Hi all,
This post might veer to the outskirts of the topic, but I do think it's on topic. Speaking as a member of Gen-Y who thought I was a member of Gen-X until reading the birth years in the article (thanks to the OP who posted the link!), I agree to a point with k16 (this is the former k16, right?)
Boomers cannot expect other boomers' kids to behave well, act with a traditional work ethic, etc., while simultaneously spoiling their own chilluns up the wazoo. But what can be done?
However, as my subject suggests,
there is another side to all this. I have, as a working adult, HAD to have dear old dad intercede for me on two occasions. This sounds like classic spoiled kid behavior, but stay with me.
One was a publication to which I had cancelled my subscription that kept billing me. I made numerous phone calls, in which they confirmed that I was no longer a subscriber, but continued trying to bill me anyway, and even turned me over to a collection agency! Two days after my baby boomer father called, the situation was resolved and I never heard from them again.
Later that same year, I was in a car accident. After we got done with the police, I did what you're supposed to do--got the insurance card out of the glovebox, called the insurance company, made my report, and was trying to make the arrangements for a rental. I was informed that I didn't have rental coverage on my vehicle (I do). I was then informed that my name wasn't on the policy. I spelled my (not unusual) last name. I read off the policy number on the card. The insurance person continued refusing to help me with my claim further. I hung up and called my father. He, the male baby boomer, called the insurance company, and TEN MINUTES LATER everything was arranged and I ended up driving that rental for a month while my car's new parts were on backorder.
I attribute both of these incidents to boomer-age folks who are simply unwilling to listen to a young woman, even if she says that water is wet, but will listen to a boomer man. I sometimes still wonder about the serious consequences--damaged credit rating, no car for a month--that could have happened if I hadn't had a middle-aged man to speak up for me in either situation.
It was interesting to me that the first two cases in the article were about young men, as even in this supposedly modern world I have observed men being treated with much more public respect than women (see above, and ask me about my undergrad school sometime). Additionally, I do believe that both "young'uns" in the article were out of line, and I believe that most of the things our students complain about are ridiculous.
I also believe our society is undoubtedly coddling this millennial generation to a ridiculous degree.
Based on my own experience, though, I further believe that there is another message being sent to this generation--that people in their 20s are less than adults, that their opinions will not be taken seriously, that the only way to get ANY problem solved is by bringing in Mom and Dad.
It made me sick to have to say "Daddy fix it" in both situations I've shared here. I'm also pragmatic enough to know that it was the surest solution in both cases.
I can't be the only Gen-Y person to have received these messages from our society. Perhaps when our students run into ANY problem at all, they (like me) act from past experience and call their parents, who have been the only people they've observed being able to solve any problems that have touched them before.
Thanks to anyone who's still reading; obviously I'm still trying to puzzle this all out. My students drive me crazy with their whining, but I also know what it's like to behave responsibly and be rendered effectively unable to do anything about a situation. Naturally, then, one tends to look to the people who WERE able to act in past such situations.
Now if I can just be generous of mind and spirit enough to at least consider all this the next time a student complains . . .
