BOOMER GOT A BRAND NEW BAG

And It’s Bigger Than Yours.

via eastcoastprogressive.blogspot.com

You’ve seen the results of baby boomer parents who coddled their kids.

Millennials get blamed for being self-centered, lazy, unmotivated. They’re tagged with some of the same names boomers were tagged with by their parents.

It wasn’t fair then, and it’s not now. Except there is a big difference.

The seniors who ragged the boomer generation did it with authority, the sort of authority that ended WWII. They didn’t ask for unconditional surrender from their kids, but it felt like it to some.

That’s where the generation gap grew even wider. Boomers who tired of parental harping set out to create new relationships.

In their drift toward a better world no one said get a hair cut, or grow up and get a real job, as if following the Dead with a bag of tie-dyed T-shirts for sale wasn’t a real job.

Once the magic wore off, boomers did go to college and find meaningful work. Some paid for college on their own to spite their parents. Others joined the service and got educated on the GI Bill.

What do these people do when their own kids question their authority?

This shouldn’t be a shock to a generation raised on ‘questioning authority,’ who were encouraged to not trust anyone over thirty.

Now we’re over thirty and our authority is questioned. What to do?

Keep it civil.

No one enjoys a screaming older person swearing at them so loud that spit flies out of their mouth.

Older people enjoy it even less when their kid mimics the behavior. They look like a braying donkey when they do it. So do you.

Avoid running their friends down in an argument.

Open that box and you might find a history of your own sketchy friends jumping out in your kid’s words.

Unless you join a cult, it’s good to have a variety of friends. You might set standards for your friends, like playing guitar and drinking beers, to others they look like chronic wastrels.

Part of the fun of friends is the unexpected, but in your kid’s angry eyes you’re all a bunch of losers.

Avoid commenting on their friends’ parents.

A wise man once said comparing yourself to a jackass doesn’t mean you’re not a jackass, too.

Raise the bar.

The only good to come from trashing other parents is your kid defending them. They may not have loyalty to you, but standing up for someone your age is a positive.

Finally, a Millennial Reminder.

If you have a dispute with a Boomer parent, don’t think of it as a chance to dump your entire bag of woe. First, if you argue with your boomer parent, they already know your woes, and dumping your bag might be a green light for them to do the same.

This is the big problem youngsters want to avoid at all costs. Moms and Dads have a bigger bag of woe than you, and when they start dumping it gets messy fast.

Their bag is overflowing with putrified feelings they struggle to keep in check.

The immature boomer, and there are a few, collects slights and misunderstandings to unload at the appropriate moment.

(Memo to boomer: there is no appropriate moment.)

Before you start punching below the belt, children, remember your grandparents. These sweet old folks used to rule the world with a heavy hand. They didn’t invent the saying, “My Way Or The Highway,” and might never say it, but they took very little grief from their snotty kids.

Why? We were afraid of them. They beat the Nazi. They took down Imperial Japan. People who fought the Chinese in Korea are not to be taken lightly.

Ask a sixty year old when they moved out of their parent’s home. Better yet, Boomer, tell us in comments how you decided to move out on your own.

And remember, the kids are listening.