Millennials, Ugh!

                Millennials.  A word often uttered with casual scorn by the older generations, conjuring up images of safe spaces and participation trophies and avocado toast.  (I like avocado toast, btw.  For real, it might be the only semi-healthy breakfast I don’t have to choke down). 

                I’m part of Generation X.  Our parents still believed in breaking a kid’s ass (and it was couched in exactly those terms) to make us behave.  Schools were war zones filled with bullies.  One had to fight to survive.  Teachers were tough.  You better have your homework done on time, and you better not act up in school.  Punishment was swift and brutal.  We all went through it, and we all came out the other side wiser, tough, and better able to handle life’s toughest challenges.

                Or so many of the people of my generation claim.   My ass. 

               Take me, for instance.  Like most kids of my generation, I endured what today would be child abuse, but was considered back then good discipline, at the hand of my parents.  I was thrown to the wolves in school.  I often felt helpless, just another cog in the machine, even into early adulthood.  My parents must have done something right, because I didn’t get pregnant as a teenager, didn’t drop out of school, never did drugs.  I went to college, got a degree, and have spent most of my life as a functioning member of society.

                But I eat my feelings.  Every single day.  I eat my feelings knowing that I’m eating my feelings.  In fact, since learning that my job was being eliminated about a week ago, I’ve been in food free fall.  I keep sternly telling myself to stop, and then something in my mind responds “tomorrow.”  Yeah, I’m probably not a serious food addict, certainly not on the level of the people on My Six Hundred Pound Life.  I mean, yesterday, I got a Big Mac Jr. and a small fry from McDonald’s.  I’m not a binge eater. But, unfortunately, I can only eat about a thousand calories before I start gaining weight.  So, although eating six cookies might not be the death knell for most people, for me it’s more than my body can handle.

                I know I don’t need those calories.  Certainly not from cookies or a Big Mac, even if it’s a scaled down version.  But I can’t stop myself.  Eating makes me feel better.  I know it shouldn’t be that way, I know it’s instant gratification that is damaging long-term, but that’s the way it is.

                I see much of the same from my fellow generation.  Food is a popular choice, especially at our age, because a lot of people start putting on weight in middle-age and it’s kind of expected.  But we all know people who drink a little too much, or work a little too much, or smoke the occasional joint.  We all have friends that have been in rehab. 

                I can attest to the fact that our generation is plagued with issues.  It’s kind of hilarious that we’re pointing fingers at Millennials and putting them down for actually *gasp* dealing with their feelings!  Look at them with their safe spaces and their new age music and therapy dogs, wow, what weakness!  They should power through and deal with it the same way every generation before them did, silently. Sneak drinks at night, smoke some joints, eat an entire cake.  Whatever you do, don’t acknowledge that you feel bad about something (particularly if it’s something the older generation thinks you shouldn’t feel bad about, like the outcome of the 2016 election) because that shows weakness.  I mean, real men and women end up in rehab or blowing up to three hundred pounds.  That’s the way you’re supposed to handle it.

                 Having worked with a couple of stereotypical Millennials, I do get it.  I dealt with a couple of incredibly spoiled, self-centered, entitled young people that thought they were superior to everyone else and shouldn’t have to work their way up.  They acted like we should throw them a parade every time they graced us with their presence.  They constantly criticized our company for the stupidest shit.  Their complaints basically amounted to, “I can’t do whatever I want, Waaa! Waa!  How can you expect someone of my superior talents to waste eight hours on this garbage, Waa!” That’s work, darling.  You spend eight hours a day doing what someone else wants you to do and they pay you for it.  That’s how this whole thing operates, get it?

                Yeah.  Did their rotten attitude come from being Millennials, or were they just assholes?  Seeing as though I worked with many Millennials that did their work without complaint, I’m willing to bet it was the latter. 

                Most parents discipline their children.  Since breaking asses fell out of favor, they’re probably sending them to their room or taking away their cell phones. The Millennials that are whiny and entitled are spoiled brats.  Guess what?  We had a lot of those when I was growing up, too.  Children of parents who devoted most of their time to work so just gave them whatever they wanted to shut them up.  Is it possible that the bratty, entitled behavior we see from some of the people of that generation comes from poor parenting, and not because they received a participation trophy for soccer?

                Remember, we’re the generation that currently has the country on the brink of civil war.  I think it’s safe to say that the way we were treated growing up was not for the greater good.  We need to open our minds and quit being in denial.  Getting hit with the wooden spoon and being told “stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about,” didn’t toughen us up, it taught us to deal with our feelings in destructive, non-productive ways.  Let Millennials have their safe spaces and their therapy dogs.  We need them to do a better job when they take charge, or everything our forebears worked for in creating this wonderful country is lost. 

                Einstein’s definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Let’s face it.  Our generation is screwed up.  We need to stop criticizing the new one for doing things differently.  We sure as hell didn’t do it better.  It’s time we acknowledge that fact.  We’re to blame for the current mess.  Are we really going to keep wagging our fingers at the new generation while inhaling cakes?