Our country seems to have a long history of dysfunctional generation to generation relationships. After taking years to mold the youth of today into what they have become, the previous generation will stand back and shake their heads in sad dismay spouting off complaints about laziness and jeans that don’t properly cover the wearers ass cheeks. Yes, the complaints may have changed over time (I imagine they started off with something about improper use of farm tools or falling asleep in church), but the concept has always been the same. Criticizing is far easier than taking the time to understand a generation that is content on tweaking a long-standing system that just doesn’t work for them.
Generation Y (also deemed Generation ME ME ME!) has been the subject of many a TV special, picked apart and studied as if it were some odd three-headed rat that needs to be exterminated pronto. This generation (Yes, my generation, but I will attempt to speak of my peers from a non-biased platform- I’ll just be that stage mom that cheers obnoxiously from the sidelines) as pointed out by a panel of disgusted parents on the Dr. Phil show, believes that they are entitled to everything. Of course the show hand-picked the most obnoxious group of “I’ll sleep on my mom’s couch and wait for that perfect movie role” early twenty-something’s they could find and attempted to show the audience the horrific personalities of today’s generation. Yes, this generation feels a sense of entitlement, but these examples aside, they simply believe that THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO LIVE THE LIFE THAT THEY WANT. But what about HARD WORK, you say? Yes, hard work has its time and place, but when things are RIGHT sometimes life doesn’t need to be so damn hard. And of course when you are actually doing something that you LOVE it just doesn’t feel like work.
Another such TV special, hosted by Barbara Walters (someone who manages to make every subject seem odd and every guest uncomfortable), pointed out the most important thing that Generation Y was lacking: LOYALTY. They were not talking about intimate relationships (although I’m sure this generation doesn’t look to good in that arena either), but loyalty to jobs and companies they work for. Instead of staying for years and years and years working for one company, Generation Y floats from one position to the next in an attempt to find WHAT WORKS FOR THEM. Holy shit, I think this might be a huge problem. We should be sticking to that one corporate entity for the rest of our natural lives- promising them our first-born and not betraying them in an attempt to find our own happiness!
Somewhere between having kids and raising said kids we forget that each new generation will bring something new and GOOD to this world- perhaps something previous generations hadn’t yet thought of. Yes, we all have our shortcomings, but distasteful clothing and an aversion to the “normal way” of living and working is no reason to write off an entire generation. I’m just sayin…
Confessions of a Perfectionist 