Posted on 09/07/2004 8:49:33 AM PDT by qam1
BTw I am a war baby, born in 1942. For some reason people blame me for the boomers but I don't feel alot like them other than I have worked alot but never put the kids in day care, spent years at home with them.
That said, there is a new phenomena,,,the boomeers and my gen are helping out the gen xers alot more than we were,,ie,,we had to scrimp and save to afford a house, never got gifts from parents till they died and left it all to us,,,we were truly on our own. With my kids, we gift them money for down payments, for helping with stay at home moms, to go on ski trips with us, to help out. They work, the hubbies, alot and live frugally but it is nice to help them with a leg up. And we paid for college and grad school so they started out without debt. I swear, it is hard economically now, much harder than for us. I admire the gen xeers,,they have good hearts and love their kids.
Go for it, we're all doing what we can. Owning one's own retirement is not a new idea. I support it now as I did when I was younger. Frightened seniors had other thoughts then as they do now.
Show us some of your generational kung-fu and do up an article on that! Howsaboutit? mmm, thought not.
I'm a little late to this conversation, but when I read your post, you could have been describing my family!
My husband (1955) and I (1960) have a son in 2nd grade.
We moved away from Minneapolis this summer to a small town to give him a better education.
I gave up a 15 year career when he was two-years-old to be a stay at home mom.
Now I'm looking for a part-time job and there's definately nothing out here in my field.
I wouldn't change a thing about our decisions. (Wish I could've stopped working when he was born though. I had a contract to fulfill)
We moved out of Dover, Delaware to a rural area of Virginia for the better education opportunity for our daughter.
I was fortunate in that I was self-employed and basically worked from home so was able to stay home from the beginning. However, I was involved in government relations/politics/lobbying and moving out of the state capitol took away my opportunities. It was fun while it lasted, I really enjoyed taking her with me when I had to make a rare daytime appearance at the Capitol when the Legislature was in session.
Now that school has started again there are 2 reasons for me to find a part-time job.........the first is for my own sanity and the second is I'd like to go back to financially contributing to the household.
I'm a gen-Xer stay at home mom with 3 girls. :) One thing that I believed helped our generation the most is that most of us were growing up during the Reagan years. A lot of his optimism transcended onto us. Then, we had the learning experience of the Clinton years ( our rebellion period). Now any generation that is giving the opportunity to compare and contrast these 2 administrations and what the country was like as a result should gravitate to the more conservative.
Liberal Baby Boomers... Obviously a large portion of the boomers are good folks.... Isn't Bush a Boomer?
I don't know why I find it funny...but the idea of a bunch of hippy liberals (generalizing here)...
Breeding a generation of Rebelling Conservatives is hilarious.
Viva la Reagan Revolution. Maybe he was speaking of us the whole time.
I'm about ready for his tax revolt to hit
Durnit! I'm NOT a pessimist.
I'm a disappointed realist.
Hello again to you to
Why do you persist on disrespecting those who made a life for you?
Sorry but my "real life" name is not Laura DeMarco or James Chung so I didn't write this article or do the study. I am the keeper of the Xer ping list, So when a article appears with the words "Generation X" in the title........I will let you figure out the rest.
Why are you so angry?
And why are you (and other boomers) so defensive? According to the study Gen-Xers have become better parents than the Baby boomers. Is this not a good thing? Do you wish we were worse so our country will slip even further into moral decay? Unlike you if 10-15 years down the road and someone here has a Gen-Y ping list and the they Ping an article titled "Generation Y parents outshine Xers" I would be very happy for them.
No, those are still mostly Baby Boomer weirdos. Thanks for playing, please try again.
Bingo.
Example #1: William Jefferson Clinton.
THanks for the "pep-talk!" When I hear success stories such as yours, it gives me continued strength to be living paycheck-to-paycheck as we do now that I'm home with our son. Nice to know others have made it work for so many years when I have only been home for such a short time!
I hear you on the sanity aspect, and the financial aspect also.
Now that 'my darling son' is back in school I find myself with a little too much time on my hands.
When I realized that I had been ironing for AN HOUR this morning I thought I'd gone off the deep end because I absolutely despise ironing. LOL
Actually, I was listening to Laura Ingraham, one of my faves, and I guess ironing was kind of soothing. She was on fire today talking about the horrors at Belsan and the sheeples' failure to recognize the threat of islam.
I too have been self-employed off and on as a writer/producer since I stopped working in the biz full-time. My husband took vacation on shoot days to be home with the kiddo.
The last series I worked on was for the Travel Channel. The host of the show is an extreme lib. She drank the kool-aid during her stint in Los Angeles. Of course, most of the crew was liberal too. Don't know if I have the stomach for that kind of work anymore.
You sound like great parents, and are very blessed.
"We did the same and I'm 54. One of the things we were always grateful for is that we had the sense never to value money and material as much as our three daughters. They came first whether we drove used cars or went camping for vacations."
As one of three daughters myself, I have to tell you that I have an overwhelming respect for my Dad for what he did so my mom could be home with us, such as working two jobs wheen needed, always driving the "yucky" car, fixing things around the house on his own instead of calling the plumber... you get the idea.
That is why I wanted to marry someone like him, who knew how important it was to be home with the children. And to this day, I tell myself that if my parents could muddle thru the tough times, so can we.
We daughters may give our Dads gray hair, but you Dads teach us the value of hard work and sacrifice, to do what is right for our own families when we "grow up."
ping
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