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Special snowflakes

Gypsy

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I like the article too.

It's true.

I watched them being raised.

One of my former co-workers 6 months before HIS RETiREMENT, had his daughter in her first year of college. She called him daily about everything. He had to make her doctor's appoints at the clinic at SCHOOL for her.

Really???

Frankly it's the parent's fault. And now the kids have to get over themselves.
 

momhappy

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Thanks for sharing - I liked it too because, sadly, much of it is true.
 

packrat

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bahahahahahaha TRUTH.

Sad part is, we perpetuate it, daily, everywhere. Simple statements or questions have become anathema. Eggshells appear on the ground at will so step gingerly.
 

OreoRosies86

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Every so often my job hires a teenager for front of house stuff. One in particular's mother came in to scold us all for having the audacity to tell her daughter she was not doing her job properly. Our owner just looked at her like she was crazy.
 

yssie

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Eh.

They - we, I suppose I'm on the tail end of it myself - are doing their best. I agree that there are entirely too many young 'uns with entitlement complexes, but... as Gypsy said, well, that didn't happen out of nowhere.

An undergraduate degree at a private university can cost $100k, easily, and merit-based grants are harder and harder to come by. And thanks to the "everyone should go to college" movement college is no longer an institution of higher academics for the few who seek such enlightenment - it's a baseline minimum requirement for employment in many fields. When something is ubiquitious... selectivity rears its ugly head in other ways. In this case the question has become not whether one went to college, but which college, and the best usually charge more.

Back in the Good Old Days a person could expect to work at a corporation for 10, 20, 30, 50 years. That person could expect a comfortable pension to take care of his family with after giving a company decades of hard work and loyalty. Then they did away with binding, long-term commitments like pensions and replaced them with "promises" in the form of 401k contributions... many corporations don't offer even that, now, or if they do the vesting period is long and the match is paltry. Where, exactly, are these employers expecting the incentive to give a company one's best effort for an extended period of time to come from?

Millenials living at home after college... where else are they going to go? Housing costs have skyrocketed and income hasn't kept pace with inflation; employers aren't subsidising anything for anyone outside the elite because they don't expect positive return on investment of loyalty... That's half the scenario. The other half is what one of my professors once told us: "it really isn't what you know anymore, it's *who* you know, so if you didn't grow up with those connections you'd best start making them now". We live in a society that is as attuned to caste and birthright as the UK or India - it's just that we value money over family name or religious sub-sect, and we as a culture do our very best to ignore that fact instead of accepting it and dealing with it.

Societal safety nets like Social Security? We're paying into a system that we all know perfectly well we'll never see a dime from. The only way to afford to live comfortably and safely is to have money of your own, and not rely on contributions from society - genuinely "doing your best" isn't enough anymore. The only ways to get money are to either be born into it or to rub elbows with the right people - or get extraordinarily lucky. The only way to rub elbows with the right people is to meet the right people. And only the "elite", only a "special few" will ever have opportunities to meet those Right People. It's really no wonder there's an entire generation of people who are desperate to be considered special snowflakes, and an entire generation of parents who are desperate to ensure their loved ones are special snowflakes, to the point of aggravating blindness and unbelievable helicopter-parenting - Millenials quite literally cannot afford to be mediocre.
 

Niel

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Yssie|1449590458|3958977 said:
Eh.

They - we, I suppose I'm on the tail end of it myself - are doing their best. I agree that there are entirely too many young 'uns with entitlement complexes, but... as Gypsy said, well, that didn't happen out of nowhere.

An undergraduate degree at a private university can cost $100k, easily, and merit-based grants are harder and harder to come by. And thanks to the "everyone should go to college" movement college is no longer an institution of higher academics for the few who seek such enlightenment - it's a baseline minimum requirement for employment in many fields. When something is ubiquitious... selectivity rears its ugly head in other ways. In this case the question has become not whether one went to college, but which college, and the best usually charge more.

Back in the Good Old Days a person could expect to work at a corporation for 10, 20, 30, 50 years. That person could expect a comfortable pension to take care of his family with after giving a company decades of hard work and loyalty. Then they did away with binding, long-term commitments like pensions and replaced them with "promises" in the form of 401k contributions... many corporations don't offer even that, now, or if they do the vesting period is long and the match is paltry. Where, exactly, are these employers expecting the incentive to give a company one's best effort for an extended period of time to come from?

Millenials living at home after college... where else are they going to go? Housing costs have skyrocketed and income hasn't kept pace with inflation; employers aren't subsidising anything for anyone outside the elite because they don't expect positive return on investment of loyalty... That's half the scenario. The other half is what one of my professors once told us: "it really isn't what you know anymore, it's *who* you know, so if you didn't grow up with those connections you'd best start making them now". We live in a society that is as attuned to caste and birthright as the UK or India - it's just that we value money over family name or religious sub-sect, and we as a culture do our very best to ignore that fact instead of accepting it and dealing with it.

Societal safety nets like Social Security? We're paying into a system that we all know perfectly well we'll never see a dime from. The only way to afford to live comfortably and safely is to have money of your own, and not rely on contributions from society - genuinely "doing your best" isn't enough anymore. The only ways to get money are to either be born into it or to rub elbows with the right people - or get extraordinarily lucky. The only way to rub elbows with the right people is to meet the right people. And only the "elite", only a "special few" will ever have opportunities to meet those Right People. It's really no wonder there's an entire generation of people who are desperate to be considered special snowflakes, and an entire generation of parents who are desperate to ensure their loved ones are special snowflakes, to the point of aggravating blindness and unbelievable helicopter-parenting - Millenials quite literally cannot afford to be mediocre.

+1
 
Q

Queenie60

Guest
Great article. I have two college aged kids - 18 and 22. My attitude to them is - "figure it out". We all face obstacles in life and must learn to deal with them. My feeling is - I supply the funds for school and make it as stress free as possible. They need to handle their adult life as I don't want to deal with all of their daily dealings. Helicopter parenting doesn't work.
 

tuffyluvr

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I agree with Yssie 100%. I used to work with the worst of the worst--I was an agent at a very high-end travel agency. Our clients were the super-rich: megarich business people, royalty, socialites, celebrities, etc. By default I often had to deal with these people's children, and, more often than not, these kids are entitled brats who learned such behavior by being coddled and the instillment of how important they are. They act like other's sole purpose of being on this earth is to serve them and they don't seem to possess empathy. It's really frightening to think that soon these little dictators will be running Fortune 500 companies and ruling countries.

It's also really sad to know that this is not just a problem of the super rich. I'm afraid of the prospect of an entitled yet disillusioned generation and what the affects will be on our society and future generations.
 

monarch64

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Great post, Yssie.

The author of the opinion piece, "Rachel," sounds just as crybaby as the generation about which she's ranting. Fun to read, but doesn't help solve anything. Kind of Dr. Phil telling it like it is. He and Oprah still haven't managed to fix Lindsay Lohan!
 

Rockinruby

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Thanks for sharing! :wavey:
 

Niel

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Ever generation seems to have issues with the next.
 

random_thought

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As someone who is classified as a millennial, I have to say this really pisses me off. Sure, there are some that are bad eggs. But, for the most part, my peers who are in my age group are some of the hardest working, most polite people I have ever met. And to be fair, I have met plenty of the older generation who have had some of the same personality traits described in the article.

And no, I'm not offended as easily as the article would insinuate but it really grinds my gear when I get stereotyped based on an entire generation.

/rant
 

telephone89

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Niel|1449596657|3959010 said:
Ever generation seems to have issues with the next.
Yup. And who's to blame? The people complaining about the millennials are generally the ones who raised them?

Instead of complaining, make a positive change in the world. There is too much negativity already.
 

monarch64

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telephone89|1449597907|3959015 said:
Niel|1449596657|3959010 said:
Ever generation seems to have issues with the next.
Yup. And who's to blame? The people complaining about the millennials are generally the ones who raised them?

Instead of complaining, make a positive change in the world. There is too much negativity already.

Rachel's a sophomore in college. :lol:
https://theoxytocinchronicle.wordpress.com/about/

People just seem driven to divide everyone via social media and crappy opinion pieces like these. No one wants to celebrate the things that just make us all human (like how much we annoy each other on a daily basis, or how we are all guilty of being whiny *******s sometimes). No. We have to point fingers at other groups and tear them down, and single out how DIVERSE we are which makes us feel ADVERSE to each other. The more controversy, though, the more page click$. So not only are we whiny, we're making money off of our own negativity. Vicious cycle.

God people are annoying. :naughty: :lol:

ETA: Oh, and referring to yourself in the 3rd person on your About page on your own blog is a little bit pretentious, no? Awfully special snowflake thinking there, Rach. ;))
 

packrat

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I need to find a safe room now. *sniffle*
 

Rockinruby

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Matata|1449602442|3959048 said:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-millennials-are-coming/

Interesting article Matata. :wavey:
 

telephone89

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Great article Matata! This really stuck out to me

"We're not going to settle. Because we saw our parents settle,"

I think with today's culture (also referenced in the bf peer pressure thread), people are waiting until later to have a family/get married/etc. Further back, yes, it was frowned upon to be living at home by the time you're 25, because 3/4 of the other folk were already married with 3 kids by then. So you HAD to have a job, you couldn't jump around and look for a good fit. If you lost your job, you lost your house and were out on the street with your family. So you settled. You listened to your boss bitch at you for the 900th time about something that wasn't your fault. You worked until 9pm because you'd be fired if you didn't meet this deadline. That is still prevalent in many areas (Law still is!), but in most 'office' jobs, it isn't. TBH, I'm damn glad it isn't! I'm not quite a millennial, but I saw my single mom struggle to make ends meet. Struggle to keep us afloat each month. She hated her job, she hated her boss, but she felt she had so little choice in it. I think she stayed at some deadend barely minimum wage job for like 8 years. I would never want that for myself or my family.

I would much rather spend time with my family. A job is a job, and temporary in the grand scope of things (even 20 years is still temp). Myself and my family is forever. I don't have children, but it is so much more important to be home with them rather than working on a damn presentation or whatever BS that can wait until tomorrow.
 

Maria D

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individualitydemotivator.jpeg
 

ksinger

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telephone89|1449607006|3959084 said:
Great article Matata! This really stuck out to me

"We're not going to settle. Because we saw our parents settle,"

I think with today's culture (also referenced in the bf peer pressure thread), people are waiting until later to have a family/get married/etc. Further back, yes, it was frowned upon to be living at home by the time you're 25, because 3/4 of the other folk were already married with 3 kids by then. So you HAD to have a job, you couldn't jump around and look for a good fit. If you lost your job, you lost your house and were out on the street with your family. So you settled. You listened to your boss bitch at you for the 900th time about something that wasn't your fault. You worked until 9pm because you'd be fired if you didn't meet this deadline. That is still prevalent in many areas (Law still is!), but in most 'office' jobs, it isn't. TBH, I'm damn glad it isn't! I'm not quite a millennial, but I saw my single mom struggle to make ends meet. Struggle to keep us afloat each month. She hated her job, she hated her boss, but she felt she had so little choice in it. I think she stayed at some deadend barely minimum wage job for like 8 years. I would never want that for myself or my family.

I would much rather spend time with my family. A job is a job, and temporary in the grand scope of things (even 20 years is still temp). Myself and my family is forever. I don't have children, but it is so much more important to be home with them rather than working on a damn presentation or whatever BS that can wait until tomorrow.

I'm not quite understanding your post. Is it disdain for those who "settled" in your eyes? Is it extolling the virtues of waiting to take on family responsibilities? Confused here... :confused:
 

kenny

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Yet another reason I'm happy I didn't have kids ...

IMO it's nearly impossible to raise them well in today's F-ed up world.
 

telephone89

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ksinger|1449618130|3959151 said:
telephone89|1449607006|3959084 said:
Great article Matata! This really stuck out to me

"We're not going to settle. Because we saw our parents settle,"

I think with today's culture (also referenced in the bf peer pressure thread), people are waiting until later to have a family/get married/etc. Further back, yes, it was frowned upon to be living at home by the time you're 25, because 3/4 of the other folk were already married with 3 kids by then. So you HAD to have a job, you couldn't jump around and look for a good fit. If you lost your job, you lost your house and were out on the street with your family. So you settled. You listened to your boss bitch at you for the 900th time about something that wasn't your fault. You worked until 9pm because you'd be fired if you didn't meet this deadline. That is still prevalent in many areas (Law still is!), but in most 'office' jobs, it isn't. TBH, I'm damn glad it isn't! I'm not quite a millennial, but I saw my single mom struggle to make ends meet. Struggle to keep us afloat each month. She hated her job, she hated her boss, but she felt she had so little choice in it. I think she stayed at some deadend barely minimum wage job for like 8 years. I would never want that for myself or my family.

I would much rather spend time with my family. A job is a job, and temporary in the grand scope of things (even 20 years is still temp). Myself and my family is forever. I don't have children, but it is so much more important to be home with them rather than working on a damn presentation or whatever BS that can wait until tomorrow.

I'm not quite understanding your post. Is it disdain for those who "settled" in your eyes? Is it extolling the virtues of waiting to take on family responsibilities? Confused here... :confused:
Not at all, just relating some of the notes in the article with 'real life'. I feel bad for the people who settled, not disdain. They felt they had no other choice - younger folk in this day KNOW they have a choice, and have no problem taking advantage of that (ebay quote from matatas article). Also relating how office culture has changed with the millenials coming into the picture. The first article is quite harsh toward it, but I said I think it's a good thing.

eta- With the age of ME, they won't do something that doesn't make them happy. So if they are not happy working at the job, they'll move. If you read matatas article it discusses this quite a bit. In previous days we worked to make the company happy so as to not lose our job. Now, the company works to make them happy so they don't go to another job. I think it's a good change for the employee.
 
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