Millennials vs. Parents

It is constantly heard throughout school hallways, out on the town, and even on social media. Millennials are the people of the now, the people of this generation. They are the people born within the years in range of 1980 and 2000.

Millennials are no longer shaping up to follow the cookie cutter people that their parents and the previous generations want them to be. They are becoming their own people, or just following the crowd of people who want to be themselves. For some, though, there may be a higher cost. Sometimes putting your personal views out there for others to see can cause outside problems. Whether it be views on what you thought of last week’s Bachelor episode, or what you think about the future of our country, everyone has an opinion on something.

Danna Tedder, is a trigonometry teacher and a mother to three millennials. She knows firsthand what it is like raising this generation and how the outside forces can have an inside impact.

“Young people see and hear more of what’s going on in the world because of social media. It only takes a split second for information to be shared,” Mrs. Tedder said. “Due to social media and technology, everything is instantaneous.”

This is not just a new topic that has surfaced, it’s a topic that has gone away and come back several thousand times. People are constantly ridiculed and judged for what they believe in or what their interests are, and that’s why bullying is such a deep topic. It’s not necessarily due to the fact that bullying has “increased” over the years, it’s that the awareness of it has.

“I’m not sure bullying has really gotten worse, it’s just that today, partly because of social media, we hear about it when it happens,” Mrs. Tedder said.

Bullying is an everyday occurrence. Whether it be to one’s face or through social media, it’s happening. It’s real. Bullying isn’t just something that you see on TV shows or you read about in news articles. It happens everywhere, all the time. Whether it be because some people are raised differently than others or some people have more drive than others, it doesn’t matter. Bullying is bullying.

According to CNN, our generation, the “millennials,” are being raised with deep precautions. Their parents have raised them, helping them and taking control over so many things, that millennials are not able to keep up with it on their own. It’s not that they’re “soft,” it’s that they don’t necessarily know how to take complete control of their lives.

“Helicopter parenting, coupled with the belief that we should never let our children fail, have given rise to kids who are ill-prepared to cope with life’s challenges,” said Robin Koval, an author, in a CNN article.

Once again, it is not due to the fact that Millennials don’t know how to take control of their lives, it’s that up until adulthood, it has basically been done for them by parents or other parental type figures.

Millennials have grown up in a time era that is different than any other. It has been a difficult time and it’s not going to get easier, especially as they grow up and face the world on their own for the first time. It’s a new experience, and there is no doubt that it will definitely be a challenge.

“Teaching children to think for themselves and not just follow the crowd [is the most difficult part of raising children in this generation],” Mrs. Tedder said.. “Young people seem to be under a great deal of more stress than generations before them.  There seems to be this desire to always be and have the best regardless of the emotional toll it takes.”