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Ok, Boomer

207 replies

chomalungma · 23/11/2019 23:06

I have had to repeatedly tell DS that I am not a boomer. His Grandad is though.

I am with him though. He went through a whole litany of the issues facing his generation and what the older generation have benefited from.

He seems to have got some of the memes from 'Insta'.

Anyone else got a child who uses this phrase?

OP posts:
user6289264 · 24/11/2019 11:09

I think ok boomer is used by people who can't come up with an argument but want to feel like they've won. Although they should learn what a boomer is first Grin

RolytheRhino · 24/11/2019 11:10

@user6289264 scroll up to doublebarrellednurse's post for the age brackets.

doublebarrellednurse · 24/11/2019 11:11

@user6289264 there is a post below explaining the different generations

doublebarrellednurse · 24/11/2019 11:16

I love Iliza for coining the phrase elder millennial

I am 1982 so depending on what you read Gen X or Millennial. I turned 18 on the millennium so it resonates with me.

I don't take the boomer thing too seriously. I understand frustration and blowing off steam on both sides, let everyone get on with it, I see more banter when it's used on my feed, maybe I'm reading the wrong, or right maybe, things.

user6289264 · 24/11/2019 11:16

Thank you! Although why x? And surely people don't consider someone born in 1981 a millennial?! More like 1990-1999/2000!

user6289264 · 24/11/2019 11:17

My other half was born in 84 and would scoff at the idea of being a millennial

doritosdip · 24/11/2019 11:19

I've had to tell my teens that I'm Gen X and not a boomer.

It's a reaction to the bollocks like if millennials didn't go to Starbucks/have an iPhone/eat avocado toast then they'd have a house.

It's teasing for when us adults go into the "when I was your age " mode

Ok, Boomer
ClaraThePigeon · 24/11/2019 11:20

And surely people don't consider someone born in 1981 a millennial?! More like 1990-1999/2000!

No, Millennials are generally considered to be born between 1981-1996.

doritosdip · 24/11/2019 11:24

Think we need one on here for when someone can feed a family for a tenner a week or thinks that reading Harry Potter at age 2 is normal.

Heaviestdirtyestsoul · 24/11/2019 11:38

My eldest reply to most things (17) is 'ok boomer'. I want to strangulate the wee sod. DP is a boomer but I'm not- just asked him why he hasnt emptied the dishwasher like I asked him to last night, he argued that I dont clean his room for him like I do for the two other children (7 & 8) so why should he sort my pots out! I pointed out the pots were everybody's and he eats too- got an 'ok boomer ' and an eye roll and 17 year old disappeared off upstairs to listen to my chemical romance. Loudly. Would I be unreasonable to turn off the power to upstairs and refuse to pay his phone bill or cook meals for him? 🤣

JustAnotherPoster00 · 24/11/2019 11:43

definitely NBU Heaviest cheeky little bugger Grin

BerwickLad · 24/11/2019 11:53

Not unreasonable. Tell him you're giving him a taste of privileged boomer childhood. (My mum is a boomer and lived without electricity until she was 8 - dirt poor rural UK upbringing.)

user6289264 · 24/11/2019 11:56

@ClaraThePigeon admittedly I haven't asked anyone besides my OH (1984 and definitely not a millennial) but I cant imagine many actually consider anyone born before 1990 a millennial!
@Heaviestdirtyestsoul YANBU, he's basically an adult. I'd be furious by that entitled attitude. If he refuses to even empty the dishwasher not alone anything else he can get a job to pay his phone bill.

caravanette · 24/11/2019 12:01

7 yr old anxious about enough fuss made forvhis birthday. My response - when I was your age there was something called 'the workhouse ... ... there were certainly no parties in the workhorse. It seems, nobody can argue with that....

ClaraThePigeon · 24/11/2019 12:02

admittedly I haven't asked anyone besides my OH (1984 and definitely not a millennial) but I cant imagine many actually consider anyone born before 1990 a millennial!

Most do in my experience, I include myself in that.

Some of the reasons behind the definition are listed here. www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/

AutumnRose1 · 24/11/2019 12:02

@Heaviestdirtyestsoul

“ DP is a boomer but I'm not- just asked him why he hasnt emptied the dishwasher like I asked him to last night, he argued that I dont clean his room for him like I do for the two other children (7 & 8)”

Wait, wut? He wants to be treated like a child? What’s he even doing in your home?!

T0tallyFuckedUpFamily · 24/11/2019 12:06

Well let’s hope all the ‘boomers’ leave their money to homeless charities, instead of passing their dirty money onto the current generation. I’m sure they don’t want to take advantage of your unfair financial advantages and would like to help those in real need. 🤷‍♀️

BerwickLad · 24/11/2019 12:07

Actually in seriousness I do agree that a lot of the intergenerational slanging is distracting. The post war generation benefitted from an increase in housing standards (eg my mum in the post above), living standards, state provision and job security. But they did so because the people in charge at the time had been through a bloody world war and had to build things up from scratch again, literally in the case of many towns and cities. Not exactly a positive position really.

Plus as a pp pointed out they did hit many bumps along the way - even before Thatcher, there were years of inflation and spiralling interest rates in the UK - I mean, yes, in the town I live now a three bedroom house is 10x my wage, but is that really much different from paying 20% interest on your mortgage? In many cases the interest situation was worse because people had taken out mortgages based on much lower rates of interest and then suddenly got clobbered with higher repayments than they had thought they would.

This was also the generation that in many cases found itself suddenly unemployed and their work skills devalued in middle life with scant opportunity to retrain, while having dependent children to support.

The only thing they lucked out on was that those who had managed to hold onto their homes suddenly found they increased in value, but for the vast majority of them they had no control over this whatsoever.

Just as most people in most generations don't really have power, so it is with the boomers.

And as ever, it's the vested interests and corruption that we need to be looking at, in every generation, instead of turning on each other. No war but the class war!

FaFoutis · 24/11/2019 12:07

there were certainly no parties in the workhorse. It seems, nobody can argue with that
There were parties in the workhouse. Christmas ones.

My son says 'Ok boomer'. I'm glad his generation are aware of the generational inequalities.

FaFoutis · 24/11/2019 12:10

No war but the class war!
I agree with this, but if you define classes by wealth then it is a (partly) a class war.

Heaviestdirtyestsoul · 24/11/2019 12:20

@AutumnRose1 so sorry- utterly misleading post! DS is the one refusing to empty dishwasher- DP is currently decluttering the dining room and sorting the recycling. My fault, sorry!

AutumnRose1 · 24/11/2019 12:25

@Heaviestdirtyestsoul phew!

Re generations, I find it all a bit mad because everyone from 0-100 can legitimately sing this!

BerwickLad · 24/11/2019 12:26

For some, there were greater opportunities for asset/wealth accrual. By no means for all though. And what on earth is wrong with making the most of the hand you're dealt? It's not as though you have control over macro economic forces and political systems.

Even in the case of property, with the much derided boomer buy to let phenomenon, people forget that this came about in part because after numerous pension scandals 20 years ago there was a significant cohort who lost everything they had been putting aside into these plans for retirement. In some cases this was decades worth of contributions which they would never be able to make up during the normal course of a working life.

But with property prices going into orbit, damn right they're going to release funds from the family home and use them as a deposit elsewhere so that at least they can then eventually sell that asset to fund their retirement.

FaFoutis · 24/11/2019 12:30

Perhaps if they weren't so ignorant of the realities for younger people (and their own good luck) 'ok boomer' might not have turned into a thing.
'Boomer advice' is another phrase my son & his friends use - a response to this ignorance.

MrsFezziwig · 24/11/2019 12:33

All my (boomer) friends help their (adult) children quite considerably either financially or with their time in terms of childcare, home renovation etc., as they are aware of the imbalance in their respective financial situations (and because they love them and don’t want them to struggle). The parents don’t expect grovelling gratitude but I think if one of those children came back with the riposte “OK Boomer” they’d definitely be rethinking their position.