Thirtysomething to thirtynothing

The Globe and Mail ^ | 7/12/07 | Siri Agrell

[Ancient Drive]

grow up!

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.

[LanPB01]

I’m 32. I guess whenever I start to question the accomplishments in my life, I can at least look at the people in this article and feel a whole lot better.

[pikachu]

Rosann Barr’s show was nicknamed -’two-thirty something’

[wideawake]

When I was 20, I thought that by the time I was 30 I would be married, have children, have a serious career, own my own home and have paid off my school loans.

Check, check, check, check, check.

It's not that hard.

[Frapster]

I turn 40 this November. My kids are ages 21, 14, 12, 10. People my age are, for the most part, do not have kids the same age as mine. I typically find that my friends parents are 5 to 10 years older than me.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

It was a stupid TV show. Most of us who were that age at that time had nothing in common with those dumb characters shown on it.

Much of this supposed generational conflict is just the juxtaposition of one artificial media-created image of one period with the artificial media created image from another period.

People change less in fundamentals over time than the mass media superficials would suggest.

[DuncanWaring]

Most parents bought their house in 1968 for $65,000, but it would go for $800,000 today...

They were also paying for that $65,000 house on one $10 per hour paycheck.

[swatbuznik]

I’m thirty-something, and right where I imagined I’d be. Married, kids, secure job.

This sounds a lot like my younger brother, though.

[CompSciGuy]

Bah! Whining self centered people. Gen X is not the ME generation, that was the boomers. I’m a Gen X’er and although my twenties didn’t go as planned, my thirties are one heck of a great run (and I still have more years to go). The trick is not to whine and say “I should have had a wife, a 4,000 sq foot home, and 2.3 children by the time I was thirty.” Its to realize what you do have and if you aren’t satisfied change it. Whining about it to Canadian newspapers or making cry-baby plays isn’t going to bring happiness.

Cheers,
CSG

[T.Smith]

Everyone talked about how they were broke and don't have a family yet and their parents think they're a screw-up," she said of her subjects

Guess what? You are a screw-up.

[HungarianGypsy]

mature, yes. but, not grow up. grown ups are boring.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

The book “Passages” by Gail Sheehy (she is a liberal but the book is good), goes into those passages about every 10 years when you look back and evaluate your life. It is good to do that. I am 59 and close to retirement, but I still have goals. I think people of any age should have goals and look to the future, however, it doesn’t hurt to look back and opine on good and bad decisions and coping with them.
One thing that I have learned. If you don’t like something about yourself or your life, you can change it. Just be careful when you jump into change, sometimes change is good, sometimes not. Still, making mistakes in life helps you to understand the meaning of life, as Tolstoy would say.

[Fairview]

They were also paying for that $65,000 house on one $10 per hour paycheck.

No, probably not. The formula used then was that you bought a house that was worth twice your annual income. So the family that bought a $65K house to be comfortable had to have an income of $32K per year.

My parents bought a beautiful little house in 1963 for $37,500. Dad was making about $25000 a year then, so making a $200 mortgage payment was a breeze. The same house is going for around a million dollars today. With that traditional formula the family would have to be making four or five hundred thousand dollars a year to afford it. And this is no mansion, just a charming four-bedroom cottage. Not many thirty-somethings have an income sufficient to buy a house like that near the place they grew up.

[freepertoo]

I’m 51. I’m *still* looking around with enormous, big eyes saying, “When did I become a grown up? I don’t remember that happening!” :-D

[Smogger]

Uh.. So the price of a starter house is 12 times as much since 68, but wages have what? Doubled?

[Mr. Jeeves]

I’m 51. I’m *still* looking around with enormous, big eyes saying, “When did I become a grown up? I don’t remember that happening!” :-D

It takes about fifty years for a human being to fully grow up. Our society's refusal to recognize that fact leads to a lot of dysfunctional behavior. That's why in many other cultures, children are shaped and guided (if not actually raised) by their grandparents.

It really does take a village...just not the Board of Commissars that Hillary has in mind. ;)

[Psycho_Bunny]

I'm 38. 

I thought by 35 I'd have the entire planet cowering under my Iron Fist of Justice....so I'm a little behind on that.

Other than that, I'm right on track with what I want.  Life is good.

I am sick though, of listening to perpetual whiners who have a better standard of living than 90% of all the people in human history, prattle on and on and on about how terrible their life is.

It should be legal to smack those people.  I can't stand being in the same room with them.