Actually, I’m a little envious of the Millennials and Gen Z generations as a Babyboomer.
Because I see them as mostly doing things RIGHT! The way our parents used to try to teach us to do. Almost harkening back to the way it was done by our folks who experienced long and happy marriages and wonderful lives. I think for some of us Babyboomers and Gen Xers, it took awhile to get over ourselves and realize our folks weren’t so far off the mark, because we were trying too hard to be rebellious or different.
A New Kind of Sexual Revolution
I’m not for everything they are doing. As I’ve seen more PC attitudes about moving past extreme fetish boundaries, some of which I believe could leave them scarred years down the line, from seeing the people my age that ended up that way. For instance, this carefree attitude over women being degraded for the sexual satisfaction of men made popular to silly housewives and office workers by the book, Sixty Shades of Grey, which suddenly forced some rather vanilla types to rethink BDSM and try it and in some cases feel disgusted by it. Or the idea that men pass their wives around as “hot-wives” and if women don’t like it, men should cheat instead of seeking sexual turn ons that both parties long to do.
To me, this has some rather sexist connotations of making women feel like they are sexual chattel more than admired partners, deserving of sexual happiness and the same sexual play decisions as their male partners. Because these days, as you can see on dating shows these days, it seems as if younger women base their importance based on men accepting them. And in many cases, woman’s sexual enjoyment appears to revolve around trying every silly fetish her boyfriend or husband deems to need, whether she’s comfortable with it or not.
It reminds me of our Babyboomer attempts at free love until we discovered AIDS and HIV. And our attempts to be free with our bodies until we realized that male egos didn’t always adjust to a woman’s right to be sexually free. And it may be human nature, but I’m still seeing many men who brag about convincing women to have anal penetration, or let them have threesomes; too wrapped up in their desires to understand their partner’s pain in trying to adjust to this, only to be called a “whore” by these supposedly permissive partners later, after they meet men who don’t buy into these mandates.
The Financial Revolution
However, I admire the fact that for the most part, when they marry it has been at a later age. And they seem to make a lifetime commitment, which is evidenced by divorce rates going down since 2008.
I’m also in awe over their sensibilities in handling their financial well being. Holding their credit use to a minimum and choosing to boost their savings instead. Purchasing common sense homes near urban centers instead of wandering to suburbia and spending money on overpriced HOA homes that look like modern reproductions of Venice with postage sized lots. Instead, they invest in modern condominiums within walking distance of heavy entertainment areas.
Conclusion
I’ve always thought my generation was one of more decadence than common sense. From things like credit worthiness, to waltzing through life in some type of noncommittal manner, so many things have left so many of my generation lonely in our senior years. Look in any senior center today, and you see both men and women who are desperately lonely. Often people who fouled up their lives and now feel they can’t fix things and have meaningful relationships.
I look at all of the hippies back in my day and compare them to the seriousness and career-building of today’s generations and it makes me proud to see what has changed.
Our younger generations have seemed to learn a great deal from the silliness of our generation - a generation that spent more time seeking fun than building a future.
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