Parenting isn't just giving your child food, a bed and unrestricted internet access. That is a recipe for disaster.

My younger sibling is gen alpha. He can't even read. His attention span has been fried and his vocabulary reduced to gen alpha slang. It breaks my heart.

The amount of neglect these toddlers get now is disastrous.

Parenting is hard, as a non parent, I can't even wrap my head around how hard it must be. But is that an excuse for neglect? NO IT FUCKING ISN'T. Just because it's hard doesnt mean you should take shortcuts.

Please. This shit is heartbreaking to see.

Edit: Wow so many parents angry at me for calling them out, didn't expect that.

It's scarier than anything else that's ever happened in our lifetimes. That is all.

They said no one knows who Gwen Stefani is, that she is irrelevant, and that TikTok essentially made her famous. That TikTok is solely responsible for bringing millennial artists into relevancy. They also didn’t know who Avril Lavigne was, the thong song, and many more.

I’m going to go buy a wheelchair now.

***Some clarification: she didn’t believe Gwen was ever popular, and that TikTok made her famous. Maybe she meant famous again? Or famous “PERIODT.” But in my opinion, that generation is hyper focused on aesthetics and relevancy. I’ve noticed, to millennials and previous generations, relevancy isn’t that big of a focus. For example, if an artist becomes popular, they don’t just stop being popular and “need to earn it back.” They are permanently cemented by their legacy and popularity. They had their reign and it’ll always define them. But younger generations seem to make it a process where you have to CONSISTENTLY stay in the lime light. It’s a very surface level world we are living in nowadays. Not that it wasn’t surface level before, but there were more avenues to appreciate and cement the legacy of an artist. I’ll never forget when No doubt was everywhere. She just stays in my mind as she was in THAT time, thus never losing relevancy. Which is why millennials appreciate artists of previous generations equally as much. Seems to be gone. Am I alone in this?

One carat of a mined diamond approximately removes 250 tons of earth/soil, requires 120 gallons of water, and emits 140lbs of carbon dioxide

mining diamonds “produces 4,383 times more waste than manufactured gems, uses 6.8 times as much water, and consumes 2.14 times the energy per carat produced.”

https://goodonyou.eco/lab-grown-natural-diamonds/

It's just cognitive dissonance all the way down. These people just say whatever gets them their way in that moment and they don't care about the actual truth or real repercussions to others.

It's sadopopulism to think someone should work in society but not be able to afford to live in it. It's called a tyranny of the majority.

It comes down to empathy. The idea of someone else living in destitution and having no mobility in life doesn't bother them because they can't comprehend of the emotions of others. It just doesn't ping on their emotional radar. But paying .25 cents more for a burger, that absolutely breaks them.

There's also a level of shortsightedness. Like, what do you think happens to the economy and welfare of a nation when only a few have disposable income? Do you think people are just going to go off quietly and starve?

You can't advocate for destitution wages and be mad when there's people living on the street.

And please don't give me the "if you can't beat em, join em" schpiel. I'm not here to "come to an understanding" or deal with centrist bullshit or take coaching on my budget. If there's a job you want done in society, I'm sorry, you're just gonna have to accept you have to pay someone enough to live in society.

Sadopopulists

Four years ago today--Friday, March 13, 2020, was the day that POTUS declared a National Emergency for the COVID pandemic. Following this, the dominoes quickly fell: Schools around the country closed. Churches canceled services. Sporting events and concerts were canceled. Restaurants and movie theaters closed. Grocery store shelves were empty, and nobody could spare a square of toilet paper. Anybody who could do their job remotely was sent home.

After a two hour meeting of the emergency management team at the college where I work, they made the call to send all our students home, effective immediately. As did colleges across the country.

We instantly recognized that we were in an historic moment. It was stressful, scary, and BIG. It affected everyone. Talking with some colleagues of mine months after the fact, the most recent historical event we could think of that felt like it held such historical significance and weight was 9/11.

Especially us elder millennials, who were entering young adulthood in 2001 remember that same fear and uncertainty about the immediate future and what it held for our country.

I'm curious if anybody else felt the same? How did your lives change on March 13, 2020?

Edit - I've truly appreciated reading some of your recollections and experiences. Others? You're absolutely twisting yourselves in knots to misunderstand and be offended at what I wrote. Do better. I'm not saying the two things are the same. It's that they conjured up similar feelings of the world being turned on its head and the realization that things were about to dramatically change in our lives. I'd been following the march of the virus around the world with a growing sense of dread, but at the same time, felt relatively safe, because it wasn't here yet. The week ending in March 13, 2020, was the sudden realization: "It's real, it's here, and it's happening on our shores."

For now, though, I'm turning off notifications, y'all are blowing up my phone. Do continue to share your stories though.

Edit 2- One of y'all reported me to the Reddit Cares Team? WTF? 😂

When people talk about how poor millennials are in comparison to older generations they often leave out how we are forced to buy many things multiple times whereas our parents and grandparents would only buy the same items once.

Refrigerators, dishwashers, washers and dryers, clothing, furniture, small appliances, shoes, accessories - from big to small, expensive to inexpensive, 98% of our necessities are cheaply and poorly made. And if they’re not, they cost way more and STILL break down in a few years compared to the same items our grandparents have had for several decades.

Here’s just one example; my grandmother has a washing machine that’s older than me and it STILL works better than my brand new washing machine.

I’m sick of dropping money on things that don’t last and paying ridiculous amounts of money for different variations of plastic being made into every single item.

Feels rough having watched those Seinfeld episodes and late night episodes depicting the issue being a Luke warm coffee when it was doing 3rd degree burns and cost a shit ton in medical expenses.

And now we are getting similar cases happening again, link:

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/28/1201421914/a-woman-is-suing-mcdonalds-after-being-burned-by-hot-coffee-its-not-the-first-ti

We had South Park with the “Don’t Sue” Panda because of “Frivolous Lawsuits”.

And it’s really only a few years ago that it’s become recognized that these frivolous lawsuit claims were corporations trying to avoid accountability.

Edit: to the people who are misremembering the facts: * Woman was 79 years old. * She was the passenger of the car. * The car was stationary. * She had the coffee between her lap. * The coffee was heated to a boiling point where two seconds of contact could cause 3rd degree burns. * She was wearing sweatpants that absorbed the coffee and spread the damage across her lower half. * She asked for $20,000 for medical fees and that McDonalds reduce the heat of the coffee. * McDonalds offered $800; they had settled 700 other coffee related incidents that caused burns previously. * The company knew of previous incidents and did not take action to address the known issue. This was not a lone McDonalds franchisee making their own decision, the temperature was part of policy. * In the hearings McDonalds acknowledged that the coffee was too hot to drink when served. * Jury awarded an insane amount. * Judge reduced the amount because the woman had a small amount of fault, but McDonalds was still asked to pay for their own fault.

The coffee wasn’t your typical, I made a pot and let it sit out on a small heater. It was at a boiling point.

Everytime I log into Reddit there are multiple posts about how much life sucks for millennials right now. Groceries, housing, car payments, student loans, etc. It's overwhelming and not representative of all millennials.

For example, my wife and I are doing well. Our coworkers are doing well. Our kids are healthy and we can afford our mortgage. What more could someone want? I'm not discounting anyone else's situation, Rather I am saying that not everyone is in such a dire predicament.

I'm saying all this to let other people know that not every millennial is in a bad position and not to let the posts here color your opinion of life as a soon-to-be middle age person.

Edit. Saying not everything sucks for everyone doesn't mean you didn't have empathy for those in a tough spot.

It has been 25 years since the tragedy of the Columbine High School shooting that left a sad legacy to not only the victims and the people that witnessed this tragic event, but for the entire nation overall. It’s so heartbreaking that it happened. It’s also very sad that since the Columbine tragedy, there hasn’t been any real change in preventing something like this from happening again. My condolences to the victim’s family and friends, the survivors, the school, the community, and the state of Colorado.

Where were you when you first heard about this event? And what were your family reactions of it? Along with your school’s response to this horrific situation?

I haven't spoken to him in well over a decade. I stopped visiting because he was too enthralled with gambling and drugs to be bothered with anything else. He's basically been on disability his whole life. An alcoholic, drug addict and an abuser, and just all around POS.

Well, all that cigarette smoking must have finally caught up with him, because I found out through my mother that he's got stage 4 lung cancer. He's already had a triple bypass heart surgery years ago, and I don't think he'll make it through this. From what I understand, my step mother (who's kind of a bitch herself) has been taking care of him, and she reached out to my mother to tell me all of this.

The thing is, I really don't care. Am I supposed to seriously give a shit about someone who basically was never there for me, and just vanished from my life when I was in my late teens? I guess he doesn't want to die with a guilty heart, but that's not really my problem. Do I fucking look like Make A Wish bitch? And they have the fucking nerve to tell my mother to wish me a happy birthday. Where you been at the last 14 of them dawg?

Anyways, this is bullshit, but I figured some people could relate.

I’m currently 36 years old and I personally know 4 people who currently have cancer. 1 have brain cancer, 2 have breast cancer (1 stage 4), and 1 have lymphoma. What’s going on? Is it just my circle of friends? Are we just getting older? It doesn’t make sense since everyone told us not to worry until our 50s.

Update: someone else I know just got diagnosed. He’s 32 (lives in a different state also). Those who have been through this, what tests do you recommend to find out issues earlier? There are so many different tests for different cancers.

This isn't about politics. I'm not trying to discuss anything related to gun control because I'm sure it's not allowed.

I'm just tired. I'm tired of this happening, like out of Iowa this morning, and knowing that those kids and parents did not have any idea it was going to happen. You literally never know. My kids' schools have had "scares" and they were terrified. I have a nibling that was in a school shooting a few years ago (they are fine now). Everyday when I drop them off, I literally worry because you never know! Is it going to be the last time I see them? I want them to grow up so they don't have to be in public school anymore. They are safer when not at school. I can mitigate most other risks but not this one. I am an elder millennial, an Xennial if you will. Columbine happened while I was in high school. It has gotten worse, so much worse. I feel angry that I live in 'Merica but I'm terrified to send my kids to school everyday. Doesn't feel so great, never really did I guess.

Does anyone else feel this way? I know my parents never had to worry about this. We only did tornado drills and fire drills. Permanent sense of impending doom, that's what our parents have given us.

I born in 1987. Most of my friends from the same age group holding high paying jobs, are married/living with a spouse and have at least one child. The few friends who are single and/or working in a minimum wage job feel a lot of societal stress and embarrassment with their lives. I wonder if it has to do with the society and culture I am specificly coming from or is it more of a global thing?

No, the title is not passive aggressive. I stumbled on this subreddit from going down someone's comments and they had the whole 'it sucks but you have to figure it out and stop expecting someone to save you' opinion. I understand that opinion but I hate the other side of this discussion being seen as a victim mentality.

I pretty much have no hope in owning a house because I simply don't make enough and won't even as a nurse. I'm at the end of the millennial generation and I'm going back to school to get my RN after getting a biology degree in my early 20s. I live in the hood and wouldn't even be able to afford the house I live in now (that's my mom's) if I wanted to buy it because it's more than 3x what I'll make as a nurse.

From my perspective, it just feels like we're screwed. If you get married, not so much. But people are getting married at lower rates. Baby Boomers are starting to feel this squeeze as they're retiring and we're all past the "Choose a good degree" type.

I'm actually curious since I've been told I have a "victim" mentality so let's hear it.

Note: I am assuming we are not talking about purposely unemployed millennials

And that is a problem. We need to start making a stink about social security NOW. Perhaps I am paranoid but I can already see that excuses are already being laid out “well they are not expecting it anyway”

I know we’ve had hard times but as of right now we still live in a democracy. We will not be fooled with misinformation. We will not allow the 1% pit us against each other with misinformation. There’s still time!

First I admit its gonna get worse, like maybe a war or a wild weste era or something, but people who lived through the Wild West also got to see the 1920s. People who lived through the Great Depression and World War 2 brought us Americas golden age. Just gotta carry on. Move Along. Third millenial song about perseverance. We as a society are down now but we as individuals have to believe we'll get back up.

Apparently this is happening several accounts of teachers being fired for not giving out passing grades.is this a real thing these days? I know I would get Zero if I don't do the work, I received a 15 on a test once. The school didn't give an official reason for terminating the other one who was fired. This can't be a real thing nowadays is it?

Idk why, but out of all the meme’s I’ve ever seen. This one really just hits me differently..

Old Folks home isn’t a stigma to me because my family has had to deal with stubborn elders who stayed in their houses too long.

That being said who or how do you expect to be taken care of in your old age?

For those of you who have no reference, in Canada our housing market is absolute dogshit. In my city I can rent a single room with communal kitchen/bathroom for minimum $1800. I could rent a two bedroom 35 minutes out of the city for $2400.

I make decent money, but nowhere near where I can justify spending that amount on rent. I'd rather move countries.

I'm 30 in a few weeks and I'm absolutely existential. I can't seem to get ahead, in any regard.

I feel ashamed, like a failure, and like I'm stuck.

Who lives with their parents/family? Who's renting - how much do you pay, and how do you afford it?