Worried about future generations lack of personal history

[Allonthesametrain]

Just had a big family get together and sharing experiences of growing up. GPs stories of WW2, growing up on rations, real history dialogue, which we as DC know, also our DC were enthralled.

Us as parents, growing up in the 1970s and 1980s in our youths, we tell them how we lived before major technology, they listen to our music and love some if it.

I do wonder, our DC will share their experiences of growing up and, not all I know, but had a gender reveal, had princess outfits every birthday, told how beautiful I was every day on SM by parents and everyone.

Just such a vast contrast when as kids we were expected to be not seen and heard to being the centre of attention.

So going forward, being the centre of attention within the sphere of adoring parents and all attached, is this realistic for expecting everyone else in the real world our DC has to go in to?

Of course not. Our DC and are indeed the centre of our world but posting on SM every birthday, how amazing he/she looks, does set a predecent to expectations.

Our DC know first hand about the struggles of the past, but go forward a few generations, no matter what has been passed on, it's irrelevant.

Am I being a bit concerned that several generations from now, not for all but many people, will only know the newest false eyelashes, plastic surgery, pumped up lips, following a sheep fashion of long straightened hair or whatever is in vogue for model perfection.

I know this is beyond my time on earth but it's natural to worry about what the future holds for our future world 🌎

Of course not. Our DC and are indeed the centre of our world but posting on SM every birthday, how amazing he/she looks, does set a predecent to expectations.

Lots of parents don’t do this

Sounds like you are worried current generations won’t have suffered enough? We can’t see into the future, we don’t know what/if they will suffer. Mine will tell stories of Covid and lockdown, home school etc, and I really hope the rest of their childhood is boring and happy

Also fashion has existed for a very long time, that isn’t a new thing

Just had a big family get together and sharing experiences of growing up. GPs stories of WW2, growing up on rations, real history dialogue, which we as DC know, also our DC were enthralled.

Todays dc have a pandemic/school closures etc to tell their dc.

I'm not completely sure that I understand your main point - that children today are so focused on that they may become self-centeredly oblivious to the past?

I'll speak from a (minority) American viewpoint that I definitely think younger people are increasingly unable to deal with negativity, or to deal with general norms and standards (for instance, dress code requirements at work).

They may also lose out on the family stories of recent past as the real adventures and traumas of crises of WW2, as you mentioned, recede into the past. I've been wondering lately, though, if just living in town with a lot of physical history may make a difference, convey a sense of the past, as opposed to a new and sterile town like many in the U.S.

My grandfather was a boy soldier in WW1. At 16, he pretended to be 17, got sent to France at 17, went over the top at the Somme. Survived. Signed up again for WW2, served in Egypt. Nan was an ARP warden. Great Aunt worked in a munitions factory. Uncle was in the navy. Other grandad was in the army before WW1. Dad did national service. Our country.

By the time your GCs are your age they will have their own memories of you and maybe even your parents and grandparents and how things used to be for them. Plus we don't know what new challenges they will face that we cannot even conceive of right now - both positive and negative. Maybe false eyelashes won't even be a thing for them.

Ever generation is different. So far we have all experienced mostly "progress" but it might not continue, at least in all areas of life (lets hope it does though!).

I hope my GCs will remember me. They already knew their late GGMs who lived to ripe old ages.

It's all part of life's rich pattern.

I'm only sorry that I won't be around to experience their lives in years to come.

Not to mention the imminent climate collapse, global overpopulation crisis and end of days finale of end stage capitalism that my cosy years growing up in the 80s didn’t have..

Hope they make it, my childhood seems positively rosy.

Anyone got a small Scottish island for sale, along with a big scary dog, a poly tunnel and a shotgun?

Fewer than 1% or people are of an age where they could reliably remember living through WW2. My mother still bangs on about food being rationed but the only things that were still rationed when she was old enough to know what was going on was meat, sugar and sweets.

Everyone of every generation will have their own stories to tell. We should be very glad we haven’t had a war just so we can entertain our great grandkids later.

I don’t even know what she’s on about.

Not at all, but to know how fortunate they are and stop whinging about stupid things, have a bit of appreciation.

So glad to hear this, we don't, but So many people i know do. Xxx

Wow, all heroes 👏 This is this is what my point is, these brave men fought to hope for a better future, which has taken a long time. Educate all future generations about the real sacrifices and not that having no wi fi isn't the end of the world.

What a ridiculous thing to worry about! My kids will talk about COVID, lockdown, facemasks, clapping for the NHS, the death of the queen and coronation of King Charles, living through this shit show of trump, BLM, Brexit, and so much more!

You might want to step away from social media a little bit. Parents have always bragged about their kids, what does it matter if it's a Facebook post or a photo album?

Today's kids have plenty of challenges. Covid pass you by, did it? Like those folk in Siberia who didn't get the news about the Soviet Union ending?

Yea it's not clear. Too much bunting maybe.

Do you not think previous generations would have used the internet if it had been available?

And sacrifices? My daughter went home from primary school one Friday in march 2020 and never went back. My son's GCSE results were worked out by an algorithm that dropped his grades because we live in a poor area.
What did you sacrifice in comparison? Legwarmers? Give me strength.

Also, point of order, WWI wasn't fought for a better future, it was a squabble between European royalty that got out of hand.

Well all l can is say, in England, from the stories of GPs living through the blitz and my Mum having to be taken away to a safer area as a baby and fortunately being reunited, which many weren't, because they had died, it was an horrific time.

She got on the train? As a baby? And she can remember all this? Sounds like a remarkable person.

We don't ever put DD on SM.

Her friends are variously refugees, child carers, navigating complex adult stuff and frankly pretty amazing. Yours might be on SM with charmed lives but plenty if kids aren't.

My parents are in their 80s and don't remeber almost anything about the War for goodness sake. Almost everyone alive who isn't an immigrant hasn't lived though the blitz!

The Ancient Greeks complained about their youths becoming soft and self absorbed in exactly the same way. As did the Romans. I expect the builders of Stonehenge did too, and probably the painters of the Leang Bulu Sipong and the Matravieso caves.

Young people have always been lacking in life experience and perspective - because they are young. Most of them grow out of it.

World events continue to happen. Music still exists, with new generations inventing their own and discovering that of the past. Family stories continue to form and be told.

How old are the GPs here? You have lods of rellies who lived though the blitz. Are they all 100+

Must be. Blitz started 86 years ago, for them not to be evacuated they'd have to have been 14/15 then so yea must be at least 100 years old now.

I'm not sure I get it - if you tell your kids you love them, they will grow up with no memories of world events from their childhood.

Or that growing up before the internet was as historically significant as fighting in a war, in a way that our kids memories of the world events of their childhood won't be?

I'm not really sure what you're getting at, TBH - it sounds as though you think personal history is only selectively significant depending on how miserable it was.

Or that you are worried that you have spoiled your kids and they have become too obsessed with their looks, in which case I think you're probably being too harsh - lots of kids focus on their appearance as a way to find people they share interests with, but that doesnt mean they won't take an interest in the world around them as they grow up. And even if they don't, there are plenty of kids who are into more than eyelashes and straightening their hair, so they will pass on their wisdom to the next generations as well (and Narcissus still gets name checked today, so it could work in their favour).

Apologies if I've misunderstood - it's late and I've only just stopped whispering 'I love you' into my kids' sleeping ears...😉🤣