There is a meme rattling around some tubes of the internet that claims “boomer” parents are less likely to watch after or babysit their grandchildren unlike their parents – greatest and silent generations I think – with whom millennials and gen x’ers spent a greater amount of time during their childhoods. I have no idea if this true at a population level, if there are statistics or studies to back this up. It was true for me at least, and I suspect that there has been an intense amount of data gathering to help make this a viable meme among people my age and from generally similar social strata.

This divergence is chalked up to individualized narcissism and selfishness, and merges with another generational meme about how gen x’ers were neglected en masse as children. Some very obvious developments are turned around and weaponized on everyone these memes are meant to resonate with: grandparents didn’t have to work until they keeled over dead like they do now; children of people who survived wars and did everything they could to save and make a nest egg found themselves occupying a new social and class position, able to demand, think, and expect more – with assassinated and then coopted political leadership that followed, many turned transcendental and worse; although it was more acceptable to be a neglectful or absent parent, children of boomers didn’t have to perform labor like their grandparents likely had to for entire family survival and had the freedom to roam, explore, question – to have their own lives.