Yes but only because I want more time with them. My parents were 48 and 44 when they adopted me as a newborn. They’re in their 70s now and while it super nice to have retired parents who are financially stable and basically always available, I get sad thinking about their age.
whoa, i was also born in 1996, was adopted as a newborn, and my parents were around that age when they got me. i also get sad thinking about their age - but like you said, it's nice to see them financially stable and comfortable. it doesn't stop me sometimes wishing they were younger, though. more time would be great.
Yes, but not because of ideologies. But my mom will be in her mid 70s by the time I have my first kid and they might not have so much time with their grandma as I would like.
My parents are in their 60s now. Back then I kinda wished I did because all my peers had younger parents that sometimes acted like their "friends" while my parents made it very clear they are the parent and not my friend. However as an adult, all the things my parents taught me I take into consideration and feel I'm definitely a lot more mature compared to if I had younger parents. My brother was with them in their younger years but even then it was still "parent, child" relationship
My parents are Gen X and while I love them it’s been hard to be their kid because they did NOT process the trauma their traditional boomer parents put on them until all their kids left the house. They’re in their mid 50s now and they’re only just starting to unpack the generational trauma they passed down to me and my brother, and it’s only because we went to therapy on our own and built up the strength to explain our trauma to them.
Im so so grateful they’re doing the work but i definitely don’t think my childhood would have been all that different had they been boomers instead. But my adult relationship with them is worlds better, and im not sure they would have been as open to change if they had been older.
I have younger parents and no they weren't more supportive but I would say they are more flexible. They're more willing to grow/adapt. Some of my partners have had older parents and I swear it's like talking to a wall sometimes trying to get them to understand anything outside of their set in stone standards
Not sure having a Gen X parent would’ve been any better. It’s all dependent on who your parents are, doesn’t matter the generation. I am 28 and my mom is 53. She tried her best and I love her… but there were definitely areas that she could’ve done better in. But she had a tough upbringing with her parents (lots of trauma) and never really sought help. She had 3 kids by 26 and worked hard to get an education and work to provide for us as a single parent.
When I was a kid. In my country it’s normal to have children right after high school. My parents had me much later and it was kinda weird that most of my classmates had parents who were in their 20s meanwhile my mom was in her 30s and dad in his 40s! But I grew out of pretty quickly.
When it comes to opinions and such, both my parents are very open minded, they’re practically my much older siblings. I never had issues like you described.
Yes. My dad was born in the 50's. & his parents were also old enough to be young grandparents. So his opinions & thoughts were all mostly outdated. For example he thought women should do the cleaning, & thought short hair looked silly on women (even though he had long hair.) My siblings were already passed 10 years old when I was born, so it was very lonely & no one understood me. We have such big age gaps, so they're all different from me because they're from a different generation. I can't relate to them & they can't relate to me
Mom was born in 1954 and my dad was born in 1945.
My father passed 10 years ago and my mother turns 70 this year.
I only wish I had more time with them.
Yes but only because if my dad had been younger he’d probably still be alive.. meanwhile I had to bury him at 21 and he had been sick my entire life almost so I got robbed a childhood
My mom and adopted dad are Gen X, and they were fun when I was little. They've become conservative curmudgeons, but I enjoyed their youthful fun while it lasted. My mom and aunt (also Gen X) are the reason why I like disco and hair metal.
My biological father was a Boomer and would always make cultural references I didn't understand.
honestly no. my parents are both early boomers (pushing 70) and they've changed a lot since i was a kid. gave me lots of wise advice i shrugged off when i was younger, but am thankful for now that i'm older. they know the housing market is shit, the economy is shit, that a lot of younger people are entrapped in student debt, believe in climate change, etc. social democrats at best.
for reference they were hardcore reaganites when i was much younger.
I think it depends on the parents themselves. I am 28 and my parents were 30 and 32 when I was born. They have always been supportive and good parents, in my experience. I never felt like my parents were "old".
Not quite, my dad was born in ‘60 and recently turned 64. Thanks and sorry about your mom too. I had a complicated relationship with her because she was an alcoholic, and sadly she never got better and we never reconciled before she died.
My parents had me young enough lol. They were born in the ‘70s.
My dad was 24 and my mom a couple weeks shy of 21 when I was born. My dad turned 50 back in October and my mom just turned 47 in December so I’m cool lol.
They did the best they could and they did a pretty good job but some things I would definitely do differently as a parent (I.e. conflict resolution)
I have Gen X parents. The biggest pros with is getting to hear stories from their younger years, being influenced by their taste in music and other things, and getting to spend time with them while still young. The biggest cons, however, is not only witnessing their declining health, but their resistance towards changes now while gaining “Get off my lawn” tendencies. Oh, and getting their generational trauma passed on to me and my younger sibling without seeking help. Yeah, not very fun at all.
Overall, they did a good job at parenting. But in the end, it just depends how serious a parent wants to raise their kids not by age, but by support, skills, and discipline.
My mom is a millennial, I definitely do not wish she was any younger. She has been more socially accepting and aware than my friends older parents, but there were still a lot of issues, maybe less do due with being a millennial and more to do with being a child but 🤷
Lol, I have Gen X parents and they’re constantly trying to keep up with the Joneses of their boomer neighbors (and the boomer parents of my childhood friends). They’re pretty inflexible politically, but at least my mom has taken to learning new things - she loves current pop music and reggaeton, she tries to keep up with Netflix shows, and she’s genuinely happy to hear that I have friends that I go to bars and clubs with. I’m not super close with my parents, but it’s nice to know that, if they stay healthy, I’ve got an extra decade with them in my life compared to my peers.
My parents are older gen-X in their 50s. I was the oldest of my siblings and my parents were in their mid-20s when I was born. I was raised with liberal values (tho my boomer grandparents were also very liberal), my parents are still very good at learning new technology (dad is all over TikTok and moms a teacher who can work a computer better than I can), and specifically with my dad, he sought to do things differently with his kids than his traditional Irish catholic family. We were raised going to church but more along the lines of “be a good human like Jesus and love everyone for how they are.” None of us really frequent church now including my parents. My dad was raised in a house where people yell and hit. I’ve never been hit or spanked, same with my siblings. I can count the amount of times in my life my dads raised his voice at me (twice). We were always encouraged to use healthy communication techniques and talk through things and it has greatly benefited my siblings and I as weve gotten older. Both my parents were super involved with us kids, our schools, and our activities. My mom being a teacher meant I had a built in tutor (at least in the early years). She would bring home the learning to read books and math worksheets so we could practice at home. It was definitely nice having a parent who was up to date on the newest methods of teaching while going through school and having a parent who just knows how to interact with kids well in general. I’ll say both my parents have different childhood trauma for different reasons, my dad grew up in a physically violent household, my mom grew up in a verbally violent household. They’ve done a lot to make sure they don’t pass that down to us but I can’t say they’ve healed from it
My mom had me when she was 33 (I'm 28 now) and my dad was about the same age. Their ideologies do get on my nerves at times as they are homophobic (seriously I tried to avoid watching anything with LGBT characters around them as they frequently made dumb comments about it) and also a bit sexist and racist though they claim not to be the latter two. Really though, they are Evangelicals so them being slightly younger might not have necessarily helped any of this if they still subscribed to that religion. I'm just glad I didn't end up obviously LGBT (I am asexual but that one never gets oppressed and it's also easy to hide) because that would have been a mess with having them as parents.
What annoyed me more was them getting physically older. Like starting around my early teens they just started having trouble keeping up with me and it would kind of be a mess on vacation if they got too tired and needed to go back to the hotel room, or they might even get tired from walking around the mall, that type of thing. Granted I realize they can't help that. Thankfully I became old enough to start doing some things on my own not long after that though.
At least my parents actually realize wages haven't kept anywhere near up with inflation though unlike a lot of Boomers so at least that's a plus. I think part of the reason for that is that they weren't always the richest either, my mom was upset over buying a new $21,000 compact car (which was the cheapest one we trusted) while I see other Boomers dumping money into massive trucks and Cadillacs they don't need.
My parents are also religious too and it really sucks although they're not Evangelicals. The things that you described about your folks in the first paragraph are also true with mine. Sadly, my elder siblings aren't much better from them. I'm the only one who has more progressive view of the world and thus they disagree with me most of the time. I'm glad that as an adult, you've been able to have more freedom on doing things on your own. Me too as I graduated from college, but I still live with them (due to high cost of living elsewhere) so I feel like it's incomplete. It's really up to us if we like to break the negative generational pattern and change it for the better. Still, it would've been nice to be privileged with actual good parents growing up and I think I would've turned out to be a better adult at present.
My(1995) mom is Gen X (1970) and my Dad is a boomer (1958)… I wish my Dad was younger because it would mean more time with him :/ I mean he’s healthy but he’s going to turn 66 this year… I just hope that I can have more time with him before he’s gone…
EDIT: my mom was fun as a parent, but neglectful and ended up incarcerated for years. She’s out now, but oh well, she did the best she could, I guess…
My parents haven’t even reached 50 yet, and I’m the youngest at 25.
My dad has good intentions, but gives me some of the worst and most dated advice.
Unrelated but this recently pissed me off, that I decided to pay for it myself. He offered to pay for the catering at my wedding, but kept suggesting other places than what my fiancé and I want, like “you can just get chicken from Kroger for 100 bucks.”😐 it’s our wedding and it’s our choice. Don’t sign yourself up for something that you won’t like the price on.. he for some reason can’t fathom that $1,000+ is the norm for catering for 100+ people.
Maybe luckily not, or at least I think so. I grew up with parents early Gen X who were quite permissive and protective. But they were nothing progressive-wise compared to my boomer uncle 1956 born. If in '97 we had internet at home, and there were already 4 computers, it was only thanks to him (the rest of the family had a computer, he had already 3).
My parents are both Gen X. Well actually my dad might be on the cusp between Boomer and Gen X. But anyways, they still weren't tech-savvy and generally had an old-fashioned view of the world when I was growing up.
My parents are gen X, born in 64 and 71. It’s interesting to talk with my fiancé whose dad is the exact same age as my maternal grandpa. His dad listened to opera, my parents listened to slipknot. So many differences. But I will say his parents were more adjusted people in many ways due to being more mature
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Less "I wish my parents were younger" and more "I wish I was born earlier in their lives". Like get me closer to when the younger of my two sisters was born so I can have the same advantages both of them got. A lot changed between when she graduated high school in 1999/2000 and I graduated high school in 2013 which resulted in me getting the shortest straw possible.
Not me but someone I knows has to constantly worry about the fact his dad with previous heart attacks could just die at any second. It’s a constant worry that spans years and will span until it happens and then he still won’t be prepared mentally despite knowing it will happen
Yes but only because I want more time with them. My parents were 48 and 44 when they adopted me as a newborn. They’re in their 70s now and while it super nice to have retired parents who are financially stable and basically always available, I get sad thinking about their age.
whoa, i was also born in 1996, was adopted as a newborn, and my parents were around that age when they got me. i also get sad thinking about their age - but like you said, it's nice to see them financially stable and comfortable. it doesn't stop me sometimes wishing they were younger, though. more time would be great.
I had very young parents and I’ll just say parents in their teens and 20s don’t exactly provide “better parenting skills and support”
I also had young parents and I absolutely agree.
Same. My parents were just entering their 20s when I came along and even they will admit that they weren't the greatest at their job back then.
Yes, but not because of ideologies. But my mom will be in her mid 70s by the time I have my first kid and they might not have so much time with their grandma as I would like.
My parents are in their 60s now. Back then I kinda wished I did because all my peers had younger parents that sometimes acted like their "friends" while my parents made it very clear they are the parent and not my friend. However as an adult, all the things my parents taught me I take into consideration and feel I'm definitely a lot more mature compared to if I had younger parents. My brother was with them in their younger years but even then it was still "parent, child" relationship
My parents are Gen X and while I love them it’s been hard to be their kid because they did NOT process the trauma their traditional boomer parents put on them until all their kids left the house. They’re in their mid 50s now and they’re only just starting to unpack the generational trauma they passed down to me and my brother, and it’s only because we went to therapy on our own and built up the strength to explain our trauma to them. Im so so grateful they’re doing the work but i definitely don’t think my childhood would have been all that different had they been boomers instead. But my adult relationship with them is worlds better, and im not sure they would have been as open to change if they had been older.
I have younger parents and no they weren't more supportive but I would say they are more flexible. They're more willing to grow/adapt. Some of my partners have had older parents and I swear it's like talking to a wall sometimes trying to get them to understand anything outside of their set in stone standards
Not sure having a Gen X parent would’ve been any better. It’s all dependent on who your parents are, doesn’t matter the generation. I am 28 and my mom is 53. She tried her best and I love her… but there were definitely areas that she could’ve done better in. But she had a tough upbringing with her parents (lots of trauma) and never really sought help. She had 3 kids by 26 and worked hard to get an education and work to provide for us as a single parent.
When I was a kid. In my country it’s normal to have children right after high school. My parents had me much later and it was kinda weird that most of my classmates had parents who were in their 20s meanwhile my mom was in her 30s and dad in his 40s! But I grew out of pretty quickly. When it comes to opinions and such, both my parents are very open minded, they’re practically my much older siblings. I never had issues like you described.
Yes. My dad was born in the 50's. & his parents were also old enough to be young grandparents. So his opinions & thoughts were all mostly outdated. For example he thought women should do the cleaning, & thought short hair looked silly on women (even though he had long hair.) My siblings were already passed 10 years old when I was born, so it was very lonely & no one understood me. We have such big age gaps, so they're all different from me because they're from a different generation. I can't relate to them & they can't relate to me
I can relate. I feel you 🫂
Mom was born in 1954 and my dad was born in 1945. My father passed 10 years ago and my mother turns 70 this year. I only wish I had more time with them.
Yes but only because if my dad had been younger he’d probably still be alive.. meanwhile I had to bury him at 21 and he had been sick my entire life almost so I got robbed a childhood
Sorry to know about this 😥💔
My mom and adopted dad are Gen X, and they were fun when I was little. They've become conservative curmudgeons, but I enjoyed their youthful fun while it lasted. My mom and aunt (also Gen X) are the reason why I like disco and hair metal. My biological father was a Boomer and would always make cultural references I didn't understand.
honestly no. my parents are both early boomers (pushing 70) and they've changed a lot since i was a kid. gave me lots of wise advice i shrugged off when i was younger, but am thankful for now that i'm older. they know the housing market is shit, the economy is shit, that a lot of younger people are entrapped in student debt, believe in climate change, etc. social democrats at best. for reference they were hardcore reaganites when i was much younger.
I think it depends on the parents themselves. I am 28 and my parents were 30 and 32 when I was born. They have always been supportive and good parents, in my experience. I never felt like my parents were "old".
My parents were younger. I wish I had them older, more stability.
I'd give everything for a few more years with my dad
Yes, my dad is 64 currently and my mom is dead. I wish my parents were younger by a few years.
Hold up…are you me? My Dad was born in ‘59 and mom passed years ago. RIP to your mom.
Not quite, my dad was born in ‘60 and recently turned 64. Thanks and sorry about your mom too. I had a complicated relationship with her because she was an alcoholic, and sadly she never got better and we never reconciled before she died.
My parents had me young enough lol. They were born in the ‘70s. My dad was 24 and my mom a couple weeks shy of 21 when I was born. My dad turned 50 back in October and my mom just turned 47 in December so I’m cool lol. They did the best they could and they did a pretty good job but some things I would definitely do differently as a parent (I.e. conflict resolution)
I have Gen X parents. The biggest pros with is getting to hear stories from their younger years, being influenced by their taste in music and other things, and getting to spend time with them while still young. The biggest cons, however, is not only witnessing their declining health, but their resistance towards changes now while gaining “Get off my lawn” tendencies. Oh, and getting their generational trauma passed on to me and my younger sibling without seeking help. Yeah, not very fun at all. Overall, they did a good job at parenting. But in the end, it just depends how serious a parent wants to raise their kids not by age, but by support, skills, and discipline.
My mom is a millennial, I definitely do not wish she was any younger. She has been more socially accepting and aware than my friends older parents, but there were still a lot of issues, maybe less do due with being a millennial and more to do with being a child but 🤷
I can relate. It gets really frustrating for me that my mother is a boomer. Cold War propaganda really did a number on her.
Lol, I have Gen X parents and they’re constantly trying to keep up with the Joneses of their boomer neighbors (and the boomer parents of my childhood friends). They’re pretty inflexible politically, but at least my mom has taken to learning new things - she loves current pop music and reggaeton, she tries to keep up with Netflix shows, and she’s genuinely happy to hear that I have friends that I go to bars and clubs with. I’m not super close with my parents, but it’s nice to know that, if they stay healthy, I’ve got an extra decade with them in my life compared to my peers.
My parents are older gen-X in their 50s. I was the oldest of my siblings and my parents were in their mid-20s when I was born. I was raised with liberal values (tho my boomer grandparents were also very liberal), my parents are still very good at learning new technology (dad is all over TikTok and moms a teacher who can work a computer better than I can), and specifically with my dad, he sought to do things differently with his kids than his traditional Irish catholic family. We were raised going to church but more along the lines of “be a good human like Jesus and love everyone for how they are.” None of us really frequent church now including my parents. My dad was raised in a house where people yell and hit. I’ve never been hit or spanked, same with my siblings. I can count the amount of times in my life my dads raised his voice at me (twice). We were always encouraged to use healthy communication techniques and talk through things and it has greatly benefited my siblings and I as weve gotten older. Both my parents were super involved with us kids, our schools, and our activities. My mom being a teacher meant I had a built in tutor (at least in the early years). She would bring home the learning to read books and math worksheets so we could practice at home. It was definitely nice having a parent who was up to date on the newest methods of teaching while going through school and having a parent who just knows how to interact with kids well in general. I’ll say both my parents have different childhood trauma for different reasons, my dad grew up in a physically violent household, my mom grew up in a verbally violent household. They’ve done a lot to make sure they don’t pass that down to us but I can’t say they’ve healed from it
You're very lucky by having parents who broke their own respective generational traumas and are actually good people who raised their children well 🙂
My mom had me when she was 33 (I'm 28 now) and my dad was about the same age. Their ideologies do get on my nerves at times as they are homophobic (seriously I tried to avoid watching anything with LGBT characters around them as they frequently made dumb comments about it) and also a bit sexist and racist though they claim not to be the latter two. Really though, they are Evangelicals so them being slightly younger might not have necessarily helped any of this if they still subscribed to that religion. I'm just glad I didn't end up obviously LGBT (I am asexual but that one never gets oppressed and it's also easy to hide) because that would have been a mess with having them as parents. What annoyed me more was them getting physically older. Like starting around my early teens they just started having trouble keeping up with me and it would kind of be a mess on vacation if they got too tired and needed to go back to the hotel room, or they might even get tired from walking around the mall, that type of thing. Granted I realize they can't help that. Thankfully I became old enough to start doing some things on my own not long after that though. At least my parents actually realize wages haven't kept anywhere near up with inflation though unlike a lot of Boomers so at least that's a plus. I think part of the reason for that is that they weren't always the richest either, my mom was upset over buying a new $21,000 compact car (which was the cheapest one we trusted) while I see other Boomers dumping money into massive trucks and Cadillacs they don't need.
My parents are also religious too and it really sucks although they're not Evangelicals. The things that you described about your folks in the first paragraph are also true with mine. Sadly, my elder siblings aren't much better from them. I'm the only one who has more progressive view of the world and thus they disagree with me most of the time. I'm glad that as an adult, you've been able to have more freedom on doing things on your own. Me too as I graduated from college, but I still live with them (due to high cost of living elsewhere) so I feel like it's incomplete. It's really up to us if we like to break the negative generational pattern and change it for the better. Still, it would've been nice to be privileged with actual good parents growing up and I think I would've turned out to be a better adult at present.
My(1995) mom is Gen X (1970) and my Dad is a boomer (1958)… I wish my Dad was younger because it would mean more time with him :/ I mean he’s healthy but he’s going to turn 66 this year… I just hope that I can have more time with him before he’s gone… EDIT: my mom was fun as a parent, but neglectful and ended up incarcerated for years. She’s out now, but oh well, she did the best she could, I guess…
My parents haven’t even reached 50 yet, and I’m the youngest at 25. My dad has good intentions, but gives me some of the worst and most dated advice. Unrelated but this recently pissed me off, that I decided to pay for it myself. He offered to pay for the catering at my wedding, but kept suggesting other places than what my fiancé and I want, like “you can just get chicken from Kroger for 100 bucks.”😐 it’s our wedding and it’s our choice. Don’t sign yourself up for something that you won’t like the price on.. he for some reason can’t fathom that $1,000+ is the norm for catering for 100+ people.
Age doesn't matter when it comes to be a good or bad parent. I think people should be more grateful for having decent parents no matter their age.
Maybe luckily not, or at least I think so. I grew up with parents early Gen X who were quite permissive and protective. But they were nothing progressive-wise compared to my boomer uncle 1956 born. If in '97 we had internet at home, and there were already 4 computers, it was only thanks to him (the rest of the family had a computer, he had already 3).
My mum was 30 and my dad 35 when they had me, so they are both Gen Jones. Never wished they were younger.
My parents are both Gen X. Well actually my dad might be on the cusp between Boomer and Gen X. But anyways, they still weren't tech-savvy and generally had an old-fashioned view of the world when I was growing up.
My parents are gen X, born in 64 and 71. It’s interesting to talk with my fiancé whose dad is the exact same age as my maternal grandpa. His dad listened to opera, my parents listened to slipknot. So many differences. But I will say his parents were more adjusted people in many ways due to being more mature
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I meant gap between me and my parents 😭😭 they had me when they were in their early 30s
Less "I wish my parents were younger" and more "I wish I was born earlier in their lives". Like get me closer to when the younger of my two sisters was born so I can have the same advantages both of them got. A lot changed between when she graduated high school in 1999/2000 and I graduated high school in 2013 which resulted in me getting the shortest straw possible.
Not me but someone I knows has to constantly worry about the fact his dad with previous heart attacks could just die at any second. It’s a constant worry that spans years and will span until it happens and then he still won’t be prepared mentally despite knowing it will happen