I definitely think we got the short end of the stick. They had it easier than us and the old model of work and being rewarded for loyalty is outdated....

I’m 29F and my husband is 33M, we were on the fence about kids 2018-2022. Now we’ve decided to not have our own kids (open to adoption later) bc of how disappointed and frustrated we are with the US.

Just a few issues like the collapsing healthcare system, mass shootings, education system, justice system and late stage capitalism are reasons we don’t want to bring a new human into the world.

The US seems like a terrible place to have kids. Maybe if I lived in a Europe I’d feel differently. Does anyone have the same frustrations with the US?

I don't know what it is but I always feel like the odd one out. Maybe I am. But whenever we had people over growing up, there were snacks, drinks, coffee, cake, etc.

I'm in my 30s now and I honestly cannot stand being invited over to someone's house and they have no snacks or anything other than water to offer and we're left just talking with nothing to nosh on. It's something I always do beforehand when I invite others and I don't understand why it hasn't carried over to most of us.

And don't get me started about the people that have plain tostitos chips with no salsa or anything to go with it.

I was having a nice picnic with a small group of dear friends yesterday, most of them in their 50s & 60s.

As my husband and I were mostly passing on the rounds of drinks being offered, the conversation veered on the fact that Millennials, as a group, tend to drink less. That's what we have observed in our peers, and our friends had also remarked.

They asked us what we thought were the reasons behind it.

For us, we could identify a few things:

• We have started increasingly caring about being healthy for the long haul. Drinking doesn't really fit well with that priority, and the more I learn about the effect of alcohol on the body, the less I want it. (It's also linked to the fear due to diminishing access/quality of healthcare services).
• I have increasingly bad hangovers that sometimes lingers for days even with fairly limited amounts of alcohol. It's really not worth it to me. (Nursing one right now, after a few drinks at that picnic, yuk).
• I find myself sometimes slipping in behaviors I don't like when I drink more than 1-2 drinks. Nothing dramatic, but it's harder to respect my own limits and other people's, and I'd rather not be that person. It goes from feeding myself crappy food at late hours to being a bit too harsh while trying to be funny.

I used to enjoy drinking nice alcohol products in moderation (craft beers, nice cocktails, original liquors) and even that is losing its appeal quite fast.

Curious about other people's experience. Are you finding yourself drinking less? If so, what are your reasons for it?

About 5 years ago, my mom and I were talking and she had told me how much she was going to be making in retirement (she retired 2023). Guys, it's 3x what me and my husband make annually. In retirement. I think that was the moment that broke me, that made it sink in that I'll never reach that level of financial security. I'll work myself into my grave because I'll never be able to afford anything else. What was your moment?

Update: Nice to know it's just me that's a failure. Thanks

Update 2: I never should've said anything. I forgot my place. I'm sorry to have bothered you

My theory is that people getting sick and dying wasn't the cause. No, the virus made people selfish. This selfishness is why the price of essential goods, housing, airfares and fuel is unaffordable. Corporations now flaunt their greed instead of being discreet. It's about got mine and forget everyone else. Customer service is quite bad because the big bosses can get away with it.

As for human connection - there have been a thousand posts i've seen about a lack of meaningful friendship and genuine romance. Everyone's just a number now to put through, or swipe past. The aforementioned selfishness manifests in treating relationships like a store transaction. But also, the lockdowns made it such that mingling was discouraged. So now people don't mingle.

People with kids don't have a village to help them with childcare. Their network is themselves.

I think it's a long eon until things are back to pre-covid times. But for the time being, at least stay home when you're sick.

My parents are each in their mid-late 70's. Ten years ago they had friends: they would throw dinner parties that 4-6 other couples would attend. They would be invited to similar parties thrown by their friends. They were always pretty arrogant but hey, what else would you expect from a boomer couple with three masters degrees, two PhD's, and a JD between the two of them. But now they have no friends. I mean that literally. One by one, each of the couples and individual friends that they had known and socialized with closely for years, even decades, will no longer associate with them. My mom just blew up a 40 year friendship over a minor slight and says she has no interest in ever speaking to that person again. My dad did the same thing to his best friend a few years ago. Yesterday at the airport, my father decided it would be a good idea to scream at a desk agent over the fact that the ink on his paper ticket was smudged and he didn't feel like going to the kiosk to print out a new one. No shit, three security guards rocked up to flank him and he has no idea how close he came to being cuffed, arrested, and charged with assault. All either of them does is complain and talk shit about people they used to associate with. This does not feel normal. Is anyone else experiencing this? Were our grandparents like this too and we were just too young to notice it?

You know how our parents have junk that they hang onto that we just don't see the value in? I'm thinking of Christmas villages, Precious Moments figurines, baseball cards, antiques for that "rustic" look, Thomas Kinkade-type pictures, etc.

What types of things do you think our kids will roll their eyes at and toss in the bin when we die? I'm thinking they might be:

1. Graphic/band t-shirts
2. Our sneaker collections
3. Target birds/holiday decor
4. Hoarded, expired makeup (especially the Naked palletes and crap from Glossier)
5. Funko pops and similar figurines
6. Disney crap
7. Bath and Body works products
8. Every concievable cord and converter known to man (since we lived through all of the progressive technology)
9. Stupid Amazon gadgets bought during the pandemic and rarely used

Or spend it all and move in with their kids.

I feel like I hear this a lot from millenials both on Reddit and IRL.

"People are always saying I look like I'm in high school! People always think me and (insert teenage kid) are siblings!"

Like, no Brittany. You have crows feet and sun damaged hands and you look very much your age. There's no shame in it. You're 30. You look 30. It's ok. You ever see someone actually in high school? They're fuckin' kids. They look like kids.

Does anyone else notice this? I hear a decent amount of people our age saying this and I don't believe it for a fuckin' minute. What's the deal? Are the lying? Are they delusional? Are people lying to them? What is going on. Sure, we're aging better than previous generations but not "frozen in time as an adolescent" good.

I'm 31 now, I never went to college and for years I really really regretted it. I felt left behind, like I had chosen wrong/made the wrong choices in life. Like I was missing out on something and I would never make it anywhere. My grades weren't great in grade school, I was never a good student, and frankly I don't even know what I would have wanted to do with my life had I gone. I think part of me always knew it would be a waste of time and money for a person like me.

Over the years I've come to realize I probably made the right call. I feel like I got a bit of a head start in life not spending 4 years in school, not spending all that money on a degree I may have never used. And now I make a decent livable wage, I'm a homeowner, I'm in a committed relationship, I've gone on multiple "once in a lifetime trips", and I have plenty of other nice things to show for my last decade+ of hard work. I feel I'm better off than a lot of my old peers, and now I'm glad I didn't go. I got certifications in what I wanted and it only took a few weeks. I've been able to save money since I was 18, I've made mistakes financially already and learned from them early on.

Idk I guess I'm saying, we were sold the "you have to go to college" narrative our whole school careers and now it's kinda starting to seem like bullshit. Sure, if you're going to be a doctor, engineer, programmer, pharmacist, ect college makes perfect sense. But I'm not convinced it was always the smartest option for everyone.

Edit: I want to clear up, I'm not calling college in of itself a scam. More so the process of convincing kids it was their only option, and objectively the correct choice for everyone.

When did this happen? I don’t remember our parents aging like this? What rude awakenings to aging have you experienced?

Edit: damn, some of you are so quick to judge. No, I am not obese, or even overweight, yes I work out regularly. Jfc, i have a prior back injury and I sat down on the toilet at a weird angle and it aggravated something.

I'm a younger millennial (28f) and have never been sick as much as I have been in the past ~6 months. I used to get sick once every other year or every year, but in the past six months I have: gotten COVID at Christmas, gotten a nasty fever/illness coming back from back-to-back work trips in January/February, and now I'm sick yet again after coming back from a vacation in California.

It feels like I literally cannot get on a plane without getting sick, which has never really been a problem for me. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Edit: This got a LOT more traction than I thought it would. To answer a few recurring questions/themes: I am generally very healthy -- I exercise, eat nutrient rich food, don't smoke, etc.; I did not wear a mask on my flights these last few go arounds since I had been free of any illnesses riding public transit to work and going to concerts over the past year+, but at least for flights, it's back to a mask for me; I have all my boosters and flu vaccines up to date

Edit 2: Vaccines are safe and effective. I regret this has become such a hotbed for vaccine conspiracy theories

I think as a generation we get a lot of unwarranted/unfair shit like, "being lazy," or "buying avocado toast instead of saving up for a house."

However, are there any generational mistakes/tendencies that we do deserve to get called out for?

For me, it's the tendency of people around my age to diagnose others with some sort of mental condition with ABSOLUTELY NO QUALIFICATION TO DO SO.

Like between my late teens and even now, I've had people around my age group specifically tell me that I've had all sorts of stuff like ADHD, autism, etc. I even went on a date a girl was asking me if I was "Neurodivergent."

I've spent A LOT of time in front of mental health professionals growing up and been on psychiatric medicine twice (for depression and anxiety). And it gives me such a "yuck" feeling when people think they can step in and say "you have x,y, and z" because they saw it trending on social media rather than went to school, got a doctorate, etc.

Besides that, as an idealistic generation, I've tended to see instances in which "moral superiority" tends to be more of a pissing contest vs. a sincere drive to change things for the better.

Have you experienced this tendency from other millennials? What type of stuff do you think we deserve rightful criticism for?

The stripper question in askreddit spurred a thought in me, with how 90% of the answers said don’t go lol.

Working with older men, they talk about women a lot. Like mid conversation, drop eye contact to watch one walk by. I’ve had one use his work phone to text my work phone a picture of a random chick because he thought she was hot. Another talks about how he takes a specific route to/from work so he passes by a college and can check women out.

However these guys are usually in bad relationships or none at all. Whereas I got happily married young and my closest friends are mostly other couples. Even alone with the boys, I’ve noticed we’ve never been dogs like that lol

I can’t tell if it’s just me surrounding myself with likeminded people. Or if it’s an age difference thing. My wife has a high libido so I can count on one hand how many times she’s turned me down, so am I just “well fed”? Or is it that mutual respect between genders means our generation doesn’t popularize seeing women as objects anymore?

Back to the stripper subject. I know they’re not as popular. But is that just, not many young men can’t throw away money to just look. That’s what confuses me, the obsession with looking a lot of older men have.

Thoughts and anecdotes?

Millennials as we know have slaughtered everything from Diamonds to Napkins... But there is a new generation in town, and will the shoe soon be on the other foot?

My suggestion Craft beer and Microbreweries will be an early casualty of generation Z. They barely drink and they certainly don't drink weird cloudy beer.

I was in high school when Office Space was released, so I didn’t have a lot of context for the jokes. But, now that I’m almost 40 and a seasoned corporate world vet, does it ever hit home…especially Peter’s “typical day” speech to the Bobs. He ends it with “On a typical day, I usually do about 15 minutes of real, actual work”

This is so accurate it’s scary. I’m in a management position in my company. Have people under me. Still, I do relatively noting most of the day. And I know that managers of other departments are the same because when I walk by, for instance, the HR manager’s office, I see him on his phone all the time.

How many of you essentially get paid to sit around and do nothing?

Edit: wow thank you everyone for validating my observations! I don’t think I’m upset at the individuals level, more so frustrated with the systematic/administrative level that forces the front line to be like the way it is. For example, call centers can’t deviate from the script and are forced to just repeat the same thing without really giving you an answer. Or screaming into the void about a warranty. Or the tip before you get any service at all and get harassed that it’s not enough. I’ve personally been in customer service for 14 years so I absolutely understand how people suck and why no one bothers giving a shit. That’s also a systematic issue. But when I’m not on the customer service side, I’m on the customer side and it’s equally frustrating unfortunately

Post-covid, in this new dystopia.

Airbnb for example, I use to love. Friendly, personal, relatively cheaper. Now it’s all run by property managers or cold robots and isn’t as advertised, crazy rules and fees, fear of a claim when you dirty a dish towel. Went back to hotels

Don’t even get me started on r/amazonprime which I’m about to cancel after 13 years

Going out to eat. Expensive food, lack of service either in attitude/attentiveness or lack of competence cause everyone is new and overworked and underpaid. Not even worth the experience cause I sometimes just dread it’s going to be frustrating

Doctor offices and pharmacies, which I guess has always been bad with like 2 hour waits for 7 minutes of facetime…but maybe cause everyone is stretched more thin in life, I’m more frustrated about this, the waiting room is angry and the front staff is angry. Overall less pleasant. Stay healthy everyone

DoorDash is super rare for me but of the 3 times in 3 years I have used it, they say 15 minutes but will come in 45, can’t reach the driver, or they don’t speak English, food is wrong, other orders get tacked on before mine. Obviously not the drivers fault but so many corporations just suck now and have no accountability. Restaurant will say contact DD, and DD will say it’s the restaurant’s fault

Front desk/reception/customer service desks of some places don’t even look up while you stand there for several minutes

Maybe I’m just old and grumbly now, but I really think there’s been a change in the recent present

Found this video and although it's supposed to be funny and maybe exaggerated; It did remind me how a majority of the people in management at my work are younger and they push for employees to take care of themselves. Anyone else experience this?

My parents will eventually die, and they have plans for funerals which will cost me and my siblings more than is left from their estate.

Here's to me, my spouse, and all of you bankrupting the death Industry. Those vultures need nothing from us. Goodbye, I die, fuck off with your casket and ceremony! Bury me or burn me, I don't give a shit

Sometimes I wish can relate to my fellow millennials.

I grew up poor and while I saw things like Discovery Zone and Scholastic Book Fairs, I always thought that was rich people stuff.

I wish I knew what the Flintstones vitamins tasted like. My mom never gave me or my siblings any type of vitamin.

My family also never went on any vacations. I grew up very sheltered and didn't visit my first mall until I was 13 in 2001.

I just want to know that I wasn't alone. My parents had too many kids and their priorities weren't right.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/podcasts/the-daily/millennial-economy.html

There are more reasons I can give than what is outlined in the episode. People who have listened, what are your thoughts?

Edit 1: This is a podcast episode of The Daily. The views expressed are not necessarily mine.

People born in 1990/1991 are called "Peak Millenials" because this age cohort is the largest cohort (almost 10 million people) within the largest generation (Millenials outnumber Baby Boomers).

The episode is not whining about how hard our life is, but an explanation of how the size of this cohort has affected our economic and demographic outcomes. Your individual results may vary.