AUTHORITY: WHAT BOOMERS DID, WHAT THEY SHOULD’VE DONE, pt.1

Daddy’s Home To Help
via salon.com

Since the past refuses to die and stay dead, there’s always a chance to improve the story, his story and hers.

Call it revision, call it “I can’t remember,” or just make stuff up. It all washes out at the end of the day.

Some parts you’ll agree with, some you won’t, and some might inspire you to do something.

Be careful with that last one. “I read about it on the boomerpdx blog,” is an excuse no court abides by.

With that in mind, let’s start with number one:

1. Boomers Question Authority.

This is always a tough one due to so many opinions of authority. Who and what are authorities? Parents, police, and teachers are the who. Judicial system, military, and higher education are the what for this post.

If you’re a parent, you remember baby’s first words. Your wife coached the kid up to say, “Momma.” You might have helped them say, “Dada.” No matter their first word, you wanted them to say something, anything. You prayed for normal.

After those first words you couldn’t find a way to shut them up. With that in mind, boomers learned to say, “Why?”

Was it questioning authority or just an excuse to push a button over and over?

“Clean your room.”

“Why?”

“Mow the yard.”

“Why?”

“Wash your hands.”

“Why?”

I like thinking of some pimple popper in New Jersey asking daddy why as the old man rushes out the door to catch the 8:15 into the city.

“Why? Because I said so,” was a popular answer.

What Boomer Did:

Boomer didn’t think that was good enough. Dad comes home to find a dirty room and an overgrown yard. He and mom go to counseling to discover what they did wrong. Or he breaks out the belt for a lesson on doing what you’re told.

What They Should Have Done:

Clean the room by moving piles of dirty clothes to the laundry room for mom to work on. Then lift the mower wheels to the highest setting and walk the yard. Who can tell if a yard is mowed or not when all the grass is the same height. Do that and you can always say a longer cut chokes the weeds out.

Did your kids quiz you with, “Why?”

Did you answer in your parent’s voice?

How’d that feel the first time? Did you call your mom and dad for a good laugh?

Let’s ask Sean and Elizabeth Canning. Their daughter Rachael, an accomplished young lady, wants to sue them. She calls them spoiled baby boomers. And mean.

From yahoo.com:

“The defendants in the case – the parents – have also hired an attorney, Laurie Rush-Masuret.

Rush-Masuret claims that her clients never told their daughter to move out. “Rather they advised her that she is welcome home so long as she abides by their rules under their roof.”

“Rachel decided that she does not want to live within her parents’ sphere of influence and voluntarily moved out, essentially emancipating herself,” the attorney wrote. “Obviously, she cannot decide she will no longer live within her parents’ sphere of influence and simultaneously seek payment from them for support.”

Rush-Masuret also said the high school senior had been seeing a therapist, was supposed to be taking some sort of medication, had been suspended from school twice in the fall semester, ignored curfews and bullied her younger sister, according to the Record.”

Sound familiar?