Millenial Generation

Have you all heard about this? I first read about it in The Crescent (sorority mag) last week. The generation of people who are in college and finishing up high school are considered the Millenial Generation. The article I read was very interesting, and it really got me thinking. One point the article mentioned was how different this generation is from Generation X, which I think I'm at the tail end of. While Gen Xers are defined as slackers, grungers, defined by bands like Nirvana or Kurt Cobain, Millenials are defined as multitaskers, hard workers, good at working in groups. In fact, this article mentioned that Millenials are redefining the work world because of these things. Employers are loving them as employees, and many Millenials are wildly successful in college as well. They are committed to public service, often involved in philanthropic clubs as well as achieving high grades, working, and, in the case of the article, holding leadership roles in Greek organizations. The point that sticks with me most is that many think Millenials are such great multitaskers and so good at working in groups because of their childhood experiences. This generation is the generation that was defined as "overprogrammed" when they were growing up. They were the generation that had an activity everyday after school, and the "experts" lamented that they were missing their childhood. Millenials also had "helicopter" parents - parents who hover over their children and their every move. The kind of parent I think I'm probably going to end up struggling not to be!!

I think this sticks with me so much because I am already struggling with giving Emma, and soon Grant, a well rounded childhood experience that supports their interests and strengths without "overprogramming" them. Thanks to my abundance of over-education in the department of child development, I know that various activities can help my kids become well rounded children and then adults. I know that the brain is so elastic when they are younger and their learning is so abundant during this young time. So this makes me want to enroll them in all sorts of things - gymnastics, preschool, music class, playgroups, library story time, etc. But at the same time, my strongest beliefs about childhood are based in learning through play, which speaks to being home, with toys, or in a play based preschool. It's such a struggle to stay balanced - to provide them with experiences that will shape their learning foundation, while being aware of how busy we are.

So anyway, I guess what it really comes down to is that I was relieved (for lack of a better word) to see that adults who were overprogrammed as children using those skills (multitasking, working in groups) to become wonderful adults. I still don't think I'm going to run out and enroll Emma in a Spanish class though (go ahead and laugh, but I have a friend whose 3 year old is taking Spanish). I guess it goes back to what I've always said - it's really hard to mess up a child!


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On a much lighter and significantly less thought provoking note, Emma and I made the best muffins this morning for her classroom Family Feast tomorrow. Pumpkin spice yumminess. Click here for the recipe. I did what several of the reviews suggested and I did 1 cup of pumpkin. I'd suggest increasing the cinnamon a tad. I have a bunch of leftover pumpkin so Grant had some mixed with cream cheese on a sandwich, and I'm on the hunt for a pumpkin pancake recipe. Yum.