Darn those young whippersnappers

It’s all your fault, you know.

My generation – the Millennials, Generation Y, or whatever new term you’ve come up with those born in the 80s and 90s -- we’re like this because of you.

While its universal for older folks to have a sort of distaste for the new, youngest generation, I blame the Baby Boomers for the Millennials’ definite lack of maturity. The Boomers grew up with parents who weren’t cuddly or close. Kids were told to go outside and play and not to come back until after dark. “Yeah, son, that rusty hand saw looks like a perfectly fun toy, take it with you when you leave.”

As result, the entire generation vowed not to be like their parents. The Baby Boomers raised the Millennials completely differently. They coddle – and we’re a nightmare because of it. Parents “helped” kids with every school project and secured a victory for their child in every battle. The now teenagers and young adults in the following generation learned they are not good enough or strong enough to make it without help from Mom or Dad because of this behavior. But don’t worry, us Millennials don’t have low self-esteem. You’ve told us all our lives how awesome, beautiful and special we are. We just can’t do anything by ourselves. We’re spoiled and we don’t know how to fight for ourselves.

Then, as the kids grew up, went to college and began an adult life, the Baby Boomers decided to help their children pay for rent, gas, a cell phone, college, or whatever else they needed. They didn’t want their children to go through the same financial hardships and tough rice-and-bean years they did.

What the entire Boomer generation seems to forget is that those hardships, the experiences of fighting for oneself and for ones place in life is exactly what turned them into the tough-minded, hard-working people they are today – something they don’t realize they are robbing from their children.

So what’s going to happen when the Boomers die off and the Millennials actually have to stand on their own two feet alone for once. I wonder if our muscles are even strong enough.