Life is rather circular

"Back in the day," as my dad would say, we had more extended families. Grandparents lived with their children and grandchildren. Aunts and Uncles took care of nieces and nephews on a regular basis. Indeed, my grandfather and grandmother lived with us (in a separate part of the house) as we grew up, and my other grandparents were right down the road.

Then I grew up as a baby boomer, and all we heard from the media was how life has changed. Kids move out at 18 never to return. "We have a mobile society," the media worried, "and kids aren't connected to their families!" Psychologists predicted an isolated generation with lack of nurturing, and who knows what that might bring. More violence. Suicides. Divorces. A "me generation" attitude (indeed, baby boomers are often described that way). End of the world?!

Well, folks. What has happened? Now we have complaints of parents who hover too much...the "helicopter generation." Kids are coming back home after graduating from college. We are nurturing our kids too much. They're not gaining the independence they need to get through life. And...as far as "connections," we have way too many. Between Blogs and texts and Facebook, etc., we communicate too much! We baby boomers have, once again, created chaos.

You know what? The "authorities" (and that includes the media, as well as the psychologists, sociologists, and other "scholars") don't know what they're talking about. They just enjoy predicting doom and gloom. I have never agreed with all that generational balderdash. People are individuals...and generations are too. There are many baby boomers who are just like Generation X or Y or Z. And vice versa. We are all different, and that's good!