wryly opening a bottle of wine while their postgraduate children camp out in the spare room, saving for the deposit for a house.
Sure, there will be arguments outside the bathroom when the hot water runs out; and the awkwardness of having massive adult bodies in the room that once held a toddler never quite goes away. But in a world where the money has disappeared, families must stick together, and help each other out. Austerity measures mean feeling cramped; not having much privacy. Cancelling a holiday. Delaying your life plans for a decade.
If you are blithe, it would never occur to you that there are homes that are not a refuge at all. Rather, that “home” is actually darkness or a trap, and Mum, or Dad, are not welcoming, but dangerous. It’s a blithe man who does not know how much damage can occur before the age of 25 behind the family doors. You can be blithe if you’ve never been in a flat so tiny the place feels like a pan coming to the boil, filled with grease, smoke and sour anxiety. If you’d never been somewhere so small that there is nowhere to work and save.”
- Caitlin Moran (via alwaysdrinktheblood)