Posted on 03/22/2004 10:16:29 AM PST by qam1
Hearing, "You don't look old enough to be a grandparent," is a little like being a good-looking corpse. Not the greatest compliment.
Baby boomers entering the grandparent years are launching a small semantic revolution to avoid the traditional label of senior citizen status. These youth cult boomers are demanding that their grandkids call them names with a younger sound than the traditional "grandma" and "grandpa."
"Baby boomers don't want to adhere to the blue-haired old granny stereotype. They are choosing young-sounding names for themselves because generally they don't think of themselves as grandparent age," says Norah Burch, 30, a self-described "name nerd" who has been tracking options for the new slew of first-time grandparents on her Web site, www.namenerds.com.
Burch's own mother decided that her grandchildren would call her "Moogie," the term for "mother" from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
"I don't have any problem, even for one second, being a grandmother. For me it's just the name," explained Laura Burch, who became a grandmother, at age 51, to Mikala, who is now 9 (followed by Jacob, 5, and Ari, 2).
Norah Burch says her mom, a potter who lives in Ithaca, N.Y., chose the unconventional name "because she associated `grandma' and `granny' et al with bingo playing and driving a giant Oldsmobile."
"My mom and her whole circle of friends, when they started having grandkids in their 50s, the thought of being called `grandma' was pretty awful to them. They weren't gray-haired old ladies sitting around in rocking chairs baking cookies."
One correspondent on namenerds.com writes, "My mom is your typical white middle-class suburban Southern Baptist Bible-thumpin' Dubya-suppportin' Texan. She has big, puffy, shellacked blond hair and wears T-shirts with three-dimensional objects hanging off them. She believes in Jesus Christ, the Republican Party, craft fairs and spiral perms. She has rebelled against Grandma because it sounds `old' and she's only 41."
She wants her grandkids to call her "Peaches." "She's even thinking of having a peach tattooed on her toe."
I am a GenXer supreme
Its a bit silly looking right now, because I havent put any posts in for a few weeks now, but here it is:
You young whippersnappers have no appreciation for the sacrifices our generation made for you when we were your age. Back in the time of Vietnam we got up every morning at 10 am to mix acid and carry heavy protest signs to peace rallies, where we often got teargassed. We had nothing to eat but that nauseous, flyblown organic food. Some of us even had to listen to Tom Hayden talk and Cher sing...
Well I am the keeper/maintainer of the Xer ping list so I am on the lookout and get pointed to "Generational" articles. But what can I say the reason why baby Boomer articles come up a lot is Baby Boomers just like writing about themselves so there are lots of articles, "Modesty" is not a word that describes the baby boomers. I am not writing vanities here, These "Whoppers" recently have pretty much fallen right into my lap.
and you probably have more knowledge of your generation than I do. Is this kind of thinking widespread among Xers or is it just thread trolling?
Yes it's widespread and as the deficit gets larger, More and more of these health/safety/nanny laws pass and lawsuits get filed and Boomers demand more and more benefits it's only going to grow. There has always been generational strife in past which usually ends when the younger generation grows older but it's different with the boomers because no generation has ever been so utterly selfish and forced their own children and grandchildren give them so much. It's been brought up that it's really FDR and LBJ to blame since they started it all, True enough however it can be argued that they could have never totally foreseen the mess we are facing while today's Baby Boomers know full well what a huge burden they will be placing on us and not only are they not doing anything to fix it they still continue to pile on the demands more and more goodies. Put yourself in our place, How would you feel?
As for euthanasia, As of now I am sure most Xers aren't for it, Though it would be quite ironic if we did start since so many Baby Boomers fought so hard for gun control that they left themselves defenseless
BTW, My parents were Baby Boomers and they were excellent, But I am the exception to the rule
It may have been a rhetorical question, but here goes - Yes, the deficit is problem that is not being faced with properly. This problem, along with the growing intrusive nanny state, could just as easily be blamed on women or blacks as a group. And this premise could be backed up by historical facts (the change in entitlement programs after women or blacks were given the vote) or by antidotal statements and the premise debated. However, when it comes to these boomer threads the debate is lost and turns into boomer bashing. Part of this is just the way FR is, but substitute “Baby Boomer” with “Women” or “Blacks” in some of these posts and the post would get pulled. No boomers are not a minority group, but neither do they process some different innate properties that are not present in other generations. If there are more idiots among boomers, its just because there are more boomers. Remember, we did not clone ourselves, so do not blame us for our numbers. If you want change, than I suggest that Xers work at getting out the voters they feel will change the entitlement tide, rather than just griping . Rant done.
2000 Election |
|
% of Vote |
|
|
|
Gore |
Bush |
Others |
Men |
42 |
53 |
5 |
Women |
54 |
43 |
3 |
African-American |
90 |
9 |
1 |
18-29 |
48 |
46 |
6 |
30-44 |
48 |
49 |
3 |
45-59 |
48 |
49 |
3 |
Over 60 |
51 |
47 |
2 |
18-64 |
48 |
48 |
4 |
Over 65 |
50 |
47 |
3 |
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