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.