3 Epic Ways Generation X Has Improved Your Life

Yes Grandma, even yours.

In January of 2019, CBSLive unveiled its latest graphic on the generations.

It was educational, it was enlightening, and it was… incomplete.

Do you see what’s missing?

Generation X, “the forgotten generation”, once again forgotten.

Even in a discussion of generations, Gen Xers are left out.

Xers everywhere loved the irony.

At a mere 65 million, Gen Xers are the definition of a middle child. Sandwiched between 76 million Baby Boomers and 83 million Millennials.

They called us apathetic-underachievers-lazy slackers. They said we didn’t want to step up and take responsibility.

During a time when divorce rates were through the roof, many Xers lived in homes with only one parent.

Known as Latchkey kids, we’d arrive home from school to empty houses. Often having 3+ hours alone to care for ourselves and younger siblings.

“Childcare” meant you, the child, would care for yourself.

In an article written in 2015, for the American Journal of Nursing Science, the authors estimate as many as 10 million Gen Xers cared for themselves before or after school.

http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/html/10.11648.j.ajns.20150404.19.html#paper-content-5

Many began self-parenting as young as 8 years old.

We made our meals, cleaned the house, and did our homework. All before the adult arrived.

We were working two full-time jobs and they called us lazy.

If there’s any truth to Xers being slackers, it’s because we were exhausted from self-parenting.

1. The Moonman Goes To…

Gen Xers are the reason entertainment is better. Not just better, Awesome.

When Steven Spielberg gave us ET, we believed there was life on other planets, and it was legit.

From Top Gun to Star Wars, to Nightmare on Elm Street to Raiders of the Lost Ark, Gen Xers loved the movies, and Hollywood paid attention.

We went to the movies in search of a sign that life wouldn’t suck forever, and all adults weren’t clueless drones.

Whether we were running from a killer cyborg of the future or creepy Chihuahua-size monsters, Gen Xers were living vicariously through the scenes played on the big screens in the theaters.

It was our love for these movies that made Hollywood wake up and pay attention.

They knew to entertain Xers, they needed to step up their game and they did.

Consider the Star Wars movies.

Now, consider life without them.

Not a Star Wars fan.

How about Marvel?

There’d be no Avengers or Captain America without Marty’s ride in Doc Brown’s DeLorean.

Or how about Games of Thrones?

Khaleesi’s “children” were born years after a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man terrorized New York City.

The special effects of that era gave birth to top-grossing movies and series enjoyed today.

It wasn’t just the movies that were freaking incredible.

The music was sick.

The music was righteous.

The music saved us.

We were all feeling the same way and the music confirmed it.

Hopeless, disgusted, disappointed, fed-up.

We felt contempt for authority, the country, and the world.

The words were written by us, for us.

Nothing was off-limits. Nothing was taboo.

From Metal to Rap, to Alt to Rock, the artists sang about everything we were dealing with:

• Parents & Divorce.
• Teachers & School.
• Abuse.
• Racism.
• Money & Poverty.
• Sex & Freedom.
• Police Brutality.
• Drugs.
• Politics & Politicians.

Our music was so powerful, MTV was born.

Xers were the MTV generation.

Gen Xers understood the definition of “the music comes first”.

Most will say MTV celebrated the music with visuals.

For those of us that lived it, MTV showed us to be part of the music; you needed all of your senses.

No reality-show dramas. MTV was music videos, and VJs reporting on music.

It was wicked!

The impact icons like Run-D.M.C., Prince, Public Enemy, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica have had on the music we love today, is immeasurable.

Today’s music breathes deeply because Xers gave it CPR.

Our music is so powerful, Generation Zs (1995–2010) connect with it today.

Sure, some would say entertainment would’ve eventually gotten better over time.

But no one can argue the movies and music Xers grew up with influenced everything we listen to and watch today.

2. Soccer Moms Unite

*Disclaimer: Some Xers have taken this to the extreme.

As latch-key kids, we spent a lot of time alone after school.

After school programs were something we watched on TV, not a location.

Being alone for hours traumatized us.

Parental involvement for Xers was as sporadic as rainbows.

You’ve seen them before, and you know you’ll see them again, but when you’re looking for one, they’re nonexistent.

Whether it was school plays, field trips, or parent-teacher conferences, you could tell which kid lived in a single-parent home.

We were the kids with heads down and slumped shoulders.

Ashamed, our parents were always “absent”.

The empty houses, the being paired up with a teacher, the “borrowed parent”, were all the motivation we needed.

With vivid memories of minimal parental support and self-parenting still lingering, we swore things would be different for our kids. And they were.

We promised to attend school plays, go on field trips, and make it to parent-teacher conferences.

And we did. We were present and available for everything.

As parents, Xers went above and beyond.

They made hot chocolate in winter, Valentine’s Day goodie bags, and snack baskets for kids on testing days.

Present and available.

All the time.

But it didn’t stop there.

We organized carpools, playdates, neighborhood picnics, and any event that required a child and a parent.

Some Xers took parental involvement to the extreme.

Becoming obsessed and competitive. Wanting to be the most present and most available parent.

These parents thought their availability was a reflection of their parenting.

It got so insane teachers needed help dealing with them (You know who you are).

Admittedly, these parents made us all look crazy.

They were probably the latchkey kids whose parents arrived well after they were asleep and left before they awoke.

In the end, parental involvement fulfilled both the child and the parent.

And for older generations wondering how this benefited you, how many school functions have you attended to watch your grandchild play the violin off-key with pride?

3. Stop the Stigma, It’s a Process

Neglected, abused, depressed, and suicidal.

Xers were walking around with a multitude of mental illnesses.

Most of us had one or more of the following disorders growing up;

• Anxiety and panic attacks
• Clinical-level depression
• Impulse control behaviors
• Bipolar disorders
• Eating disorders

We were waking up day after day, having to face a world we didn’t want any part of.

With little hope of being understood, appreciated, or loved.

Alone for hours at a time, disregarded by adults, abused by those we trusted.

We had nothing to look forward to.

Gen Xers had profound mental illnesses growing up.

This was during an era when being depressed was interpreted as feeling a little sad, and selfish.

Often told, “Stop the crying and get your shit together, the world doesn’t care about you”.

We were desperate and open to anything providing an escape from our reality

We were patients without doctors.

So, we became physicians and counselors for each other.

We prescribed various medications and sexual experiments.

We encouraged running away before you got thrown out.

Peer pressure wasn’t pressuring. It was our way of loving each other.

The collective impact was devastating and long-lasting.

Many committed suicide in the 1980s.

According to a New York Times article written in 1987, a total of 5,026 people between the ages of 15–24 committed suicide.

This number doesn’t account for numerous attempted suicides.

Mental Health Awareness is a thing today because we suffered with disorders and syndromes without treatment.

Without appropriate medications or counseling.

Consider this, you’re able to give a name to your condition, research it, and seek help for it because we knew all along, it wasn’t just in our heads.

You’re Welcome.

Today Gen Xers are between 42–55 years old.

While Millennials and Gen Zs may consider us past our prime, we sneer at them sarcastically, knowing everything they love was the result of a tenacious Xer.

With less parental engagement than any generation before or after us, Xers wrote their own stories.

We rejected participating in the rat race our workaholic parents experienced.

We created a work-life balance implemented by Millennials and envied by Boomers.

Independent, resilient, and adaptable we conquered the world and continue to do so.

While we may have been hesitant to, “grow up”, it’s clear our reluctancy paid off.

Left alone to our own devices, we created Amazon, Google, YouTube, and Twitter. (You can Google it).

Despite spending too much time contemplating our mental state, when Xers saw Robert Downy Jr, rise from the ashes of mental illness and substance abuse, to become Ironman, it cemented the notion we are more than the demons in our minds.

So the next time you find yourself at a red light and the car next to you is blasting, What’s my name? By Snoop Dogg, know that you’re in the presence of greatness. (unless it’s a Gen Z with a swiped playlist).