First off, love you Face (in a purely platonic way )! While I am a newbie and never in, I've been lurking for a few years and your threads and insightful comments on all things scilon and not have intrigued me and kept me coming to this site. Figured its time to sign up and say what I think finally.
Now for the current topic, I was a late boomer from early sixties and am probably guilty of the boomer mentality/behavior in some cases. My children (4) are of the Gen-Y or Millennial era. While those are the more academic designations for that era, I don't think it does service to the real behavior that resulted from the effects of the boomers.
Specifically you have spoken of the great wealth accumulated by boomers, I could not agree more. My experience has been that because of that wealth, boomers seemed content to provide their children whatever they wanted without no regard to consequences, or the fact that they needed to earn what was received. I believe this comes from the ability for them to give their kids things that they never could have, hoping that it will make their way in life a bit easier, and not have to struggle as they once did.
The result IMHO is that the parents did not instill the core values of earning ones way through life (both monetarily, emotionally, and mentally), the expectation being "my parents will take care of me if I get into a bind" mentality. Me and the wife are guilty as charged (Mom gave, I protested and lost ), at least on the monetary side. All of my kids have grown up well adjusted and financially independent (the 2008 market crash really woke them up when the Mom/Dad money tree died!). Was also a reality check for the Wife when she realized she had to go back to work, and all of a sudden she was being asked to give HER money to the kids! I love her to death, but it was quite the wake up call.
So now to my point, I continue to see this behavior over and over with my friends and peers, and that is why I prefer to call this era the "Entitlement" generation. We seems to have bred out all of the important things our parents, parents-parents, etc. installed in us: Get educated, get a job.... any job that pays (my kids tried the "I wouldn't be caught dead working at McDonald's" thing... guess who won that battle), work hard and work your way up, respect the money you earned and put it to good use, respect others as you would have them respect you, and never place yourself above another human being.
My hope is that the recent economic trends enable the Gen-X/Entitlement generation to learn from our mistakes, and restore the values we were instilled with by previous generations.
To quote a wise man... just my 2 cents!
McLovin
Yeah, Face, I'm a Gen-Xer and I can't say I have a whole lotta love for the Boomers as a group. I am friends with individuals, but as a group, they are a bunch of self-absorbed jerkwads. In academic science in particular (my bailiwick), the Boomers are sitting on all the prime tenured jobs long past the time they have run out of new ideas. Fresh Gen-X and early Millenial talent can't get a position and are stuck adjuncting. The Boomers got all that wonderful aid to go to college, and once they got into power they jacked up the prices thinking that grants and loans will cover the cost as it did for them. Well, there is only so much aid out there, so Gen X and Gen Y are stuck with huge debt right outta school that they never faced. Boomers in Finance caused the recent meltdown. Back in the 60s, they popularized the scourge of drugs in the middle class. Every decade, wherever they happened to be in the power structure, they massively shit in their own nests, and now the Gen-Xers have to deal with it.
First off, love you Face (in a purely platonic way )! While I am a newbie and never in, I've been lurking for a few years and your threads and insightful comments on all things scilon and not have intrigued me and kept me coming to this site. Figured its time to sign up and say what I think finally.
Now for the current topic, I was a late boomer from early sixties and am probably guilty of the boomer mentality/behavior in some cases. My children (4) are of the Gen-Y or Millennial era. While those are the more academic designations for that era, I don't think it does service to the real behavior that resulted from the effects of the boomers.
Specifically you have spoken of the great wealth accumulated by boomers, I could not agree more. My experience has been that because of that wealth, boomers seemed content to provide their children whatever they wanted without no regard to consequences, or the fact that they needed to earn what was received. I believe this comes from the ability for them to give their kids things that they never could have, hoping that it will make their way in life a bit easier, and not have to struggle as they once did.
The result IMHO is that the parents did not instill the core values of earning ones way through life (both monetarily, emotionally, and mentally), the expectation being "my parents will take care of me if I get into a bind" mentality. Me and the wife are guilty as charged (Mom gave, I protested and lost ), at least on the monetary side. All of my kids have grown up well adjusted and financially independent (the 2008 market crash really woke them up when the Mom/Dad money tree died!). Was also a reality check for the Wife when she realized she had to go back to work, and all of a sudden she was being asked to give HER money to the kids! I love her to death, but it was quite the wake up call.
So now to my point, I continue to see this behavior over and over with my friends and peers, and that is why I prefer to call this era the "Entitlement" generation. We seems to have bred out all of the important things our parents, parents-parents, etc. installed in us: Get educated, get a job.... any job that pays (my kids tried the "I wouldn't be caught dead working at McDonald's" thing... guess who won that battle), work hard and work your way up, respect the money you earned and put it to good use, respect others as you would have them respect you, and never place yourself above another human being.
My hope is that the recent economic trends enable the Gen-X/Entitlement generation to learn from our mistakes, and restore the values we were instilled with by previous generations.
To quote a wise man... just my 2 cents!
McLovin
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll get you out of your head, out of your little box.
Example" and "walking the walk, not just talk" is sooo important in rearing children. My children saw wait staff, clerks, service providers and others always treated with respect, thoughtfulness and manners. My children raised with constant reminders of the "Golden Rule" and the Credo, "If you want others regard you as interesting or interested in you, you must be truly interested in them and learn about them, because everyone has their own personal "Story" that is fascinating and interesting." I have many flaws but my children made me a better person...I did not want to be a bad example and inadvertently or carelessly impart rude, selfish and damaging behavior habits to them.
Looking forward to more great stuff, mclovin.
Face
The Real and True Way To Happiness...It has nothing to do with wearing designer jeans or being a "Big Being".
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/11/how-this-harvard-psycholo_n_3727229.html
Face:
... your posts about the making of POS (such an apropos acronym!) make me face palm again and again and again.
Congratulations, father-of-the-brides!
I know the feeling whereof you speak in feeling happy and contented that a child has chosen a life partner whom you genuinely like and respect. It makes things oh, so much easier in life. I've been blessed with my own two children in this area. I attributed much to them NOT getting married young. (One of mine was 28, the other 31)
Sounds like your daughters have completed their education and established themselves in their careers. Likely they have done many things single people want to do, traveled as they wanted, etc.
The only down side I found was that it was a long wait for grandchildren. Because nobody wanted to "rush into" parenthood. In fact, one of the couples announced they did not thing they wanted to have any children. Until they changed their minds nine years later.
Enjoy, enjoy.