I'm GenY but I'll admit to having been raised by parents who think I'm the best at everything. My parents had high expectations and didn't spoil me, but according to my mom and dad I was the smartest, prettiest, most talented girl out there. That's sweet and all but it certainly didn't do me any favors when I left home and learned that wasn't true. I've since adjusted my perception of myself and struck a good balance that I think is both realistic and confident, but it took a few years.
If having parents who were overly complimentary is the biggest problem from my upbringing, though, I'm okay with it. I don't think they were nearly as bad as some of the helicopter parents I hear about today. Once I was 18 they expected me to handle my own problems and wouldn't dream of dealing with professors/bosses on my behalf.
I'm like Brookles...my parents thought I was awesome. Teachers throughout high school told me I was amazing, and I never even tried. College hasn't been much harder. I finally have a professor who calls it like he sees it though. He knows I am smart, but he also knows I am lazy. I rest on my laurels, and he was the first person to do that. It was kind of a shock, but also kind of great because it has pushed me to do even better. But my parents never advocated for me. I can't imagine them calling a professor or boss...that is terrible. They are like on the cusp of the Silent Generation/Baby Boomers...I am solidly a Millennial...but I think their attitude towards my had to do with my being 5th of 6...They never expected me not to be anything but awesome because my siblings were already academically excellent.
Post by heightsyankee on May 28, 2012 13:50:02 GMT -5
It doesn't stop with college, either. I had parents (and SPOUSES) call me when I was a recruiter, wanting to know why said child/spouse did not get an interview or an offer.
This boggles my mind. It has actually never occured to me to contest a grade or contest a grade for my kids. If I see a shitty grade, my first thought it what do I/they need to learn or work on to get a better grade next time?
It throws me that other parents don't think this way.
I teach at the graduate level, and that was my biggest shock. The material I teach is difficult and the students are in highly competitive programs. I had a student email me, on behalf of the class, to say they had never (in the quarter and a half they had been in the program) performed that low, and they were smart, so the problem must be with the faculty. Seriously?? Maybe you just need to study and understand the material, open a book, and not simply memorize the lecture notes.
But every spoiled entitled Yer seems to be the child of a boomer. So yes, boomer's play a role here. And to ignore this is asinine.
Why do you assume that a child entering college today is the spawn of baby boomer parents? They could just as likely be Generation X's kids. In fact, it's probably more likely to be the case. Any kid born in 1994 was probably born of parents born in 1964 or later - ie, Gen X.
And I think there's a lot more than the parental attitudes at play. It's in child care, sports, grammar school, etc. We don't keep score because everyone's a winner, we don't take off points for grammar because we don't want to impair creativity, etc etc.
But it's good to know that spoiled children didn't exist before Baby Boomers and that they will cease to exist under the parentage of your perfect generation. While we wait for that blessed day, it amuses me to watch generations point fingers at each other and accuse each other of spoiling the children....