How Did the Latchkey Kids of Gen X Become the Helicopter Parents of Gen Z?

It’s a pendulum between supervision and freedom. People react against what they experienced and give the next generation too much of what they lacked.

And they had the nerve to complain about us being helicopter parented? Every time they were talking about helicopter parents, Gen X was really just talking about themselves.

We were latchkey children, raised on packets of instant oatmeal that we mixed ourselves.

When my sister later had children she rolled out the red carpet for them in response. I think her basic parenting strategy was, whatever our mom did, do the opposite.

As others have said, it's all a reaction to how we were raised or left to raise ourselves. I am shocked at how Gen Z can't do anything for themselves.

Good parenting isn't a style.

^^ Woman’s Day, 1971

Maybe because of the terrible shit we went through without parents and had to cope with on our own?

Latchkey kids long predate Gen X, just so you know.

R8, I loved the freedom I had.

Or better said, I love now the freedom that I don’t even know I had then.

R3: I'm not speaking to you directly or even the gay people on this site but your generation really needs to get the fuck over your whole latchkey shit and stop taking out your issues on the rest of us.

Signed kindly,

your younger half-millennial sibling

[quote]R10 I'm not speaking to you directly or even the gay people on this site but your generation really needs to get the fuck over your whole [italic]latchkey shit [/italic]and stop taking out your issues on the rest of us.

Well, I am speaking to YOU directly: Do you know what it is to subside on an envelope of Carnation Instant Breakfast - stirred by your own little hands - until lunchtime?

Do you know what it’s like to have an untoasted Pop Tart and a glass of Tang as an after school snack?

We lived off dry cereal!

Who knows? They created the most fucked in the head generation ever. We’ve already moved on to Gen Alpha. Zoomers are a lost cause and a smaller generation, thank god.

From what I've observed from the breeders that I know, [quote]not[/quote] being a helicopter parent is no longer even an option. Things that would've been okay a few decades ago could now be cause for arrest, child services, etc. The shit has gotten ridiculous. And these little brats need some discipline.

^^^^^^^^

Is generation Z really smaller than Alpha?

I mean, fertility rates declined in the 2010s in comparison to the 2000s and late 1990s…

Millennials are now the largest generation.

R16: GOOD!

We're the only generation who NEVER swallowed the Trump bullshit.

r11

[quote] Do you know what it is to subside on an envelope of Carnation Instant Breakfast - stirred by your own little hands - until lunchtime? Do you know what it’s like to have an untoasted Pop Tart and a glass of Tang as an after school snack?

Heaven?

R11: You guys swear that parental Boomer neglect was like the worst possible thing ever. But try seeing things from our side. Imagine heavily involved Boomer parents who wanted to mold you into their mini-mes and all of the neverending criticism and passive-aggressiveness involved with that. In the end, I think we break even.

I don't know, R19. Largely, I think Boomers did a pretty good job parenting. We had most of the freedom Gen X kids were given to get into messes and learn to solve our own problems, but were raised by parents and a society with more liberal values and self-acceptance.

R20: you're right on that regard. Unfortunately Gen X decided that they wanted to raise their little shits on a steady diet of grievances and Joe Rogan.

[quote] We’ve already moved on to Gen Alpha. Zoomers are a lost cause and a smaller generation, thank god.

Isn't it amusing that Gen Z thinks they're going to be leaders and in charge? Like how and in what universe?

All they need to do is look at their parents and how all of that went. Somebody needs to rip the band-aid off of their delusions.

R8: Don't tell Gen X that. Being latchkey is like their whole identity.

I'm surprised that a Gen Xer even has this much self-awareness. If you visit Reddit's r/genx sub, those shitheads truly think they're unique in suffering. They have such a high opinion of themselves that the comedown must really hurt.

I forgot the link. Read it and weep.

[quote]R24 I'm surprised that a Gen Xer even has this much self-awareness… Those shitheads truly think they're unique in suffering.

Get back to me when you’re gifted a Pet Rock as a child, you heartless bastard!

Because of unfortunately permitted reproducing, OP. 😕

R27 Nobody held a gun and forced Gen X to spawn. That was all them. It wasn't the 1950s.

We looked for love and acceptance wherever we could. And this resulted in teen pregnancy.

How dare you, with your Participation Medal, judge us?

#LatchkeyLove

R29, did you carry your bastard baby to full term?

I enjoyed my freedom and independence as a latchkey kid especially on Saturday nights when my parents would go out. I had the TV to myself.

Latchkey kids had TV in place of parents, and the children of latchkey kids have social media in place of relationships.

Well, I grew up in an extremely racist part of the rural south.

So, being raised by Norman Lear worked out very well for me!

I can say the same, R33 -- I'm a liberal who grew up on Staten Island.

It must be nature, not nurture.

Expectations changed in a massive way with boomers raising their Millennials.

Then you have so many laws now about not leaving children alone for a single instant without supervision. That shit did not exist during Gen X times.

It's a combo of that - it's society and expectations and new rules being introduced. And some busybodies want to make sure they are enforced!

I work with some of these helicopter parents (women). They 're not bad people and they have some other interests beside their kids, but...I honestly think part of constantly monitoring their kids' lives is that it validates them to each other--and all their other friends and fellow parents. As soon as they get together at work, it's all about what their kids are doing, where they are, what they just texted...

My parents and my friends' parents cared about us. And I know parents in those days talked about their kids and bragged about them, etc. But we had separate identities.

I was a latchkey kid in the 1960s. I know two families whose grown children still live with them. And they all love it. It’s incredible to me. The parents are my age and their nearly 40 year old daughters have never lived anywhere else. Everyone seems so babyfied to me. Maybe I’m just jealous. There was an unspoken expectation from my folks that we two kids vamoose at 18, plans or not.

^^ they took away your latchkey at 18!

The final insult…

[quote] Expectations changed in a massive way with boomers raising their Millennials.

No they didn't. And even if they did, why would you emulate their parenting style?

The mistake we all make is in not having compassion for other generations. Each and every one has both good and bad, no?

R40: Ask Gen X that. They've been slamming us and putting us down for decades now. And now they're finally getting called out for their shit, and oh no, we can't have that.

You guys can bash GenX all you want. But do remember that we don't care what you say. I don't necessarily agree with Trump's voting, but GenX didn't vote for him all alone. Unlike those two terrible generations on either side of us, there are just not enough of us to sway an election.

[quote] But do remember that we don't care

Which is precisely why you should never, EVER be in charge.

Oh you don't care? That's cute. For a 15-year-old.

And if you really don't care? Then get the fuck out of the way you smelly bitch. You're hogging up space and resources.

My sister and I are both gen X. She has Gen z kids. She’s not a helicopter parent.

I think the real helicopters were the boomers, and it had a lot to do with why millennials turned out like they did (infantilized).

R44 do you mean the same Gen Z who still live at home?

[quote] You guys can bash GenX all you want.

You guys are the biggest pussy generation of them all. Bigger pussies than Gen Z. And way bigger pussies than Gen Alpha. You love to dish it out but you can't take it and you get all defensive when somebody calls you out.

Her kids don’t live at home. Ones a lawyer, one moved out years ago, and one’s in college with great prospects of job offers.

If many Gen z still live at home, perhaps that has to do with wages stagnating but cost of living steadily climbing? Think back on your first apartment. Mine was a studio on the upper west side, 1,000/month. That same studio is probably $1800-2000 now, but wages aren’t that they were.

R46, you sound like you’re 12 years old. Let me guess what generation you’re in.

[Quote] That same studio is probably $1800-2000 now, but wages aren’t that they were.

Whoops, meant That same studio is probably $1800-2000 now, but wages aren’t twice that they were.

R48: when you deal with 51-year-olds who still act like they're 15, sometimes you need to stoop down to their level and speak in terms that their little brains can understand.

There's a troll on DL whom I'm guessing is either an older Zoomer or younger Millennial with an irrational and extremely tedious hatred of Gen X, and once again, they've completely taken over and ruined another "generation" thread. Like clockwork.

The real whoops, R49 is that UWS studio is more like 2,500 - 3,000 a month now - and wages indeed haven't kept up. I now can't afford the apartment I rented in Chelsea back in the 90s.

R51: That's cute that you think only one person ever could have criticisms about your generation.

Try getting out of your bubble and visiting Reddit or IG or TikTok. There's a whole lot of criticism about Gen X and your alls' Trumpy ways.

R53 I'm 37--a solid Millennial. When I was a kid, I thought of Gen X as our generation's cooler, punker, older siblings. When I was older, I started dating them pretty much exclusively because I just had more in common with them in terms of music and film tastes and pop culture references. My partner is Gen X as are most of my friends. None of them voted for Trump because no one I hang out with voted for Trump.

Your all-consuming obsession with Gen X makes you seem like a seething, mouth-foaming lunatic. Get a hobby.

[quote] My partner is Gen X as are most of my friends. None of them voted for Trump because no one I hang out with voted for Trump.

Isn't that nice for you, you little insipid cunt?

Unfortunately, actual statistics disagree with your personal fee-fees.

And with respect, I think I will not take your advice to "spend more time on IG and TikTok". And frankly, I think it would do you some good to spend quite a bit less time there yourself and a bit more time touching grass.

^*meant to sign as R55

R56, and yet here you find yourself, on Datalounge of all places, doling out advice that you, yourself, should take.

Can we have some sanity on this? I guess I'm from near the end of the boomer generation. But you know this was apparently a term, Baby Boom, that was made up by Time Magazine? This is all such bullshit. All these terms, Gen X, Gen Z...why do you buy into all this crap? Because some social scientists labeled you? Can't you see how stupid and divisive it is? My God. It's meaningless. Get over yourselves.

R59: Let's let Gen X lead the way in that regard. They are now the elder statesmen. Let them put on a clinic for the rest of us.

Melania is also Gen X. I wonder if that stupid whore had a latchkey for her poosey.

My mother and father, born 1942, were both latchkey kids, just like my brother and I, because their parents all worked outside the home

R62: Don't tell Gen X that. They think they're the first and only ones on earth who ever had to contend with neglectful parents.

I wasn't a latchkey kid, per se. My dad got home at 3pm so if I came straight home from school, after my mom got a job when I was 16, he was usually home within half an hour. I didn't even have a key. We lived in such a safe, semi-rural suburban area we didn't lock the house.