Gen x-er raising a Gen Alpha | Alison Hatch Photo
Email wasn’t something I used until my last few years of college. My oldest was in kindergarten when I got my first cell phone. Social media wasn’t on my radar until that same kid was in 4th grade when he taught me about it, and ran daily stats on his followers and likes.
My childhood consisted of playing outside with neighborhood kids until the street lights came on. Keeping a quarter in my shoe at all times just in case I needed to call home. Oh, and kissing Joey McInter’s poster over my bed every night.
Lack of supervision and technology created an environment that made me resilient, resourceful, imaginative, and hard-working.
It also made me and my two youngest sons lightyears apart in culture, not just a couple of decades.
I’m a Xennial. My two youngest sons have one foot in Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
I used dial-up modems to do school research, made mix tapes for crushes and, of course, played the Oregon Trail. Was taught that hard work and a good education were the keys to success. And our feelings were valid but didn’t need to rule our life.
My sons had screens in their faces before they could walk. Have lived through a massive economic recession, threats of school shootings, and a pandemic. They don’t know civility or mutual understanding due to social media and texting. Play dates are meeting up in Fortnite. And they don’t see the value in education because there isn’t much anymore.
Living in this world is making them disconnected, apathetic, unmotivated, and highly emotional.
My boys are having a hard time relating to me, and I am having a hard time knowing how to navigate raising them.
All the Google searches and parenting books,
Times in therapy,
Consulting with friends and my parents,
And, Subscriber First Name, it just doesn’t seem like it is enough to combat the cultural difference.
So, with a death grip on love, open communication, and non-judgment my little family consciously works daily to connect to each other and help blindly navigate each new day.
