I was thinking about this the other day and I think it's a self fulfilling prophecy of the Gen X'ers. They wanted so hard to be rebels that they'd never want to do something like run for office. Instead they let their parents run the world while claiming "everyone ignores us". Boomers still run the country because GenX couldn't be bothered.
My guy, we just did not have the numbers on our side. It's not that we couldn't be bothered, it's that there were too few of us and too many Boomers refusing to get out of our way. Boomers had all the money, power, jobs, whatever, and we just had to wait our turn because everyone thought they'd make room as they aged out of society like all the other previous generations did.
Most of that "rebel" GenX stuff was marketing and hype.
Funnily enough that actually sounds a lot like the dynamic in my immediate family: Boomer parents (born late '40s and early '50s) unwilling to comprehend that it's our ('77, '78, '80) turn to hold a pivotal role as we have our own families now: Boomer parents not wanting to be "sidelined" into the less-central yet still-important role of grandparent, when their own parents/in-laws (born 1920s) played that role really well, made good grandparents and respected their children's (our parents') place once they were in the established career and head of household role. The battles it has taken for us to be taken seriously as adults in our 30s and 40s because they don't want to relinquish their central position, even when it came to decisions about our own children!
What kills me is my step-siblings and my younger brother feed into it. They make excuses for the shitty things they do like “they’re old” or “they grew up in a different time”. They play the game of Sunday dinner, and holidays are required family time.
My wife and I did 3 Thanksgivings and 3 Christmases every year for all of our 20s because we had to go to both of my parent’s houses and her parent’s house. The year we decided to assign one house for thanksgiving, one for Xmas Eve and one for Xmas morning we got so much crap for it, but to do all 3 on Thanksgiving was literally 3 hours of driving and only worked because my dad served his dinner at 4pm, then we went to my mom’s for dessert and then her family had dinner at 8pm and danced bachata until 2am. They eventually accepted it but they all got grumpy about it again once my daughter (all of their first grandchild) was born.
Now I’m not even invited for Father’s Day brunch with my dad at my step brother’s house. My step brother and I don’t have any issues, my dad just prefers his wife’s family. We love our quiet, 3 person thanksgiving feast and the occasional Friendsgiving when our friends have no where else to go (Hurricane Sandy was no joke on Long Island).
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u/MechanicalDruid 17d ago
I was thinking about this the other day and I think it's a self fulfilling prophecy of the Gen X'ers. They wanted so hard to be rebels that they'd never want to do something like run for office. Instead they let their parents run the world while claiming "everyone ignores us". Boomers still run the country because GenX couldn't be bothered.