It is a generational rite: complaining about “kids these days” and their habits and proclivities, grousing about the world they’re growing up in, and romanticizing generations past who were “perfect in every way.” Parents in the 1960s were horrified by their children’s risqué Elvis Presley-style dance moves and loud rock n’ roll (as portrayed in the musical, Bye Bye Birdie). When the baby boomers grew up, they derided Generation X as the MTV Generation, a bunch of lazy disaffected slackers. As Gen Xers settle into middle age, they moan about the millennials (or Generation Y): entitled products of helicopter parenting and an ‘everybody-gets-a-trophy’ ethos.
