Millennial dads are not lazy. They are indoctrinated

PGA Weblog ^

[AlaskaErik]

I don’t own any tool that is cordless. My drills have cords because I like drills with some horsepower. The cordless are also ridiculously expensive.

That may have been true decades ago, but you can get a really good 18 volt drill with two batteries and a charger for under $100. I have used mine so many times over the years and can't imagine ever wanting to use a corded drill for anything but the toughest jobs.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for bringing back the memories:

My Grand Dad was a master carpenter and he He owned several of these drills and several carpenter's hammers. He had cut/lathed and install hickory wood handles for the hammers

He died my soph. year in college, and I got one of these drills with a set of drill bits and a hammer. I kept them at my parents so they didn't disappear in college.

5+ years later, I got married and my parents got these tools to our new apartment. My wife loves pictures/paintings and new drapes/curtains. That drill all most become an extension to my left arm and hand from holding the drill. I bought a stud finder that lasted until last year.

A few years later and several apartments later, we bought our first home, a 3 story townhouse with a zillion windows.

A first cousin and a good friend was in the same area and was going through a divorce. He was an engineer/architect and he had inherited our granddad's skills.

So he would spend a weekend with us, get fed and worked hard getting new curtains, pictures up and etc.. He loved our grand dad's drill and didn't want to ruin it in our new home.

So he bought a new B&D electric drill kit and a set of drill bits and gave it to me/us. My wife suggested that we give him our grand dad's drill set for helping us. We did and he cried and thanked us.

3 moves later the B&D drill kit was still working but slowing down. About 1+ decades ago, my wife bought me a new DeWalt portable electric drill, the one in the yellow black case that never wears out.

My granddad's hammer disappeared on that move.

One of our sons still has the old B&D drill kit. He wanted it. He has dibs on the DeWalts mentioned above below.

A couple of years ago I bought an DeWalt Portable Electric stud/screw driver with two batteries for both outside and inside work. It is an incredible tool inside and outside. I basically own every drill bit and stud driver made by DeWalt.

[taterjay]

‘In a way, it strikes me as a return to the upper middle class having servants available’

Face it, life today for many is like the extreme wealthy had it years ago. Anyone remember a TV without a remote. That was common unti the mid 1990s. My daughter makes several bucks cleaning house for ‘common people’. For many, it is basic economics and ‘utility’. And if we are trained these days, it is to do 2 things at once. Such as have the oil changed while checking email that was also posted. I agree males need to know how to do many things, but today, many times it is simpler to have it done.

[CJ Wolf]

I have almost all my grand dads tools even though I never met him. He built his own house with those tools and when my grandmother passed we clean out the cellar. Most were passes up by my family. I still use them on occasion today but I will say the dewalt is an awesome product. I have drill impact wrench and sawzall. 18 volt still running strong.

[The Antiyuppie]

“Hard to believe, especially since we have YouTube — the greatest DIY resource ever invented. For any DIY job, I now consult YouTube first”

This is what drives me crazy. In all of human civilization, there has never been a time when valuable knowledge was so inexpensive, freely available, and easily acquired - nothing even -remotely- close to the present. Yet...look around. Complete idiots everywhere - many with advanced soft science degrees.

[ronniesgal]

my husband is 60, his dad was not handy, never did anything around the house. Husband did not p/u any skills, and has no desire to do so. It’s not just the young’ins!

[Grampa Dave]

“Also, what I don’t know and what doesn’t take male strength, can usually be learned from youtube.”

Our future DIL is a Youtuber. She can basically fix anything. She owns the home she lives and two rentals and does 90% of the repair work on the 3 homes, thanks to You Tube.

In the past few years, even good products often come with poor instructions on how assemble at home or to store. I bought a new Dyson portable vacuum cleaner and none of us could figure out how to hang it on the wall with an attachment for storage and re charging.

She came down, and we took my chromebook,tools and the Dyson into the laundry room and went to YouTube. One description was terrible, one in a little over 2 minutes showed us how to drill the holes install it and plug it in with the proper measurement.

She and I did the whole job in about 5 minutes including the Youtube video. 6 months later and in spite of being used basically everyday. It is still hanging and charging. My wife just jerks it out of the holders.

Knowing that we put in wood screws into a stud to secure it.

[The Antiyuppie]

I have had TWO vehicles drain plugs cross threaded and ruined by “professionals”.

[Grampa Dave]

I have a sawzall, we keep in the shed for semi emergencies.

It and my DeWalt tools added about 5 years to our Redwood deck. It will be finally replaced in a few weeks.

[wardaddy]

I’m a dad to many and I started as a boomer dad in 1988 and now I’m still dad with three of my five under adulthood

I’ve watched

Older boomer parents

Mid boomer parents

Young boomer parents

Gen X

And now whatever Gen Y and Millenials are

Parents my oldest kids ages of whom one my 28 year old daughter is a mom to two now

There are exceptions and quite a few in the south but there is no question female authority in the home has gone up exponentially since I was a boy in the 60s

And it was incremental increasing each generation to now where women drive their husbands around in the planet friendly car and men have even become physically less imposing and with much much less free testosterone

Females run for the most part black households now universally except on tv commercials

One may ask now how is it now with white households where the fathers influence is so diminished and often voluntarily since boys are raised this way with mom as shot caller

It’s a dichotomy I guess

Girls are easy sex now yet you must sorta acquiesce to their role and demands more

I don’t think it’s good.

I know how men and women perform under stress and I know how boys in particular need a close good male guide

I cannot imagine not having the ones I had in my dad and his dad even though my grandpa died when I was young his legacy looked large forever even now

I’ve tried to do the same...lead by perseverance and strength

Women need a strong man too going it alone or with a subservient boy man is tough

Feminism has truly been responsible for more damage than any cultural marker

It enabled homosexuality and has damaged the family badly

Of course women now have wonderful self validating and fulfilling careers

Was it worth it

[wardaddy]

Yes I mean to tell you boomer dads of whom maybe fond to two percent were actual hippies (more were Vietnam vets) knew tools

And oddly enough research hippie commune life

Learning tools is part of the arc of getting back to the country success or failure

Stephen Gaskins commune called the farm is America’s oldest I’d guess dating from 70/71

Self sufficiency is a hallmark of their longevity

They make stuff

They farm

They have extensive midwifery and adoption service

And so forth

You were thinking upper west side hippies hanging around Columbia

[wardaddy]

You seem to have issue with folks your parents or grandparents ages but the facts do not lie...we can hope younger voters get smarter...what’s scary is what about when we die off

[wardaddy]

Bullshit

You never hear of joint custody or maternal grandpas

Problem is feminism

And just general cultural convenience admittedly

[thescourged1]

I used to do all my own auto repairs myself as well. I’m at a place where various physical problems make it more difficult than it should. So I do the unthinkable and take the cars to the shop. I see it not merely a convenience for me, but I’m putting money in a guy’s pocket that has a family at home to support.

[DoodleBob]

You were thinking upper west side hippies hanging around Columbia

And there, my FRiend, is the issue at its heart.

Just like the hipppies at Woodstock are the stereotypical Boomer, the pod-eaters are the stereotypical Millenial just like flannel-wearing depressed grungers are stereotypical GenXers. Yet while the Boomers and GenXers seems to always reject those claims, and have generally turned out ok, they now assail the youths of today like the "greatest generation" assailed them.

I have great hope for today's Millenials. They'll likely vote for Trump. But ya get more bees with honey than vinegar.

[DoodleBob]

I'll find the graphic, but as people age they get more conservative. Boomers vote Republican en masse. GenX increasingly so. Millenials will vote for the next Deplorable candidate in large swaths in 2032.

[Don W]

Draining the oil, even when warm, takes a lot longer than 90 seconds if you want to do a thorough job.

I used to do my own lube jobs too, but the amount of time and energy is better spent on other things.

No mess to clean, no waste to dispose of, and a short rest period if I stay in the truck.

JMHO< YMMV

[fuzzylogic]

Agreed. My son is a Millenial. He married a wonderful woman, has two amazing daughters, and was a Marine. He’s also going to be moving into their 3rd house.

Everyone is an individual. He’s learning, just like I did, how to do things. My dad didn’t teach me how to fix things. It’s part of owning a home. I’d like to know if the average age for owning a first home has increased.

They also have other things to understand and know about. All of the computer software to know for various things. My parents know little about a lot of what is out there and what is possible.

Times are changing and I don’t believe it is fair to judge them for the world we delivered too them and also assume the things that were important during our time should be the same for them.

Even if they are, whom is at fault for their lack of knowing? I always find it odd when an older generation complains about a younger one...well, you’re responsible for their upbringing, you influenced it.

[9YearLurker]

Of course, as technology advances and society becomes more specialized, our ideas of what the average householder needs to know how to do and have changes. Moreover it is essentially an upper-middle-class thing to call in pros to do those sorts of tasks and chores. As more Americans climb up to the middle and upper middle rungs of society, away from manual labor themselves, it is natural that more would do so.

But yeah, a lot of Millennials of all types—male or female, married with children or not, are not very hard working by the standard of previous generations. Many of them don’t hold a first job until they are in their 20s and even at that it is a free or almost free internship, so expectations are very, very low.

[DoodleBob]

Actually, my problem is with older people who have short memories. Many people generally were young and stupid at some point in their life, then they grew up...just like in Churchill's quote.