I do think things have changed in the UK - I don’t think it’s just looking back with rose tinted glasses.

I’m 57 and nearly everyone, my age, I know went travelling when they were younger. Even the ones who didn’t do the whole SE Asia backpacking trail went inter-railing round Europe.
Thinking about my family and friends’ children, who are now between the ages of 19-30, very few have done it - in fact, sitting here right now, I can only think of 2.

Once I was talking to a friend about doing something that would take 3 years. My friend asked me what was my life like 3 years ago - ‘much the same as it is now’ I replied. ‘Well then’ my friend said ‘if you’d have started that thing 3 years ago your life would be different now’.

When I went off travelling in my early 20s, I came back a couple of years later and nothing had changed; I went back to work, back to the rugby club and back to the same social scene - but those memories of travelling 35 years ago are still as vivid as ever and it feels like yesterday. Oh and I was a much better rugby player

Yes, I remember it well - the hippie trail to India, the secret beach in S.E. Asia etc. Being even older than you (late 60's) it was the background to my teens and 20's. Someone I knew back then built a business bussing people to India to find 'nirvana'. Because of the number of factory jobs around it was possible to go off for a while and find some kind of work fairly easily when you got back. University was very much a minority route.

Times, as you say, have changed. That's why my experience of the path through life; trying to balance work, 'family' in all its definitions, and travel will be of minimal interest or help to Terry, and it's why I mentioned what my children have done over various bits of the last decade. You're right that gap years have gone from being time out to find yourself to being seen as a year of hedonistic indulgence - sex and drugs in the sun. That's bad enough before uni but to go off afterwards can be a hard sell to future employers in more conservative industries. We thought the risk worth taking with our kids, and its worked out. They came back far more rounded and self reliant individuals and that's stood them in good stead when dealing with people - employers for example.

The reality is though that taking a year out in your late 20's is lost in the noise a decade or two later. My brother in law even took five years out of his high end professional career (medicine) to be a tv presenter (corporate stuff, not public broadcast) and 20yrs later he's been back exactly where he would have been for some time. There may be some people who regret taking time out to pursue a passion - where it didn't work out for them - but the vast majority of people I know who've done it have benefitted long term.

Just out of curiosity, do you think this observation has more to do with the finances or something else?

I'd die immediately.

No. The financial lives of my nieces/nephews and friends children are much the same as their parents, when they were their age.
I think it’s a cultural thing. I met my wife when I was 30 and the thing that drew us together the most (apart from the obvious) was talking about our travels and we really fell in love on our first bike trip. Her relatives and friends had also been travelling - it was a thing that young people (at least the ones I knew) did back then.
The next generation seem to want to go to university, get a job and a house (whether rented or bought) as soon as possible. They appear to be more interested in material wealth such as nice cars etc...
I’m not saying they’re wrong, I’m saying that fashions change.

I had a good life to return to. Good friends and fun times. Sport is a great thing to have in your life for many reasons.
My job was physically hard, I couldn’t say I loved it but it paid well (physically demanding jobs usually are in the UK - hard to find people who are fit and strong).