PicoBlog

I was just thinking about this. I've never understood the therapy, take care of myself first, trauma-drama, aspects of Gen X, even when growing up Gen X. We were all cool, having a great time, enjoying the 80s and 90s and the suddenly, in our late 20s, became complete self-care freaks hell bent on mothering the rest of the world to make sure they didn't feel any pain, especially the upper-middle class females that you mention in this essay. I think it was Tucker Carlson who said the entire world is now run in a way to make white, middle-aged, VC wives feel justified in their need to mommy everyone. Thing is, you gotta cut the apron strings to produce a healthy adult. I recall standing in a new-age bookstore a decade ago, surrounded by self-help books, 80% written by Gen X women going through a midlife crisis, 15% by self-proclaimed "gurus" of all flavors, probably only 5% of the bookstore contained something non-self-reflective. In our quest to improve ourselves, be perfect, put on our oxygen masks, we became terrible parents, ignoring our children's needs by making them fit into our schedules, our dreams, our desires. When they were too much work, we plopped them in front of the TV. To make up for our guilt at being more interested in our own development, we strove to be their "friends" and allowed them to have smartphones, computers, and $80 allowances. We paid others to teach our kids the basics in all ways...tutors, daycare, nannies. There are layers to our failure to parent, but you've hit the most important ones on the head here. It is Gen X's fault that Gen Z is lost within their trauma. I can only imagine what their Eat, Pray, Love memoirs will look like.

Expand full comment

ncG1vNJzZmiilaO7qrLEq6qesV6owqO%2F05qapGaTpLpwvI6inWaflaN6u3nSrpqkq12ewbR5xp6lZrCjYrOiwcutZpynnaKyr8DS