Are you happy with the generation that you were born into? Do you like and identify with your generation (e.g. boomer, Gen X, millennial etc)?.

[PutitDownandReadaBook]

I was born in the late 70’s , so I was on the tail end of Gen X. I completely identify with my generation, not just the things that many of us enjoyed at the time (ravesbritpop etc), but also I have heard us called the Peter Pan generation who never grew up. I really identify with that. I’m late 40’s and I have missed many of the milestones that most adults would have achieved by my age. Luckily there are lots of people around me, my age, who are the same age.

I think I would have been happy if I was born a generation earlier and was a boomer. They had a freedom that generations before them didn’t, and they had rock and roll. I also like the principles of the millennials, although I don’t think I would have fit into that generation very well.

what do you think about your generation? Would you have preferred to be part of a later or earlier generation? I’m happy that I was gen x ….but sometimes I really wish that I had the wisdom of the millennial generation, who seemed to know more about life than their age.

I hope this question doesn’t come across like stereotyping people. I’m just fascinated by how the times influenced people.

I'm Gen X and I think I do identify as one - although I've never heard us called the Peter Pan generation? I left home straight after uni and had kids in my early 30s.

My parents both worked full time but childcare hadn't really caught up with the new demand so I was a latchkey kid at an age that would be frowned upon now. Got my first mobile phone in my 20s. Benefited from no uni fees and some of the rise in house prices (bought my first home in 2002) but not the generous final salary pension schemes. I experienced some sexism at work but definitely not as bad as in previous generations.

Because we were encouraged to read books. Imagine that! That’s why we can spell. Teachers weren’t figures of fun to have the piss taken out of. The kids had respect. Manners. Knew their place. Parenting was proper parenting. Now it’s all go where you want, do what you want and fuck everyone else. Look at the state of society. Look around you

I was born in 1979, which makes me late Gen X but on the cusp of Millenial. A lot of my family history and life choices meant I don't have that much in common with others my age, so although I was influenced by the social circumstances around me, it didn't have as much impact as my individual choices. E.g. I was a teenage parent and was allocated council housing in London, so I didn't have the same worries about getting on the housing ladder as my peers, and I was able to work pt or be a sahm through my 20s and 30s. And I took a high risk approach to investing in my 30s, which paid off and has brought financial independence, being able to buy a house outright and a strong pension. I had more dcs in my 30s, and I'm a sahm now, which is virtually unheard of amongst the parents at their prep school.

No, the difference between Gen X and millennials is that Gen X benefitted from free university, low property prices and easily available 100% mortgages, a better job market with higher wages compared to the cost of living.

It’s much easier to “just get on with it” in those circumstances.

We've had it a tad harder than my parents, eg we bought a family sized home much later than they did, with a much bigger mortgage.

Our kids and all millennials/Gen Z/Alpha will have it infinitely harder. And no amount of 'just work harder' or 'just save up and don't buy any luxuries' is going to solve that. Never mind houses, downright financial solvency is going to pretty tough for younger generations to achieve at this rate

Because we were encouraged to read books. Imagine that! That’s why we can spell. Teachers weren’t figures of fun to have the piss taken out of. The kids had respect. Manners. Knew their place. Parenting was proper parenting. Now it’s all go where you want, do what you want and fuck everyone else. Look at the state of society. Look around you

@Cattery I just think this shows a very narrow mindset which wouldn't be a market of a good education imo...

marker

Very happy to be gen x. I think we were the last if the generation to actually be able to buy a house and we just clipped a free uni education. We were also buying houses when interest rates were rock bottom so I thinks a lot of us got ahead financially quite well. We can also speak confidently on the phone and to strangers. I envy millennials ability to navigate technology but I am bloody glad I got to go to proper lock ins with no smart phones.

I quite like the "Xennial" descriptor. I was born very much on the cusp of the generation change and the "Millennial" descriptors don't ring true at all.

My birth order in the family, older parents and a long memory mean my childhood was much more Gen X. I mainly have Gen X friends. I was an adult in the 20th Century, got my first phone "early" at 17 (I was pissed off at that, as it was purely for DM's convenience. The feature it had was that it could hold 8 SMS messages). I didn't live with the internet until 22 and prior to that it was using it through university computer suites or internet cafés. I was in to my 30s before having a smart phone (I had a couple of Blackberry style which were more limited in function).

They are generational trends. There will always be winners and losers.
Culturally and financially the split between Gen X and Millenial feels like it's in the wrong place. The way modern life has changed and the pace of that change, I feel like I have more in common with people 10-15 years older than 10-15 years younger, certainly in terms of cultural references and younger life experiences.

Yes.

See the post by @WaryCrow above yours for an insight into the ageist crap some people post about a huge range of people of different backgrounds and experiences just because they are "boomers"

Generally yes. I'm a Xennial but identify much more with Gen X than Millennial. I'm glad I grew up without much tech, mobiles or social media. If I could choose, I'd choose to be born earlier rather than later.

A narrow mindset? In what way? Because we knew how to behave?

I'd bloody love to be 20 years younger at the moment 🤣

Ooh I want to piggy back on this comment because I'm two years younger than @PoppyBaxter (1986 baby!) and got to see all of this collapse around me when I graduated into a recession in 2008. I remember watching KPMG and the like recruiting outside lectures in 05 - 07, only for many of my friends to lose their grad jobs altogether when grad schemes were cancelled. My sliding doors moment was I was supposed to go and work for Lehman Brothers!

Watching thousands of people die on tv as a teenager, graduating into the Great Recession and having babies during COVID was rubbish. However, I do appreciate that I got low tuition fees, had a smart-phone free childhood, but had a Nokia 3330 in my teens and got to go on the internet when it was still dial-up. I also got lucky and managed to buy a garden flat with a 3% interest rate and enough room to cram in 2 kids and 2 dogs.

I find the discourse fascinating; partly because we are all shaped by our environment, including the time in which we grew up and so these stereotypes have not come from thin air.On the other hand, the media obsession with generations as a marker of identification is a bit extreme. It almost feels like generation markers are the new horoscopes.

I was born in 1979, which puts me at the end of Gen X. I was born to older parents and have siblings 10+ years older than me so I feel I was very much brought up as a Gen X-er, whereas many of my close friends born in the same year, or 1-2 years before often say that they feel much closer to the stereotypical traits of Millenials. I guess that makes me a sold Xennial. I was a latch-key kid, heavily into grunge and have always retained a fairly cynical and pessimistic outlook on the world. There was no technology at home while I was growing up – some schoolfriends with younger parents definitely had computers, and even dial-up internet, from the mid-late 90s. I went to uni in 1997, in the last cohort to receive a maintenance grant (£200 per term).My first ever vote was for New Labour and I entered the workforce at the start of the millennium, actually feeling quite positive about the future, and then 911 happened and it seemed that the world changed. My first graduate job was lost to recession and I floundered for a bit before managing to build a career in another area.

My siblings, on the cusp of boomer and gen x, have both retired in their 50s with fat pensions. I’m 46 and until recently, used to say that I expected to work until 70. Now that fear has been taken over by a more realistic fear that I’ll end up out of work in my 50s and living in poverty due to the AI takeover.

Xennial here (1979). My sister 4 years older is like a boomer, just got on the property ladder earlier. It's all timing and no merit.

For me - negative equity was a hard pill to swallow. I think the economy has got progressively more difficult since 2008.

Most def not a Peter Pan person here, two properties, married and divorced, 2 children and one bereaved parent by the time I was 33. I didnt travel the world or reinvent myself every 5 years, several of my school friends did and they are now living back with their parent with 1 child each.

Even though it is so difficult for the under 35s (ish) now, the benefits they have are more social conscience, more access to a diverse education and a better understanding of psychology and more access and acceptance of therapy.

They will also in time inherit, and as families are getting smaller, any inheritance is shared among a smaller number of siblings. The boomers unmerited (extreme) wealth will trickle down to them in time.

I think the thing about inheritance is interesting. Some will and some won’t. My boomer mother had hundreds of thousands of pounds and left it all to the church and a neighbour.

so there could be quite a divide between those who inherit and those who don’t. Which may always have been the case but in the past even if you didn’t inherit a person may still ultimately have found it easier to buy a house, etc than now.

I'm a millennial and I definitely fit the stereotype of being over educated, under employed, found it incredibly difficult to buy a house, and cannot afford children.

I agree.

In the future the resentment may move away from "boomers" (especially as they start dying off) and move towards those who have inherited wealth against those who haven't.

Another interesting angle is inheritance skipping generations. So my father in his 80s has given money to his grandchildren that could be used as a deposit for a property & I think that is becoming more common now young people in their 20s are struggling so much to buy their first property.

I agree. I'm Gen X and didn't even know until recent years - I just thought it was a cool band but had no idea where their name had come from!

Some of the hate and divide is truly awful and we definitely never had so much generational division before social media.

I think it could also be a positive. I read a really good document years ago called Mind The Gap. It’s based on the nhs and how staff from different generations may have different requirements. Yes it’s generalised stuff.

But giving an older manager the understanding that if a younger member of staff is on their phone in a training session it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not paying attention. That younger generations have less company loyalty and will work away if they don’t feel valued or fulfilled compared to boomers and gen x.

it helped me have a different perspective and think about giving newer and junior members of staff more opportunities and more responsibility if we wanted to keep them.

My inlaws will leave my husband nothing. And that's fine I guess. We've sorted ourselves out and don't need or want anything. But I have to say I find it pitiful, considering the lives they've led.

My FIL was very senior in the tech world in the 80s. Earned a very high salary. My MIL is from a very affluent background and was a part time social worker. They lived in a lovely big house in an affluent town.

My MIL is a spending addict and has got into life-changing levels of debt over and over and over again. They sold the family home to pay off her debts. She's also used up every penny of theirs, plus inheritance from all 4 grandparents, plus selling off every object and heirloom which she possibly could, to pay off debt. On top of that, my inlaws only seem capable of making dire financial decisions.

They've not helped their kids with a penny, are painfully tight with christmas and birthdays (we've asked to stop doing gifts, but they're too materialistic to not receive) and are now talking about using equity release to pay off yet more debts and buy a downsize property.

Other 'kids' from the same area and cohort as DH will be inheriting millions.

Gen X.

I think the main advantage I’ve had (and I realise this won’t be the same for everyone.) has been bringing up the kids and especially dealing with their antics. Can’t hide anything because I know all the signs!! Plus, I think you also know what’s “right of passage” and when to put the foot down.

Also, wear what you want, identify as you please I couldn’t give a shit, just don’t behave like a cunt.

But I love that our kids seem to love our music! Because I always knew it was the best 🤣

In the future the resentment may move away from "boomers" (especially as they start dying off) and move towards those who have inherited wealth against those who haven't.

That's true. Although I think inheritances will reduce, there will be a glut of expensive homes on the market so prices will likely come down as there won't be enough people to buy them. Plus increased health & care costs. I also think more taxes are coming are way in a variety of forms.

I was born in 1982, so either an elder millenial or xennial depending on your source!

I don't really identify with Millenial as a generation, I feel much more aligned to Gen X, but this might be because I'm a) the eldest child of (boomer) parents, and b) settled down fairly young so had my children in my 20s, 2009 and 2011. My sister is 2 years younger, and her son is ten years younger than my youngest, and her and her partner bought their home ten years after I did.

Quick question for those who are arsed - is it really relevant to talk about 'ageism' in a thread that is, at it's core, about stereotypes? And if it is, why is it only when it's aimed at older people do people seem to care?