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Welcome back to The Generation Edge series, our monthly magazine exploring the identity, values, and lifestyle of the post millennial generation. People born after about 1995, the eldest of which are 19 now. We call them Generation Edge. In this edition we explore how Gen X parents are shaping this new generation. Because, like it or not, our parents exert tremendous influence on the people we become...
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GENERATION
HOW GEN X PARENTS ARE SHAPING THE NEXT
GENERATIONUNDERSTANDING A NEW GENERATION
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IMPACT OF GEN X: HOW XER PARENTS ARE SHAPING A
NEW GENERATIONWelcome back to The Generation Edge Series, our
monthly magazine exploring the identity, values, and lifestyle of the post-‐millennial generation. This month we explore how Gen X parents are shaping a new
generation
Because like it or not, our parents exert tremendous inDluence on the people we become...
03
Preparation Independence Realism Truth
ALL THAT IS LEFT FROM HELICOPTERING PARENTS IS THE SHARP BLADE...
A PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP ANCHORED IN...
The relationship Millennials have had with their Baby Boomer parents has been widely discussed for many years. Whether it’s Helicopter or Tea Cup parenting, or even the complete dissolution of the parent role through peerenting, it is undeniable that this co-‐dependent relationship has played a signi?icant role in shaping Millennials and their expectations of the world.
However, as Generation Edge comes of age, the relationship they have with their Gen X parents is in?luencing them in far different ways. Generation X, a cohort rooted in rebellion, anti-‐trust and a cynical take on the world are parents that focus on preparation over praise, being unique vs. being the best and realism over unabashed championing.
Parents are no longer saying ‘World, get ready for my baby’, but rather “Baby, get ready for this world.’.
RAISINGGENERATION
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‣ National attention was thrown onto the plight of latch key kids after the 1983 publication of “The Handbook for Latchkey Children and Their Parents”
‣ Studies in the late 1980s showed showed that about 15% of children 6 -9 yrs did not have a parent present when they came home from school, increasing to 45% among children from 9-11 yrs
“''They [Gen X Children] get the sense that they're not really cared about,'' he said. ''It's easy for them to start rejecting adult standards, and to give in to the kind of peer pressure that gets them in trouble.'”
- Dr. Jay Belskey, Professor of Human Development, Pennsylvania State University
The statistic that half of all marriages end in divorce was true only in the 1970s when most Gen Xers were growing up. In addition, for the ?irst time the majority of Gen Xers saw their mothers leaving the home to become ‘working women’.
As a result, the number of latchkey kids exploded with Generation X, and the traditionally comforting ‘nuclear family’ home for many came be a lonely place.
Now parents themselves, Gen Xers re?lect on these experiences and claim to be signi?icantly less likely to ask their own parents for advice when it comes to raising their kids.
As parents, Generation X are determined to do things very differently.
LATCHKEY KIDSCONTEXTUAL FACTORS
The effects of national economic disparities and turmoil have trickled down to our schools and learning institutions, resulting in uncertain stability. For Gen Edge, not knowing if a local school will remain open next semester or if teachers will be present to teach a lesson has become an all to typical dinnertime conversation. Furthermore, conventional basics can no longer be taken for granted -‐ i.e. supplies, resources, and extended school hours for additional help.
UNRELIABLECONTEXTUAL FACTORS
Indeed, economic collapse has punctuated every signi?icant coming of age milestone for Gen Xers. The Energy Crisis loomed throughout their early childhood years in the 1970s. Wall Street fell when Xers graduated from high school. College graduation was met with the ?irst Bush recession and impossibly scarce jobs, and when they ?inally bought their own homes, the housing bubble burst.
After a never-‐ending onslaught of challenges and issues, Gen Xers see the world through grey lenses.
They believe the world is a tough, hard place. A place where one ?irst needs to survive, long before they can thrive. And Gen Xers want to make sure their children have the tools and are prepared to face this head on.
NOT SO WONDER YEARS
“In the early 1990s, I found in extensive interviews with young Xers that many of them associated themselves with collective failure, as if their
generation were a gigantic auto accident. This meant that to be successful you had to take plenty of risks and be different from your peers.”
- Neil Howe, Researcher/Demographer, Forbes Contributor
X’ers
‣ Gen Xers in their 30s and 40s have experienced the biggest decline in homeownership — and to this day are the most likely to be underwater on the homes they still own
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The effects of national economic disparities and turmoil have trickled down to our schools and learning institutions, resulting in uncertain stability. For Gen Edge, not knowing if a local school will remain open next semester or if teachers will be present to teach a lesson has become an all to typical dinnertime conversation. Furthermore, conventional basics can no longer be taken for granted -‐ i.e. supplies, resources, and extended school hours for additional help.
UNRELIABLECONTEXTUAL FACTORS
So when Gen Xers combined a fractured, lonely home life with a world seemingly on the brink of collapse at every turn, how did this shape their world view?
Growing up, Generation X saw the ‘adult’ world as a pretty depressing place. It either made promises it couldn’t keep or trapped people in cycles of unhappiness. As a result, Xers famously rebelled against, or outright rejected, traditional markers of maturity as they came of age. Instead, they wanted to be in adult-‐free, youthful places doing things that were ‘cool’ with people who were ‘in’.
Buying a house, getting a ‘real’ job and even becoming a parent could be seen as depressing, or ?inally giving up,
So now ?inding themselves as parents, Xers have had to relunctantly adjust to this mature reality. And along with that adjustment, they profess that they will never lose touch with how it feels to be young and relevant.
ADJUSTING TO MATURITY
“Generation X is ofIicially old. Sorry, when did this happen? It seems like Iive minutes ago we were young, we were the future, the people for
whom anything was possible. Now we're the middle-‐aged bores pottering around in slippers, fretting about how our savings scheme is doing in an unstable market and, saddest of all, "getting into" things: expensive coffee, Booker-‐nominated novels, obscure types of pilates.”
- Darragh McManus, Journalist, The Guardian“There’s this incredible denial of middle age going on. People want to hang onto their youth, so in that sense you’re young-‐
young-‐young ‘til you’re old.”- Patricia Cohen, Journalist, NY Times
The effects of national economic disparities and turmoil have trickled down to our schools and learning institutions, resulting in uncertain stability. For Gen Edge, not knowing if a local school will remain open next semester or if teachers will be present to teach a lesson has become an all to typical dinnertime conversation. Furthermore, conventional basics can no longer be taken for granted -‐ i.e. supplies, resources, and extended school hours for additional help.
UNRELIABLECONTEXTUAL FACTORS
Sex -‐ Drugs -‐ Violence -‐ Despair. These topics cover newspapers, TV broadcasts and social media at every turn. Generation X parents (as they expect) are seeing their world, and their child’s world, ripe with fear.
Children today are exposed to more violence than any other previous generation. Gen Xers don’t want to make up stories and excuses for what is on the news, but rather to educate their children to be active citizens and highly aware of what is outside their doorstep.
Married with a highly complicated eco-‐system of ever-‐present and non-‐stop technology, Xers lean into a tougher tell-‐it-‐like-‐is stance. Rather than shield their children from the dangers of the world, give them the weapons to survive.
NAVIGATING GLOBAL REALITIES
“Boomer parents assumed that since they had turned out Iine, their kids would, too. Gen X doesn't have that assumption. We've seen what it's like to have the rug pulled out from underneath us.”- Lisa Chamberlain Author, Slackonomics: Generation X in the Age
of Creative Destruction
“You need to things where kids can be safe but where there is a bit of a perceived risk -‐ they shouldn’t be able to fall on their head easily, but it
can’t be so safe that they are bored to tears.”- Prof. Anita Bundy, Professor of Occupational Therapy, Sydney University
The effects of national economic disparities and turmoil have trickled down to our schools and learning institutions, resulting in uncertain stability. For Gen Edge, not knowing if a local school will remain open next semester or if teachers will be present to teach a lesson has become an all to typical dinnertime conversation. Furthermore, conventional basics can no longer be taken for granted -‐ i.e. supplies, resources, and extended school hours for additional help.
UNRELIABLECONTEXTUAL FACTORS
After being brought up on microwave meals (that they heated up themselves), junk food or whatever mom could get on the table after a full work day, Gen Xers want to provide real meals for their children (think Jamie Oliver). As a generation, growing up, Xers had notoriously poor diets and as adults have been swept up in every diet craze that has come along.
Now as parents, they question of the industrial food complex that failed them. Many Xers challenge where their food comes from and want to understand the potential impact on the well being of their kids.
Coupled with emerging research on connections between sugar, wheat etc to ADD, autism etc, Generation Edge are being raised to understand exactly what they are putting in their mouths.
FAST FOOD NATION
“86% of Moms turn to multivitamins as a “one stop shop” to provide nutrition they fear to be lacking in regular diets”
‣ About half of GenXers said they preferred to buy organic foods at least some of the time, and one in 10 said they are committed to buying organic when it’s available
The effects of national economic disparities and turmoil have trickled down to our schools and learning institutions, resulting in uncertain stability. For Gen Edge, not knowing if a local school will remain open next semester or if teachers will be present to teach a lesson has become an all to typical dinnertime conversation. Furthermore, conventional basics can no longer be taken for granted -‐ i.e. supplies, resources, and extended school hours for additional help.
UNRELIABLECONTEXTUAL FACTORS
With adulthood repeatedly shipwrecked by economic disasters, Xers have had a tougher ?inancial road to take and continue down.
With Generation Edge kids having to stay at home longer (as they face their own tough ?inancial realities) and Boomers refusing to retire and give up those plum senior jobs, Xers continue to have to do more with less. For many Xers, retirement is a distant, challenging, and unaffordable dream.
As a result, as they raise their Generation Edge kids, fewer dollars are available for college, after school activities and family trips away.
The coddling ‘anything for my child’ mentality of the Boomers for their Millennial kids has made way for harsher realities for Gen Edge. And if they want something, they might just have to go and get it themselves.
FREEDOM 75. HOPEFULLY.
‣ The largest percentage of households in foreclosure belonged to those in Generation X—in particular, Gen-Xers who had high average household income ($59,500) and years of education (14.8 years)
“Xers are always living in a state of triage, always in a survivalist mode. We’re not thinking long-‐term.”
- Susan Gregory Thomas, Author, “In Spite of Everything”
“Today, behold the era of the Gen-X “stealth-fighter parent.” Stealth-fighter parents do not hover. They choose when and where they will
attack. If the issue seems below their threshold of importance, they save their energy and let it go
entirely.”
- Neil Howe, Demographer
INTRODUCING THE END OF PERFECT PARENTING...
The world has shown Xers that Mom & Dad didn’t always know best and to trust their own instincts when it comes to raising a family.
The world has shown Xers that f*cked up sh*t happens that you can’t plan for...but you can prepare for it. Sort of.
The world has shown Xers that winning and being at the top doesn’t mean much -‐ especially when it can all come tumbling down. Raising a unique, independent and interesting child is far more important.
ARE BEING RAISED BY PARENTS WHO CAN’T, AND DON’T WANT TODO IT ALL
GENERATION
Gen X parents realize that happiness for their child won’t come with hand holding, giving out participation ribbons or prizes just for ‘trying’. They’re open to giving their kids opportunities to experience failure and to learn about making their own way and their own happiness
Gen Xers are teaching their children to begin over and over again, take chances -‐-‐ but also learn how to get back to the starting line on their own if they go off course...
Today’s parents are stepping back from a feedback-‐all the time mentality, and letting children step closer to the edge.
As a result, Generation Edge is emerging as cohort far less focused on being heaped with constant praise, but rather living up to their own standards of accomplishment.
NO MORE GOLD STARS
"Whether your kid loves Little League or gymnastics, ask the program organizers this: “Which kids get awards?” If the answer is, “Everybody gets a trophy,” Cind
another program.”Ashley Merryman co author of Nurtureshock"
FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO LOSE
UNIQUE IS THE NEW PERFECT
CRACKING THE COOKIE CUTTER
“"For many Gen Xers, the education that deBines us is the one we got for ourselves, outside of school."
Jeff Gordinier, Author, X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking
Emerging from both their survivalist and rebellious spirits, Xer parents do not believe in raising a cookie-‐cutter child, one who does and says the ‘right’ things.
When Gen Xers were applying for jobs, the market was weak -‐ one could have a degree, volunteer experience, and connections but still doors remained closed. Lesson learned. Today Xers believe it is far more important to raise a child with a competitive edge, a difference in opinion or unique perspective.
Ultimately Xer parents are less attached to how their child turns out but rather they’re interested in the varied opportunities they’re children are having today.
As a result, Edgers place far more weight and importance on being different, bringing something interesting to the table, and standing out from all their peers.
MORE THAN ONE WAY TO GET IT ‘RIGHT’
DIFFERENT STROKES, DIFFERENT FOLKS
“I have decided to be gentle with myself when it comes to parenting – to be okay not knowing exactly how to handle it.”
Alison Slater Tate, Journalist, The Washington Post
Xer parents are recognizing that what works for them might not work for other families. In recognizing uniqueness and valuing that children learn differently, this has lead to increased tolerance regarding ‘parenting differently’.
Xer parents are empowered to talk out, have an opinion, share, and decide the best course of action for themselves and their children. Cue the explosion of the ‘Mommy Blogger’.
Parents are empowered to raise different children, well, differently. A one-‐size ?its all method doesn’t need to apply.
As a result, Gen Edgers can appreciate more disparate viewpoints or approaches and feel more comfortable charting their own path.
SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR BRANDS?
STRAIGHT TALK
Raised on a diet of truth, honesty and some heavy doses of reality, Generation Edge expect the world to be a tough place. They’ve been taught that the motivations of brands, corporations and institutions are seldom what they seem.
Edgers have received direct and adult straight-‐talk from their parents for years. Brands that pander, condescend or rely on lazy young-‐person stereotypes will not connect.
Engage Generaiton Edge through honest, real language. Their marketing bullshit meter is =inely tuned and will call out brands that don’t talk their walk.
BRAND IMPLICATIONS
PARENTS ARE NO LONGER THE ‘ENEMY’Generation Edge appreciate the honest and respectful relationship they have with their parents. In addition, their parents open encouragement to be their own unique self has Generation Edge seeing their parents as trusted allies.
Don’t assume that parents aren’t already part of the conversation. Amongst Generation Edge, even some of the most sensitive topics (eg. contraception) are open and out on the table with their parents.
Consider ways to engage Generation Edge through their parents and vice versa. In addition, communications that attempt to paint parents as the enemy, or out of touch, will fall =lat with Edgers.
BRAND IMPLICATIONS
PACK YOUR OWN CHUTERaised by parents less obsessed with winning or their kids obtaining traditional markers of ‘success’, results in Edgers focused on standing out rather than being #1.
Consider ways to allow your message, content or products to drive the individualism or competitive differentiation that Edgers crave.
Consider spokespeople or brand representatives that have broken molds, overcome adversity or re=lect empowered uniqueness.
BRAND IMPLICATIONS
RESOURCES
RESOURCES
COVER https://hrcktheherald.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/img_6318-2.jpeg
SLIDE 5 http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/22/us/health-psychology-studies-play-down-dangers-to-latchkey-children.html
SLIDE 6 http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/08/27/generation-x-once-xtreme-now-exhausted-part-5-of-7/
SLIDE 7http://www.governing.com/topics/mgmt/gov-how-generation-x-shaping-government.htmlhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/may/08/generation-x-50-whateverhttp://www.salon.com/2013/08/11/generation_x_gets_really_old_how_do_slackers_have_a_midlife_crisis/
SLIDE 8 http://www.edutopia.org/generation-x-parents-relationships-guidehttp://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/boring-playgrounds-deprive-kids/story-e6freuzi-1111113822631
SLIDE 9 http://www.statista.com/statistics/298762/united-states-generation-x-preference-organic-foods/
SLIDE 10 http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2013/01/02/did-generation-x-cause-the-housing-crisis
SLIDE 11 http://www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle.aspx?id=11122
SLIDE 13 http://www.nurtureshock.com
SLIDE 14 http://www.edutopia.org/generation-x-parents-relationships-guide
SLIDE 15 http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2014/09/29/parenting-as-a-gen-xer-what-its-like-to-be-the-first-generation-of-parents-in-the-age-of-ieverything/
