Millennials Are Not Lazy

Picture this...you are driving your paid off Toyota Camry to home from work, you've put in a hard day's work of pushing papers, you had done your 9-5 working hours and you already know what to expect on Monday. You pull up to your driveway and park in the garage. You get home and dinner is already on the table the smell of fresh baked lasagna, it's your favorite meal. Your wife smiles as she sees you walking through the door, you kiss her and go upstairs and change into your non-work clothes. The children are called downstairs for dinner, and they come pouring down and hug their dad hello. You all sit down for dinner and hear about your wife's day and your children's day. You can't help but smile. Then after dinner, your bill for the mortgage comes in and your roll your eyes, but you pay it anyways, the electric bill is not bad, the gas bill also not bad, so you sit down and pay them off.

"The kids want to go to the amusement park with us this weekend," says your wife as you close your laptop and put it away.

"Oh yeah, we can go, it'll be fun" you agree to take the kids and you are excited to go and maybe if they are good, you can convince your wife that we will all need ice cream after the really long day. sure, you would like to sleep in for a day, but all day at the amusement park your children will be tired early and maybe you can spend some time alone with your wife.

Now, picture a different life, you are driving your old Toyota Camry, and you park on the street parking near your basement suite rental. You get out of your car and into your house. Your wife is in the process of making dinner and your stomach grumbles, you greet your wife with a kiss.

"Hey, so I am making that lasagna that you like, but the beef was too expensive and so I got ground pork instead," she says, and you nod your head.

"That's fine," you say, and you go and change your clothing. You idly chit-chat as the oven bakes the lasagna.

"How was work?" you ask your wife.

"It was good, I was really busy and did not really take a break," she replies.

"Yeah, I had to work through lunch to get everything done before the weekend," you say. The oven dings and you eat the lasagna together.

You have no children to call to the table because you can’t afford them. So, you call for Buster the family friendly dog and he eats some of your scraps.

The rent is due, so you pull out your laptop and reluctantly pay it.

“Two more years and we can either afford children, save for retirement or a house,” you say after you’ve run the numbers.

That’s it. That is the choice we get with a dual income household we can either afford a house, children or retire early. We cannot have everything after getting our degrees, getting stable jobs we cannot afford all three of those choices. However, we did nothing wrong in our lives. We played all the cards right and yet we cannot afford to pay a mortgage. The motivation to show up to work is lacking, what’s the point of you showing up to work and doing a good job if cannot afford the life you’ve always wanted.

Sure, we can all get second jobs, but where is the room to enjoy your life? I have done the two jobs for three months and I had no time for the things that mattered. Most of us are over worked, and exhausted because we are all stressed about how we are affording our living.

We are living in a basement suite and our next realistic goal is “to move above ground” and that’s it. We are doing what we can while still enjoying our lives. The only reason we can afford vacations is because we set money aside for that, but it takes a lot of paycheques to save for a seven day holiday. We decided to prioritize our money towards enjoyment rather than a mortgage. Together we are saving money month by month to afford a home one day or to afford children with me as a stay at home mom so we don’t have to pay for childcare. The decisions we have to make as millennials are not fair. Right now in the city I live in, we are paying the cheapest rent out there and we cannot afford a house. Don’t tell us we are lazy, we just have no motivation because we won’t be able to afford our dreams anyway. I’ve accepted the fact that I may never own my home, I’ve accepted the fact that I may need to work until I’m well over 65, I’ve accepted the fact that I will have children who will need to pay their way into university or whatever educational goals they set by themselves, and that we will not be able to help them.

Yet, I go into work to everyday… Honestly, if we were not going on vacations I wouldn’t have the motivation to go to work because I can’t afford things anyway. It used to be you go to work to afford a house. Now it’s just for groceries and it’s hard to stay motivated when your income does not match the inflation. I know by myself without my husband I would have to get a second job for the bills. I wouldn’t be able to afford my life by myself that’s the reality and it is terrifying to think that. So, no we are not lazy and entitled, we are tired.