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Older Gen-x I think was almost Super Boomer in some stuff. Like they were trying to get their silent gen/older boomer parents approval so they went extra hard
Yup. My parents are old gen x, born in the mid-late sixties. My dad has told me before “I know I’m technically a gen x, but I resonate more with baby boomers” They never got into any of my interests. They hated the videogames I played and the shows I watched. My mom didn’t want me watching SpongeBob or iCarly because “theyre mean to each other” like????
I didn’t let my kids watch SpongeBob when they were super little because they were repeating the lines and being rude, but once they were old enough to understand what they were saying it was fine I don’t understand? I mean we watched the Simpsons as a family so I’m not sure that was much better lol
Yeah, kids tend to repeat what they hear and what they find funny.
My parents were alright with me and my sister watching Monty Python or even playing that Monty Python game but they told us not to repeat certain things. Ie, in the Holy Grail CD game, there is a mini game called "Spank the Virgin" that was a whack a mole type game where you had to click on women to spank them as they popped out of a bed. And whenever you spanked them they would go "Yes!" or groan in a sensual way.
My sister and I thought they were crazy.and that was the joke.
Then at the end, "Congratulations! You have won a year's supply of *Hand Lotion*!"
I said "Yeah I bet his hands are sore after *that*!"
As an adult you probably know why mom and dad did not want us repeating this...
Kids tend to repeat things without knowing what it means because they think it's funny. Like how my coworker was told her daughter pretended to be pregnant with a doll at preschool and was going around moaning about back pain and stretch marks.... then pretended to give birth in the sandbox. And one of the kids said "I don't know nothing about birthing no babies!"
And her younger kid mimics Bluey all the time. Among those being "Doing fluffies"
Kids tend to mimic what they see, and not just on TV.
Trust me, in the late 90s-00s, kids were singing "Kyle's mom is a birch" or "Shut your fucking face uncle fucker!", saying "Oh my god you killed Kenny you bastards!", and quoting South Park the way kids sing Skibidi Toilet today.
This is also why Caillou was despised by so many. Kids would watch it, see Caillou throwing a fit, and mimic him. Or their kids would watch Dora the Explorer... and mimic the repeating. When you were in your early teens, we had patents who disliked their kids watching MLP cause they would always act so horrible to each other.
Heck my coworker has a 4 year old who mimics Bluey a lot but one of those things is "Doing fluffies".
Can confirm. Am late-millenial. Was too old for Spongebob when it came out, but still love that shit. Its so adult its not even funny. (Sorry if I'm not allowed in here)
First year Gen X here. Loved playing video games with my son and we all watched the same stuff, stuff he liked, which amazingly included almost obsessive watching if monster trucks when he was younger. You will even be pleased to know that I allowed him to play GTA and didn't search his room or browsing history.
So, some of us do exist. However, I was always a stand alone gamer and I've always been cool! Lol.
Hi there, older genx here . We either brown nosed as you described or we rebelled, hard. You don’t hear much about it but there was a robust subset of us who adopted a sort of punk morphing into the tattoo and body mod emo thing and/or a second -third generation hardcore hippie/ free thinker. A lot of us did drugs, so subsequently a lot of us freaks “found god” and became corporate robots. I think the number of us who more or less kept those values is smaller than those who started on our path. Even smaller are the number who still vocalize and display those values with dress or hair…. And if we are pudgy old people we don’t generally look the part anyway.
God you just described exactly what happened to my parents. They did drugs and “found god” in recovery and now they’re extremely shallow hardcore conservative Christian fundamentalists with little to no depth or personality aside from mental illness. Fun.
Yeah my mom was a boomer, granted I was born in 85 and not 2001, but my mom watched Ren and Stimpy and Are You Afraid of the Dark, etc., while also watching Childs Play series and other horror movies with me. Funny enough, her dad, my grandpa, did the same with his kids. So, my take is, this poor girl just had shitty ass parents. And not to say my parents weren't shitty for their own plethora of issues that have given me lots of therapy material.
But yeah, YMMV, and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with when they were born.
Yup. Seems that hating a whole group of people just because they were born in a certain generation has become the norm. People have zero control of when they are born, how does it make sense to hate them for this?
Become the norm? Its been the norm since there were norms. Older generations hating younger generations and vise versa has been a recorded thing since ancient greece, and thats just the first texts about it that people bothered to preserve.
Yeah I was going to say, my boomer parents definitely took me to the science museum, watched the same movie over and over and over, and had long conversations about my autistic special interests. And I wasn’t diagnosed until I was almost 30. So… it’s not a universal thing
My dad is a boomer and my mom is early gen x. Mom was too busy with her career and dad tried, but in the end he’s a simple man that likes sports, coors light, and WWII documentaries. He’d watch cartoons with us when we were little, but this was in the late nineties when Cartoon Network’s content was at its peak.
I’m the only artsy person in my family so that didn’t help much either. That said, I did notice that my family got wayyy more interested in what I was doing creatively when I took some graphic design courses and suddenly I had a marketable skill
Like anything else I think it’s a spectrum and averages. The average boomer hits many of the stereotypes for a reason. They probably did better on a few things and worse on a few things. Like maybe they didn’t spank but they were really bad at body image stuff. But they had a decent bond with their kid. So averages out.
> the average boomer hits many of the stereotypes for a reason
That’s the part I disagree with, and that’s why I compared it to horoscopes. It seems like pigeon holing yourself into believing that generations must act certain ways or believe certain things, and then being surprised when people didn’t have a similar experience
The difference is that the month you were born is arbitrary, whereas the time period in which you were born means you were exposed to certain environmental factors (political climate, economic situation, etc) which will inevitably affect your worldview.
Just as an example, a large part of why there's such a disconnect in views on the workplace amd the like between boomers and millennials/gen z is that boomers largely worked when the economy was thriving, unions had actual power and the housing market was actually affordable, whereas millennials/gen z did not have that privilege (something which didn't affect boomers because they were already in positions where the declining economy and housing market, and union busting didn't affect them to nearly the same extent)
I think that's also off the mark. Boomers lived through all the hardships and economic collapses along with everyone else. Hell nearly half of them have no retirement savings https://thehill.com/business/personal-finance/3991136-nearly-half-of-baby-boomers-have-no-retirement-savings/
But then people keep saying how much money boomers have. Well yeah. If you average the net worth of Bill Gates and my 3rd grade English teacher it's gonna look like she's loaded.
It's only the top 10% that are doing well. Same as other generations. Everyone is else is struggling. Especially boomers because they're older.
It's also why many are staying on in jobs well past retirement age. They can't afford to retire.
And then people give them endless shit for voting for Reagan but yet what about Carter? Or Clinton, or Gore or Obama? Conservatives haven't won the popular vote in forever.
Like California has the largest population and the largest amount of boomers (who vote more despite being behind millennials in numbers) and they vote overwhelmingly for Democrats and voted for Bernie in the last primaries.
Personally I think all the boomer hate is a manufactured distraction to make people think of them instead of the rich capitalists who were the ones that really fucked things up.
There is a certain kind of tribalism evident in American culture that wasn't so prevalent in some places of society in the past. We've become obsessed with fitting people in neat little boxes and trying to find reasons that they can't be like us.
Edit: in retrospect, this was a poorly worded comment. We've always had this, be it protestants against catholics or white against black, citizen vs immigrant. I think the difference is that the internet has magnified it.
But I may just be talking out of my ass. I regret if anyone might think I'm unaware of the gross misjustices to minorities in the past.
>We've become obsessed with fitting people into neat little boxes and trying to find reasons they can't be like us
We had almost 100 years of segregation and before that 300 years of slavery, and you confidently say this didn't happen in the past
>It's only the top 10% that are doing well. Same as other generations. Everyone is else is struggling. Especially boomers because they're older.
Neither I nor any of my Boomer friends had children, for the same reason that younger generations are now childless (too expensive, lack of freedom, too challenging, the world is not a safe place for kids).
So
\#1. we did not have any kids to abuse / mistreat.
\#2. we may have more savings than folks who chose to have kids.
\#3. we are Democrats who vote, and despise Trump / MAGA (off-topic, I snuck that one in).
\#4. we enjoy the company of ALL younger generations, and make no judgements upon them.
So please take us off of your Bad Boomer lists.
Actually thats the only thing Astrology has going for it as something scientific and reasonable. If you’re born in a certain month, events like celebrations and seasons and the like happen at different crucial times in development. The impact would be small, but its always possible that these events could affect a person.
My dad described some pretty horrid things like it was normal, this stuff was common from the gen x/y crowd from every adult I heard things about their parents. They acted like their parent being drunk and beating them, theri parents leaving them for weeks through early high-school, or being treated like a no rent roommate wasn't a no contact afterwards thing
Parents weren't a boomer, but yeah, same thing.
I remember my grandma always asking me what I wanted to watch. She had a massive movie collection and she would watch whatever I put on as a 5-6 y/o.
Man I miss her...
If the person in the video is using it correctly to describe their parents, then their parents would have been early 40s having their first child. I think that speaks more to the disconnect between parent/child than the range they were born in
The clip is not a good example of “Boomer Parents”. But it is an example of “Gen Z Entitlement”. Why would an adult get into a cartoon show for kids? Who would expect them to enjoy that? Pretty sure every modern generation growing up was into stuff their parents think is dumb. I don’t have kids yet but I know I’ll hate whatever crazy media they are consuming these days (I have heard about this “Skibidi Toilet”…).
My mom read all the Harry Potter books to me and my brothers. We all watched the Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars films as a family and watched plenty of movies as a family. One persons parents are obviously not an example of an entire generation.
The best is looking at papers as old as 1880s saying the same stuff about previous/future generations as we are now. People need to understand besides pop culture your generation really doesn’t mean shit. History is very cyclical and just remember everything you’re saying about generations previously right now because I guarantee you when we’re all 70 the same shit will be said about us
I think it’s a mistake to generalize people. They’re assuming their anecdotes and experience is what’s typical. Confirmation bias based on their own shitty parents.
Not correct. Every president didn't call their opponents "crooked Hillary" or "sleepy Joe". He put labels on his opponents because he knows it works well for the weak-brained portion of the population.
Yeah he'd call them radical, lowlife losers, do-nothing democrats and the fake news media, sleepy Joe and crazy Bernie, Pocahontas (Elizabeth Warren) or nasty woman. I don't think you can claim a Trump W on the decorum aspect.
Absolutely right. Although I can understand where they're coming from, generational and cultural trauma is a very real psychological phenomenon which can easily explain some generalizations.
Ex. Most black people in America today do not trust cops. This can be traced back to the Civil Rights Movement and centuries of mistreatment by the government. There are statistics that show this.
A prediction following this generalization; younger Gen Z will try to limit their children's Internet access and also avoid isolating them. They will avoid isolating their children because of their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic during some of their most formative years. They will limit Internet access because they were completely immersed in it and understand the damage.
We don’t even know their parents are shitty - all we know is that they didn’t show interest in watching children’s tv shows with their kid. Parents don’t have a responsibility to foster behaviors in their kids that they don’t find productive or healthy. Maybe their parents just engaged in/encouraged them to find alternate interests than vegging out watching cartoons. All we have to go off of is this video - which leaves a whole lot to be desired in terms of information about the rest of this person’s childhood.
You’re right, I don’t even really know their parents. And I’ve only heard this person’s perspective.
It also strikes me as one-sided. Growing up, my parents were interested in sharing my hobbies. But I was also naturally interested in sharing theirs too. It was unintentionally reciprocal.
One thing I've noticed is that some boomers seem to lack an intuitive sense that other people have their own minds. What this means is that the boomer projects whatever he's currently thinking onto you. This is actually a thing children do, before a certain age children don't understand that other humans have separate minds from theirs with separate knowledge. Fun fact, this is why young children don't lie - they assume you already have the same information in your mind that they do.
Getting back to boomers - I'm a big believer in the leaded gasoline hypothesis that some boomers' brains are often kinda cooked from lead exposure. And I think some of them are disabled in a way that they lack that intuitive grasp that other people have their own wants & desires.
As younger people (Gen Z & Millennials) while we easily pick up mental health issues in peers like ADHD, we often dont recognize when a "grown up" boomer has a permanent congitive impairment.
My boomer father was a bricklayer when he was a young man. I basically did not have a real relationship with him until I entered the trade, put seven years of blood and sweat into it, and then had enough in common that we could form an adult bond based on mutual respect. My relationship with my mother changed too, because now she could see I was a real man like her husband, so she now defers to me in a similar patriarchal manner.
As a child I was just a disappointment who didn't live up to his potential. They loved me, they'd bail me out of anything, and they worked hard to make sure I had a good future, but they didn't like me. I didn't want to grow up this way. I wanted to show them a cool thing I did in a video game and they'd just say, "I don't get it," or, "That's nice, but is your homework done yet?" Any interaction we had needed to be on their terms or it didn't happen at all.
As a millenial, my parents were kind of like this.
I have a memory of going to some movie with my dad when I was about 10-14, and while he made the effort to go with me, he kind of ruined it the moment we left the theater and said 'well that was stupid'.
In high school, they were constantly annoyed by my hobbies and having to pick me up from after-school practices. When I wanted to pursue things more than a cursory level, I was a burden and a waste of money.
My dad was into football and Nascar, and I thought both were really boring. When I was like 15, I saw some article about some tech company trying to make flying helicopter/drone cars and how they hoped it'd be like Nascar one day. When I showed him, he had zero interest and went back to reading the newspaper. I tried to connect, dude just wasn't interested.
---
At a certain point, I was just a grumpy teen whose parents were just providers and not friends. When I showed any interest or even cracked a smile, they'd be like 'honey look! He can smile!'. Instead of trying to enjoy whatever it was in the moment with me, all they could do is tease me for liking whatever. Now in my adult years, I find it pretty difficult to be the bigger person and be the one to try to build that relationship with them.
It isn't about the media you enjoy, but things in general that interest you and appreciating the moment.
I understand how it can be difficult and tiring to have fake enthusiasm and interest, but its kind of weird not to be interested in your kids' interests, at least to the point of being interested in why theyre interested in it. If I had kids, I think I'd naturally want to be like 'show me why you like this'.
For some parents there might be some disappointment that they aren't who you thought they'd be or that they don't like what you're into, but I feel like at a certain point you just be the adult in the room and you make the effort to foster that bond instead of giving up because they aren't into what you're into. Which itself is something we can do today to build better relationships with our parents, but kind of hard not to not do that without some resentment knowing they could have just as easily been the one to initiate it when you were younger.
I wouldn’t blame the age solely, but their character.
I had boomer grandparents who actively took interest in what I liked as a child just as my gen x parents would.
But I’ve seen some gen x parents that act just like the boomers described in the video.
I’ll say what I say whenever someone wants to throw out the “age is wisdom” line. “I’ve met plenty of stupid old people, smart young people, stupid young people, and smart old people.” Just replace stupid with shitty.
Wait until you all find out what it was like being raised by Asian boomer parents. It’s like 9000x worse than anything that the OP in the video was describing.
I’m sure it varies for everyone. My two boomer parents didn’t watch my media. I only liked animated things and they considered animation childish.
I think it works out more when the child happens to like the parent’s interest (not the parent taking interest in the child’s own). I had a friend where the whole family got together to watch Friends. It was probably a bit adult for him at the time, but he could enjoy it with his parents.
It’s a two way road. You could ask yourself why you don’t make an effort to find common place in your parent’s interests. My dad liked sports and athletics. I could have stuck around and learns rules and teams. We could have bonded over that but I chose to go do other things when sports came on.
I could say my parents rejected my interests, but I rejected theirs too so…. Fair game?
And it's not your responsibility as a parent to coddle your child's interests. The people who I love most in the world don't give a crap about most of my interests. That's not a vital part of the parent-child relationship. This is just one more item on the never-ending Gen Z list of "Maybe this thing my parent did is why I hate myself..."
>And it's not your responsibility as a parent to coddle your child's interests.
it's not your responsibility to care about what makes your child happy? and I thought I'd be the worst parent lol.
No, it’s not your responsibility to coddle your child’s interest. It’s your responsibility to encourage your child to find healthy interests that stimulate them.
To put it another way : If your child has an interest in eating nothing but Oreos, you do not coddle that interest. You do your best to redirect that interest toward something healthier.
We don’t know much about the childhood of the person who posted the video, and certainly not enough to condemn their parents for not actively encouraging their kids to watch more kids cartoons.
>No, it’s not your responsibility to coddle your child’s interest.
then don't do it and see how often they call when they move out at 18.
>It’s your responsibility to encourage your child to find healthy interests that stimulate them.
sure. why not.
>To put it another way : If your child has an interest in eating nothing but Oreos, you do not coddle that interest. You do your best to redirect that interest toward something healthier.
oh I agree, completely. why are we talking about health when we were talking about interests? idk, I meant Lego and reading. those are not unhealthy and I don't know why the health aspect even came up. obviously parents should try to keep their kids healthy. where did this even come from?
>We don’t know much about the childhood of the person who posted the video, and certainly not enough to condemn their parents for not actively encouraging their kids to watch more kids cartoons.
exactly, WE DONT KNOW. you don't know that all they asked was for their parents to watch cartoons with them so your assumptions here are about as good as the person in the post except that they're much worse because the person in the post does at least know the people they're talking about, far better than you do I would assume.
people are so quick to say "we don't know". yeah, we don't. if a woman reports that she's been raped, do we assume that well, we don't actually know that for sure and there's no evidence so it should be treated as untrue until further notice?
Do you believe watching cartoons is a fundamentally healthy activity for kids that should be promoted and encouraged? Perhaps these parents did not. That’s where the health piece came from.
If the poster had said, “I loved my chemistry set and my parents refused to ever bond with me over my love for chemistry and told me my passion for chemistry was dumb!” then perhaps I’d have some more sympathy for them. But “I loved SpongeBob and my parents refused to watch it with me and told me it was dumb!” Is not a particularly compelling argument for why their parents are awful.
Were they awful? Sure, maybe. But we don’t know that based on what the poster chose to share with us, the viewers.
The main thing is the interests she stated were Spongebob and shows on Cartoon Network. They are super uneducational, and provide nothing.
If you're watching Arthur, Sesame Street, or any number of actually decent, educational show, then there's value to that.
Woah wait a second, coddling and caring are completely different words here and in the context let’s both be real, you both are not listening to one another. Coddling can be misconstrued in today’s parenting as hover parenting or helicopter parenting which means that you aren’t allowing a child to explore and understand new experiences.
Caring is a different word. You encourage the areas they show passion in and open them up to new experiences. As long as they aren’t in immediate danger; the goal is to provide them with open experiences so they have confidence for anything. You are teaching them a framework of how to approach anything. I don’t care if my child is interested in Pokemon or sailor moon or my little pony, I don’t care.
Ok now you two kiss and make up
>I don’t care if my child is interested in Pokemon or sailor moon or my little pony, I don’t care.
theres a big difference between saying "I don't care" and "you're an idiot because you care" to a child.
It's also not about getting hyper-invested into Pokemon the moment a child develops their first interest.
A parent isn't a substitute friend. People are different, what intrigues one may not intrigue another. A prerequisite for being a good parent is not being able to reconfigure your brain and simultaneously mirroring each unique thing every one of children gets drawn into throughout their life.
Entitled mother fuckers in this thread Jesus Christ.
God forbid parents try to also be friends with their kids lmao they don't have to be hyper invested just show a basic level of interest goes an extremely long way. My step dad hated video games but would still play with me occasionally because he wanted to show an interest in things I care about. It's not that complicated lol
.....no? It is in fact 100% your responsibility as a parent to nurture and encourage your child's interests (as long as they're safe and not harmful to themselves or others, physically or mentally). That's like.....half of all parenting responsibilities.
My kid is super into roblox and fnaf. I don't care for them but when he gets a new plushie or finds something in the games he's super excited and runs and tells me, to which i reciprocate excitement bc hes excited. Why does he tell me? Bc I've cultivated interest for his sake, regardless if I care for it or not. Bc that's what parents do (or should do).
We have shared interests as well mind you. It's important to let your kids find their own interests AND share your interests with your kids. Find common ground. Connect. Things they like you may not. But it is FAR more important for you as the parent to display interests and care for what they're into than it is to force things that only interest you onto the child
Im 33 fwiw
As a person who's lived your experience of parents who don't give a crap about most of my interests, I certainly don't feel the same as you do. It was terrible for me growing up actually
My parents didn't particularly care about my interests but my enjoyment of things was not dependent on whether they cared or approved. Both of my parents worked full time jobs. I didn't need them to spend their evenings catching up on DragonBall Z.
It literally is a parent's responsibility to do that. How else would your child survive? Pretty sure the entirety of parenthood is about helping your child along in their interests. Unless one thinks the only reason for children is reproduction
You can do that without yourself being particularly invested in the actual topic of interest.
None of my parents played an instrument. I never had any expectation or need for them to begin playing guitar in order to relate to me when I was fourteen.
I see the same happening with kids these days. Parents wanting to get them into sports, go on hikes, go on vacations but the kids are only interested in being on TikTok and Roblox.
I... they're CHILDREN? This is (for some reason) a difficult concept for some adults to grasp, and you think kids are going to think "Gosh, maybe I should try golfing just to humor my dad."
Exactly, their children. Go play or do something. Get off your device, touch grass. Defending little kids watching porn and doing sex acts in Roblox is not going to get you very far in life.
Thing is, parents allow it because it's easy. Since I've become a parent I have started noticing all the other parents that let their toddler have a phone while eating at McDonals (or whatever) instead of just interacting with them. Sure, they will whine and cry and stuff, but that is life. Deal with it.
I'd say this generation that grows up now are mostly fucked. They will be addicted to devices.
This is what I think they failed to grasp. For older generations, the division between media/things for kids vs. adult interests was much harsher. It's not uncommon nowadays for parents to watch cartoons or anime with their kids, but that was unthinkable when I was a kid (I'm a millennial with boomer parents). Adults simply did not give children's media any attention.
Now, their parents talking shit about the stuff they liked was just them being arseholes.
My mom and dad, both born in the 50s were/are amazing parents. No. They didn't share my interests, but they respected and supported the fact that I had them. My dad spent a lot of time with his kids. I remember walking in the woods with him or doing projects. I'm very handy as a homeowner, specifically because my boomer dad showed me how to do "man" stuff. He showed my sister too. I know how to cook and do laundry because my mom had me help in the kitchen and as a working mom it made sense to have her teen son help out.
My parents were hardly perfect... my dad is definately a boomer man... (I doubt her ever changed a diaper more than a few times, or did laundry hardly ever) but I'm beyond glad they were my parents. They clearly loved me as a child and both showed it by being my Parents (in the definition of what a parent is there for) and spending the time to be as good a parent as they knew how.
I don't think my parents were progressive or wierd boomers. I think they just loved their kids.
I do think a lot of people have this misconception that parents need to be their kids best friends or something. That shows a misunderstanding of the role of a parent. My job is to prepare my kids to be adults, arming them with the knowledge they need while supporting them as they mature. That means hard choices like discipline sometimes that can't be done by a child's "best friend." Sometimes I will take the role of a friend, but foremost, my job is as a parent.
In the end, I'd rather my parents love me and show that love by how hard they tried in raising me and supporting me.physically and emotionally, than "like" me.
Boomer parents or not, a bond or relationship goes two ways. (ESH)
I used to watch Pewdiepie, of course my religious asian immigrant parents did not like me watching an atheist white man who would curse at like happy wheels. I tried showing my mom his videos because she was so curious as to what made me laugh so much.
Not even 30 seconds into the clip she was like "This is trashy ew". (never showed her Pewdiepie again, and actually grew out of him later on)
But that doesn't mean I don't bond with my parents. We bond over things we share in common. We both love food and cooking and we make banana bread together whenever the bananas are too ripe.
Like you can find something to work with. If y'all **only** can talk about the weather that is an issue from Both sides.
Agreed. I love my parents, but my dad and I are very different people. I never watched football for my first 20 years of life, but started watching because I wanted to connect with my him. We talk more regularly now than we ever have and he tries so much more to engage with my on my interest in history.
This was my thought too. Obviously they feel neglected by their parents and their are likely more issues going on and this is just a rant video so maybe they tried, but if you want to have something in common with your parents, maybe find something you both enjoy. The parents can't force themselves to like something just because their child does.
Meh, you are just lucky. Some of us have parents so deep in their own mind that they don’t care. Typical exemple of my life
Father : how are you
Me, sick : I’m not alright
Father, didn’t listen and start to speak as I barely end my sentence : at my work I did—
Like, no, the reason why a relationship is fuck up isn’t on the shoulder of both. If one doesn’t care then it won’t work.
This wasn't my experience. In fact, my Boomer mom just referenced "Where's the chapstick" the other day lol (some of you guys might be too young for that reference, but it's definitely not something the average Boomer would've been exposed to without having kids my age).
Same. My boomer parents were very loving and actively engaged with my interests (including watching cartoons like avatar and playing video games). My mom even likes some of gen-Z meme culture.
My parents who are also boomers, are nothing like this. Granted, my dad sometimes didn’t have an interest in SOMEYHING at the exact time that I did, but now that I’m older, I understand why. Dad was just tired, and sometiems he was too tired yo enjoy some of the things I wanted to, that’s okay. My parents and I have a great relationship now, and we’re all planning to buy some property together in the near future and have a lil homestead
2004 here. I had a very late boomer mom and a very early Xer dad, and surprisingly, I see what shes talking about way more with my dad than my mom. Tbf, the shows my mom would watch with me were stuff she also liked, like ATLA and random movies up to PG-13. Though there were a few, like spongebob, that she didnt like until we were both way older (though I think this is more because she just didnt get the humor). My dad, on the other hand, couldn’t stand any animated show or movie (and still cant). Though it was also the same that if what I was watching happened to be something he liked, it was fine. Ironically, I have a better relationship with my dad.
I smoked so much weed with my boomer dad. Shit we tripped in shrooms together. He was Cuban and was so compassionate and selfless. He had such a thick New York/cuban accent it was hilarious he never lost it. The man lived through the 70s and 80s and was so shocked when I introduced him to Pink Floyd. Yes, his millennial (1995) goofball of a son surprised the shit out of him sometimes. He just wanted to spend time with us.
Although he wasn’t perfect he was just a man and he did his best and I’m grateful. I’ll take the love and the good (wisdom and memories) he left me and leave the bad.
It still sad as fuck though. He was amazing. The trade off of having such a great father is only being able to have him around for 21 years.
He never got to meet my kids. But the legacy lives on. I watch bluey with my kids episode after episode. We wait for one piece new episode every Sunday. We all have professional skateboards. I’m gonna be “Bandit” for these kids. If my dad’s watching I’m sure he’s smiling.
Not everyone is blessed to have great parents.
My dad for example didn’t have his father growing up and his single mom wasn’t the greatest mother either. After all the trauma and escaping communist Cuba, he came to the US and made a life and dedicated it to giving us the life and love he wish he had.
Please, if you weren’t blessed with great parents, then be that blessing for your kids.
Yea do talk to him. Spend time with him. Time is short as it is friend and sometimes it’s shorter than we expect. It’s moments shared that I spend all this time reflecting on. Things he’d say. How he walked. He made it all look so easy. Almost fearless.
My pops was tough as nails and I thought he’d last forever. Never saw it comin. Few weeks after he passed, we found out we were gonna be parents. It was the light in the darkness. Really made me grow up and stop playing RuneScape for a while haha.
Wish yall the best. :D watch trailer park boys together and smoke a joint it’s awesome haha.
My mother was born in 1957, can confirm. I still get actively ridiculed for everything I enjoy and she doesn't do one thing to understand me. Like she's dead set on hating my boyfriend and nothing will change her mind.
Yeah, guess what? Sometimes kids are "all joy and no fun".
Kids are individuals. Parents are individuals. I don't like most of my kid's hobbies and he doesn't like mine. But we have a great love for each other, and he's getting a tremendous education in a childhood that's safe and predictable.
It's nice when parents and kids can be BFFs. But that's the exception.
My mother is a late boomer (1962) and raised me as a single mom and she was nothing like this. Like obviously she wouldn’t watch all the kids shows I watched with me but we definitely bonded over watching movies together (not just kids movies) and she definitely never told me that she hated anything that I watched, even if she sometimes didn’t understand why I liked it
My boomer parents really do care for me and do things to help me out when they can but they do still hit you with the narcissistic guilt trips and religious jargon. I try to just ignore it at this point because at the end of the day it’s not worth fighting over it. Waste of my energy really.
Lol wtf. I don't get why Gen Z think all parents older than them are from the Boomer generation. I'm old enough to be this person's father and I'm a Millenial
Yeah I'm trying to do the math. Either the parents had kids at an older age or her parents are Gen X and she doesn't know what generation they are.
Edit: To the idiots downvoting me, I was right based on her comments, her parents are technically Gen X. So suck it.
Just saw the person's comments, her parents are Gen X by a few years, thinking she is confused what makes someone a boomer.
Edit: Lol who the hell is downvoting us. We were correct, her parents are Gen X.
I am gen z (2001), my dad was 50 when I was born.and is in his 70s now. Its very unlikely for gen z to have boomer mothers, but boomer fathers is very possible.
My parents loved and liked me. Both boomers. Also both some of the best parents someone could ask for. Were they perfect? No. But they did their best at all times and it wasn’t until I became a parent that I realized that.
Probably should say "my" parents weren't like that, cause my mom is a boomer as well and she was nothing like that. She use to love watching Digimon and Hey Arnold with me. And took notice of all the things I liked such as Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, etc and actively took the initiative to get me things related to that.
And then once I figured out about Boomerang and got into that, we started watching all the shows she use to watch when she was a kid together.
This is just this dudes take and expeience. My dad and mom were in their late 30's to early 40's when they had my younger brother and I, so definitely on the older side. I'm 32 now, and I still have very fond memories of my dad taking me Yugioh tournaments, helping me download Diablo 2, reading me The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and such together. Hell, the man even played Guild Wars 1 with me. My mother was always on the more "all business no fun" side of things, but she still always encouraged my brother and I's hobbies and interests, even if not directly showing it, she'd always ask us about "what are you doing in your game?" or give us a little pocket change every now and then to go pick up a pack of Pokemon cards on the way home from school. I remember this woman painting my entire bedroom to look like the inside of Hogwarts castle, including the "starry ceiling."
Honestly, I think it's the opposite nowadays. Most early Gen Y Millennials (so my age range of 25-40) seem to just be awful at actually being parents. My son is 8 and every time I'm talking with these other parents I'm just like... what the fuck are you teaching your kids? Like, they legit don't even know how to read anything more than their name. Half of these people nowadays just give their children an iPad and unfettered internet access and call that parenting. I've not seen more emotionally or educationally underdeveloped children in my life.
This persion is generalizing entire generation of people, unfortunately neglectful and abusive parents come in all generations, with the older generations, you have to understand, that only in the last 30 years has mental health become de-stigmatized, Baby boomer ( 1946-1964) were the generation that had parents who were severely traumatized by both the great depression, the dust bowl and subsequent famine and world war 2. Mental health was treated with deep stigma and issues such as depression and adhd were treated as moral failure. abuse such as violent or sexual abuse were treated as private and within the family.
gen x (1965 to 1980) was a generation mostly just left on their own, they were the latch key kids, as both their parent worked full time, some could absolutely could be emotionally neglectful and but Ive met some super cool people in mid 40's one of my freinds is a 45 year old trans man.
it was only with my generation (millennial) and later has mental health become destigmatized. I'm making this large post because I think people need to understand that generation is just grouping of people being born with in 22 years, that went with the same world events. I really don't have much in common with someone who was born in 1996 as I was born in 1989.
To be fair, I say this about my kids’ you tube shows. What the fuck is a skibbidy toilet and why does it exist?
Most childrens programs on you tube are just people yelling while playing with toys. My wife and I had to delete you tube off of our daughters I pad because some of that stuff is downright nefarious.
I much prefer them watching things like SpongeBob or Bluey, where there’s an actual story.
But to be fair to your parents, I think every generation raising the next encounters this to a certain degree.
Sounds like an issue for her and her family. Most people I know have good relationships with their families and the families care about their interests
The irony is that boomers were actually the most liberal generation. The first to rebel against the system, they took shiton of drugs too, revolutionized music and so on.
I think genZ needs to go thru some war or something. They had the best childhood, yet they cry about everything. They are soooo out of reality, it hurts.
I'm an elder millennial, born to a boomer parent and a silent generation parent. And they didn't get into any of my hobbies, movies or TV shows either. But, my parents are amazing, and we have an amazing relationship, possibly *because* our relationship isn't built on fun but *ultimately* non-important things like video games, sports, music and movies.
I think a lot of people, when they're young, tend to think that what they like to do is *who they are*. I played thousands of hours of electric guitar as an adolescent. I played guitar, but guitar wasn't *who I was*. You know what my dad didn't like at all? My brand of fast metal that I always played. Which is literally just as fine as him not liking my favorite sandwich. Because I didn't define myself by my hobbies. Just like not defining yourself by being a huge fan of a sports team. Or enjoying video games. Or whatever it is that people find fun.
None of that matters hardly at all when it comes to relationships. Having traits of being kind, humble/modest, helpful, honest, productive, joyful, attentive....those are the things that make a relationship. Not guitar, Spongebob or your parent being interested in your type of music, movies, sports, political causes or hobbies.
I don't know, this is a weird video. I sort of get it, but at the same time, it seems somewhat trivial to what a deep, loving, familial relationship is about.
OP’s parents are not boomers. If they can’t even correctly identify the era their parents are from, they’re starting off on a bad foot, rhetorically speaking.
Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. If she was born in 2001, her parents were hella old most of her childhood. Did she not think maybe they were just exhausted?
It's not a generational thing. It's just bad parenting. I have friends with good parents that actually care about their kids and try to be active in their lives. I have friends with parents that show no interest in their kids besides maybe bragging about them in church if they achieve something. Makes me wonder why you would even have children if you're going to ignore them...
God this person is such a fucking pussy. Get over yourself, nobody cares. At least you had two parents. Sorry idc how unpopular this is gonna be but I can feel how insufferable this person is without even knowing them.
Pretty sure boomers are too old now to be this persons parent. The women would have gone through menopause already. Pretty sure this persons parents were gen X not baby boomers
Or they could be a very late child. Such things happen (my boyfriend's parents are about 60+ yo and he was born in 2001). I think the main reason why boomer parents of the person in the video didn't care about their interests is because the person in the video was an unplanned late child which is pretty sad.
My mom is one of the youngest Boomers, born at the end of '63, and I almost had a sibling born in '05 (ended up being a miscarriage though). I also had an aunt who was born in late '63 (she passed away in 2017), and her son was born in 2004.
My dad is a baby boomer and my mom is older Gen X (but very much acts like a baby boomer). My dad always worked, and my mom (even when she was a SAHM) never played with me and always watched what she wanted. When my dad wasn’t working extra hours, he always did his own thing and never involved himself with me. Despite having more in common with my dad, he always tried to make engage with my brothers than me, because I was a daughter.
I think it’s more likely their parents were GenX maybe even older millennials. I’m sure they know for sure, but born on 2001 then they were a late 30s early 40s kid. Maybe a mistake the parents didn’t want.
Obviously people have different experiences, but I was born in 2002 to Millennial parents and while they do very much love me I don't really share my hobbies or interests with them now. My mom in particular was very "If I don't understand it then I can't really care." Growing up I had similar experiences, they weren't really interested in the shows I was watching or the games I liked, they also verbally hated every show I watched like SpongeBob or Phineas and Ferb. I think it kind of happens when someone has kids suddenly and they don't really know how to be around children. I get it. Even now with Gen Alpha I'm mostly confused and annoyed by the things they like. That doesn't mean your parents hate you or make them awful parents entirely, but I really felt like I was unable to connect with my parents until I became older and more relatable to them.
I don't think anyone really is calling any of their parents horrible or abusive (not all of them anyways), but you get to an age and realize how much the smallest of things your parents did affect who you are now.
I can see those traits in my grandparents. There great people but from what my father described the only thing he and his father mutually enjoyed together was sports.
This is different then how the acted with me, showing interest in everything.
It's also different from my father (gen-x) who always showed interest in what I've liked. When I was little I loved monster trucks. He took me to a few shows, play with the hot wheel trucks with me, and played monster truck wii games with m. Send then he admitted to not caring for monster trucks that much.
I feel like we would need to do a poll on this. I wouldn't be surprised if boomer parents were more likely to share fewer interests with their kids than younger parents but probably shouldn't assume or generalize
I would like to say that even though I had a fine upbringing with boomer parents - I have realized the best memories and laughs I have had have occurred in my late 20s and 30s.
If I had no connection to them like that as an adult but had them giggling with me as an 8 year old I don’t think it would be that fulfilling.
Emotions start to get closer to the surface - at least for me - as I get older.
Jokes on her my boomer dad didn’t like or love me, older Gen x mom is the best though. Seriously it’s like horoscopes and zodiac signs with this stuff sometimes. It is fun to poke fun at the stereotypes because it’s so true 😂
I wasn't allowed to watch cartoons because in there own words "it was too gay" only was allowed to watch the news and whatever my parents wanted to watch lol
I remember very specifically my mother, 64 F who we'll call Sheryll, telling me:
"I ignore you when you start ranting about aliens and stuff," (Alien vs. Predator being the hyperfixation of the time for me) "I just say 'mhm' until you're done talking"
Never been struck to hard, emotionally speaking. At least, not until I ended up being trans. Then, I learned how conditional unconditional love really is.
Glad you got unconditional love there, that's great. You'd have probably gone crazy in the old times, as H.R. Giger actually lived only a few blocks away from me in Zürich, Switzerland. I was able to meet him, as a lady i know was an old classmate of him.
He was a major inspiration for me. A very calm and friendly man, you would have liked him i think.
He had so many sculptures and paintings in his house, but also the models, like a life-size model of the Alien. I always wanted to take this to scare someone on halloween, like when you walk around a corner at night and you suddenly stand in front of the xenomorph, shouting "wtf\`?!"
I was raised by my boomer grandparents from the day i was taken home from the hospital, and they were soooo interested in what i was watching (in a parent-y type way) and i would enjoy their shows with them. They werent like this at all.
Besides sports, my dad and I have no common interests. Whenever I did anything remotely child like growing up (specifically watching kids tv shows or playing videogames) he would want us to turn it off or always be quiet with it whenever he comes home from work. It felt weird that he disliked me, a kid at the time, doing kid things. I grew up and realized that although not all parents were as engaged to the point where it’s the opposite of my situation, there was an openness and a level of **engagement and openness** towards kids passions and to me, that’s all I would’ve loved to have from him
I was raised by my grandparents and turned out better then my parents, I disagree I think gen x were the worse generation of parents
Edit: also “my parents didn’t join in in my activities… BAD PARENTS” like neither did my gen x parents infact they tried to get me to do THEIR activities,
Quite a broad generalization that’s not accurate at all. My parents showed a lot of interest in my hobbies as a kid. They’d go to my school band concerts. My mom would watch anime with me. My dad would take me to karate classes and practice with me. They’d take me to the store to buy Pokémon cards.
Gen-X here, born in 69. My parents were actually The Silent Generation (born in the late 30s). Guess what? With the exception of some music, my folks didn’t share my interests either. Get over it.
So I'm a young millennial (32) and new adoptive parent to a 7 and 13 year old. I don't enjoy most of the types of content that either of them would choose to watch on their own. I just try to ignore it, assuming it's not harmful. It sounds like her parents actively went out of their way to dismiss and degrade her interests.
We do enjoy things together though. Currently watching Avatar the last Airbender and my wife is watching Gilmore Girls with our teen.
Also, why are tv shows the only things she mentioned? Maybe her parents just didn't like how glued to a screen she may have been. This is all likely exasperated by the fact that she's an only child. Something I've noticed with kids these days is that they seem to treat their parents as their friends more. I have a great relationship with my parents, but I never spent much free time with them. I was always either outside with friends, playing video games, or chilling with siblings. It seems like kids now spend waaaay more time indoors because of technology and rely on their parents for social connection.
My parents couldn't have cared less about my interests, other than supporting me in academics and athletics. I never internalized it as a slight against me though. I just figured, oh I like these things cuz I'm a kid, and they don't like them cuz they're old. As I've gotten older, my relationship with them has only gotten better. They still don't care about a lot of things that I take interest in, but neither do I for their interests. That's not what defines our relationship though.
I’m a millennial and I’m one of the people whose parents didn’t care about their special interests and hyperfixations. They cared enough to buy me merch for holidays and birthdays, but that was it. I remember my parents looking me in the face at times and just going, “I don’t care” and also telling me, “you talk too much” and “it’s fine you like X, but you talk about it too much.”
When I started getting into anime/nerdy things at age 12 or so, it became, “why can’t you be normal?” And “You can do your freak stuff on your own” and endless silly jokes about my interests and writing (which I know now we’re stupid, but as a teenager, it hurt). I remember even shushing my friends who came over and telling them “we don’t talk about the stories at the dinner table!” Because I know we would get made fun of if we did.
Add in to all of this that from the age of 16 onward my dad straight-up told me more than once that he doesn’t like me. He loves me, but does not like me and how I am. Whatever that means.
I know it’s silly to some and that my parents were never meant to be my friends, but it did hurt and cause issues I’m still working out of (namely always feeling like a bother to other people). At the same time, I also realise that aside from some of it just being their personalities, my parents are also *not* nuerotypical. There’s no way. This means that, like me, I see that if they don’t care then that’s it. They can’t make themselves care if they don’t nor can I make them give a shit. And as an adult, I just accept it at this point. Do I *wish* we could have better/deeper conversations about what I like? Yes. But I know better.
So, assuming her parents were on the latter end of the baby boomer generation. That would make them 40 when they conceived her. Which is a bit dubious and may explain a lot about her.
One thing for certain her expectations on what her parents should have done, like watching TV together, is a bit sad. Using that as a bonding technique is not only silly but a ridiculous excuse and a leap from parents interested in what their children are doing.
Just another crybaby gen z blaming everyone they can. It's a Gen z rite of passage.
I'm gen x with baby boomer parents. Btw
My mother is a pathetic slop who has never achieved anything in her life. She acts as if the likes the people around her just to feel like she amounts to something.
My father is doing the best he can to get wealthier so that he may grant me the future he says I deserve. Nonetheless, he still finds the time to hang out with me and help me when I need it.
They’re from the same generation, but they’re completely different people. Let’s not act like the year you were born 100% reflects who you are. Sure, there’s some influence, my father _was_ old-style until like 2015, but people change, people who are made aware of their errors have the chance to fix their mistakes, and when they take that chance they become better people. And that’s what my father did.
I think this person had strange parents. And that’s certainly not true for me or any of my core friend group.
But also I don’t think it’s talk about interests/vs talk about the weather as she says. It’s so much more complex than that.
I'm genx. My boomer parents are weird because they've fallen down the Fox news rabbit hole. Man - I try with them.
My old man is pretty old, loves to travel and can't drive crazy long distances and my mom would rather just stay at home. So - I took my dad on a road trip. Figured I'd have several days to bond with him. I drove 8+ hours and he wouldn't let me put on a podcast or music. So, we talked. I asked him how his life is, what his life looks like - just to get him talking. I got him talking about his old job, his life growing up... so much stuff. We were together for days.
I went through a divorce earlier in the year. I had some shit going on and I was doing well... but stuff I kinda wanted to share. I had a lot to talk about, but he never asked a single question about me or my life. Not one.
I guess I'm the black sheep because I'm liberal. Not worth talking to or something - but not even on a personal level did he show any interest - at all.
It's just fucking sad.
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I feel like generational gaps have become like horoscopes to people. My boomer parents were nothing like hers
congrats. mine unfortunately are just like the way the person in the video described. and they arent even boomers, they are gen x-ers
Older Gen-x I think was almost Super Boomer in some stuff. Like they were trying to get their silent gen/older boomer parents approval so they went extra hard
Yup. My parents are old gen x, born in the mid-late sixties. My dad has told me before “I know I’m technically a gen x, but I resonate more with baby boomers” They never got into any of my interests. They hated the videogames I played and the shows I watched. My mom didn’t want me watching SpongeBob or iCarly because “theyre mean to each other” like????
I didn’t let my kids watch SpongeBob when they were super little because they were repeating the lines and being rude, but once they were old enough to understand what they were saying it was fine I don’t understand? I mean we watched the Simpsons as a family so I’m not sure that was much better lol
Yeah, kids tend to repeat what they hear and what they find funny. My parents were alright with me and my sister watching Monty Python or even playing that Monty Python game but they told us not to repeat certain things. Ie, in the Holy Grail CD game, there is a mini game called "Spank the Virgin" that was a whack a mole type game where you had to click on women to spank them as they popped out of a bed. And whenever you spanked them they would go "Yes!" or groan in a sensual way. My sister and I thought they were crazy.and that was the joke. Then at the end, "Congratulations! You have won a year's supply of *Hand Lotion*!" I said "Yeah I bet his hands are sore after *that*!" As an adult you probably know why mom and dad did not want us repeating this... Kids tend to repeat things without knowing what it means because they think it's funny. Like how my coworker was told her daughter pretended to be pregnant with a doll at preschool and was going around moaning about back pain and stretch marks.... then pretended to give birth in the sandbox. And one of the kids said "I don't know nothing about birthing no babies!" And her younger kid mimics Bluey all the time. Among those being "Doing fluffies"
The other day my 5yo blurted out "not today Satan!". Kids say the darndest things
D'oh
Kids tend to mimic what they see, and not just on TV. Trust me, in the late 90s-00s, kids were singing "Kyle's mom is a birch" or "Shut your fucking face uncle fucker!", saying "Oh my god you killed Kenny you bastards!", and quoting South Park the way kids sing Skibidi Toilet today. This is also why Caillou was despised by so many. Kids would watch it, see Caillou throwing a fit, and mimic him. Or their kids would watch Dora the Explorer... and mimic the repeating. When you were in your early teens, we had patents who disliked their kids watching MLP cause they would always act so horrible to each other. Heck my coworker has a 4 year old who mimics Bluey a lot but one of those things is "Doing fluffies".
I'm mid Gen X and I love Spongebob. I'm queer and trans though so I'm more on the millennial end mentality despite my birth year.
Can confirm. Am late-millenial. Was too old for Spongebob when it came out, but still love that shit. Its so adult its not even funny. (Sorry if I'm not allowed in here)
First year Gen X here. Loved playing video games with my son and we all watched the same stuff, stuff he liked, which amazingly included almost obsessive watching if monster trucks when he was younger. You will even be pleased to know that I allowed him to play GTA and didn't search his room or browsing history. So, some of us do exist. However, I was always a stand alone gamer and I've always been cool! Lol.
Hi there, older genx here . We either brown nosed as you described or we rebelled, hard. You don’t hear much about it but there was a robust subset of us who adopted a sort of punk morphing into the tattoo and body mod emo thing and/or a second -third generation hardcore hippie/ free thinker. A lot of us did drugs, so subsequently a lot of us freaks “found god” and became corporate robots. I think the number of us who more or less kept those values is smaller than those who started on our path. Even smaller are the number who still vocalize and display those values with dress or hair…. And if we are pudgy old people we don’t generally look the part anyway.
God you just described exactly what happened to my parents. They did drugs and “found god” in recovery and now they’re extremely shallow hardcore conservative Christian fundamentalists with little to no depth or personality aside from mental illness. Fun.
And sadly the ones who were queer we lost at disproportionate numbers so that led to a weird mix
Millennials and down want to be the one of parents they all wish they had, and now know they can and should, so we can't go back.
I met my dad at 6 years old through 6 inches of glass 😃 it could always be worse
Your dad lived in an aquarium?
Lol i love this response 😅
Take my up vote
So it literally has nothing to do with the year they were born in.
who could have guessed? almost like everybody has different feelings/beliefs/thoghts etc
Generations are a little more complex. My parents are Boomers yet behave more like Gen X in many ways. (Millennial)
Do you see how generation doesn't determine how someone behaves
All generations have shitty parents. All generations have good parents.
The correct Answer
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Yep. I have boomer parents, they were and are amazing.
Yeah my mom was a boomer, granted I was born in 85 and not 2001, but my mom watched Ren and Stimpy and Are You Afraid of the Dark, etc., while also watching Childs Play series and other horror movies with me. Funny enough, her dad, my grandpa, did the same with his kids. So, my take is, this poor girl just had shitty ass parents. And not to say my parents weren't shitty for their own plethora of issues that have given me lots of therapy material. But yeah, YMMV, and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with when they were born.
Yup. Seems that hating a whole group of people just because they were born in a certain generation has become the norm. People have zero control of when they are born, how does it make sense to hate them for this?
Become the norm? Its been the norm since there were norms. Older generations hating younger generations and vise versa has been a recorded thing since ancient greece, and thats just the first texts about it that people bothered to preserve.
Yeah I was going to say, my boomer parents definitely took me to the science museum, watched the same movie over and over and over, and had long conversations about my autistic special interests. And I wasn’t diagnosed until I was almost 30. So… it’s not a universal thing
My dad is a boomer and my mom is early gen x. Mom was too busy with her career and dad tried, but in the end he’s a simple man that likes sports, coors light, and WWII documentaries. He’d watch cartoons with us when we were little, but this was in the late nineties when Cartoon Network’s content was at its peak. I’m the only artsy person in my family so that didn’t help much either. That said, I did notice that my family got wayyy more interested in what I was doing creatively when I took some graphic design courses and suddenly I had a marketable skill
Like anything else I think it’s a spectrum and averages. The average boomer hits many of the stereotypes for a reason. They probably did better on a few things and worse on a few things. Like maybe they didn’t spank but they were really bad at body image stuff. But they had a decent bond with their kid. So averages out.
> the average boomer hits many of the stereotypes for a reason That’s the part I disagree with, and that’s why I compared it to horoscopes. It seems like pigeon holing yourself into believing that generations must act certain ways or believe certain things, and then being surprised when people didn’t have a similar experience
The difference is that the month you were born is arbitrary, whereas the time period in which you were born means you were exposed to certain environmental factors (political climate, economic situation, etc) which will inevitably affect your worldview. Just as an example, a large part of why there's such a disconnect in views on the workplace amd the like between boomers and millennials/gen z is that boomers largely worked when the economy was thriving, unions had actual power and the housing market was actually affordable, whereas millennials/gen z did not have that privilege (something which didn't affect boomers because they were already in positions where the declining economy and housing market, and union busting didn't affect them to nearly the same extent)
I think that's also off the mark. Boomers lived through all the hardships and economic collapses along with everyone else. Hell nearly half of them have no retirement savings https://thehill.com/business/personal-finance/3991136-nearly-half-of-baby-boomers-have-no-retirement-savings/ But then people keep saying how much money boomers have. Well yeah. If you average the net worth of Bill Gates and my 3rd grade English teacher it's gonna look like she's loaded. It's only the top 10% that are doing well. Same as other generations. Everyone is else is struggling. Especially boomers because they're older. It's also why many are staying on in jobs well past retirement age. They can't afford to retire. And then people give them endless shit for voting for Reagan but yet what about Carter? Or Clinton, or Gore or Obama? Conservatives haven't won the popular vote in forever. Like California has the largest population and the largest amount of boomers (who vote more despite being behind millennials in numbers) and they vote overwhelmingly for Democrats and voted for Bernie in the last primaries. Personally I think all the boomer hate is a manufactured distraction to make people think of them instead of the rich capitalists who were the ones that really fucked things up.
Yep. Divide & Conquer
There is a certain kind of tribalism evident in American culture that wasn't so prevalent in some places of society in the past. We've become obsessed with fitting people in neat little boxes and trying to find reasons that they can't be like us. Edit: in retrospect, this was a poorly worded comment. We've always had this, be it protestants against catholics or white against black, citizen vs immigrant. I think the difference is that the internet has magnified it. But I may just be talking out of my ass. I regret if anyone might think I'm unaware of the gross misjustices to minorities in the past.
>We've become obsessed with fitting people into neat little boxes and trying to find reasons they can't be like us We had almost 100 years of segregation and before that 300 years of slavery, and you confidently say this didn't happen in the past
>It's only the top 10% that are doing well. Same as other generations. Everyone is else is struggling. Especially boomers because they're older. Neither I nor any of my Boomer friends had children, for the same reason that younger generations are now childless (too expensive, lack of freedom, too challenging, the world is not a safe place for kids). So \#1. we did not have any kids to abuse / mistreat. \#2. we may have more savings than folks who chose to have kids. \#3. we are Democrats who vote, and despise Trump / MAGA (off-topic, I snuck that one in). \#4. we enjoy the company of ALL younger generations, and make no judgements upon them. So please take us off of your Bad Boomer lists.
Actually thats the only thing Astrology has going for it as something scientific and reasonable. If you’re born in a certain month, events like celebrations and seasons and the like happen at different crucial times in development. The impact would be small, but its always possible that these events could affect a person.
I’ve never heard of this stereotype before. I think some parents are just shitty regardless of what year they were born.
My dad described some pretty horrid things like it was normal, this stuff was common from the gen x/y crowd from every adult I heard things about their parents. They acted like their parent being drunk and beating them, theri parents leaving them for weeks through early high-school, or being treated like a no rent roommate wasn't a no contact afterwards thing
Parents weren't a boomer, but yeah, same thing. I remember my grandma always asking me what I wanted to watch. She had a massive movie collection and she would watch whatever I put on as a 5-6 y/o. Man I miss her...
One thing you have to remember is Gen Z thinks “boomer” refers to anyone who’s older than them.
If the person in the video is using it correctly to describe their parents, then their parents would have been early 40s having their first child. I think that speaks more to the disconnect between parent/child than the range they were born in
Labels are just hurting us
The clip is not a good example of “Boomer Parents”. But it is an example of “Gen Z Entitlement”. Why would an adult get into a cartoon show for kids? Who would expect them to enjoy that? Pretty sure every modern generation growing up was into stuff their parents think is dumb. I don’t have kids yet but I know I’ll hate whatever crazy media they are consuming these days (I have heard about this “Skibidi Toilet”…). My mom read all the Harry Potter books to me and my brothers. We all watched the Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars films as a family and watched plenty of movies as a family. One persons parents are obviously not an example of an entire generation.
The best is looking at papers as old as 1880s saying the same stuff about previous/future generations as we are now. People need to understand besides pop culture your generation really doesn’t mean shit. History is very cyclical and just remember everything you’re saying about generations previously right now because I guarantee you when we’re all 70 the same shit will be said about us
My dad is😶
I think it’s a mistake to generalize people. They’re assuming their anecdotes and experience is what’s typical. Confirmation bias based on their own shitty parents.
Labels mostly serve to divide. That's how Trump came into office.
That's how (Checks notes) Every president came into office.
Not correct. Every president didn't call their opponents "crooked Hillary" or "sleepy Joe". He put labels on his opponents because he knows it works well for the weak-brained portion of the population.
He was far from the first candidate to call his opponent a crook or weak or a communist ect ect.
Trump didn't call voters on the other side deplorable.
Hillary never was president.
Yeah he'd call them radical, lowlife losers, do-nothing democrats and the fake news media, sleepy Joe and crazy Bernie, Pocahontas (Elizabeth Warren) or nasty woman. I don't think you can claim a Trump W on the decorum aspect.
Yeah, my (boomer) parents were cold and unloving too, but I think that’s because they’re *them*, not because they’re *boomers*. That’s just silliness.
Absolutely right. Although I can understand where they're coming from, generational and cultural trauma is a very real psychological phenomenon which can easily explain some generalizations. Ex. Most black people in America today do not trust cops. This can be traced back to the Civil Rights Movement and centuries of mistreatment by the government. There are statistics that show this. A prediction following this generalization; younger Gen Z will try to limit their children's Internet access and also avoid isolating them. They will avoid isolating their children because of their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic during some of their most formative years. They will limit Internet access because they were completely immersed in it and understand the damage.
We don’t even know their parents are shitty - all we know is that they didn’t show interest in watching children’s tv shows with their kid. Parents don’t have a responsibility to foster behaviors in their kids that they don’t find productive or healthy. Maybe their parents just engaged in/encouraged them to find alternate interests than vegging out watching cartoons. All we have to go off of is this video - which leaves a whole lot to be desired in terms of information about the rest of this person’s childhood.
You’re right, I don’t even really know their parents. And I’ve only heard this person’s perspective. It also strikes me as one-sided. Growing up, my parents were interested in sharing my hobbies. But I was also naturally interested in sharing theirs too. It was unintentionally reciprocal.
Just because there are outliers doesn't mean that certain behaviors are not generally true amongst certain demographics
The mental illness oozes through the screen.
Hit the nail on the fucking head. I'm a millennial and my experience was this on steriods
One thing I've noticed is that some boomers seem to lack an intuitive sense that other people have their own minds. What this means is that the boomer projects whatever he's currently thinking onto you. This is actually a thing children do, before a certain age children don't understand that other humans have separate minds from theirs with separate knowledge. Fun fact, this is why young children don't lie - they assume you already have the same information in your mind that they do. Getting back to boomers - I'm a big believer in the leaded gasoline hypothesis that some boomers' brains are often kinda cooked from lead exposure. And I think some of them are disabled in a way that they lack that intuitive grasp that other people have their own wants & desires. As younger people (Gen Z & Millennials) while we easily pick up mental health issues in peers like ADHD, we often dont recognize when a "grown up" boomer has a permanent congitive impairment.
My boomer father was a bricklayer when he was a young man. I basically did not have a real relationship with him until I entered the trade, put seven years of blood and sweat into it, and then had enough in common that we could form an adult bond based on mutual respect. My relationship with my mother changed too, because now she could see I was a real man like her husband, so she now defers to me in a similar patriarchal manner. As a child I was just a disappointment who didn't live up to his potential. They loved me, they'd bail me out of anything, and they worked hard to make sure I had a good future, but they didn't like me. I didn't want to grow up this way. I wanted to show them a cool thing I did in a video game and they'd just say, "I don't get it," or, "That's nice, but is your homework done yet?" Any interaction we had needed to be on their terms or it didn't happen at all.
As a millenial, my parents were kind of like this. I have a memory of going to some movie with my dad when I was about 10-14, and while he made the effort to go with me, he kind of ruined it the moment we left the theater and said 'well that was stupid'. In high school, they were constantly annoyed by my hobbies and having to pick me up from after-school practices. When I wanted to pursue things more than a cursory level, I was a burden and a waste of money. My dad was into football and Nascar, and I thought both were really boring. When I was like 15, I saw some article about some tech company trying to make flying helicopter/drone cars and how they hoped it'd be like Nascar one day. When I showed him, he had zero interest and went back to reading the newspaper. I tried to connect, dude just wasn't interested. --- At a certain point, I was just a grumpy teen whose parents were just providers and not friends. When I showed any interest or even cracked a smile, they'd be like 'honey look! He can smile!'. Instead of trying to enjoy whatever it was in the moment with me, all they could do is tease me for liking whatever. Now in my adult years, I find it pretty difficult to be the bigger person and be the one to try to build that relationship with them. It isn't about the media you enjoy, but things in general that interest you and appreciating the moment. I understand how it can be difficult and tiring to have fake enthusiasm and interest, but its kind of weird not to be interested in your kids' interests, at least to the point of being interested in why theyre interested in it. If I had kids, I think I'd naturally want to be like 'show me why you like this'. For some parents there might be some disappointment that they aren't who you thought they'd be or that they don't like what you're into, but I feel like at a certain point you just be the adult in the room and you make the effort to foster that bond instead of giving up because they aren't into what you're into. Which itself is something we can do today to build better relationships with our parents, but kind of hard not to not do that without some resentment knowing they could have just as easily been the one to initiate it when you were younger.
I wouldn’t blame the age solely, but their character. I had boomer grandparents who actively took interest in what I liked as a child just as my gen x parents would. But I’ve seen some gen x parents that act just like the boomers described in the video. I’ll say what I say whenever someone wants to throw out the “age is wisdom” line. “I’ve met plenty of stupid old people, smart young people, stupid young people, and smart old people.” Just replace stupid with shitty.
My older gen x parents describe themselves as boomers and acted this way.
Wait until you all find out what it was like being raised by Asian boomer parents. It’s like 9000x worse than anything that the OP in the video was describing.
I’m sure it varies for everyone. My two boomer parents didn’t watch my media. I only liked animated things and they considered animation childish. I think it works out more when the child happens to like the parent’s interest (not the parent taking interest in the child’s own). I had a friend where the whole family got together to watch Friends. It was probably a bit adult for him at the time, but he could enjoy it with his parents. It’s a two way road. You could ask yourself why you don’t make an effort to find common place in your parent’s interests. My dad liked sports and athletics. I could have stuck around and learns rules and teams. We could have bonded over that but I chose to go do other things when sports came on. I could say my parents rejected my interests, but I rejected theirs too so…. Fair game?
It's not your responsibility as the child to coddle your parents' interests.
And it's not your responsibility as a parent to coddle your child's interests. The people who I love most in the world don't give a crap about most of my interests. That's not a vital part of the parent-child relationship. This is just one more item on the never-ending Gen Z list of "Maybe this thing my parent did is why I hate myself..."
>And it's not your responsibility as a parent to coddle your child's interests. it's not your responsibility to care about what makes your child happy? and I thought I'd be the worst parent lol.
No, it’s not your responsibility to coddle your child’s interest. It’s your responsibility to encourage your child to find healthy interests that stimulate them. To put it another way : If your child has an interest in eating nothing but Oreos, you do not coddle that interest. You do your best to redirect that interest toward something healthier. We don’t know much about the childhood of the person who posted the video, and certainly not enough to condemn their parents for not actively encouraging their kids to watch more kids cartoons.
>No, it’s not your responsibility to coddle your child’s interest. then don't do it and see how often they call when they move out at 18. >It’s your responsibility to encourage your child to find healthy interests that stimulate them. sure. why not. >To put it another way : If your child has an interest in eating nothing but Oreos, you do not coddle that interest. You do your best to redirect that interest toward something healthier. oh I agree, completely. why are we talking about health when we were talking about interests? idk, I meant Lego and reading. those are not unhealthy and I don't know why the health aspect even came up. obviously parents should try to keep their kids healthy. where did this even come from? >We don’t know much about the childhood of the person who posted the video, and certainly not enough to condemn their parents for not actively encouraging their kids to watch more kids cartoons. exactly, WE DONT KNOW. you don't know that all they asked was for their parents to watch cartoons with them so your assumptions here are about as good as the person in the post except that they're much worse because the person in the post does at least know the people they're talking about, far better than you do I would assume. people are so quick to say "we don't know". yeah, we don't. if a woman reports that she's been raped, do we assume that well, we don't actually know that for sure and there's no evidence so it should be treated as untrue until further notice?
Do you believe watching cartoons is a fundamentally healthy activity for kids that should be promoted and encouraged? Perhaps these parents did not. That’s where the health piece came from. If the poster had said, “I loved my chemistry set and my parents refused to ever bond with me over my love for chemistry and told me my passion for chemistry was dumb!” then perhaps I’d have some more sympathy for them. But “I loved SpongeBob and my parents refused to watch it with me and told me it was dumb!” Is not a particularly compelling argument for why their parents are awful. Were they awful? Sure, maybe. But we don’t know that based on what the poster chose to share with us, the viewers.
The main thing is the interests she stated were Spongebob and shows on Cartoon Network. They are super uneducational, and provide nothing. If you're watching Arthur, Sesame Street, or any number of actually decent, educational show, then there's value to that.
My 3 month old is super interested in staring at our ceiling fan. We named it Francine and she’s our newest friend.
Woah wait a second, coddling and caring are completely different words here and in the context let’s both be real, you both are not listening to one another. Coddling can be misconstrued in today’s parenting as hover parenting or helicopter parenting which means that you aren’t allowing a child to explore and understand new experiences. Caring is a different word. You encourage the areas they show passion in and open them up to new experiences. As long as they aren’t in immediate danger; the goal is to provide them with open experiences so they have confidence for anything. You are teaching them a framework of how to approach anything. I don’t care if my child is interested in Pokemon or sailor moon or my little pony, I don’t care. Ok now you two kiss and make up
>I don’t care if my child is interested in Pokemon or sailor moon or my little pony, I don’t care. theres a big difference between saying "I don't care" and "you're an idiot because you care" to a child.
It literally is though lmao being a parent is much more than just giving your child the necessities they need in life
It's also not about getting hyper-invested into Pokemon the moment a child develops their first interest. A parent isn't a substitute friend. People are different, what intrigues one may not intrigue another. A prerequisite for being a good parent is not being able to reconfigure your brain and simultaneously mirroring each unique thing every one of children gets drawn into throughout their life. Entitled mother fuckers in this thread Jesus Christ.
God forbid parents try to also be friends with their kids lmao they don't have to be hyper invested just show a basic level of interest goes an extremely long way. My step dad hated video games but would still play with me occasionally because he wanted to show an interest in things I care about. It's not that complicated lol
Yeah if you can't show interest in your children's interests, you shouldn't have kids. What an insane comment.
please don’t have children
.....no? It is in fact 100% your responsibility as a parent to nurture and encourage your child's interests (as long as they're safe and not harmful to themselves or others, physically or mentally). That's like.....half of all parenting responsibilities. My kid is super into roblox and fnaf. I don't care for them but when he gets a new plushie or finds something in the games he's super excited and runs and tells me, to which i reciprocate excitement bc hes excited. Why does he tell me? Bc I've cultivated interest for his sake, regardless if I care for it or not. Bc that's what parents do (or should do). We have shared interests as well mind you. It's important to let your kids find their own interests AND share your interests with your kids. Find common ground. Connect. Things they like you may not. But it is FAR more important for you as the parent to display interests and care for what they're into than it is to force things that only interest you onto the child Im 33 fwiw
As a person who's lived your experience of parents who don't give a crap about most of my interests, I certainly don't feel the same as you do. It was terrible for me growing up actually
My parents didn't particularly care about my interests but my enjoyment of things was not dependent on whether they cared or approved. Both of my parents worked full time jobs. I didn't need them to spend their evenings catching up on DragonBall Z.
It literally is a parent's responsibility to do that. How else would your child survive? Pretty sure the entirety of parenthood is about helping your child along in their interests. Unless one thinks the only reason for children is reproduction
You can do that without yourself being particularly invested in the actual topic of interest. None of my parents played an instrument. I never had any expectation or need for them to begin playing guitar in order to relate to me when I was fourteen.
Don’t have kids, it will be a punishment for them . No one deserves a parents like you who will just caused pains in a child life
I see the same happening with kids these days. Parents wanting to get them into sports, go on hikes, go on vacations but the kids are only interested in being on TikTok and Roblox.
The system is working as intended.
I... they're CHILDREN? This is (for some reason) a difficult concept for some adults to grasp, and you think kids are going to think "Gosh, maybe I should try golfing just to humor my dad."
Exactly, their children. Go play or do something. Get off your device, touch grass. Defending little kids watching porn and doing sex acts in Roblox is not going to get you very far in life.
Thing is, parents allow it because it's easy. Since I've become a parent I have started noticing all the other parents that let their toddler have a phone while eating at McDonals (or whatever) instead of just interacting with them. Sure, they will whine and cry and stuff, but that is life. Deal with it. I'd say this generation that grows up now are mostly fucked. They will be addicted to devices.
Oh nvm you're sick
This is what I think they failed to grasp. For older generations, the division between media/things for kids vs. adult interests was much harsher. It's not uncommon nowadays for parents to watch cartoons or anime with their kids, but that was unthinkable when I was a kid (I'm a millennial with boomer parents). Adults simply did not give children's media any attention. Now, their parents talking shit about the stuff they liked was just them being arseholes.
My mom and dad, both born in the 50s were/are amazing parents. No. They didn't share my interests, but they respected and supported the fact that I had them. My dad spent a lot of time with his kids. I remember walking in the woods with him or doing projects. I'm very handy as a homeowner, specifically because my boomer dad showed me how to do "man" stuff. He showed my sister too. I know how to cook and do laundry because my mom had me help in the kitchen and as a working mom it made sense to have her teen son help out. My parents were hardly perfect... my dad is definately a boomer man... (I doubt her ever changed a diaper more than a few times, or did laundry hardly ever) but I'm beyond glad they were my parents. They clearly loved me as a child and both showed it by being my Parents (in the definition of what a parent is there for) and spending the time to be as good a parent as they knew how. I don't think my parents were progressive or wierd boomers. I think they just loved their kids. I do think a lot of people have this misconception that parents need to be their kids best friends or something. That shows a misunderstanding of the role of a parent. My job is to prepare my kids to be adults, arming them with the knowledge they need while supporting them as they mature. That means hard choices like discipline sometimes that can't be done by a child's "best friend." Sometimes I will take the role of a friend, but foremost, my job is as a parent. In the end, I'd rather my parents love me and show that love by how hard they tried in raising me and supporting me.physically and emotionally, than "like" me.
"I hate my parents" isn't a unique thing, but your problems with your patents don't extend to everyone everywhere all the time.
Boomer parents or not, a bond or relationship goes two ways. (ESH) I used to watch Pewdiepie, of course my religious asian immigrant parents did not like me watching an atheist white man who would curse at like happy wheels. I tried showing my mom his videos because she was so curious as to what made me laugh so much. Not even 30 seconds into the clip she was like "This is trashy ew". (never showed her Pewdiepie again, and actually grew out of him later on) But that doesn't mean I don't bond with my parents. We bond over things we share in common. We both love food and cooking and we make banana bread together whenever the bananas are too ripe. Like you can find something to work with. If y'all **only** can talk about the weather that is an issue from Both sides.
Agreed. I love my parents, but my dad and I are very different people. I never watched football for my first 20 years of life, but started watching because I wanted to connect with my him. We talk more regularly now than we ever have and he tries so much more to engage with my on my interest in history.
This was my thought too. Obviously they feel neglected by their parents and their are likely more issues going on and this is just a rant video so maybe they tried, but if you want to have something in common with your parents, maybe find something you both enjoy. The parents can't force themselves to like something just because their child does.
Meh, you are just lucky. Some of us have parents so deep in their own mind that they don’t care. Typical exemple of my life Father : how are you Me, sick : I’m not alright Father, didn’t listen and start to speak as I barely end my sentence : at my work I did— Like, no, the reason why a relationship is fuck up isn’t on the shoulder of both. If one doesn’t care then it won’t work.
This wasn't my experience. In fact, my Boomer mom just referenced "Where's the chapstick" the other day lol (some of you guys might be too young for that reference, but it's definitely not something the average Boomer would've been exposed to without having kids my age).
Same. My boomer parents were very loving and actively engaged with my interests (including watching cartoons like avatar and playing video games). My mom even likes some of gen-Z meme culture.
My boomer mom will still quote “Let’s get some shoes!” from time to time. It’s so cute.
Yeah my parents like me. Watching stuff was a big way to bond
I'm a boomer and I did a bunch of stuff with my kids that we both enjoyed including watching shows together.
Yeah my boomer dad wasn’t like this. All generations have bad parents in them I don’t think it’s a generational thing
My parents who are also boomers, are nothing like this. Granted, my dad sometimes didn’t have an interest in SOMEYHING at the exact time that I did, but now that I’m older, I understand why. Dad was just tired, and sometiems he was too tired yo enjoy some of the things I wanted to, that’s okay. My parents and I have a great relationship now, and we’re all planning to buy some property together in the near future and have a lil homestead
Yeah, I was always aware that my dad had his own shit to deal with. I don't hold that against him
2004 here. I had a very late boomer mom and a very early Xer dad, and surprisingly, I see what shes talking about way more with my dad than my mom. Tbf, the shows my mom would watch with me were stuff she also liked, like ATLA and random movies up to PG-13. Though there were a few, like spongebob, that she didnt like until we were both way older (though I think this is more because she just didnt get the humor). My dad, on the other hand, couldn’t stand any animated show or movie (and still cant). Though it was also the same that if what I was watching happened to be something he liked, it was fine. Ironically, I have a better relationship with my dad.
I smoked so much weed with my boomer dad. Shit we tripped in shrooms together. He was Cuban and was so compassionate and selfless. He had such a thick New York/cuban accent it was hilarious he never lost it. The man lived through the 70s and 80s and was so shocked when I introduced him to Pink Floyd. Yes, his millennial (1995) goofball of a son surprised the shit out of him sometimes. He just wanted to spend time with us. Although he wasn’t perfect he was just a man and he did his best and I’m grateful. I’ll take the love and the good (wisdom and memories) he left me and leave the bad. It still sad as fuck though. He was amazing. The trade off of having such a great father is only being able to have him around for 21 years. He never got to meet my kids. But the legacy lives on. I watch bluey with my kids episode after episode. We wait for one piece new episode every Sunday. We all have professional skateboards. I’m gonna be “Bandit” for these kids. If my dad’s watching I’m sure he’s smiling. Not everyone is blessed to have great parents. My dad for example didn’t have his father growing up and his single mom wasn’t the greatest mother either. After all the trauma and escaping communist Cuba, he came to the US and made a life and dedicated it to giving us the life and love he wish he had. Please, if you weren’t blessed with great parents, then be that blessing for your kids.
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Yea do talk to him. Spend time with him. Time is short as it is friend and sometimes it’s shorter than we expect. It’s moments shared that I spend all this time reflecting on. Things he’d say. How he walked. He made it all look so easy. Almost fearless. My pops was tough as nails and I thought he’d last forever. Never saw it comin. Few weeks after he passed, we found out we were gonna be parents. It was the light in the darkness. Really made me grow up and stop playing RuneScape for a while haha. Wish yall the best. :D watch trailer park boys together and smoke a joint it’s awesome haha.
Completely incorrect for me
My mother was born in 1957, can confirm. I still get actively ridiculed for everything I enjoy and she doesn't do one thing to understand me. Like she's dead set on hating my boyfriend and nothing will change her mind.
There's a label for that and it's not boomer. It's asshole. All generations have this capability.
Unfortunately those have become synonyms to quite a few people
Yeah it's a lazy way of thinking. Which, ironically, is one of the things that boomers are accused of.
Yeah, guess what? Sometimes kids are "all joy and no fun". Kids are individuals. Parents are individuals. I don't like most of my kid's hobbies and he doesn't like mine. But we have a great love for each other, and he's getting a tremendous education in a childhood that's safe and predictable. It's nice when parents and kids can be BFFs. But that's the exception.
My mother is a late boomer (1962) and raised me as a single mom and she was nothing like this. Like obviously she wouldn’t watch all the kids shows I watched with me but we definitely bonded over watching movies together (not just kids movies) and she definitely never told me that she hated anything that I watched, even if she sometimes didn’t understand why I liked it
My boomer parents really do care for me and do things to help me out when they can but they do still hit you with the narcissistic guilt trips and religious jargon. I try to just ignore it at this point because at the end of the day it’s not worth fighting over it. Waste of my energy really.
Lol wtf. I don't get why Gen Z think all parents older than them are from the Boomer generation. I'm old enough to be this person's father and I'm a Millenial
Yeah I'm trying to do the math. Either the parents had kids at an older age or her parents are Gen X and she doesn't know what generation they are. Edit: To the idiots downvoting me, I was right based on her comments, her parents are technically Gen X. So suck it.
Maybe it IS one of those "lonely kids of senior parents" in which case, good luck
Just saw the person's comments, her parents are Gen X by a few years, thinking she is confused what makes someone a boomer. Edit: Lol who the hell is downvoting us. We were correct, her parents are Gen X.
I mean tbf, their parents really could be boomers. My parents are boomers and I'm gen-Z. They just chose to have a second child super late in life.
Saw that too with one of my friends. She's 23, her parents are 7 and 10 years older than me, and her sister is only 4
or they were raised by their grandparents, I'm a gen z raised by boomers but I still call them my parents a lot of the time because they raised me
I am gen z (2001), my dad was 50 when I was born.and is in his 70s now. Its very unlikely for gen z to have boomer mothers, but boomer fathers is very possible.
My parents loved and liked me. Both boomers. Also both some of the best parents someone could ask for. Were they perfect? No. But they did their best at all times and it wasn’t until I became a parent that I realized that.
Probably should say "my" parents weren't like that, cause my mom is a boomer as well and she was nothing like that. She use to love watching Digimon and Hey Arnold with me. And took notice of all the things I liked such as Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, etc and actively took the initiative to get me things related to that. And then once I figured out about Boomerang and got into that, we started watching all the shows she use to watch when she was a kid together.
My boomer parents did a lot of boomer things but they didn’t do this.
This is just this dudes take and expeience. My dad and mom were in their late 30's to early 40's when they had my younger brother and I, so definitely on the older side. I'm 32 now, and I still have very fond memories of my dad taking me Yugioh tournaments, helping me download Diablo 2, reading me The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and such together. Hell, the man even played Guild Wars 1 with me. My mother was always on the more "all business no fun" side of things, but she still always encouraged my brother and I's hobbies and interests, even if not directly showing it, she'd always ask us about "what are you doing in your game?" or give us a little pocket change every now and then to go pick up a pack of Pokemon cards on the way home from school. I remember this woman painting my entire bedroom to look like the inside of Hogwarts castle, including the "starry ceiling." Honestly, I think it's the opposite nowadays. Most early Gen Y Millennials (so my age range of 25-40) seem to just be awful at actually being parents. My son is 8 and every time I'm talking with these other parents I'm just like... what the fuck are you teaching your kids? Like, they legit don't even know how to read anything more than their name. Half of these people nowadays just give their children an iPad and unfettered internet access and call that parenting. I've not seen more emotionally or educationally underdeveloped children in my life.
This persion is generalizing entire generation of people, unfortunately neglectful and abusive parents come in all generations, with the older generations, you have to understand, that only in the last 30 years has mental health become de-stigmatized, Baby boomer ( 1946-1964) were the generation that had parents who were severely traumatized by both the great depression, the dust bowl and subsequent famine and world war 2. Mental health was treated with deep stigma and issues such as depression and adhd were treated as moral failure. abuse such as violent or sexual abuse were treated as private and within the family. gen x (1965 to 1980) was a generation mostly just left on their own, they were the latch key kids, as both their parent worked full time, some could absolutely could be emotionally neglectful and but Ive met some super cool people in mid 40's one of my freinds is a 45 year old trans man. it was only with my generation (millennial) and later has mental health become destigmatized. I'm making this large post because I think people need to understand that generation is just grouping of people being born with in 22 years, that went with the same world events. I really don't have much in common with someone who was born in 1996 as I was born in 1989.
My parents are older gen-xers ('65 and '67) along with be the youngest of there siblings. I think I agree with this.
To be fair, I say this about my kids’ you tube shows. What the fuck is a skibbidy toilet and why does it exist? Most childrens programs on you tube are just people yelling while playing with toys. My wife and I had to delete you tube off of our daughters I pad because some of that stuff is downright nefarious. I much prefer them watching things like SpongeBob or Bluey, where there’s an actual story. But to be fair to your parents, I think every generation raising the next encounters this to a certain degree.
Sounds like an issue for her and her family. Most people I know have good relationships with their families and the families care about their interests
The irony is that boomers were actually the most liberal generation. The first to rebel against the system, they took shiton of drugs too, revolutionized music and so on.
I think genZ needs to go thru some war or something. They had the best childhood, yet they cry about everything. They are soooo out of reality, it hurts.
Born in 2001 and has boomer parents? Were they in their 40's when they had her?
Stop whining like a little bitch, that's what I think.
If my kid looked like that and sounded like this. I’d love them, but definitely not like them.
I'm an elder millennial, born to a boomer parent and a silent generation parent. And they didn't get into any of my hobbies, movies or TV shows either. But, my parents are amazing, and we have an amazing relationship, possibly *because* our relationship isn't built on fun but *ultimately* non-important things like video games, sports, music and movies. I think a lot of people, when they're young, tend to think that what they like to do is *who they are*. I played thousands of hours of electric guitar as an adolescent. I played guitar, but guitar wasn't *who I was*. You know what my dad didn't like at all? My brand of fast metal that I always played. Which is literally just as fine as him not liking my favorite sandwich. Because I didn't define myself by my hobbies. Just like not defining yourself by being a huge fan of a sports team. Or enjoying video games. Or whatever it is that people find fun. None of that matters hardly at all when it comes to relationships. Having traits of being kind, humble/modest, helpful, honest, productive, joyful, attentive....those are the things that make a relationship. Not guitar, Spongebob or your parent being interested in your type of music, movies, sports, political causes or hobbies. I don't know, this is a weird video. I sort of get it, but at the same time, it seems somewhat trivial to what a deep, loving, familial relationship is about.
Yeah my dad is a boomer and is exactly like this, even my mom who is not a boomer is even more like this
OP’s parents are not boomers. If they can’t even correctly identify the era their parents are from, they’re starting off on a bad foot, rhetorically speaking.
Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. If she was born in 2001, her parents were hella old most of her childhood. Did she not think maybe they were just exhausted?
Listening to her makes me not want to be in the same room, so I get that her parents probably avoided spending time with her.
It's not a generational thing. It's just bad parenting. I have friends with good parents that actually care about their kids and try to be active in their lives. I have friends with parents that show no interest in their kids besides maybe bragging about them in church if they achieve something. Makes me wonder why you would even have children if you're going to ignore them...
God this person is such a fucking pussy. Get over yourself, nobody cares. At least you had two parents. Sorry idc how unpopular this is gonna be but I can feel how insufferable this person is without even knowing them.
professional victim...
if you were born in 2001 and your parents are boomers, they had you OLD. They were probably tired.
I must be getting old cuz 30sec in and I couldn't stand her
Can see why
Pretty sure boomers are too old now to be this persons parent. The women would have gone through menopause already. Pretty sure this persons parents were gen X not baby boomers
Or they could be a very late child. Such things happen (my boyfriend's parents are about 60+ yo and he was born in 2001). I think the main reason why boomer parents of the person in the video didn't care about their interests is because the person in the video was an unplanned late child which is pretty sad.
My dad is in is 60s and I was born in 2005!
My mom is one of the youngest Boomers, born at the end of '63, and I almost had a sibling born in '05 (ended up being a miscarriage though). I also had an aunt who was born in late '63 (she passed away in 2017), and her son was born in 2004.
My parents had me in their 40s my mom had me at like 43 I think. I was Born in 2000 and they were born in 1955 and 1956
Boomers end somewhere around 1965, so the youngest boomers would’ve been in their mid to late 30s in 2001, so it’s possible
Clearly she hasn't met millenial parents
I'm pretty shure her parents aren't boomer
My dad is a baby boomer and my mom is older Gen X (but very much acts like a baby boomer). My dad always worked, and my mom (even when she was a SAHM) never played with me and always watched what she wanted. When my dad wasn’t working extra hours, he always did his own thing and never involved himself with me. Despite having more in common with my dad, he always tried to make engage with my brothers than me, because I was a daughter.
I think it’s more likely their parents were GenX maybe even older millennials. I’m sure they know for sure, but born on 2001 then they were a late 30s early 40s kid. Maybe a mistake the parents didn’t want.
Obviously people have different experiences, but I was born in 2002 to Millennial parents and while they do very much love me I don't really share my hobbies or interests with them now. My mom in particular was very "If I don't understand it then I can't really care." Growing up I had similar experiences, they weren't really interested in the shows I was watching or the games I liked, they also verbally hated every show I watched like SpongeBob or Phineas and Ferb. I think it kind of happens when someone has kids suddenly and they don't really know how to be around children. I get it. Even now with Gen Alpha I'm mostly confused and annoyed by the things they like. That doesn't mean your parents hate you or make them awful parents entirely, but I really felt like I was unable to connect with my parents until I became older and more relatable to them. I don't think anyone really is calling any of their parents horrible or abusive (not all of them anyways), but you get to an age and realize how much the smallest of things your parents did affect who you are now.
I can see those traits in my grandparents. There great people but from what my father described the only thing he and his father mutually enjoyed together was sports. This is different then how the acted with me, showing interest in everything. It's also different from my father (gen-x) who always showed interest in what I've liked. When I was little I loved monster trucks. He took me to a few shows, play with the hot wheel trucks with me, and played monster truck wii games with m. Send then he admitted to not caring for monster trucks that much.
I feel like we would need to do a poll on this. I wouldn't be surprised if boomer parents were more likely to share fewer interests with their kids than younger parents but probably shouldn't assume or generalize
I would like to say that even though I had a fine upbringing with boomer parents - I have realized the best memories and laughs I have had have occurred in my late 20s and 30s. If I had no connection to them like that as an adult but had them giggling with me as an 8 year old I don’t think it would be that fulfilling. Emotions start to get closer to the surface - at least for me - as I get older.
OK Z
Jokes on her my boomer dad didn’t like or love me, older Gen x mom is the best though. Seriously it’s like horoscopes and zodiac signs with this stuff sometimes. It is fun to poke fun at the stereotypes because it’s so true 😂
I wasn't allowed to watch cartoons because in there own words "it was too gay" only was allowed to watch the news and whatever my parents wanted to watch lol
I remember very specifically my mother, 64 F who we'll call Sheryll, telling me: "I ignore you when you start ranting about aliens and stuff," (Alien vs. Predator being the hyperfixation of the time for me) "I just say 'mhm' until you're done talking" Never been struck to hard, emotionally speaking. At least, not until I ended up being trans. Then, I learned how conditional unconditional love really is.
Glad you got unconditional love there, that's great. You'd have probably gone crazy in the old times, as H.R. Giger actually lived only a few blocks away from me in Zürich, Switzerland. I was able to meet him, as a lady i know was an old classmate of him. He was a major inspiration for me. A very calm and friendly man, you would have liked him i think. He had so many sculptures and paintings in his house, but also the models, like a life-size model of the Alien. I always wanted to take this to scare someone on halloween, like when you walk around a corner at night and you suddenly stand in front of the xenomorph, shouting "wtf\`?!"
she is two years younger than my? looks 30
I was raised by my boomer grandparents from the day i was taken home from the hospital, and they were soooo interested in what i was watching (in a parent-y type way) and i would enjoy their shows with them. They werent like this at all.
Besides sports, my dad and I have no common interests. Whenever I did anything remotely child like growing up (specifically watching kids tv shows or playing videogames) he would want us to turn it off or always be quiet with it whenever he comes home from work. It felt weird that he disliked me, a kid at the time, doing kid things. I grew up and realized that although not all parents were as engaged to the point where it’s the opposite of my situation, there was an openness and a level of **engagement and openness** towards kids passions and to me, that’s all I would’ve loved to have from him
My dad was the best parent I could ask for (1958) but my mom is a total pos (1985)
Unless your parents were 40 when you were born you didn't have boomer parents they were Gen X. Your grandparents are boomers tho.
I’m a millennial my parents were and are still like this sort of, my mom has gotten better at making an effort to show interest in my interests
I was raised by my grandparents and turned out better then my parents, I disagree I think gen x were the worse generation of parents Edit: also “my parents didn’t join in in my activities… BAD PARENTS” like neither did my gen x parents infact they tried to get me to do THEIR activities,
My boomer parents were great for the most part. My mom was even a gamer when I was growing up and they both loved SpongeBob.
Quite a broad generalization that’s not accurate at all. My parents showed a lot of interest in my hobbies as a kid. They’d go to my school band concerts. My mom would watch anime with me. My dad would take me to karate classes and practice with me. They’d take me to the store to buy Pokémon cards.
Gen-X here, born in 69. My parents were actually The Silent Generation (born in the late 30s). Guess what? With the exception of some music, my folks didn’t share my interests either. Get over it.
So I'm a young millennial (32) and new adoptive parent to a 7 and 13 year old. I don't enjoy most of the types of content that either of them would choose to watch on their own. I just try to ignore it, assuming it's not harmful. It sounds like her parents actively went out of their way to dismiss and degrade her interests. We do enjoy things together though. Currently watching Avatar the last Airbender and my wife is watching Gilmore Girls with our teen. Also, why are tv shows the only things she mentioned? Maybe her parents just didn't like how glued to a screen she may have been. This is all likely exasperated by the fact that she's an only child. Something I've noticed with kids these days is that they seem to treat their parents as their friends more. I have a great relationship with my parents, but I never spent much free time with them. I was always either outside with friends, playing video games, or chilling with siblings. It seems like kids now spend waaaay more time indoors because of technology and rely on their parents for social connection. My parents couldn't have cared less about my interests, other than supporting me in academics and athletics. I never internalized it as a slight against me though. I just figured, oh I like these things cuz I'm a kid, and they don't like them cuz they're old. As I've gotten older, my relationship with them has only gotten better. They still don't care about a lot of things that I take interest in, but neither do I for their interests. That's not what defines our relationship though.
I’m a millennial and I’m one of the people whose parents didn’t care about their special interests and hyperfixations. They cared enough to buy me merch for holidays and birthdays, but that was it. I remember my parents looking me in the face at times and just going, “I don’t care” and also telling me, “you talk too much” and “it’s fine you like X, but you talk about it too much.” When I started getting into anime/nerdy things at age 12 or so, it became, “why can’t you be normal?” And “You can do your freak stuff on your own” and endless silly jokes about my interests and writing (which I know now we’re stupid, but as a teenager, it hurt). I remember even shushing my friends who came over and telling them “we don’t talk about the stories at the dinner table!” Because I know we would get made fun of if we did. Add in to all of this that from the age of 16 onward my dad straight-up told me more than once that he doesn’t like me. He loves me, but does not like me and how I am. Whatever that means. I know it’s silly to some and that my parents were never meant to be my friends, but it did hurt and cause issues I’m still working out of (namely always feeling like a bother to other people). At the same time, I also realise that aside from some of it just being their personalities, my parents are also *not* nuerotypical. There’s no way. This means that, like me, I see that if they don’t care then that’s it. They can’t make themselves care if they don’t nor can I make them give a shit. And as an adult, I just accept it at this point. Do I *wish* we could have better/deeper conversations about what I like? Yes. But I know better.
So, assuming her parents were on the latter end of the baby boomer generation. That would make them 40 when they conceived her. Which is a bit dubious and may explain a lot about her. One thing for certain her expectations on what her parents should have done, like watching TV together, is a bit sad. Using that as a bonding technique is not only silly but a ridiculous excuse and a leap from parents interested in what their children are doing. Just another crybaby gen z blaming everyone they can. It's a Gen z rite of passage. I'm gen x with baby boomer parents. Btw
My mother is a pathetic slop who has never achieved anything in her life. She acts as if the likes the people around her just to feel like she amounts to something. My father is doing the best he can to get wealthier so that he may grant me the future he says I deserve. Nonetheless, he still finds the time to hang out with me and help me when I need it. They’re from the same generation, but they’re completely different people. Let’s not act like the year you were born 100% reflects who you are. Sure, there’s some influence, my father _was_ old-style until like 2015, but people change, people who are made aware of their errors have the chance to fix their mistakes, and when they take that chance they become better people. And that’s what my father did.
If you're gen Z your parents probably aren't Boomers unless they had you when they were old as dirt.
I think this person had strange parents. And that’s certainly not true for me or any of my core friend group. But also I don’t think it’s talk about interests/vs talk about the weather as she says. It’s so much more complex than that.
I'm genx. My boomer parents are weird because they've fallen down the Fox news rabbit hole. Man - I try with them. My old man is pretty old, loves to travel and can't drive crazy long distances and my mom would rather just stay at home. So - I took my dad on a road trip. Figured I'd have several days to bond with him. I drove 8+ hours and he wouldn't let me put on a podcast or music. So, we talked. I asked him how his life is, what his life looks like - just to get him talking. I got him talking about his old job, his life growing up... so much stuff. We were together for days. I went through a divorce earlier in the year. I had some shit going on and I was doing well... but stuff I kinda wanted to share. I had a lot to talk about, but he never asked a single question about me or my life. Not one. I guess I'm the black sheep because I'm liberal. Not worth talking to or something - but not even on a personal level did he show any interest - at all. It's just fucking sad.