To which generation do you belong? | Pad Patter 01.21.23

When I think about the changes both in technology and society in general he saw before he died in 1982, my mind just can't fathom it all. His wife was born in 1902 and lived to be 90 so she saw even more. He also worked at Westinghouse so just think of the changes he saw there even before he retired in the 1960's.

Just think about the pioneers that came from both the Greatest generation and the Silent generation (along with a few Boomers like Jobs and Gates). I really am proud that I can say that I knew one of those pioneers from the Silent generation personally.

 

Well, peg me as a Boomer by date, in many ways not by lifestyle, nor philosophy, yet I do miss some of the "innocence" that I grew up with...not as a blanket statement, but it is true- there are so many mine fields for today's children to walk through. Don't feel "old" either!

 

Yep.
For example, I grew up really rural and my mom was an at home mom basically. She did have some jobs when I was really little that my dad watched us. Then she worked at a preschool and we went with her. In my elementary years, she occasionally helped on the farms. So, despite being a working mom for a time, it was literally across the driveway. I was never a latchkey kid.
Then again, I grew up rural enough that we only locked the doors at night, and that was sometimes.
I think that pre-internet and 24 hour news, experiences across the country were much different. Crack wasn't a thing in my world until about 1998-1999. My mom heard about Adam Walsh, but that was something that happened in big cities.
Then, the internet and 24 hour tv changed things. I look at how broad Elizabeth Smart's missing person case was, and then compare that to Gabby Pietito. Now that things can go viral, and most people are holding a computer and camera in their pocket, everything is everywhere. I doubt I would have heard anything about George Floyd in my childhood, but my kid knows about him. His childhood is very different from mine. And I know his is slightly different from his cousins who live in a bigger city. But my childhood was vastly different than my city cousins, because media was so much smaller.

Good things to contemplate.

 

My grandmother was also born in 1902... he passed in 1973 at the age of 74, she passed in 1984 at the age of 82... The things they saw over the years

 

I'm a boomer. My mom was very independent and worked a high paying job (for a woman back then) so I was a latchkey kid as both my parents worked, we lived on packaged and quick foods, neither parent were homebodies or cooked much. My mom was a terrible cook and never baked. Everything was store bought. We microwaved as much as we could, for convenience. We traveled a lot, around North America, from coast to coast and often jumped in the van and headed out for 2-4 weeks, eating at restaurants along the way. My life with the kids was very different, I was home more, focused on crafts, home cooking/baking and we didn't travel much until the later years.

 

This stuff fascinates me! I think we must be the exact same age because my college experience was the same, didn't have a computer or a cell phone, all Internet and work on the computer was done at a computer lab. I graduated college in 2004. I didn't get a cell phone until 2005 and was a late adopter of the smart phone (2011 maybe?). I have the exact same timeline and I often think of how much the world has changed in my 40 years. So much of how I experienced life as a kid is totally foreign to my kids, and even if I try to explain it I don't think they can really grasp it - although I'm sure that's true of most generations. For example when I tell them to turn off their TV show/ you tube video and they balk I'm like -dude you can PAUSE it and it will be waiting for you ANYTIME you want!!

 

I quoted this part for my own reference as I typed my reply.

• The Greatest Generation – born 1901-1924. ...
• The Silent Generation – born 1925-1945. ...
• The Baby Boomer Generation – born 1946-1964. ...
• Generation X – born 1965-1979. ...
• Millennials – born 1980-1994. ...
• Generation Z – born 1995-2012. ...
• Gen Alpha – born 2013 – 2025.

I'm in the middle of Gen X (1971) but I've never identified as a latchkey kid. My mom (b 1947) didn't start working outside our home until around the time I started high school. And then it was only part-time. So I had a key in high school, but wasn't alone regularly. It was a time of a lot of boxed food though. My mom was a good cook, but we also frequently had things like Hamburger Helper and Stovetop Stuffing. I grew up drinking Kool-Aid and kids' cereals and boxed snacks.

This is interesting. I never noticed before that my dad (b1943) is not a boomer, but a 'silent generation.' I don't pay much attention to these generation meanings; only in recent years, since this has become such a popular topic, have I finally remember my generation is called X. I think we are too complicated to categorize. Sure we can share things in common with a lot of people. But I don't think you know someone just based on which year they were born.

Also interesting that siblings can be born in different generations. My mom's mom had 5 kids: 1943, 1944, 1947, 1954, and 1955. Even in my own family, my sister, born in 1966, was almost a baby boomer. Well, she hasn't enjoyed computers like me and our younger brother.

My own kids are firmly in Gen Z by dates (2001, 2003, and 2006) but my oldest did a lot more analog stuff as a kid than my other two 'fully digital' kids.

 

My grandpa was born in 1900. I was thinking about him recently because I saw a post on social media detailing the things people who were born at the turn of the 20th century witnessed in their lifetime... two world wars, a pandemic, great depression, technological & scientific advancements, huge culture shifts..
I never knew him because he died in 1977 and I was born in 1982 - the generations in my family are large because my Dad was born when grandpa was 37 and I was born when my dad was 43.

 

As a fellow Gen X, I'm with you on a lot of what you said, especially this last sentence. I have such a huge curiosity regarding what is to come. It's a big motivator to me to live healthfully and long, so I can find out as much as possible. And it's also a favorite topic to read about, both fiction and nonfiction. I just finished a novel called New Earth by Ben Bova about a group of scientists who left our struggling earth behind 80 years prior to the setting of the book (cryonically frozen) to travel 8.6 million miles to explore a new very earth-like planet. It was interesting!

 

Another Boomer here with the following kids (I was a late starter in the kid department):
Millennials - one son
Generation Z - one son and one daughter

 

Baby Boomer and a latch key kit. My best friends mom was our after school mom. After home work, we were on our bikes and go go go. Having 6 bikes in her front yard was normal. When she rang the bell at 6 pm, it was time for everyone to go home.

 

Technically I'm GenX, but I identify as an Xennial! My oldest boys are GenZ and my youngest is Gen Alpha > I didn't know the term before this thread!

 

Born December 1964, I'm at the tail end of Baby Boomer, but have always felt more Gen X. I was christened January 1965, if that adds to my Gen X credentials.

Not a latchkey kid. My mother didn't go back to work until we were much older.

 

Generation X

 

I’m very much a millennial, born in 1986.
(And it fair to say I fit the characteristics)

 

Same! But I feel like I was raised more like Gen X.

 

OMGEEEEE yes ...I'm like imagine NOT being able to skip a commercial. Or actually having to BE AT home to get a phone call from the boy you like. GEESH!

 

My grandfather (my dad's dad) was born in the 1890s, too, and his wife in 1900...my dad was not born until 1939, so we just don't fit the categories well! LOL