Category: Reflections

Like Beetlejuice, Bloody Mary or the Candyman, simply speaking their name can conjure-up an assumed attack, so I won’t use the “M” word.  Besides, I don’t have to, you knew who I was referring to just from the title, didn’t you?  Take a moment to think about that, whichever generation you may belong to.

Generations are always at odds about something.  From the dawn of time, the older generations think the younger are lazier or less (insert anything here) than they were.  The younger generation thinks the older generation is behind-the-times or too conservative.

Full disclosure: I am from Generation X (the latter end, though too early to be an Elder Millenial).  Am I supposed to blame the Baby Boomers for everything that is wrong?  Growing up, we heard a LOT about the Boomers, presumably because there were so many of them and because they held the power of the media at the time.  Some started young and had large families, and others had careers before they had children, so our generation spanned a wide range of older groupings and younger only children.  We also had a significantly larger number of us raised in single parent homes than the generations before us.  Personal observations have taught me that children from big families are polarized when it comes to raising their own families, depending on their own experiences.  Some had wonderful childhoods and want the same large unit they had.  Some had less-than-happy childhoods, so they limit their children to 1 or 2.  We definitely had a drop in fertility rates and statistically, the average family is still getting smaller.

Infertility treatments became a big business on the cusp of the generational switch in the late 70’s/early 80s, and continues to grow with seemingly no end. As technology improved, families should have been growing for GenX, not shrinking.  Is it because our generation waited to have children until their careers and homes were established?  Later (aged 35 or older) pregnancies come with increased risk and high medical cost, especially if treatment is needed, so late-in-life families tend towards sole child households.  These children are usually referred to as “miracle babies.”

It should come as no surprise that these miracle babies would be raised to be overprotected, overpraised, and sometimes overly criticized.  They represent a significant, and often painful, physical and financial investment, and are sometimes treated as such. Though not a new concept, GenX perfected Helicopter Parenting.  Can we blame them for an assumption of privilege or self-entitlement?  We have coddled a majority of this generation and done them a disservice when it comes to taking action for themselves or taking responsibility.

This report from the Pew Research Center shows that, financially, they are exceeding previous generations at their age, yet the media tells us that they can’t get jobs, or will not work because they won’t take jobs that are beneath them.  I have witnessed young job applicants that assume they are entitled to a senior-level salary directly out of college.  Perhaps schools need to teach more about starting salaries and advancement opportunities instead of teaching them that their career will start immediately.

Did we create this? Are we to blame for their Me Me Me behavior? Technology? Social Media?

To go back to this piece, the writer comes right out and says:
Stop blaming us for our issues when it was partially the fault of those who came before.

I will give him credit for including the word “partially,” yet there is still never an admission of his own fault.  It’s alluded to, but never addressed.

There are a few people here in town from this generation that are very active on social media and treat it as if their ~400 friends are actually millions of followers and that they are significant cultural leaders or celebrities.  You know the type – they ‘like’ or react to their own posts, and write them, as if for Buzzfeed, with leading and vague elements to drum-up interest.  One (let’s call him Jack) recently lost his job because he posted a libelous fake review on Yelp for another business, calling the owner homophobic, among other things.  He thought this was acceptable behavior because the business owner had given him a fake review that brought down his personal rating (rather than dealing with it the mature way).  The business owner told Jack’s boss about it, and the boss fired Jack (rightfully so) for the behavior and its reflection on her business.  Jack took to social media to tell his side of the story, pleading with his followers not to be mad at his former boss, blaming the other business owner, and taking none of the blame himself.   Now, Jack is licensed by the city.  He, again, went to social media to publicly accuse the licensing department of discrimination (he is bisexual) because they were refusing to renew his license.  Once again, he is not to blame for anything – everyone else has done this to him.

I have worked with two different strong career women (both technically of Baby Boomer generation) that used various methods to conceive a late-in-life first (and only) child.  Both of them treated their daughter like princesses, and both young ladies are now in their 20s, extremely sensitive to any minor inconvenience, and utterly spoiled.  I had known one of them since she was a baby, and I watcher her mother fawn and bow-down to this child (the few times a day she wasn’t with the nanny) to the point that the teenage daughter was essentially in control of the relationship and had her every whim seen to.

I’d like to think that each generation learns from the two before it and the one after it.  GenX is taught by the Boomers in response to what the Boomer’s saw were our Grandparents’ mistakes.  GenX then teaches this generation based on what we saw were the Boomer’s mistakes, and we grow based on what we learn in this ‘experiment’ of raising a next generation.

How will this generation react to the “Z Generation” when they come of age?  Will GenZ even come of age with Anti-vaxxers, multiple wars, drug-resistant infectious diseases, global warming, pollution…

Well, that’s depressing, so here’s a tongue-in-cheek ending:

“Get off my lawn!” will soon evolve into “Get off my semi-biodegradable, sustainably-dyed astroturf-made-of-89%-post-consumer-waste!”

What are your thoughts?