About being thrown in with "snowflakes" and "Millenials"

[StewPots]

I'm just really fed up with the wording of all these articles slagging off under 35s as lazy, work shy and entitled. Not all of us are like how these articles describe!
I'm 33,I have a good standard of education, I can read and write very well, I work hard (worked 3 13 hour shifts on a busy hospital ward this week so far), I'm bringing up my two kids (15 & 3) to be thoughtful, polite, and hopefully hard working members of society, yet I'm in this stupid age bracket named "Millenial" where no one has a good word to say! Yes, I notice that some younger people can come across as lazy and perhaps entitled, but surely that happens with every generation!
I've told my DD (15) in no uncertain terms that when she starts work this summer, she will be expected to pull her weight, she will be paid peanuts, she will be at entry level and remain so for possibly years, but eventually hard work will pay off... and she is fully on board with this! Yet she too will be demonised as a "snowflake" purely on the basis of the year she was born!
Gahhhhh! Sorry just needed a rant this morning!!

Enormous- totally agree. I guess that's my point, although in my rage this morning I didn't word it well. Generalisation isn't helpful, it's divisive. I prefer to look at a person, not their age, race, colour, creed etc which is how it should be, and all these words thrown about just create more trouble.
I don't doubt there are lazy and entitled youngsters, but I'm lucky enough not to know of any yet, just polite, hard working people who just want to do their best for themselves and their families, and yes, I include myself in that, as a millenial

Bad - Yes! I hate this too, it's so far from the truth! My parents and ILs worked/work hard, whatever they have now I say bloody good for them and enjoy it!
I look after a lot of over 65s at work and they are a wealth of knowledge and experience, and I always try to instil this in my kids and peers. It's all about respect. And not generalising.

Aren't all these labels - millennials, snowflakes, babyboomers, yuppies, sloanes, mamils - all just lazy generalisations? usually coined by lazy journalists working for dishonest newspapers like the Daily Mail, which seems to think that the world can be reformed by sneering at people who have the temerity to disagree with its suburban contempt for idealism of any kind?

EnormousTiger - Excellent post. Absolutely right.

I did have things hard - but others easy. I certainly had it harder than my mum who was born in the 30's. Her childhood was utter shit. But she had it far easier in her fifties than I am having.

Ideally we work together - and within families you usually see that. Parents help their kids with whatever they can whether it is money or time or childcare or a home. Adult children help parents and grandparents with the same. In society we work if we can, give voluntarily if we can and are supported if we can't.

Sorry - I did have some things hard - but other things easy

Oh I do love a good debate on a Friday have calmed down now!

Sorry - and "I certainly had it easier than my Mum.... Keyboard keeps jumping and cutting

Hang on when does Gen Y finish? Is it 2000? If so my DD just makes the cut (she's born '99)

Tbh I think Millennials have it the hardest, huge house prices, big student loans etc, I honestly have no idea how my DD will be able to buy a house in the future.

I'm pretty sure I am the last of the baby boomers!

Strygil - absolutely bang on. It was my ILs that drew my attention to this in the fucking bastard day fail earlier and it just wound me up, especially the comments! Toasters.

Toasters?? Obviously Tossers. Bloody autocorrect.

Glad you have calmed down. - although a good rant on MN never did anyone any harm!! You are right - respect is crucial.

Right I need to switch on the tv and settle in for a day of utter laziness in my HUGE house, maybe taking an hour to pack for my next mini-break!! (Luckily paid for with my massive pension)

Bad - my mum had a very difficult upbringing too, then she met my dad who was a monumental twat to her, and has had a rough life. In comparison I had it a lot lot easier.
But now I work as hard as I can to try and make life a little better for her and my kids, and I guess I get fed up of these stupid labels because they're so far from the reality.

Bad - haha! Bloody good for you, enjoy it! I've a weekend off after slaving away on the wards all week so will also be on the sofa today!

i don't agree with tarring all under-33's with a "millennial characteristics" brush but there are generally some correlations between ages and behaviours because times have moved on so the way new generations behave, think and act will move on too.

As a uni student in the 90s myself for example, there were no mobile phones, social media, emails, laptops, even word processors were rare to own. So for communication it was one phone between 30 in halls of residence, phone boxes, and hand written letters and that was it! We had to speak face to face a lot more, literally knock on someones door rather than communicating from a screen. Get up, go visit and apologise in person instead of a "soz" text. Actually be on time for meeting up with friends because there was no way without technology to communicate that you were having a duvet day instead.

All in all I do feel technology has played a massive part in how much personal effort people have to put in with each other, being responsible for personal actions etc, these days. Also social media makes it look like anyone can lead the life of a socialite or pop star so there's far more resentment and comparison going on.

Teeth - absolutely agree with that 100%. Technology and social media have played a massive part, in both good and bad ways.
For the most part I stay away because it all seems super competitive and political, which can't be good for anyone.
Oh, I remember getting a mobile phone at 16 with my wages one month (a Motorola brick!) and thinking it was the best thing in the world My DD (15) would probably want to put that in a museum...I bloody loved that phone!

It's bollox anyway. I collaborate with a large number of colleagues right across the age ranges. The older ones (myself included) may have the benefit of experience but that is subject to the law of diminishing returns - 20 years experience is not twice as valuable as 10 years worth, as much of the experience will be out of date.
Younger people can have more energy and enthusiasm, but then I've met a few lazy twenty-somethings and a few 50/60-somethings with bags of drive and energy.
Ultimately, as with so many things, it's best to judge people as individuals and not stereotype.

Of course there are lots of hard working and responsible Millenials. Actually sometimes this generation is too responsible.
But in every generation you can detect social trends. That is what people are commenting on. Agree you are not a Millenial though. The Millenial and Snowflakes does describe a slice of young people who have been brought up not to expect any unpleasantness in their life and to be over protected. That is a change. It is not their fault. Us the older generation brought those young people up. But it does cause problems.

Her - totally agree, my OP may have been worded wrongly, but the sentiment is basically judge me on merit and ability, attitude and achievement, not my age, or the age of my peers.

Dear Boomers, you're grand but please, please stop voting the torys in. It's hurting us and in some instances killing people. As you were.

Brasty- I worry for my DD a little because she is most certainly a millennial and is in no way lazy (apart from the half term lie ins!) or entitled. She does chores for pocket money or equivalent, she does army Cadets twice a week, she's applying for Saturday/holiday jobs now, she's polite, respectful, thoughtful... I'm very lucky that she's essentially a good teen with no drama so far yet I fret that because of her age further done the line she will be labelled in a negative way... it's assumptions, but these can have effects. I guess that may be a real concern here.

I thought snowflakes were all the people who voted against Donald Trump & are now protesting about him being Prez. It has become a catchall insult for anyone who complains.

YeOlde - yes! I hate that term. But it's usually applied to the younger generation, I think. Another crappy label that has no truth. I know a lot of young people who have had to cope with a lot, and have done well in life so far, despite all the crap thrown at them, and are so far from this stupid "snowflake" word being bandied about.

Stew - laughing at the bricks!! I remember those.

I am bringing up young (under 10s) DCs now and times have changed so much since I was brought up in the 70s and early 80s. Back then, friends' parents could discipline you as if you were their own; you were expected to be bored at lot when visiting older family or going to the shops etc - my grandma had zero kids toys, books or sweets, we played with the few toys from the 40s of my dads she had left over (dinky cars and dominoes) sweets were pick and mix from Woolworths and you could only have one or two from the tin. Dinners were very traditional, no fish fingers or pasta, it was meat and theee veg. She was brought up by Victorian parents and treated us the same when we stayed.

Presents were on birthdays and Christmas only because supermarkets did not sell toys or clothes or accessories or those damn kids magazines! so you would have to visit a toys shop/clothes shop specially - and if your parents didn't take you, there wasnt anything to beg for!

Expectations were lower for kids of generation x because we were being brought up by post war baby boomers who themselves had had a post war, austere childhood in the main. Cautious with money, no credit cards except am ex for the super rich.

I am bringing my dcs up to be polite, respectful and hard working but it is fighting against the tide of expectations, kids rights etc (which I fully agree on in terms of safety, abuse and emotional security, some things have changed for the better) and the "softer" side of things (material possessions, wanting "stuff", expecting the same say in things at 8 as an adult, not accepting full responsibility for actions, not understanding or appreciating authority)... it is worrying.

To me thats not what snowflake means. To me it would sort of be interchangeable with "precious". My dd was in Home Economics class a few weeks ago and a couple of kids were afronted that they were expected to clean out the sinks - they didn't have to at home & they all grew up with dishwashers (machines not staff ). I know a few people looking to buy their first homes but won't consider ones without ensuite, downstairs loo and a big garden because they couldn't possibly live in accomodation that was of a lesser standard than their parental home. My mum won't go on holiday if she thinks the apartment won't be up to her very specific standards, she also thinks waiting staff should dance on her every wish - they should know what she wants psychically. My husband is a snowflake about coffee. I also work with people who become snowflakey about working bank holidays, weekends etc when they've accepted jobs in shops/bars etc that are open on those days.

Snowflake behaviour = might just melt if asked to go beyond or outside what they're used to.

It's the same sort of thing as 'benefit scroungers'.

People capable of coherent thought know that not everyone in a particular group is a ..... and people who think they are are not worth worrying about.