Mumsnet paused a “boomer” thread this morning, and…

[CurlewKate]

…just for a second I thought ageism was being taken seriously. Sadly, no.

I grew up on stories of my parents and their baby boomer friends' political activism. My mum's defiant nursing care of (illegal) abortion patients in the 60s. My "uncle's" bravery at being an out gay Jewish man in the 70s. Civil rights marches. Greetham Common etc.

So it amazes me when people see boomers as old fashioned. Those I knew fought to change the culture and were successful.

I’m one of those pesky activists too!

To be fair, I know plenty of my generation who could be termed as old fashioned but I don't think they were ever activists when they were younger nor effected change for the better. When I look back I wish I had done even more than I did but as the saying goes 'every little helps'!

Indeed @Eskarina1 - I had friends a couple of years older than me in the US who were very involved in anti-Vietnam War protests (the men were really at risk then).

I'm technically a "boomer" as I was born at the end of the 1950s, but I hit the contractions of the late 70s and 80s, rather than the economic boom times. 15% mortgage rates anyone?

I was aware of the "hope I die before I get old" and the "never trust anyone over 30" catch-phrases, but I know that I respected those who taught me because I was in aweof what they could teach me. I was taught at university by women who were 'firsts' - first female professors, first female academics to lead departments, to be Deans and so on. They blazed the path that I've been able to follow.

The current anti-boomer rubbish forgets this. Women on MN forget what their mother's generation did to ensure they could live as they live. Today's 20 and 30 year olds can be very ignorant.

Today's 20 & 30 year olds don't have boomer parents- you are missing a generation. DM was born '49 she is a boomer, I was born '76 I am Gen X, DC born 2000's - they are 20-30.

@Neurodiversitydoctor with the very greatest respect, DH and I were born in 1960 and 1961. We are baby boomers, albeit late ones. Our children are 31 and 27.

I agree with @ParmaVioletTea. We remember the late 70s/early 80s very well. And black Monday and the early 90s. So easy for later generations to forget the strides made by women from earlier generations on their behalf.

Today's 20 & 30 year olds don't have boomer parents

I have nephews and nieces of those ages that do.

You don't need to be a boomer to remember the '80s. The cold war, miners strike, chernobyl, AIDS and black monday were the backdrop to Gen X's youth.

I didn't say one did but you said young people 20s/30s, were not the children of baby boomers.

I don't think most are tbh. Parental age was at an all time low in 1981.

I am sorry to be pedantic, but you said they were not, and provided your own contextual evidence. You did not say most were not.

FWIW, most of our friends are late boomers like us, most of them had children in the mid to late 90s. Similarly, very few parents in my eldest child's reception class were younger than mid to late 30s in 1999, indicating they were born before 1964. This was reflected at their next schools.

Despise, or are frightened of becoming? Bit of both I expect.