Snowflakes, Safe spaces, and Participation Trophies

I’ve actually had the idea for this entry for a while but just a few days ago my thoughts crystallized after viewing a friend’s Facebook post. It was actually a meme showing D-Day landing craft with soldiers deploying onto the beach. The caption, if I’m remembering correctly, said something about Millennials leaving their safe space and what if they call us names.  I’ll admit I chuckled.  What struck me as the most ironic is that Millennials often refer to themselves as the “meme generation” and here a meme was being used to ridicule them.  

You don’t have to look far to find data and studies to confirm the stereotypes about Millennials.  For the first time in 130 years, it has become more common for those aged 18-34 to live with their parents than with a spouse or romantic partner.  Lazy, shiftless, aimless, and spoiled obviously.  Except that the real truth is that they are simply waiting until later in life to get married and in fact they aren’t living with their parents in record numbers at all.  The year with the highest percentage of that age group still living with their folks was 1940. You know, the Greatest Generation.  Of course, in their defense it was still the Depression.

As a card carrying member of Generation X, I too have felt the sting as older generations looked down their noses and questioned our commitment to work, school, the American way, or whatever.  I remember quite vividly being told in high school that we would be the first generation to have a lower standard of living than our parents.  Gen Xers were born during an astronomical rise in divorce rates and a time period where, according to many researchers, less focus was placed on the child and more was put on the adult. Since the majority of our parents were Baby Boomers this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Rest assured that I’m not speaking to specific situations or people but more along the lines of generational stereotypes.(Hurts, doesn’t it?)

Kids Today…

What actually puts Millennials in the cross hairs of older generations is the natural human tendency to be disappointed with and frightened by the perceived incompetence of young people.  All the way back in Ancient Greece learned souls bemoaned the inadequacies of their younger generations and made many “hell in a hand basket” style prophecies.  One Roman suggested that even a woman would be a superior choice for leadership roles than many of their young men.  While a fondue fork to the tympanic membrane is less painful than much of their music what you mostly find is that they are just as smart(or not) and hard working(or not) as previous generations.

Of course some individuals and some policies are justifiably ridiculed but for the most part future generations are made by past generations.  Many young people today genuinely seek to be inclusive while prior generations plainly were not and of course any person that is constantly told from preschool on that they are special and can do anything will think of themselves as a unique snowflake.  But guess what Grandma; I’ve never seen a kid smelt their own participation trophy.  It’s hardly fair to lay weakness of character at the feet of an entire generation when most parenting today seeks to be more about preparing the path for the child and not the child for the path.  I think Pete was right when he said that the kids are alright.