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.

Not very happy no. I'm a baby boomer just about 1962. Everyone seems to hate them and blame them for everything. I'm not rich, I have a modest house and my whole career has been in the NHS.
I'm not right wing either.

I'm a millennial and I think Gen X had it better than us, but I'd hate to be Gen Z. I think they've got the worst deal on so many levels.

Solidly Gen X in every way.💪

I actually think that Gen X got a better deal than boomers too. Particularly if you are a women. Not saying that it was great, but things were starting to change.

The graph clearly shows a steady increase in literacy rates that includes an increase from the 1960s.

But you would know that with your amazing education, right?

But I haven't proved your point have I. I've told you that a very high percentage of older people are remainers (and left leaning, if that's relevant). It's also a fact that a very high proportion of younger people did not use their vote in the Brexit referendum. I've detailed statistics in my earlier post showing turn out by age. These are facts, not my personal opinion. There was a highly emotive quote at the time:

"The sad truth is, the older generation didn’t betray the young, they betrayed themselves."

Generation X. I think we're a good combination of resilience and non-conformity with the added benefit of no screens or smart phones growing up so we entertained ourselves and know that boredom generates creativity. I appreciate the benefits of contemporary life (sat navs are brilliant) I also know how to cope without them. We also survived the cold war and the threat of global thermonuclear destruction leading us to believe that things will probably work out ok. Sadly for the rest of the world, we can't actually be arsed to pass on our wisdom. Sorry about that.

Why the chip on the shoulder?

Born in 1974 and definitely grown up here. It was a strange time to be a child as we saw both massive wealth for some people (yuppies anyone?) and massive poverty and unemployment for others. When I was young we still had the air raid warning at times as a test for nuclear war. Reading On the Beach by Nevil Shute as a young teen and watching Threads really brought home how easily and quickly nuclear war would wipe us out. I also remember the absolute excitement at the Berlin Wall coming down and the assembly our Head gave a week later where he showed us a piece of that wall.
We saw so much change during our childhoods and early adult years and many of us saw our parents lose their jobs and our family homes be repossessed when the interest rates increased so much.
I loved growing up when I did and think it made me the person I am today. I feel for the boomer generation because they are subject to such vitriol and nastiness and it’s mostly unwarranted because we saw how hard our parents had it most of the time.
Im proud of my generation. We were pioneers in a new technological world and have embraced change. I think we are often overlooked or forgotten, but if that means that younger people don’t bitch about us, then that’s fine with me….because there’s a lot I can say about the gmemerstjons after mine that isn’t very flattering too.

Gen X here. We're the best by a mile 😁

30s so a millennial. I think we had good social media-wise… no iPads growing up but got to enjoy a balance of social media as teens with the likes of MySpace and msn messenger. You got the fun and benefits of it without it taking over your life. I’m glad I didn’t experience secondary school in the smart phone era.

@ginasevern you prices my point that some
people just refuse to acknowledge certain facts.

What are you arguing with me about?

I've told you that a very high percentage of older people are remainers (and left leaning, if that's relevant). It's also a fact that a very high proportion of younger people did not use their vote in the Brexit referendum.

I never claimed otherwise.

All I said was older people were more likely to vote Brexit and you are incapable of accepting that for whatever reason.

proved my point (I hate my phone!)

I've got family members around the same age and early adulthood in the early 80's recession wasn't easy for them. One of them finally bought a house in the early 90's just in time for negative equity and struggling with a poor value endowment mortgage. Can't afford early retirement and is working years beyond where they expected to in their youth.
The maternity leave was lousy too.

It's not so far from younger Millenial life, but without the student debt for a debatable degree. Although smart phones are better than pay phones (and saving 50p for the electricity meter)

I’m an early (80s baby) Millennial and I would rather be Gen X.

Gen X had the best music, best fashion, best youth (although the 90s and 00s youth I had certainly beats what poor Gen Z are getting for sure).

I hate technology and modern culture and I’m not even 40 yet. Wish I was Gen X (or even a boomer) so I could ignore it more.

Yes!
I’m a millennial, grew up in a working class family and I feel like I’ve had the best of both worlds - I remember life before everyone had constant access to the internet, before everyone had a mobile phone. Only having 4 channels on telly and waiting in anticipation for the children’s programmes to be on. I still had a cracking childhood, running wild outside with all the other neighbourhood kids because that was all we had to keep us entertained before everyone had a PlayStation at home. But I was also young enough at the start of the Internet boom and technology being accessible for everybody to just go with the flow of it all.
I think that was harder for my parents’ generation to get to grips with because it was all so new and alien because they’d already lived so much of life without all those things. Even now, my dad gets so frustrated with online banking 😂

Although I will add that when it comes to my musical taste, I wish I’d been born in the mid to late 1960’s so I’d have been a young adult during the first days of Queen, Bon Jovi and Motely Crue!!

Gen x here.
We had the best, fun times growing up in the 80’s, reaching teen/ adulthood in the 90’s. No phones and no evidence of what we got up to.
We had lots of freedom, time to be bored, time to get creative. No Uni tuition fees.

I’m a grown up now, definitely but I’m still interested in going out, dressing up, being fashionable, staying fit and healthy. We all went from smoking to no longer smoking over night seemingly!

I do feel sorry for the younger generations, and am secretly pleased that the boomers get all the blame for society’s woes.

Gen x has always been on the side lines looking on with bemusement whilst doing their own thing.

Gen X here and happy with that. Love my generation, but I have boomer and millennial friends. I think common values, sense of humour etc are more important than age. Having said that, there are certain cultural references and experiences that we Gen Xers share.

I suppose I have been a bit of a Peter Pan. I have never been very career focused (regretting it now!), married late, and never wanted kids.

I was born in the sixties, a child of Silent Generation parents. The 70's and 80's were a great backdrop for childhood, but not so great for the adults struggling with power cuts etc. Like other Gen Xers, I am happy I grew up without social media.

That doesn’t follow.

It is normal for people to be poor and struggling during the childbearing years, and then be able to save later, once the kids have flown, they have increased their salary through promotion etc

I’m a boomer by birth but no I don’t identify with many of my peers. Perhaps it’s because I had my children in my 30s & 40s. I find many (not all) people of my age rather grumpy and sometimes nasty to the younger generation. I do have many boomer friends but we have very different opinions (especially politics-which we steer clear of).

I don’t personally see that as an ageist comment as it is statistically accurate. Though it’s also true that younger people are less likely to vote at all as someone else pointed out, so that lack of engagement also contributed to Brexit in a less direct way.

But I have seen ageist comments on this thread and on pretty much every Mumsnet thread when “boomers” get mentioned. The term itself has become derogatory as it’s so often used in a negative context.

Reductive nonsense. One up from star signs.

Solid Gen X here.

Loved the 80s/90s - the music, the clothes, the crazy TV that we all watched and chatted about the next day, the nightclubs and coats stinking of smoke, the Cold War, miners strikes, bloody Maggie Thatcher, Falklands War, Spitting Image, Kenny Everett, Adam Ant, Madonna, Fame, leg warmers, neon colours… The best of times.

I loved that Turkish Olympic shooter just sauntering on in his t-shirt and specs, hand in pocket, nonchalantly getting Silver. Sums up the best of Gen X to me.

@Delatron " I also think the Boomers was a good generation to grow up in. I would have loved to live through the 60s!"

What is it that appeals to you? The music was good but lots of things were horrible and money was tight. There's a BBC programme of Election Night 1966, which shows some realistic aspects of the 1960s: women hugely under-represented in politics (only 4% of MPs were women) and positions of power, most of the TV presenters and commentators were male with women mainly as the support and secretarial staff. There are blatant sexist attitudes (comments about how pretty the phone bank girls are!), ordinary people not dressed in the iconic 1960s fashions, complaints about yobs and hooligans, calls to bring back hanging...