<p>^Hey, I put a smiley on that! No fair taking something that has a smiley attached and making it into something super-serious. </p>
<p>One of the more surreal experiences of my life was touring the old reform synagogue in Huntsville, glancing at the pictures of confirmation classes…and seeing my (California) childhood rabbi beaming out at me from one of the 1950’s-era pictures. :eek: That was his intern posting.</p>
<p>That was the common perception of everyone I met who were alive in the '50s. Sorry for not adding the “met” part in. Granted, none of them were from/grew up in the south or sundown towns. Most of my social circle who I’ve met from that period lived in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and California.</p>
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<p>That the older generations cannot claim superior virtue when they exhibited the same negatives…especially when they’ve demonstrated it to the same/worse degree…and is a matter of documented historical record.</p>
<p>Moreso when some of the current day negatives like the birther movement are mostly led and heavily populated by the folks from the same generation who were shouting “segregation forever” back in the '50s.</p>
<p>I have not seen many claims by those of us born in the late 1940s to late-1950s to “superior virtue” during our youth. “Stiffling conformity?” We had the Beat generation (several leaders were out gay men), Playboy magazine (advocating free love) and non-illegal LSD in the 1950s/early to mid-1960s and (behind closed door) the Kensey Report indicated our parents were not totally “squares.”</p>
<p>As a general rule, a White guy could get employment and support a family above the poverty line without a college degree in the 1950s and 1960s. But, to make a generalization of “one big happy employed nation” in the 1950s and 1960s requires ignoring the Black American experience nationwide, but more notably in the South. Hoffa threatened the southern local Teamster’s union leadership in the late 1960s if they did not stop denying positions to Blacks who were union members from the North.</p>
<p>Wars? We had Korea, the “advisory” involvement and direct military involvement in Southeast asia from the mid-1950s on with over 58,000 casualties. Beginning in the 1950s we basically had war in the US over integration of schools (state and federal troops in the streets), the end to segregation of interstate transportation (assaults on and imprisonment of Freedom Riders) and voter registration of Blacks in the South (lynching of civil rights workers).</p>
<p>Not to mention bombings of Black churchs (killing black children), major cities going up in flames, assassination of our first Catholic President, then his brother, Kent State and Jackson State (state troops killing unarmed students) and Weather Underground bombings of banks and the US Capitol, the Pentagon and the State Department Building.</p>
<p>And being female (White or otherwise) was no stroll in the park. No right of access to existing forms of birth control. Many (most?) states still had disabilities of coveture in some form or another until well into the 1960s/70s. In Texas there was still interspousal tort immunity!</p>
<p>Each generation’s experience is the same, only different.</p>
<p>So, everyone you’ve met, you’ve had a conversation with about this topic and know their opinions? Because there is hardly a topic on CC on which you don’t seem to think that you “know” exactly how everyone you’ve ever met feels about that topic. I don’t “know” what everyone I’ve ever met thinks about this topic. I know what I think, and that’s what counts.</p>
<p>That article was on the lightweight side. Regarding ‘modern kids’ being coddled: My father worked on a navy destroyer, dodged a few strafing airplanes, and watched a few ships go down. I had to survive Disco. As for my kid, he worked pretty hard to get into his college of choice, so, it’s a matter of doing what needs to be done for whatever timeframe one lands in inadvertently – but do it well.</p>
<p>I am very proud that my S. is raising coddled and very spoiled kids. I hope that my D. will continue in the same tradition. Why fix something that is working?<br>
Bribes work, punishment does not. Proven many times over.</p>
<p>well, it will be up to this generation to fix the disasters that the previous ones have created. We will be the ones paying for the previously made decisions.</p>
<p>This topic and the replies to it are funny. I think we have some things better, some things worse. In some ways we have a lot more freedom and in other ways we are restricted. It goes both ways.</p>
<p>And whether we’re ‘weak’ is relative. The truth is, there are so many kids, so many different people that it’s hard to see a trend now. </p>
<p>More kids go to college, yes but and undergrad degree is practically compulsory. I think all generations are basically the same.
The best will be the best in their world, the not so great pepole will be the lowest in te context of their world and the middle people will do what they’ve always done- be and get by in their world. </p>
<p>Whatever ‘bad habits’ there are will probably get forced out because there is a lot of competition and people don’t wait. </p>
<p>I supposethere might be more awareness but honestly, I doubt that many people will act on it. I will, because my parents have raised me with a strong sense of duty to the world and it’s who I am, but others might not because of their experiences.</p>
<p>If I were to make a guess, I’d say that the extremes will be greater in our world, but inthe end, we’ll be just like you guys ;)</p>
<p>My dad used to say he walked 10 miles to go to college. I lived a cushy life in boarding school. I suspect my children are even more coddled and get pretty much what they want by asking the right parent at the right time. I can only hope they turn out well as adults. </p>
<p>OTOH, I see they face more pressure at every level to succeed.</p>
And Nehru jackets and platform shoes. Oh wait. Maybe those are back (the shoes, not the jacket). And bell bottom pants seem to be trying to make a return. And tie die. And peace sign logos on clothes and jewelry. Its not coddling, its going retro!</p>
<p>My parents struggled with one family car. Now we all seem to have our own vehicles. Maybe we are the coddled ones.</p>
<p>“My dad used to say he walked 10 miles to go to college.” - My D. is still walking to her…Medical School, but it is not 10 miles. We made sure that her apartment is closer than that…and we pay for it more because of that (spoiling part). Parking is way too expansive, especially that we are paying for garage in apartment as we do not want her to clean a car in a winter (again spoiling part). But on the other hand, her time is so limited that we do not see her spending ton of time in very snowy city cleanning her car every day.</p>
<p>My dad survived the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, had to row a boat across a river to go to high school and then survived WWII. Compared to him, I’ve had it easy. </p>
<p>I think the kids of today are somewhat coddled but will have a rude awakening. Just today it was reported that half of all of today’s college graduates will get jobs that only require a HS diploma, no more. </p>
<p>At least Dad and I got college level jobs when we graduated. I’m not sure my kids will.</p>
<p>The coddled generation is the one that ran happily around their neighborhood playing games, hardly worried about school, and easily got into top colleges and medical or law school based on race and socioeconomic background. Didn’t have to compete at every level against everyone in the world to see job opportunities closing anyway. Enjoyed wealth that came in big part from the impoverishment of millions overseas. </p>
EVERY generation in history has faced this same situation. Think about it - it’s impossible to come of age in a world that you have created. And no generation has ever left the one to come after it with a perfect world.</p>