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Post Written By Rick Doyle

Generation X, Y and T Who We Are Raising

I will confess that the Generation X, Y and T definitions are according to my research nearly impossible to define by birth years. Who we are raising, our perceptions of what generation they belong to or in is defined by what articles and books you read.  Twenty different books will give you twenty different timelines and definitions of whom or what a generation X is versus a generation Y and a generation T.  For arguments sake let’s use the following as a guide that is more my accumulated opinion since I can’t seem to find a concrete majority agrees guide to use.

Baby Boomers those born after WWII call it 1950 to 1961

Generation X those born 1961 to 1981

Generation Y those born 1981 to 2000

Generation T those born 2000 to current

Of course there are exceptions to everything and everyone. Different circumstances, older parents, raised in the city versus the country, East coast, Midwest, West coast, North, South all these factors can swing the feelings of belonging to one generation or another by at least 5 years. The above guide is just a base to generally discuss what I’ve observed since I was a 1960 baby. Been there, done that, and yes I’ve got the T-shirts and buttons to prove it although my memory is getting a little fuzzier now.

My wife and I are in our 40s so are a little older as far as parenting goes.  Things were so much different when we were growing up and there were vast differences between growing up in the city as compared to being raised in the country.  When we were growing up the majority of kids, both city and country had jobs or chores and the general attitude was that children should be seen and not heard.  The children revolved around and adapted to their parents world and schedules, not the other way around.  They usually got a small allowance and since video games, PC’s and 150 channels weren’t on the black and white TV if you even had one playtime was spend outdoors.  The country kids worked in the fields in the summer on farms, took care of live stock and worked part time jobs from around 10 to 18 years of age in the summers. Both city and country kids usually did many different odd jobs and were also expected to do their homework without the assistance of a calculator or computer, not use profanity, mind their manners, dress decently and not get pregnant (or get someone pregnant) out of wedlock.  They were always looking for a part time job to make extra money such as babysitting, washing cars, bussing tables, shoveling snow, stacking wood, cutting grass or raking leaves.  School sports were played once a week and we had practice, a lot of fun and our responsibilities helped us develop a sense of belonging, team spirit, competition, pride, work ethic, self-worth, self-esteem, achievement, a sense of community, fair play and good sportsmanship.  Our parents taught us all the difference between right and wrong, to honor our country, our elders, policemen, firemen, astronauts, doctors and even lawyers were respected.  Lying, stealing and hurting others wasn’t tolerated and if children were rude, arrogant or selfish they got a spanking.

The draft was still around when I turned 18 so I had to sign up for selective service but the draft ended soon after my 18^th birthday.  People served their country by choice, went to college, got married, conceal and carry or CCW permits had yet to be created since the need was not as pronounced as it is today.  My parents and I were only a few miles away from the race riots and anxiously waited it out.  At the same time my wife as a young girl in pigtails was tucked away in the country, milking cows and feeding lambs, virtually unaware of the turmoil and chaos going on a mere 50 miles away in the city.  Today, race still seems to be a problem with street gangs thriving and prolific while illegal aliens are now numbered in the tens of millions. 

Awards were given and individuals were honored for achievements while One Nation Under God, The Pledge of Allegiance, The Ten Commandments as well as Santa Claus were perfectly acceptable to display or talk about. Text books weren’t censored for words that might offend beyond profanity and teachers and classes were about learning and practical application.  The president was respected, with good reason.  America carried a big stick and people bought American because it was the best.  Taxes weren’t raised to supplement the lazy and people were a lot tougher.  You went to the doctor for your shots or because a limb was hanging at a right angle where there wasn’t supposed to be a right angle.  We didn’t keep our loved ones on life support for decades with zero quality of life and bankrupt ourselves for people who were brain dead.  DNR was used more wisely and was more accepted.  We did not sue people over coffee that’s too hot and socialism was called communism.  People made their fortunes or families worked businesses from the ground up and we did NOT feel or ever consider leveling the playing field through “wealth redistribution”; dictators and the Mafia did that.  We were hard working Americans with self respect, self-esteem, pride, team spirit and a work ethic that said we don’t want a hand out and those who needed a hand up wanted to work it off.  Through the depression, the dust bowl, wars (WWI, WWII, Korea), even pandemics, but we as a nation pulled our weight, sacrificed, worked hard and paid our debts.  No one was OWED anything.  No one was given a gold star for simply being or told you can’t win because it will make someone else feel bad.  No one expected the system to bail out anything or anyone.  Children had to learn the value of a dollar and treats were TREATS.  There were no entitlements to allowances, gross over eating, expensive clothing and gadgets and they weren’t constantly demanding buy me, give me.  Does any of this sound like generation T might be getting a little soft or working on a good case of useless, fat and lazy?

Let’s go back and look at generation X and Y compared to the Baby Boomers who were the last of the real Americans who were raised to work hard and with a code of ethics as well as common courtesy.  To some degree they were also the last group that had to serve in the military.  They wouldn’t quite get the whole technology thing and would partially grasp what “new economy” meant as they worked to save, put their kids through college.  Everything from divorce, teen pregnancy, abortion, free love, swinging, hard drug usage, questioning authority, rock ‘n’ roll, communes, ban the bra, N.O.W., gay rights and a cultural evolution would sweep the US and the world in a decade that would forever change how we raise our children.  We would see societal leveraging of debt and shame, an unwarranted sense of guilt that would lead us to spoiling the future generations with an attitude of ‘our parents were too hard on us, we want our kids to have an easier life than we had, go be kids, you don’t have to work to excel and people need to accept you just the way you are’. The pacification on diminished values and ethics that were only 20 to 30 years earlier the overwhelming norm were about to become a minority opinion.  They are being replaced with a hostile aggression for illogical, impractical, irrational, unachievable fantasy with a side order of recession, depression and economic disaster of the world in cataclysmic proportions.  If nobody is working or doing the ugly jobs, no one can support themselves and no one even has the drive or discipline to try what will generation T be like in 10 years?  Most will be wiped out.  The planet does have a way of eliminating the weak.  Centuries ago it took decades to slide into changes and societies that crumbled took hundreds of years to decline, evolve or de-evolve.  The faster the rise, the higher the rise the faster they fall.  Take that with a child who gets everything handed to them and no sense of drive, ambition or responsibility and you have the makings for starvation, chaos and complete self destruction due to an inability or capability to thrive or engage as a group, individual or country.  There appears to be so many splinters and “special” interests that self-sacrifice, negotiation and communal well being outside of those interests not only initiate or follow through but a sense of “you owe us” has risen to a level of automatic incapacity.  Basically whatever you practice, you become good at.  I’m not saying that there are no good children out there or that a few aren’t still responsible or reliable but single digit percentages are not going to turn the country, our work force or our world around when nobody follows or leads.

By the way the term Generation T has been coined to mean, “The Millennials are sometimes called the “Trophy Generation” or “Trophy Kids,” a term that reflects the trend in competitive sports, as well as many other aspects of life, where no one loses and everyone gets a ‘Thanks for Participating’ trophy, symbolizing a perceived sense of entitlement (Wikipedia). While this is supposed to be the Y Generation or even moving into the Z Generation my concern is that looking around to find a kid to do any odd jobs and with a country on the ropes with a 10% plus unemployment for adults.  These kids are being set up to live a short, meaningless existence dependent on useless printed money and will be subject to a drastic reality where you can’t nag the world about global warming and play video games 22 hours a day. Somebody has to work, make electricity, build infrastructure, grow food, fix homes, provide water and plumbing and about a million other jobs they don’t want to do or recognize a need to be done. Any change you want COSTS.  In the long run the big question is how do we get the lazy train to nowhere turned around?  I wish I knew. What I do know is that my children are 4 years old and have been taught to say please, thank you, you’re welcome and excuse me.  They clear their dishes, put their dirty clothes in the hamper each night and tell us they love us at bed time.  They will have chores and will work part time when they get older and they love and respect their grandparents.  I hope they will have a country to serve some day if they so choose unless someone has handed it over in bankruptcy to China.  We will teach our kids to be competitive and to also play with good sportsmanship and teamwork.  We will teach them boundaries, limits, respect and a sense of fair play.  I hope raising my kids will be about the values America was built on not the values it has surrendered to the ACLU or the other groups that want to destroy American traditions and beliefs in the hopes of appeasing a minority.  I am tired of fitting America to a few people rather than a few people learning to fit into America. I am all for progress and for technology and making a better world, I am not seeing the next generation as DOING anything accept bleeding the last bit of credit, life and history out of what was once the greatest, most generous country on the planet in history.  What happened?  Don’t get me wrong, there is a little bit of good in the worst of us and a little bit of bad in the best of us.  We just seem to be getting further and further away from the good and we appear to be allowing the next Generation T or Z to slide into useless mediocrity.  Your comments, experiences and stories are welcome.