Generational trends…

Parents your eyes need to be set for 20 years down the road…not the education, not the material wealth or even the intellectual wealth of your child / children….

The mentality of scarcity is really what drives most parents in each generation to do what they do. However, with each generation the items that are perceived to be ‘scarce’ end up being the moderator of the next generation …or should i say moulder of the next generation.

Veterans Gen had minimal education opportunities, so they are especially driven to provide education and good future in employment for children, ie Boomers / Gen X.

Boomers had to content with post war scarcity of quality of love life, so they are driven to give their children love the way they did not get and also in the process, remove the authoritative structure and became more of a friend….to their children Gen X /Gen Y.

Gen X saw their parents gave their life to work and to companies and never had time. The perceived scarcity of personal time and freedom drove them to give indulgence to the children. They compensate for the slightest any error due to career demands [sense of guilt] and doted on their children with material things, expensive things, and due to their own inability to handle confrontations…seeing pain in the children as a major deterrent for any corrections. This gives rise to an over focus on intellect and material gain.

And the current generation Gen Y / Gen N…

We now have a generation that is so used to indulgence, being vocal, full of intellect, carrying an emotional vat filled with ‘me centered’ emotions, and lacking in maturity -cannot see past themselves in any matter.

The current young adults are not very conscious of their behaviours…not searching beyond the surface….deep introspection of self is almost a lost art or practice. Focus is largely external not internal.

So parents, regardless of your theory of scarcity, do you raise children to give to the world or do you raise children to take from the world. They can be a those who are set apart, that moves against the flow or be part of the main flow ….that is the big challenge for parents.

The children who know how to live life without the wealth of material things, being deeper in maturity, and wiser in handling oneself, not dependent on material comfort ie stronger in resilience, will survive a disaster much much more readily than their peers who have had material comfort all their life.

The world is heading for more disasters so which camp do you want your child to be in?

How would the children of Gen Y and N be like?

[I know I have made generalisations as in a bell curve. I know there are exceptions so this is not about the exception but about the majority. No offences intended.]