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canyonwalkerToday I was amused to read another BuzzFeed-style listicle[1] about things Millennials don't understand about their Boomer parents. Except it wasn't BuzzFeed this time; it was Upworthy basically scraping a Reddit thread into an article, Millennials share their boomer parents’ 15 odd (and hilarious) habits they just don't get. Now, I'm not a Millennial, and my parents aren't Boomers, and I know these listicles are click bait, but two featured items on their list called me out.
1. They save everything.
Yes! And it's because of this thing called The Great Depression. Your Boomer parents didn't experience it first-hand. By definition they're too young. My dad was born at the tail end of the Great Depression (late 1930s) and my mom in the mid 1940s, so they didn't really experience it directly, either. But, like your Boomer parents, they grew up in households where their parents' lives had been shaped heavily by the Great Depression. Boomers observed habits like saving every scrap of food, washing and reusing Cool Whip containers instead of throwing them away, and holding onto clothes until they were threadbare— then using them for cleaning rags or patches for other clothes— from their parents who, for 10-15 years, needed to do these things to survive.
Today those habits seem quaint. Even 25 years they seemed quaint. That's because the reality that made them a practical necessity is now even further removed. But that reality was a lot closer for me when I was a kid because everyone still talked about the Great Depression. Again, for us kids, our parents may not have actually lived through it, but our grandparents all did. Our older aunts, uncles, and teachers may have, too. And the cartoon reruns we saw on TV (in the 1970s and early 80s) all included Depression era storylines— because that was the lived experience of older writers and animators. (Plus, in the late 1970s we mostly had reruns of cartoons from 10-15 years earlier because Hollywood creatives spent the 1970s stoned out of their minds producing little worth watching.)
4. They Don't Travel [Featured item]
This item was #4 on the list but was included in the headline picture for the article, along with the sub-header "They act jealous of us traveling but refuse to go anywhere." Lower down was another testimonial quote, "Ooh good one. Mine act jealous of anything we do/buy that they can't solely because they can't get out of their own way and actually make things happen."
This one called me out not because it describes something from my childhood but because it describes something today (and in the past 10 years) I see with my parents. They are reluctant to travel. But it's not "solely because they can't get out of their own way." It's because of health problems.
Older people may not feel well enough to travel as much as they'd like. Between my parents and my inlaws, all 4 of them have/had health issues that make travel difficult. Issues in my family I can think of just off the top of my head are:
[1] "Listicle" is a portmanteau of list and article. It's a derogatory description of lazy journalism that sources content by scraping responses from social media sites like Reddit or X.
1. They save everything.
Yes! And it's because of this thing called The Great Depression. Your Boomer parents didn't experience it first-hand. By definition they're too young. My dad was born at the tail end of the Great Depression (late 1930s) and my mom in the mid 1940s, so they didn't really experience it directly, either. But, like your Boomer parents, they grew up in households where their parents' lives had been shaped heavily by the Great Depression. Boomers observed habits like saving every scrap of food, washing and reusing Cool Whip containers instead of throwing them away, and holding onto clothes until they were threadbare— then using them for cleaning rags or patches for other clothes— from their parents who, for 10-15 years, needed to do these things to survive.
Today those habits seem quaint. Even 25 years they seemed quaint. That's because the reality that made them a practical necessity is now even further removed. But that reality was a lot closer for me when I was a kid because everyone still talked about the Great Depression. Again, for us kids, our parents may not have actually lived through it, but our grandparents all did. Our older aunts, uncles, and teachers may have, too. And the cartoon reruns we saw on TV (in the 1970s and early 80s) all included Depression era storylines— because that was the lived experience of older writers and animators. (Plus, in the late 1970s we mostly had reruns of cartoons from 10-15 years earlier because Hollywood creatives spent the 1970s stoned out of their minds producing little worth watching.)
4. They Don't Travel [Featured item]
This item was #4 on the list but was included in the headline picture for the article, along with the sub-header "They act jealous of us traveling but refuse to go anywhere." Lower down was another testimonial quote, "Ooh good one. Mine act jealous of anything we do/buy that they can't solely because they can't get out of their own way and actually make things happen."
This one called me out not because it describes something from my childhood but because it describes something today (and in the past 10 years) I see with my parents. They are reluctant to travel. But it's not "solely because they can't get out of their own way." It's because of health problems.
Older people may not feel well enough to travel as much as they'd like. Between my parents and my inlaws, all 4 of them have/had health issues that make travel difficult. Issues in my family I can think of just off the top of my head are:
- Losing the ability to maintain energy & focus for long car drives
- Needing to carry and use drugs like insulin (which can require refrigeration) multiple times per day
- Needing to carry and use a CPAP machine when sleeping
- Needing frequent/long bathroom visits— and not being able to hold it until the next rest stop or "until the pilot tells you it's safe to get up out of your seat"
- Needing the ability to stand up/stretch legs/etc. every hour to avoid swelling and worse on a long flight
- Worry about mobility when traversing airports, which can involve literally a mile or more of walking.
[1] "Listicle" is a portmanteau of list and article. It's a derogatory description of lazy journalism that sources content by scraping responses from social media sites like Reddit or X.
