Posted on 05/15/2015 9:09:12 PM PDT by jocon307
You remember childhood, don't you?
We wore our house keys around our necks like dog tags, walked home from school alone and let ourselves inside while our parents were still at work. We crossed busy intersections during rush hour to purchase bubble gum cigarettes with change from empty soda cans.
Our playgrounds were construction sites, heaps of dirt, creeks filled with snakes and turtles we collected as pets. We climbed trees, muddied our Garanimals, scaled fences between neighbors' backyards. We spent Memorial Day to Labor Day barefoot, the soles of our feet blackened like coal, dirt clumping underneath our toenails. Skateboards, roller skates and bikes defined our boundaries -- our Baby Boomer parents would scoff if we asked for a ride somewhere. They were too busy reading the newspaper, watching soaps or drinking beer on the stoop with the neighbors.
We were told to come in at dark, not a second earlier.
We had our kids late. Probably too late. Now we're cranky, sleep-deprived 40-somethings changing chlorine-free, biodegradable diapers while Dora the Explorer morphs into a hormonal teen right before our very eyes. We claim we don't regret waiting because we "needed to get established in our careers first" and "wanted to save enough money," even though we know damn well we have neither viable careers nor anything resembling a nest egg.
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
I'm just hoping HER generation (she's genY or whatever comes after "X") can straighten some of this stuff out.
I put this under "humor" because I find it most amusing, your mileage may vary.
I’m genX. The article is complete nonsense.
I prefer Gen Y so much more than Millennial.
First of all, the generation starts in 1980, and ends in the early 90s, how can that be Millennial?
The Gen Xers kids should be called such.
Generation X, millennials, me generation, baby boomers, war generation—stop, I have lost count and really don’t care. Why is this necessary and how do we delineate “generations” as every one melds seamlessly into the next? Sorry, this is unnecessary and tiresome...
Our playgrounds were construction sites, heaps of dirt, creeks filled with snakes and turtles we collected as pets. We climbed trees, muddied our Garanimals, scaled fences between neighbors' backyards. We spent Memorial Day to Labor Day barefoot, the soles of our feet blackened like coal, dirt clumping underneath our toenails. Skateboards, roller skates and bikes defined our boundaries -- our Baby Boomer parents would scoff if we asked for a ride somewhere.
I'm a boomer, and construction sites were a mainstay of my childhood in Union County NJ circa 1960. I ran barefoot all summer, so this was scanning for me. Then I hit skateboards. You know we invented skateboards in the early sixties, when I was in high school, by nailing the back and front of metal wheeled skates to a board, a 1" plank, usually. It was a fad.
So this whole scenario is crossing my signals. And Garanimals ???
All I know is if the laws of today existed when I was a kid, both of my parents would have 200 consecutive life sentences and would have been executed at least 30 or 40 times by now
‘stop, I have lost count and really don’t care.”
Oh I agree, and I bet you never heard of the “silent generation”, one of whom is John McCain.
I read this a few years ago, since McCain was not elected Pres, and just due to time, etc. no one from this silent generation will ever serve as President.
I think these are people who were born in the 1930s, and I don’t think there were so many of them, due to the depression.
So, yes, it’s hard to keep up.
“I prefer Gen Y so much more than Millennial.”
I don’t know, but these are the kids that came of age in 2000 or so.
I agree with the other poster who was frustrated with all the cutie pie names.
I’m a little confused too about who, exactly, this author is discussing, but I still liked the piece.
I never played on a dirt pile, but my brothers and I did wander all over 1970s Manhattan by ourselves.
Although that one time that we got in a big fight in the Woolworth’s on 5th Avenue and came home separate ways was kind of scary. Thank the Good Lord we all got back alive, so nobody had to be killed by our parents!
Ha mine too. Born in 62. We raised our child born in 87 as we were raised. I suspect I could have be reported to the “authorities” on a weekly basis.
Fear not, we raised a Conservative who is now filling children’s heads with independent thought skills and expectations of personal esponsibility
I don’t see how this is any different from prior generations .... just to make sure I’m not off base I was born in ‘67
“I was born in ‘67”
You are younger than me!
I didn’t take this as a serious article.
I mean, I think I myself might have invented “helicopter” parenting, but then you read about some folks and you say, “no, I’m actually not crazy”.
Gen X are attempting to do better than their boomer parents did. Generally speaking it’s not a very high bar to go over.
I think with anything though it really depends on the upbringing a person gets. The ability to think, to make comparisons, to learn from mistakes, to have introspection about what you’re doing, not lie to yourself or procrastinate, and make changes, is critical.
It’s not really stuff taught in schools or by a lot of parents anymore.
Yes, the so-called "silent generation" - my father was considered part of that "generation," and he was born in the 1930's.
But, interestingly, although known as the "silent generation," many of the people who were influential/famous during the 1960's (the period associated with the Boomers) actually were part of the "silent generation":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Generation
(Just for the record, my father was a conservative Republican... and there was nothing "silent" about him. lol He was incapable of whispering - he had a deep booming voice that carried.) :-)
See? That's what I'm saying. This guy is off in his time scale. I was a veritable Pigpen in the late fifties, always wondering why there was dirt in my mouth.
Well there IS something to be said about childhood before computers, video games and cell phones. All the rough and tumble outdoors all day long and yes, even after dark, entertaining the hell out of ourselves with boxes, bikes, tents, tree houses, rock fights, play acting after the Saturday matinee, etc - THAT was kidhood. Now they’re addicted to little glowing screens, withering on the vine, becoming asocial angry drones full of liberal programming. They’ve been robbed, I tell you.
Tell it! It’s something somebody cooked up some how, some way, for some reason ... that’s the mystery.
I’m GenX and my kid was raised to be independent, non bubblewraped and given plenty of rope to hang herself several times over. Like parents used to do. It worked just fine. Without going into the details, she managed an Iraq deployment, earned 2 degrees during a career working on America’s top jets and left the USAF to enter a lucrative profession by age 25.
GenX isn’t the problem. Millenials aren’t the problem. What Liberalism did to Generation Reagan, those that followed and American attitudes overall is the problem.
“my father...had a deep booming voice that carried”
Sounds like hubby. I had to tell him the other day that his voice was SO LOUD that people around me could hear him through my phone, it’s like hit the volume control when hubby’s on the phone!
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