It’s not easy being a parent. It’s uneasier being a parent of millennials.
Like someone has said – We’re the only generation that has to listen to its parents and to its children. Which means that we get it from both sides.
Our parents expected (and got) unquestioning obedience from us. But our children get away with doing the unexpected. The only thing that we can expect of them in place of obedience is rolled eyes and shrugged shoulders.
We have no tales of hardship or deprivation from our past; to tell our children and batter them emotionally. Our kids don’t have to hear any ‘when-I-was-your-age-I-used-to…accounts from us. As for the present, we’re tech savvy enough to enjoy the pleasures of online shopping, Netflix and social media networking. Which means we have to look for other ways of sending them on guilt trips.
Given the in-your-face ‘I’m single and lovin’ it’ attitude of many millennials, we may not have the satisfaction of passing on our hard-won wisdom of coping with marriage, in-laws and relatives. We can’t feel smug and tell our kids how we overcame all obstacles, about the numerous compromises we made and how they can learn from our experiences. These millennials are too busy charting their own course.
And finally, we have been deprived of the ultimate revenge that all parents dream of having, the biggest threat of them all, the Just Wait Till You Have Children Of Your Own clincher to every argument. How can we say this to a cheerfully childless by choice millennial? They’ll just laugh in our faces. Because they know the’re having the last laugh. And that, for me, is the unkindest cut of all. Not only are we going to be deprived of grand kids we can spoil rotten,who in turn would trouble their parents no end; we have to go on listening to our parents, who,along with our millennial offspring, continue to tell us how to lead our lives.
Well, I’ve decided. When I’m older, I’ll live by myself, do exactly as I please and not take any calls. Ha.That’ll show them.
butterfliesonmymindblog 