Mainly because a lot of mommies and daddy’s are getting their designer panties in a knot about it.
This is the best quote:
But the generation that as children was told by TV that “the most
important person in the whole wide world is you” is finding it hard to
pass that torch.
And why I think magazines like Babble and the other ‘trendy’ bloggers out there are not geared for old fart Gen Xers, or if they are..they are on the later end…..I am 37, I must be almost of the other end of the scale….I am not a ‘traditionalist’ but I am not hip and urban either. Isn’t it this the Gen Y people keep mentioning?
And so the article is really about what happens when the selfish generation that was created by the breeders of the 80’s…those vile YUPPIES….starts breeding…..and toss in a few over the hills who are still hanging on to their days of glory. I know them. They are fun, but come on.
THAT comes from the video game generation breeding kids and then playing video games with them. Who is the adult in these relationships??
And while this might sound bitchy and supercilious ….I live it. We are the video game generation. My husband and son bond over the X-Box. We made him watch the ‘original’ Star Wars first and then really had to think about letting him see those ‘other’ one’s. My son’s favourite band is the Scissor Sisters.
We are Gen X. We are old nerds. We lived the 80’s prep and the 90’s grunge.
But we ain’t kidding ourselves about our ‘cool’ factor.
Kids don’t give a shit if you are cool or what music you listen to. They will still think it is crap. They want parents who love them and will be there for them.
Mind you, if we all got over ourselves and stopped being so worried about US and all that…. I don’t think blogging would have exploded the way it has.
What would we all talk about!?
Technorati Tags: time, babble, grups, gen x, gen y, hipster, yuppy
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Crazy Working Mom says
I could not have said it better myself! Very good point.
empress bee (of the high sea) says
well being from the oldest year of the boomers (1946) i got nuthin’ here, just saying “hi” crunch! hell we didn’t even have a tv to play a video game on! we played outside and ran and made up games and on rainy days, we whined to go out some more. we made tents with old blankets and ate cereal in waxed paper and oranges we peeled ourselves and if we were having a really good day, we had potato chips for a snack. stick ball and red rover, hide and seek, tag… and it was fun, it really was.
smiles, bee
cronznet says
Being almost 50 and a mom, it seems to me that every generation of parents gets criticized for something and, like teenagers, we should just shrug it off and move on. My kid is happy, gets a good daily balance of tv, outdoors, books and play-doh. And never has a moment to doubt that he is loved. Crunch, you’re getting it right and so am I and I don’t care who thinks we is or ain’t hip/cool/urbane.
toyfoto says
I have to admit that whether one puts a Sex Pistols onsie on an infant or bond over x-box or play with Lionel Trains I think parents have been trying to influence the kids in their interests for generations.
It’s difficult to compare and contrast generations, I think, because outlooks are so different. I don’t know that I would agree with the quote you pulled from Time really is something we should have our heads in shame over.
I think it’s about time kids see their parents as more than caretakers and pieces of the household furniture. Mom writes, mom has outside interests … Mom’s life doesn’t always revolve around my soccer game.
I think MOM in general become less of a martyr and more of a society member is a change that could be a good one. I for one am hopeful.
Crunchy Carpets says
Yeah..but I mean my mom wasn’t a martyr.
She didn’t sacrifice for all.
She worked hard to make sure I had a good life for sure.
But she had her own life and friends and interests too.
I just keep wondering who we are basing our ‘horror’ of ‘sacrifice’ on here?
toyfoto says
I guess I’m just thinking of my mother; and the moms I know now who are spending their lives driving their kids from soccer, to dance to language classes, and who talk about what they sacrificed or how their kids are the most important job they’ll ever have. In the end I think we all second guess ourselves and wonder if we did the right thing.
In my experience, my mom’s friends were our’ friends mothers; and when we grew up and grew apart they all grew apart, too. I realize my parents aren’t necessarily the norm.
Yet, I have a hard time believing hipsters, bloggers, and memoirists are primarily self-centered people who are incapable of putting their children first. It’s hard to paint detail with such a broad brush. (I admit, broad generalizations are tempting, I appolgize if I sounded too critical).
I guess all I meant was that at this juncture, I think it’s difficult to say what it all means. A mom writing about a kid puking on Moby CDs and her calling it ‘Punk Rock,’ or people trying to keep some semblance of their former selves (interest wise) seems like a reaction to how they were raised and how they plan on doing things differently. I have a feeling this kind of thing has gone on in some form for generations.
Crunchy Carpets says
I wonder about the one’s out there who ARE doing the whole gajillion classes for their kid…THEY may see that as a sacrifice or they may see it as what they think they are supposed to do or something…it isn’t my version of sacrifice.
And I don’t see that as much difference than what has all been argued about.
BUT each person (we hope) IS doing what is right for their kids and we do need to understand that we have to have some changes and some adjustments to the world of parenthood…it doesn’t have to be one extreme or the other.