IT’S NOT OUR FAULT
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I am a Millennial. America says I am selfish, entitled, impatient, unmotivated, pampered, narcissistic and lazy. While, that may be true for some of us, I truly believe America has really misunderstood our generation. I think there are several reasons for that perception of Milliennials. This is the first of a three-part series discussing what things I believe are the biggest influences on Millennials growing up.
I accredit a lot of personality traits to our parenting. Most of our parents came from the Baby Boomer generation, a generation that were coincidentally perceived by older generations similar to the way Millennial are perceived today. They were perceived as spoiled, rebellion, opinionated, crazy hair/clothing, drugs.
Lets examine the cause and effect of their parenting:
Cause:
Baby Boomers Parents thought they were kids who should be thankful for their position in the world and to do what the world expected of them.
Baby Boomers were not given the freedom to fully explore their passions in life. There was a specific path they were expected to follow and they followed it. But, when they became parents they encouraged their Children to think outside the box, have their own opinion and to follow their passions in life.
Baby Boomers parents did not make a lot of money and was not able to buy their kids the toys, clothes, cars, etc. that they wanted. Boomers were only able to have the things they wanted by working for those thing themselves.
Effect:
Boomers did not think their kids should just be thankful for their positions in life, but rather instilled in their children that they could be whatever they wanted to be in life if they worked hard at it.
Milliennials developed a mindset that things are supposed to go a specific way if we did certain things. Ex. “When I graduate from College, I am guaranteed a job.” We are very opinioned; at times, too opinionated. This, sometimes comes across as "hard to deal with".
Boomers are the wealthiest generation to date. They provided their children with all the things that their parents were not able to do for them. This is what most parents dream of doing. It is commendable that they did this, but unbeknown to them at the time, they laid the foundation for a whole generation to expect this as normal.
Boomers are the most successful generation yet, but their parenting techniques had a strong impact on our lifestyles and only time will tell how Millennial parenting styles will effect their children.
