Modern parents are really no better. I really try to find humour in it but these are human lives being messed up because of the way children are raised. The circus we went to was one example.
 
One thing that really gets to me is the way parents baby their kids these days. Now this IS a Millennial thing and I can't for the life of me figure it out.
 
When I was younger, we had two bus stops on my street. One in front of my house and one down the road a bit. We would all gather at a bus stop on occasion with no issues in the middle of winter. It wasn't exactly walking 2 miles up hill both ways in 4 feet of snow, but it could get damn cold outside. We would simply put on another layer and go.
 
Now days when I travel up the mountain in the morning, no joke... the bus stops about every 30 feet to pick up the kids! Also, those kids are sitting in SUVs and not even waiting at the road for the bus so it takes them another minute in a half to wait for the bus to stop, get out of the car and get on the bus. There is nothing that makes me more road ragey at 8am that having to follow those buses. I don't get why the kids don't all gather in one or two spots like we use to and wait. It backs up traffic for sometimes a mile because it's a two lane road with no passing.

eph221
Ace of Base are white supremacists....I heard.

I actually had to Google that. Wouldn't have been the first time something from my childhood turned out to be something unexpected. Luckily, looks like it had to do with one person and that person in question (and his other band) had nothing to do with the songs they are talking about so I can continue whistling those annoying songs around my wife when I want to get a rise out of her. ;)
 
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost...ations-_n_3161454.html

Yeah when people have a go at Millennials I don't think they're blaming them for who they are. It's not as if Millennials as a generation got together and hatched a plot to be like they are. There are many reasons they are like they are, and many reasons why they're different from previous generations.

One of those reasons is social media. Millennials (the younger ones anyway) are the first generation who went through the important adolescent development of their minds in an environment saturated with Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and the like. I don't think it's a stretch to speculate that the extremely inflated narcissism we see in kids today is a consequence of the attention seeking culture of social media. It's also given them ridiculously deluded expectations of life, because of the proximity to the daily lives of their favorite celebrities that social media has allowed. Complicated issues are debated by way of shallow slogans and memes and opinions are influenced by a mass, self reinforcing kind of common stupidity.

That's before you get into the culture of bullying, harassment and mockery which was always part of adolescent life to some degree but which has been amplified 1000 fold by social media. When social interaction happens through screens in partial or complete anonymity, the gloves are off. Kids are becoming more cruel and less empathatic than ever because they don't have to deal with the real world consequences of being nasty to someone online. Not only that but because of the whole meme and slogan driven culture of "social justice" which is pumped out by trendy sites like Buzzfeed, these same kids feel like they're on some higher plane of morality. Funny isn't it, despite bullying each other to the point of suicide online they see themselves as being morally superior to previous generations because they retweet fashionable slogans and take fashionable stances on popular social issues.

TerraSin
Modern parents are really no better. I really try to find humour in it but these are human lives being messed up because of the way children are raised. The circus we went to was one example.
 
One thing that really gets to me is the way parents baby their kids these days. Now this IS a Millennial thing and I can't for the life of me figure it out.
 
When I was younger, we had two bus stops on my street. One in front of my house and one down the road a bit. We would all gather at a bus stop on occasion with no issues in the middle of winter. It wasn't exactly walking 2 miles up hill both ways in 4 feet of snow, but it could get damn cold outside. We would simply put on another layer and go.
 
Now days when I travel up the mountain in the morning, no joke... the bus stops about every 30 feet to pick up the kids! Also, those kids are sitting in SUVs and not even waiting at the road for the bus so it takes them another minute in a half to wait for the bus to stop, get out of the car and get on the bus. There is nothing that makes me more road ragey at 8am that having to follow those buses. I don't get why the kids don't all gather in one or two spots like we use to and wait. It backs up traffic for sometimes a mile because it's a two lane road with no passing.

+1
 
I think it's because a lot of (modern) parents go to an extreme in trying to "protect" their children from anything that's difficult or tough and end up practically raising little "Nancies" (IMO). I think it's a huge disservice to the present & future of these children as everything/everyone will be focused on "not hurting anyone's feelings".
 
Tough love is a very valuable lesson we all learnt. I played a lot of sports in school, got tons of injuries (every year), but it was never a big deal (unless it was surgery). In teaching my little ones to ride a bicycle, I told them it's perfectly ok if you fall and happen to scratch yourself.....just have to get back up on it and try again (BTW, I also don't believe in this helmet thing for children on bicycles......they've learned much quicker to keep their balance without it than with it). My little ones get cuts/bruises all the time, but that's all part of growing up....no need to make too much of it nor take it too lightly either (common sense).
 
It seems, a lot of people have an expectation of things to be perfect without wanting to put the work into getting there. If we as parents don't correct our little ones at home, it's definitely unreasonable to expect them to behave well outside of the home. 
 
 

I know one thing for certain. I am ever thankful that there was no internet and no cellphones before I was well into my 30s. I remember being a teen. I remember being a 20something and I KNOW how much better life was because I/we could go out and party or go camping in the country with no chance at all of someone calling when I was in no condition to talk, or when I was. There was little chance of my parents being more involved in my personal life past what I allowed them to know (unless I came home smelling like a Marlboro).
I am thankful for that solitude... for that personal space, and no Walkman or any other personal music device. When you walked somewhere you heard the sounds around you and you thought about things.
It seems like there is always two sides to progress.
J

MeshI think it's because a lot of (modern) parents go to an extreme in trying to "protect" their children from anything that's difficult or tough and end up practically raising little "Nancies" (IMO). I think it's a huge disservice to the present & future of these children as everything/everyone will be focused on "not hurting anyone's feelings".

I admit, I've caught myself helicoptering a bit. More-so than my wife.
 
My big trigger is ticks. I hate them with a deep dark passion and they scare the crap out of me having seen my mother go through Lyme and the residual effects of it she goes through now even 20+ years later.

jbow
I know one thing for certain. I am ever thankful that there was no internet and no cellphones before I was well into my 30s. I remember being a teen. I remember being a 20something and I KNOW how much better life was because I/we could go out and party or go camping in the country with no chance at all of someone calling when I was in no condition to talk, or when I was. There was little chance of my parents being more involved in my personal life past what I allowed them to know (unless I came home smelling like a Marlboro).
I am thankful for that solitude... for that personal space, and no Walkman or any other personal music device. When you walked somewhere you heard the sounds around you and you thought about things.
It seems like there is always two sides to progress.
J

 
Ditto.
 
In the mid 90's, my roommate and I worked in a little bar which, for a while, doubled as an "internet café". Neither of us cared for computers, but this internet thing got us worried. We were appalled to see people getting sucked into that vortex - some were spending hours in chat rooms! We really felt like they were being enslaved.
 
I stayed away from computers until I found out that they could be used to record audio...
 
Looking back, I'm glad that I had the opportunity to spend the first 20-some years of my life in a world that was internet and cell phone free, with a single phone in the house for the whole family. 
 
In fact, even though I do own a cell phone, I rarely have it with me. It's usually on a desk downstairs or such. I can't seem to get used to carrying this thing everywhere. If people can't figure out that they can try to call back later or leave a message, I'm not sure I want to talk to them...
 
 
 
 

When I was 10 years old I wanted a bike. My father bought me a shoesine box. I saved up $47 dollars in 3 months and bought my stingray. It was a great feeling walking into that bike store with my mom and paying with my own hard earned money. when I got a little older I got a paper route. Working seemed to be a natural thing to do. The funny part is I bought so many things for my bike. Generator Head and tail light, sissy bar(can I say that now?) You name it I bought it. My bike got too heavy to ride and I had to remove a bunch of it. I will admit I kind of spoiled my kids. ToysRus almost every weekend. I should have taken stock in ToysRus. The one thing I taught them is to take care of their things and they did. 20 years later they still have most of their toys in storage. My son Michael just gave away all of his Nurf guns ammo and accessories to a young kid. My boys are finding needy kids and giving them the toys all in perfectly good working condition. Believe me I spent thousands on toys over the years. I really enjoyed it though. I taught my boys good work ethics and good values. I will say even though they are pretty well adjusted they still have some of that millennial mentality. I know for a fact that they got it in school. Especially collage. Kids today are being dumbed down. 

Collage,excellent metaphor.  Mine was more trump l'oeil (sic(k))

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