It's a generational thing

“Back in my day, a handful of rocks and a stick where my only toys and as for an allowance, shoot, I was allowed to breathe and was damn happy about it.” – Generic Scolder of Todays’ Youth

Every generation has them, people who swear up and down that the latest generation of children is softer than two-ply and is going to ruin us all.

Anyone of you remembers when you came home with a leather jacket, motorcycle boots and a gallon of oil in your hair? You might have just come from the sock hop where Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley records had been spinning on the turntable. Your parents thought that you were out of your mind and would lead this country to destruction. They were the children of the Greatest Generation, and they turned out okay years later.

Vaunted were those Rock N Roll kids in decades to come, but their children, the Baby Boomers, now there you had some real problems. Doves and Hawks. Dropouts and conformists. It looked like things were all going to come to a crashing halt in the late 1960s as some of you remember. Your parents thought some of you were less than groovy.

Roaring up a few more years, my peers, the generation of X, loafed through the door wearing flannels and holey jeans, listening to Hip Hop and piercing and tattooing much of our flesh. There are exceptions to every rule, in every generation, but my parents thought for sure I was destined to surf their couch for the rest of their lives, but I left…after a while.

Though the term Generation Y is almost never uttered, you know who they are (you might have heard them referred to as Millennials.) They are blamed for everything from political correctness to the cell phone craze (while all the generations complain about them while also on their cell phones.)

Happy were the days before the Millennials, am I right? The world was a better place before them so we need to make this country great again and it starts with not agreeing with anything these freeloaders believe in, ever.

Problem is, millennials aren’t the ones eating Tide pods and tattooing their faces. The Millennials can be dealt with (just give them the latest iPhone) but kids these days, there is no hope. Generation Z? Those are the ones to keep your eye on. They will certainly sink us all.

Every generation has someone they talk down to.

Every generation has role models they look up to and laugh at.

Don’t we owe it to each other to try to understand instead of ostracizing all the time?

Yesterday, a friend of mine was ecstatic because he was able to convince a few kids not to give up on life and encourage to fly the straight and narrow. He told them that one or two bad decisions do not dictate who you are forever if you correct those wrongs. Let’s continue to teach those younger than us and remember that those older than us weren’t always perfect, allow this generation to make their mistakes and be there to help pick them up and dust them off like the others have done for us.

Thanks for reading, and Aloha.