Road trip

Like every Gen Xer does these days, I will be taking a family vacation for a week. I'm sure I'll have many generational camping observations to share when I return!

Lost Boys, The Coreys, what more could a girl ask for?

It may be straight to video, but I'm going to see it. Already put in on my NetFlix!

Boomers take over the Net

Online Media Daily is reporting that Boomers may use the internet more than younger more tech-savvy people. Apparently they are using it for "fun and interaction." The story is the result of a study released by AARP. That was news to me.

Is Generation X saving the "neighborhood"?

Recently, I wrote a post regarding whether Gen Xers will jump on the wagon back into dense urban cities with the Boomers and the Millennials. Futurist William Draves says that there is no saving the suburbs, which got me kind of bummed. The reason why? I associate "suburbs" with "neighborhoods" - because that's where I grew up and that's what we had.

I think a lot of Gen Xers associate "cities" with bleak, dying, crack-infested places because that's what a lot of cities had turned into when we were growing up in the 70s and 80s. I think that's why a lot of us have the same gut reaction: Why would I want to move my kids to the "city"?

Gen X writer Kathy English wrote a great article on what "neighborhood" means. She talked about what hers was like when she was growing up.

In my current neighborhood, there have been a lot of Xers who moved in with their kids in the last five years (five Gen X families - including mine - on the same street with kids under 10 years old). And now my neighborhood feels a lot more like the one I grew up in.

My kids run down the street to their friends house (actually across everyone's lawns, because we don't have side walks - nobody complains) to play. Sometimes they come home when they get pissed off at their friends, but then go back 15 minutes later after they get over it. Everyone knows who the mean old lady is and stays off her grass. And one of my daughter's favorite things to do is stand on our lawn and yell "Isaiah!" and see if the neighbor's dog comes running over (he usually does).

So my point is that Xers are bringing neighborhood back. And neighborhood has nothing to do with urban, suburban, or rural. It makes sense, because we are not the workoholics that the Boomers were at our age, so we have more than just work friends. We have neighbors.

New Urbanism and the Generations

I've seen a lot lately about how Boomers and Millennials are abandoning the suburbs in favor of a more condensed, urban life. Haven't seen much about where Gen X stands on the subject.

When I was younger, I thought I'd move to a city and live in a loft and just be cool. But then I found a place - a smallish town of about 30,000 people 2 hours north of Detroit - that I just love. It's definitely not urban, but it's not country, either. Before I had kids, I liked it because the people here like to have a good time. Now that I have kids, I like it because it's just a little slower pace here - and the people still like to have a good time.

So I don't live in an urban metropolis or a suburb. I don't have a fancy car, but I do have a pretty big house that I love. I don't want to live in an urban metropolis or a suburb. I would like to take mass transit, but I don't want to live in a teeny tiny house in order to do it.

So Xers, what do you think we will do while all the Boomers and Millennials go to the big cities? Will we stay in our kinda big houses and turn into someone like that old guy the Brady Bunch met in the ghost town on their way to the Grand Canyon? Hanging on to our neighborhood col-du-sac and rambling crazy talk about going to Target in the old days to buy stuff. What do you think?

Gotta love our Gen X men

Last night my husband and I went to see Sex and the City. Yes. My husband. He was the only dude there. It was most noticeable when a bare male butt was up on the screen and he said out loud, "I didn't need to see that" and we heard a chorus of female giggles.

The situation got me thinking about our Gen X men. I'm not sure they are getting the credit they deserve for helping Gen X women have it all. They are confident enough in their masculinity to change diapers and have wives with equal career status (and go see Sex and the City). And yet they kind of get the shaft when it comes to taking leave from work to tend to family matters.

Kristina commented recently on this blog that men need to have equal flexibility in their work to also focus on parenting. Most of the Gen X dads I know took substantial time off after the births of their children. And they paid for it at the office. Some even took grief from their own fathers as to why they would want to do such a thing.

So lets give our guys a high-five and hope the next generation of parents will benefit for the their willingness to stand up for their kids and take their FMLA days regardless of what the boss thinks.

P.S. Sex and the City was kind of lame. But my husband liked it. Maybe it's not such a chick flick after all.

Blame an Xer for this

You know you think it's funny, slacker!