Latest Knock Put on Boomers: Our Parenting Didn't Prepare Millennials for Life

In the eyes of younger generations, we boomers are monsters. 

Here we are hogging up entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.

Meanwhile, we're still grabbing onto paid work and the big titles in organizations. You bet, we're clogging the pipelines for other generations to have a shot at promotions such as becoming an equity partner at law firms like Cravath or Paul, Weiss or a managing director at management consulting firms like Deloitte and BCG. 

Overall in careers, yes, we had and have the edge because we didn't have debt. Education, all the way up to the Ph.D., JD and M.B.A., was cheap back then and scholarships/fellowships were plentiful. Therefore we could take the risks of demanding more money and power and if that didn't come through landing a better job. The old joke was: Walk across the Avenue of The Americas in Manhattan to a much better job. No one I know lost career momentum back then.

Added now to that list of why to hate boomers is this: Our generation didn't prepare our offspring - the current Millennials - for adult responsibilities. For example, as the postings on Reddit indicate, we didn't tutor them in financial literacy. That would have included the need to save and the peril of putting things on credit cards. Of course, there are myriad other items on the list of what we missed in preparing the next generation to go out into the world.

They might be right. Put all this in context. 

Our parents hammered into us rigid oughts like extreme frugality; purchasing only with cash and at the full amount; selecting a college major with great pragmatism, including a credential for being a teacher just in case; if a female, marry a man with prospects; if a man, marry a woman who could be a career asset; and forget the glam, get a secure job and hang on for the pension. 

The generation gap is history. We certainly broke free. And we weren't going to impose any residue of our parents' The Great Depression ethos on our children. (A demanding career made motherhood impossible but I took on the role of The Supposed Good Aunt.) In addition, during our years of over-education (I have three degrees) we mutated into liberals. No, we didn't have the right to impose values on others, even our children.

I have a hunch that our amends are expected by Millennials to come in the form of not blowing our wealth, therefore leaving our nest eggs to them. However, most of us are not thinking that way. Anyway, with inflation and long lifespans there probably won't be much left when we ride into the sunset, singing like 1950s television star Roy Rogers, "Happy Trails to You ..."

Limiting beliefs? Self-defeating? Stuck? Complimentary consultation with Coach Jane Genova (text/phone 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com)