Kids These Days*

*The title is to be read with an accompanying eyeroll and/or sarcastic sigh, at the reader's discretion

A bitmoji rendition of a fair-skinned, brunette-with-blue
ponytailed woman in back and blue-floral print,
looking at a smartphone askance.

I'm finding a number of random irritants here lately, in addition to the usual idiocracy and late-stage capitalism and f*ck the patriarchy suspects. One of these, as I have stated before, is that Grammarly needs to learn that my default writing style is casual and conversational, and now would be a good time to lay off the "want to sound more confident/professional?" suggestions, because the answer is no. No, I do not want to sound more confident, or more professional right now, and please take my word for it the first time I tell you in a given document, okay? Thanks.

There are others, of course.

Millennials are not children, for instance. Even allowing for the latest possible birth years across the variable definitions, these "kids" are now in their mid-to-late twenties. Allowing for the earliest commonly accepted birth years, they're in their early forties. Also, they never asked for the participation trophies; the elder generations thought it would be good for their self-esteem. Stop denigrating them as entitled special snowflakes when they just lived up to the expectations given to them.

The same goes for later generations as well. Is it a little sad that many GenZ folks only know enough cursive to sign their names or can't read an analog clock or need to take "adulting" classes? Sure. Lost skills are often sad, though there was certainly a resurgence in things like baking and crochet during the height of covid. But a) many of those things are not that important right now, and b) again, who neglected to teach them these skills? That's right, the same people who unkindly make fun of them for not knowing what to do with a rotary-dial phone. 

I don't know enough GenAlpha kiddos (and these ones are literally children as I write this in 2024) to have an opinion on their slang and skills and so forth, but I have had more than one tell me I'm the "cool bus driver" because I know about Bluey and superheroes and Minecraft.

But don't worry; it's not only unkindness to younger generations than mine that irritates me. I'm an equal-opportunity leftie cranky GenX lady over here.

I have no patience for the people who support those who not only don't care about them as individuals (that's most politicians, to be honest) but who actively and vocally hate them. How do LGBTQIA+ folks or Mexican-Americans or people whose actual religion says to love everyone support the likes of you-know-who? I do not grok.

Why do some people think that people playing dress-up to read to littles are more dangerous than people who take rapid-fire weapons into public schools? I mean, I can only assume that they are the same folks who think that death from measles is preferable to autism, even though vaccines do not cause autism. These are also the people who talk over disabled people and heaven forbid a neurodivergent or LGBTQIA+ person or wheelchair user speak for themselves. That is evidently too scary. And they think we're the soft and fearful snowflakes.

And I keep seeing horror stories about parents tearing up English homework because they're "teaching about pronouns." As though pronouns haven't existed as long as language has. I have finally learned not to be a grammar notsee in public, but my patience is tried by such statements as "u dont see pronouns in the bibble." 

I'm pretty sure "I am he" contains two pronouns.

In linking older articles, I see that I have definitely touched on these topics before. But they're still out there annoying me, so here we are.

Plague at Chez GamersBabes

A Bitmoji rendition of me, a chubby brunette-with-blue
 woman wearing black and florals, looking tired.
She has an empty battery icon above her head.

Don't worry. We're all sick with Covid-19, but this strain - while apparently extra-contagious - is only miserable rather than hospital-worthy, even for my AARPy, fat, asthmatic self.

But let me start at the beginning, and give you the timeline.

Day One (Tuesday):

Tuesday morning at 4-ish I got up to use the bathroom. When I went back to bed, I got a phone call. From my elder daughter, Abby. The call was coming from inside the house. She felt punk and had done so since about 11PM Monday when she took a covid test, which was negative.

So Lizzy went to school (she masks at school anyway) and Abby and I went to urgent care at 8am (masked). Yep, the clinic's test showed positive. Damn. We got home from the clinic at 10-ish, and by 11am I felt crappy and my temp was climbing (high of 102F) so I also took a home covid test. The results were negative, but I didn't trust it; it could've read negative if it's expired, if there wasn't enough viral load for it to detect yet, or if the test isn't able to detect whatever the current flavor of covid is. So we waited for Lizzy to get home from school to take Liz and me in.

Didn't last; Lizzy was not feeling great and has some medical anxiety on top of that, so she called and asked to come home. Apparently, a student feeling ill is not enough to send them home as the school nurse in charge on Tuesday told Lizzy that "covid is just like the flu or a cold now." Lizzy doesn't want to risk spreading the flu or cold either. When I went to get Lizzy in the nurse's office, the nurse informed me that it "isn't that serious," but asked me to get out of her office when I said I was sick too (Lizzy and I were both masked, KN95, as usual). Sorry, but Lizzy's mental and physical health is more important than you wanting her to go back to class because you think covid "isn't that serious."

{Aside: I'm not a fan of this school year's one-size-fits-all policies or the assertion that cell phones and social media are the One True Cause of Anxiety in Teens... but that's another post.}

So off Lizzy and I went, to the same urgent care clinic, same doctor, same receptionist, but a different nurse. My test came back positive. Lizzy's took a little longer (maybe because she seems to be a couple days behind us on the symptoms), but hers was too. Oh well, at least we don't have to isolate from each other, just from the rest of the world.

Day Two (Wednesday):

Everyone called out sick (Abby's not in school until later this month, but Lizzy and I called out to the appropriate places), so we mostly spent Wednesday making my killer soup and doing Not Much Else.

All: fluctuating temps from 98F to 101F

Me (55, asthmatic): cough, sneezing, headache, wheezing (controlled), low appetite, body aches and chills, irritability, and serious fatigue

Abby (21): headache, scratchy throat, stuffy nose, sniffles, low appetite

Lizzy (17): headache, sneezing, scratchy throat, irritability.

Treatments (doc said we don't need paxlovid because my asthma is well-controlled and we are otherwise low risk): Rest, fluids, Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, my awesome soup, and more rest & fluids.

Day Three (Thursday):

All: fluctuating temps from 98F to 100.6F

Same as above, except that Abby and I feel slightly better (still very tired though), and Lizzy feels somewhat worse. Liz seems to be two days or so behind me, and I'm approximately twelve hours behind Abby. Because of my age and existing conditions (like asthma), the doctor expected me to take longer to fully recover than the kids. 

Given that he didn't know a lot about Lizzy's sensory hellscape where a stuffy nose or a sore throat makes her want to cut off her own head (he's urgent care, not her regular doctor), this was a fair statement on his part. She went to bed before four PM.

Treatments: Rest, fluids, Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, my awesome soup, and more rest & fluids. And rest. And fluids.

Also judiciously applied blue hair dye for me (thanks, Liz) during that portion of the morning when we were all upright at the same time. See? [image of a tired-looking brunette woman with blue streaks in her hair]

Day Four (Friday):

Our knockoff 🌟 💵 💊🏀 drinks were yummy. Lizzy's fever is up; mine and Abby's are down.

Abby is feeling better. Mostly just sniffly.

Jenn feeling ick. Stuffy nose, ouchie sinuses, cough, a little wheezing, fatigue, temperature floating around 99F when not treated. I could live without the back of my throat itching. 

Lizzy is feeling bleargh. Sore throat, sniffling, sweating, headache. Slept for 15+ hours and temp still up hovering on either side of 100 when not treated.

~~~~~~~~~~

I've already had a few (online and random) people saying (smugly), "See?! You still got sick, even with your precious masks and bogus vaccines and all that stuff Big Scary wants you to believe in. Sheeple."

Yes, but we got what feels like the flu (miserable and annoying but not deadly), and I'm not afraid to grocery shop without an arsenal, scared of my kids reading and thinking, or frightened of people in costumes reading to children.