Why I don't like Boomers (spinoff)

[Anonymous]

I'm a tail-end boomer, born in 1960. My oldest child will graduate from high school on Friday and my youngest is just finishing 4th grade. So, don't assume we're all grandparents about to cash in on Social Security. Demographers can frame the Baby Boom generation pretty broadly, from 1946-1965, but it's important to note that there's a huge difference in terms of life experiences between the earliest boomers (born right after WWII) and those of us born in the later years.

Speaking for my cohort -- those of us who graduated from college in the late '70s and early '80s-- I'd make the following observations. We graduated into recession and stagflation, and lived in shabby group houses and crummy little apartments. We also took out student loans, though I will admit that some of us we benefitted from the original, more generous Pell grant program as well. We didn't have bridezilla weddings that we expected our parents to pay for. We started out in pretty modest first houses and our babies didn't have $500 strollers. Some of us were ucky enough to do well financially later in life, true, but we felt lucky, not entitled. We drove mini-vans and boxy old Volvo wagons for years -- rather than leasing BMWs, Audis and Mercedes.

The parents of my oldest child's friends are almost all boomers -- and they've been hugely supportive of one another and our kids. They're generous, thoughtful, open-minded and open-hearted. The parents of my youngest child's friends are almost all GenX-ers -- they tend to be very competitive, tit-for-tat types, unwilling to pitch in as school volunteers, very materialistic and whiners to boot! Boomers, I'll go gladly into senility with you -- even though we tail-enders are unlikely to get anything back from Social Security either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a pp from the Giant thread about boomers and how I don't like them. i don't like them b/c they had it VERY easy regarding job opportunities and seem to take for granted how easily things did come to them. Most of the boomers I know also don't seem to fathom why younger people don't have everything they have. I was born in 1970 too and although I shop at WF, drink lattes and have a volvo it's used, paid with cash, consider lattes a treat and shop at WF because it's closer to my house and I like their food. Anyway, I don't like boomers because they won't get out of the way and let Gen Xers start to run things. I find most of them very self-absorbed and have a sense of entitlement. All of my siblings are boomers and they generally have the same traits of behavior. Oh, and can I mention Chicos as the fashion place of choice for many boomer women? Or that store iJill? WEIRD!

Born in '55. I think you need to review your history. When I was in college (the fabulous 70s) inflation was terrible and the job market wasn't anywhere near what it was in the last decade or so before the crash. I survived a horrible recession in the early 80s and living in the rust belt as I did at the time, it never exactly went away. The job market continued to be weak. Then I went to grad school in the 80s and tried to make it in the academic job market but that was only vibrant for a few minutes in the early 60s (when I was 8 ) and has been horrible for decades and is getting worse.

I do remember during the 90s hearing a radio ad for part-time cafeteria workers at the local high school. I never heard anything like that (any ad on the radio for jobs, let alone cafeteria workers) growing up. In the late 90s my students at the college where I taught had it enormously easy finding a job coming out of school. It was not like that at all when I graduated in 1977.

I'm sorry you're surrounded by a bunch of people my age who are conspicuous consumers. Some of them are reaping the rewards for being older and further along in their careers. If some of them had it easy growing up, they must have been those boomers born earlier than me. My experience as a young person was that the economy sucked and I was amazed by the high tech job market of the 90s and the real estate expansion of the 00s. I had never thought that things like that (jobs where they beg you to come work for them and low interest mortgages -- I used to think 9% was low interest) would ever come easy. For a few years they did -- that was a change from my youth.

BTW, my favorite store? Goodwill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents were born in 1941 and 1943...they are before Boomers aren't they? What are the decades defined as Boomer?

Boomer is technically post WWII b/c when the GI's came back there was a "baby boom" for obvious reasons. From 1945 on... till about '65, I think...

I've heard 46 or 47 through 64.

[Anonymous]

1946-1964

[Anonymous]

Folks -- if we keep blaming each other for economic conditions today it only allows the real culprits to escape blame. For example, those vultures who created exotic mortgage-based derivatives that both drove the housing bubble and then collapsed like a house of cards overnight and ruined people's lives. (I have no idea what generation they belong to, btw.)

Also -- just wanted to add, as a boomer I've always been a bit sad that I didn't grow up after Title IX. It was really hard to be a female jock in our era and how I would have loved the opportunity to compete at the level that is available to girls and women today.

I wanted to play baseball but it never occurred to me that there could even be a girls team. And it certainly never occurred to me that I should have been able to play on a boys team. It just sucked that I was a girl and how I wished I could be a boy so I could be free and play sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Folks -- if we keep blaming each other for economic conditions today it only allows the real culprits to escape blame. For example, those vultures who created exotic mortgage-based derivatives that both drove the housing bubble and then collapsed like a house of cards overnight and ruined people's lives. (I have no idea what generation they belong to, btw.)

Also -- just wanted to add, as a boomer I've always been a bit sad that I didn't grow up after Title IX. It was really hard to be a female jock in our era and how I would have loved the opportunity to compete at the level that is available to girls and women today.

I wanted to play baseball but it never occurred to me that there could even be a girls team. And it certainly never occurred to me that I should have been able to play on a boys team. It just sucked that I was a girl and how I wished I could be a boy so I could be free and play sports.

Growing up in the late '70s and '80s, it sucked that I was forced to play sports even though a more traditional idea of femininity would have suited me (and many of my friends) better. You took away our choices when you stopped allowing us to legitimately be girly girls and proud homemakers. Now as adults we're stuck doing everything men have to do as well as most things women have always had to do. Thanks a lot.

[Anonymous]

"Growing up in the late '70s and '80s, it sucked that I was forced to play sports even though a more traditional idea of femininity would have suited me (and many of my friends) better. You took away our choices when you stopped allowing us to legitimately be girly girls and proud homemakers. Now as adults we're stuck doing everything men have to do as well as most things women have always had to do. Thanks a lot. "

Hilarious -- what a baby you are. is it really all so out of your control? get a grip. be a girly girl if you want to. (NP here. 70s child myself)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Growing up in the late '70s and '80s, it sucked that I was forced to play sports even though a more traditional idea of femininity would have suited me (and many of my friends) better. You took away our choices when you stopped allowing us to legitimately be girly girls and proud homemakers. Now as adults we're stuck doing everything men have to do as well as most things women have always had to do. Thanks a lot. "

Hilarious -- what a baby you are. is it really all so out of your control? get a grip. be a girly girl if you want to. (NP here. 70s child myself)

What are your suggestions? Can we offer baking classes for those who would strongly prefer to not to play football in school? This is typically very much out of a students' control when sports, even the coarsest ones, are mandated, as they are for everyone across the board, no exceptions for healthy kids regardless of gender, inclination, or comfort level.

Can you get my husband to lift a finger around the house, especially when I'm working long hours, too? Can you get him to not consider my hiring some help a serious financial betrayal (since my services are free, if I pay for cleaning/childcare I'm wasteful)? Can you get society at large to respect SAH mothering again? Can you get husbands large enough incomes to be able to support families single-handedly so mothers don't have to do extensive double-duty?

[Anonymous]

Here, here. The tail end boomers had and have it tough. In addition to the observations by several PPs, I'd like to note that many of the good jobs went to Boomer born five to six years ahead of the tail-enders so we never made it to the top. The Boomers are NOT a monolith. I feel closer to someone born in 1968 than I do to someone born in 1948.


Anonymous wrote:I am a boomer born in 1960. I have neither a pension nor a Volvo, but I do have an 11-year-old. I graduated college in 1982 during a recession. I recall paying 18% interest on my first car. How does all of this make me entitled?

AND

Yes, this. I'm a boomer born in 1959 and graduated from college in 1981 during a recession.

The interest rate on our first house was 10%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Folks -- if we keep blaming each other for economic conditions today it only allows the real culprits to escape blame. For example, those vultures who created exotic mortgage-based derivatives that both drove the housing bubble and then collapsed like a house of cards overnight and ruined people's lives. (I have no idea what generation they belong to, btw.)

Also -- just wanted to add, as a boomer I've always been a bit sad that I didn't grow up after Title IX. It was really hard to be a female jock in our era and how I would have loved the opportunity to compete at the level that is available to girls and women today.

I wanted to play baseball but it never occurred to me that there could even be a girls team. And it certainly never occurred to me that I should have been able to play on a boys team. It just sucked that I was a girl and how I wished I could be a boy so I could be free and play sports.

Growing up in the late '70s and '80s, it sucked that I was forced to play sports even though a more traditional idea of femininity would have suited me (and many of my friends) better. You took away our choices when you stopped allowing us to legitimately be girly girls and proud homemakers. Now as adults we're stuck doing everything men have to do as well as most things women have always had to do. Thanks a lot.

Oh yeah, that's right. I went from being a powerless girl who couldn't play sports to an evil overlord in the 70s (at the age of 20) and forced you to play sports. That's logical.
BTW, I'm all in favor of people being who they truly are. I'd be very happy to have you not play sports if that suits you and to have you not do men's things if that suits you. But as I was saying at the beginning of my post, blaming me isn't going to help you get what you need. Working for a world where people don't have to march lock step in line with rigid cultural norms -- that's what will help us all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Growing up in the late '70s and '80s, it sucked that I was forced to play sports even though a more traditional idea of femininity would have suited me (and many of my friends) better. You took away our choices when you stopped allowing us to legitimately be girly girls and proud homemakers. Now as adults we're stuck doing everything men have to do as well as most things women have always had to do. Thanks a lot. "

Hilarious -- what a baby you are. is it really all so out of your control? get a grip. be a girly girl if you want to. (NP here. 70s child myself)

What are your suggestions? Can we offer baking classes for those who would strongly prefer to not to play football in school? This is typically very much out of a students' control when sports, even the coarsest ones, are mandated, as they are for everyone across the board, no exceptions for healthy kids regardless of gender, inclination, or comfort level.

Can you get my husband to lift a finger around the house, especially when I'm working long hours, too? Can you get him to not consider my hiring some help a serious financial betrayal (since my services are free, if I pay for cleaning/childcare I'm wasteful)? Can you get society at large to respect SAH mothering again? Can you get husbands large enough incomes to be able to support families single-handedly so mothers don't have to do extensive double-duty?

I'm a boomer and I can tell you that my dh and I share the household work equally. I didn't make your husband a weenie who can't man up and do housework. Don't blame me for your husband not being able to evolve.

[Anonymous]

Boomers, I blame you for assuming you spoke for all women throughout time and effectively pushing for a world that removed the options I wanted.

In general, I blame you for attacking traditions wantonly without caring about appropriate replacements.

I blame you for dumbing down popular culture, too.

[Anonymous]

To the boomer PP who regrets missing out on Title IX --my heart goes out to you. I'm a late boomer who started high school right after Title IX and it made a huge difference in my experience compared to that of my older sister. My kids think I must have been a big jockette in high school b/c I played varsity soccer, but the truth is we had just started a girls team and needed every warm body we could get. Here's to you, Cap Weinberger -- for drafting the Title IX regs as Secretary of HEW. And, for those of you who remember Cap and HEW, you're definitely a boomer.

To the poster blaming boomers for Title IX -- 1) nobody forced you to play sports -- that's just ridiculous and further proof of GenX whining, and 2) many boomers couldn't even vote when Title IX was passed -- so, baby, you need to take your fight to the Greatest Generation. Good luck with that.

[Anonymous]

Why I like Boomers:

1) We never expected our parents to pay for our extravagant weddings, buy our first houses, pay our kids' private school tuition, and provide free child care for our offspring. Rather, as children should, we first rebelled against them and then, when we had our own kids (or, at least, by the time our kids became teens) realized that they were actually pretty good eggs;

2) We bought the smallest, crappiest houses on the block, lived in them for years, doing all kinds of little home repair and improvement projects to make them liveable, then finally renovated or expanded them when we got lucky and the market went up. GenXers wanted to buy the fanciest, biggest houses on the block and never have to put in any sweat or $$ equity of their own. Really, I distinctly remember two Boomer friends who insisted that their realtors show them the houses that had been on the market forever and that were real hell-holes (one described her new home as "the 9th circle of hell, avocado shag carpet everywhere"). Both live in those houses to this day, having painted, papered, planted and finally expanded them so that they are beautiful homes now. In contrast, when GenX colleagues and acquaintances inquire about houses for sale in our very desirable n-hood, they invariably say they don't want to move into a fixer-upper. Then, if I tell them about a house that's already been fixed up, they whine about how expensive it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boomers, I blame you for assuming you spoke for all women throughout time and effectively pushing for a world that removed the options I wanted.

In general, I blame you for attacking traditions wantonly without caring about appropriate replacements.

I blame you for dumbing down popular culture, too.

You know what? I think you're a whiner. I think it has nothing to do with what generation you belong to. (For the record, I know lovely people from all different generations.) It has everything to do with you blaming everyone else for your own misery. You need to look in the mirror.