The Younger Generation, They Confuse Me So….
As the step-mom to an intelligent 18-year-old teenage girl, I get to see how the younger generation interacts with the world, and find myself almost dumbfounded by how much things have changed since I was that age. When I was 18, I hung out with friends, had the occasional boyfriend, worked on my college degree and worked part-time for some spending money.
Cell phones were still quite expensive and it was more popular to own a beeper so someone could get a hold of you, than a cell phone. Computers, while slow and quite expensive for the time, were considered a luxury item with the average household owning one, if any at all and access to the internet was obtained via a slow dial-up connection. There was no such thing as Facebook or any of these other social networks. If you wanted to chat with a friend to see what they were up to, you had to call them on the phone, or meet them at a local hangout spot in town.
While the younger generation is more connected than I could ever dream of when I was that age, what baffles me the most is their approach to relationships. When I was that age, I had a few boyfriends who I thought were the love of my life, but the thought of marriage never crossed my mind as it was not something I was remotely ready for. But for the younger generation they seem to see things differently.
I cannot count how many times I have seen my step-daughter change her relationship status on Facebook from Married, to Its Complicated, to In a Relationship and then back to Married again. While I understand the meaning behind the standard In a Relationship, or even the It’s Complicated status, I cannot understand why kids that young are so dead set on classifying themselves as being Married when they may not have a true understanding of what being Married means.
As those of us who have been married for a few years can attest, marriage is more than just having the chance to spend countless hours with your sole-mate, your one true love. Marriage takes sacrifice, commitment and strength to be there for each other when things get tough. For me, one of the biggest stresses my husband and I face on a daily basis has to do with money. More times than not we are faced with too many bills, and not enough cash to cover them all even though we both work 40+ hrs a week. This is why I don’t understand why the younger generation throws around the Married title without a true understanding of what it entails.
While they may use it as a means to state their commitment to one another, few are prepared for the reality that married life brings. If there is one piece of advice that I could give to the younger generation it is this: Don’t be in a rush to grow up. Appreciate your family, the advice, support and protection they try to provide. They only do it because they love you and want to protect you for as long as they can from the stresses that the real world brings because once you step out into the real world, you can never be a kid again, no matter what your age may be.
Amen!