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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate the ‘youth of today’ attitudes?

68 replies

Whatnowthenfordone · 02/02/2025 17:33

I hated the posts on Facebook when I was a teenager about ‘when I was young we… bathed in a tin bath. Were disciplined at school. Respected our elders. Had no computers and has to TALK to each other. Thank god Im from the last generation who knew how to enjoy life! Youngsters today have everything on a plate and complain!’

I’m 36 now and have just seen someone I went to school with sharing posting ‘We were the last generation to play out. We were the first to have mobile phones. We ate what we were given. We were pleased with a 10p mixup. We had to LOOK at the TV guide, we didn’t stream our programmes! Today’s kids don’t know how easy they have it and they still complain!!’

I know these attitudes are as old as human kind but AIBU to find it so annoying? How can you so quickly forget when everyone accused your generation of not playing out when you blatantly did? Why are people so keen to always criticise the next generation? I’ll try and find examples of the kinds of posts I mean.

OP posts:
WalKat · 02/02/2025 17:35

Yes I think the young people of today (on the whole) are amazing. My kids are so much more intelligent and aware than I was.. with or without playing out from dusk til dawn. We ought to give the young people of today more credit. They certainly do a lot more impressive stuff outside school than I ever did too like clubs, sport etc...

Bluevelvetsofa · 02/02/2025 17:36

Every generation criticises the one before it and the ones after it.

MellersSmellers · 02/02/2025 17:37

You're so right. I hated that attitude when i was a Youf and I'm sure today's kids hate it too. We, the adults and parents, have created the world they're growing up in so if its anyone's "fault", it's ours!

Original poster
Whatnowthenfordone · 02/02/2025 17:42

A couple of examples of what I mean and a nice satire of it.

To hate the ‘youth of today’ attitudes?
To hate the ‘youth of today’ attitudes?
To hate the ‘youth of today’ attitudes?
OP posts:
Original poster
Whatnowthenfordone · 02/02/2025 17:44

And one from the ancients. Honestly why do they do it? This obsession with thinking your own generation is special.

To hate the ‘youth of today’ attitudes?
OP posts:
creamsnugjumper · 02/02/2025 17:47

I'm with you OP i just had to call out a group of 50+ men In a business environment basically slating the generation they helped to create!

They are lazy, all want rights, all want to WFH, won't work late..... blah blah the list went on and on about these lazy good for nothing 20 somethings.

I said frankly I admire their work life boundaries, I admire they aren't afraid to stick up for their employment rights and I also threw in that I thought these men were maybe on reflection jealous of this new young generation and by belittling them were protecting their own roles and space in the world and felt threatened.

I also noted lots of the nasty comments were aimed at the younger female "lazy girl" tik tok trends and not so much a the boys. 🥴

My very measured response was met with utter silence as the truth most often is.

procrastinatorgator · 02/02/2025 17:49

Bluevelvetsofa · 02/02/2025 17:36

Every generation criticises the one before it and the ones after it.

this

JLou08 · 02/02/2025 17:50

Drives me mad! Nice to see that I'm not the only one. Really odd that they don't stop and think that it is the generation they raised so ultimately their doing.

Poldarkknows · 02/02/2025 17:51

The youth of today are great! I’m excited to see what they achieve because our generation (born in 1980s) haven’t made much difference to the world (yet!)

Thinking about my parents and my grandparents and older generations weren’t really in touch with “friends” from school. Unless they were very special friends. Unfortunately Facebook has kept our generation clinging on to people we would have otherwise forgotten about.

I think if you get annoyed at “old friends” from school posting crap on FB then it’s time to part ways. It’s healthy.

Otherwise our generation are going to get overwhelmed by opinion overload from 100s people we don’t really care about!

FreddoSwaggins · 02/02/2025 17:51

Telling "the youth of today" they are lazy and don't know they are born is as as old as Methuselah. In fact the generation above Methuselah probably told him they walked up hill barefoot both to and from school!

Poldarkknows · 02/02/2025 17:53

….and slagging off the youth of today while addicted to social media and posting inane nonsense says A LOT more about our generation tbh!! It’s so bad it’s almost funny

Coldnat · 02/02/2025 17:53

Every generation thinks they’re the best/toughest/hardest working thing since sliced bread. Social media just makes it easier to read it all vs overhearing it in workplaces/pubs/outside of schools etc

TheLightSideOfTheMoon · 02/02/2025 17:55

“Back in my day we played out…”

Yeah, we’ve all seen Stand By Me. There’s nothing clever about dodging trains, messing with things that don’t concern us and being threatened by bullies.

Lying to your parents about being at a sleepover but really drinking 20/20 in a local park.

Newrumpus · 02/02/2025 17:55

Whatnowthenfordone · 02/02/2025 17:42

A couple of examples of what I mean and a nice satire of it.

Those examples are nostalgia rather than criticism

ByCyanMoose · 02/02/2025 17:56

I very appreciate when people go on rants against “kids these days” because it identifies them as a fool before I’ve wasted too much time listening to them.

ALunchbox · 02/02/2025 17:56

Some of you are doing the same thing by slagging off older generations ;)

Original poster
Whatnowthenfordone · 02/02/2025 18:00

JLou08 · 02/02/2025 17:50

Drives me mad! Nice to see that I'm not the only one. Really odd that they don't stop and think that it is the generation they raised so ultimately their doing.

In fairness it’s not always. I’m 36 and people my age are criticising those who are early 20s. Not enough of a gap to have raised them.

OP posts:
picturethispatsy · 02/02/2025 18:00

It’s basically a combination of nostalgia for the past and a resistance to change and progress.

Flawed memory and a tendency to see everything with rose tinted glasses.

Mumsnet can be terrible for this!

Original poster
Whatnowthenfordone · 02/02/2025 18:03

Newrumpus · 02/02/2025 17:55

Those examples are nostalgia rather than criticism

Show quote history

No they’re not. They’re criticism. ‘A generation that unfortunately won’t come back’. ‘We spent time together without a phone in our hands’. And always the classic ‘we were the last to play out’. It’s criticism of the next generation.

OP posts:
Oneflewovermycarsbed · 02/02/2025 18:05

Whatnowthenfordone · 02/02/2025 18:03

No they’re not. They’re criticism. ‘A generation that unfortunately won’t come back’. ‘We spent time together without a phone in our hands’. And always the classic ‘we were the last to play out’. It’s criticism of the next generation.

Show quote history

Agree with @Newrumpus ,I cannot see the criticism in those comments l

ERthree · 02/02/2025 18:08

Todays young one's will soon be complaining about the generation being born now. It is what humans do.

Newrumpus · 02/02/2025 18:09

Whatnowthenfordone · 02/02/2025 18:03

No they’re not. They’re criticism. ‘A generation that unfortunately won’t come back’. ‘We spent time together without a phone in our hands’. And always the classic ‘we were the last to play out’. It’s criticism of the next generation.

Show quote history

I disagree. I’d see criticism as ‘we
were the last to play out because today’s kids are too lazy to leave their rooms and too silly to be able to play nicely with others’.
There absolutely is a trend of young people socialising in a completely different way from previous generations which has both positive and negative consequences. Pointing this out and looking nostalgically at your own childhood is not the same as criticising a generation.

Lyn348 · 02/02/2025 18:13

I always roll my eyes when i see those posts, they just always seem really childish and completely batshit to me and I grew up in the 80's.

AcquadiP · 02/02/2025 18:16

I'm 61 and most of my colleagues are much younger than I am. I think they're great. We treat each other with respect and learn things from each other. I can't abide the 'when we were young' talk and avoid doing so because I don't want them to think I'm some judgmental, ancient human being!
I had an aunt like that who was forever giving it the 'in my day we ..." speech to myself and my cousins (all of us fully grown adults). It's soooo annoying to be on the receiving end. 🙄

Kindofembarrasing · 02/02/2025 18:16

Hearing the older generation moan about the youth that they raised is annoying unless it's done in the vein of "except my perfect child who I raised different" which probably sounds cocky but at least makes sense.

I wish I was lying but I know people who bought their children (literal toddlers) iPads only to moan "all these kids these days want to do is play on the iPad" uhm no shit Sherlock it's fun and why did YOU buy it for them. If you time traveled iPads to the middle ages then kids would be obsessed too
Its the same with older children and phones/games consoles.