Generation Gap: It's the Parents' Fault

Well, it's Thanksgiving break and nothing else to do except chill out and update my blog. That no one reads. But hey, I can handle that.


Today we're going to talk about the Generation Gap. It's the phenomenon that people claim occurs between generations where neither one understands the other.

We can blame it on several different factors. For starters, we can always blame society. The children of the younger generation are growing up in a completely different atmosphere than the older generation. Makes some sense. After all, your younger formative years influence you a lot. If you're bombarded every day with concepts and ideas of what is right and wrong, that has a huge influence on your life. And if these foundational ideas are different than what your parents were exposed to, then it's no wonder than their world views will be slightly different.

We can also blame it on the kids. After all, the older, wise generation were kids, and then grew up and matured and now know better. However, the naive little ones still don't get it and think they're the rulers of the world and these different views clash creating a rift. After all, what teenager isn't just a bit too cocky.


However, I posit a huge factor that overshadows all of these. It's the parents' fault. That's right, I just pinned it on those bastions of knowledge and maturity.

Let's think about this for a moment. As a very young child you idolize your parents. It is their house, they set all the rules, you never see them cry and they hold absolute power over you. In fact, they seem neigh incorruptible. They are the Alpha and Omega of your universe. However, slowly, we start to see the cracks along the edges. Finally, one day, we realize just how mortal the parents really are. They are flawed humans like us. Even worse, they have some serious problems, problems that we see that they don't seem to even recognize. Worse, we figure this out before they realize we know, so they think their wills are still dominating the landscape. In response, the children begin to wonder "why do they think themselves so high and mighty."

Thusly the cookie crumbles. Thoughts of rebellion creep into our minds. Subversion creeps into our habits. And since the parents stay blind, they don't know what's suddenly happened until it's too late and the rift is established with now way back.


Then there's the stubbornness of the old. Let's face it, they're really, really set in their ways. They refuse to change their behavior. They refuse to learn new technology. They think the olde way is best, and there's no way to get it through their heads that iPods are the coolest things ever and that texting is the communication of the future. Or that they should stop repeating themselves every five minutes to try and get a point across. Nope. Even worse when they are ridiculed, they know their idiosyncrasy, and then just shrug it off and say they're too old to change. Bull. No wonder you can't stay in contact with the younger ones if you can't keep up with the times and have to ask for help to add an attachment to your e-mail every single time you want to send one.


So yeah, it's all the older generation's fault.