I heard mention this morning of the generation gap, and someone questioning its existence. I have no doubt that the gap exists, and given the level of literacy and numeracy among school leavers, most of it lies between youthful ears.
The Generation Gap
Boadicea's Chariot 
Tom – Don’t even get me started….
Smiley.
OZ
Well I don’t know… I’ve been very pleasantly surprised how well a 20 year old medical student has fitted in with the staff where I work – who are all old enough to be her mother. She’s with us for a holiday job. She’s been very quick to learn the job, pleasant, dead easy to talk to and we’re going to miss her when she leaves in August.
She makes the generation gap seem quite small. When I was her age, I thought anyone over 40 was ancient and culturally, on another planet! 😉
You know the one? It’s the one Uncle Sam shipped off to Korea last week because em, well…. well just because he can.
Average age of the more than 5000 crew?
20
What do the youngsters say theses days? Respect, yeah that’s it respect man!
Of course there is a generation gap; there always has been and always will be. It’s quite healthy actually.
I thought my parents were quite pre-historic and my parents thought the same about my grandparents.
Now if one takes that to be normal, then I have to say that I agree with Jan here. My daughters and their friends are delightful company; and I think their ideas are quite healthy. They are very tolerant and if our ideas about things vary somewhat, they manage to hide this very well. Similarly I try to do the same.
Who was it who said, “When I was sixteen I thought my parents knew nothing. When I was twenty-six I was amazed as to how much they had picked up in the intervening decade”?
OZ
I don’t know who said it but it quite true, OZ. In the end, it is their world, and we are on the way out! 😉
OK, not just yet hopefully, but you just bring ’em up and hope they know what they are doing.
So true, Araminta, but be kind to your kids, because they’re the ones who will choose your sheltered accommodation.
And on that slightly Zenrules note, I shall say nighty night.
OZ
Night to you too, Oz and I’m always kind to my kids. 🙂
There is a generation gap between my parents and myself. I am closer to their parents in mentality than them.
Odd you should say that Christopher. My grandson says that he is far more interested in talking to people of my generation than those of his parents’ age. For some strange reason he seems to think that we have got it ‘sorted’ and that he can learn more from us than them.
My grandmother told me to remember that children were not given, only lent. It’s not often I quote poetry – being the unliterary sort! But I found this just before I had my first child, and I’ve been mindful of it ever since:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Kahil Gibran
A common phenomenon, Chris. I think parental ‘closeness’ is often obstructed by basis needs and insecurities. Grandparents are free to get close without strings.
Would that be experience talking Janus? 😉
Soutie, yes. Personally I didn’t get close to my Victorian grandparents but as a grandparent myself I can see how it works sometimes.
Ha ha
I remember taking our first born to the funfair (18 years ago), we popped into my parents place who lived nearby to borrow my father’s camera.
During the course of he evening we managed to break the flash (remember the separate units that you used to stick on top?) What to do? I knew that my old man would be furious.
When I returned the camera the following day or so I showed him the damage, apologised and told him that his ‘granddaughter dropped it’
He stood there, thought for a while muttered something to himself looked at me, ‘no problem’ he said and then gave me the money to go and buy him a replacement!
🙂
It was only then that I realised what a powerful tool grandchildren are 😉
That’s a good quote, OZ – so true! – and a great poem, Boa.