Lately I’ve been thinking about generational stereotypes, specifically the stereotypical parenting style of each generation. How do the circumstances, beliefs, and anxieties of one generation translate to quirks in its parenting style? And how do their kids react to and correct for those quirks when they become parents? That’s what this post is about.
Big Disclaimer: I’m interested in the perceived stereotypes, and how they’re understood in popular culture. Not whether they are true, or how true they are.
In other words, I think it’s interesting to look at how popular culture imagines the differentiating features of each generation, regardless of how much predictive power those tropes have at the individual level. And even more interesting than observing how past generations is trying to guess what the next generation’s stereotypes will be. In Part 1 I will focus on the former, and then in Part 2 I’ll put down my predictions on the latter.
Stereotypes on parental styles of the past 100+ years, with a little help from ChatGPT:
- The Greatest Generation (born approx. 1901-1927): Disciplined and distanced. Popular conception portrays a parental focus on authority and discipline, which builds resilience in kids, but possibly at the expense of parents’ emotional warmth and availability.
- The Silent Generation (~1928-1945): Stable but stifling. I didn’t know this was a generation, thanks ChatGPT. The typical 50s & 60s stereotype continued; a preference for stability and conformity. Moving to the burbs, climbing the corporate ladder, expecting their kids to want the same.
- Baby Boomers (~1946-1964): Trophies and Reality TV. The parents who told their kids, “You can be anything!” And both they and the kids believed it. I think this is largely a great thing. But the cost would be that some small number of kids really, really, believed it, and then found their grown up lives to be pretty normal, and therefore disappointing. Meanwhile, the previous generations are shaking their fists at Boomer parents and their Participation Trophy culture.
- Gen X (~1965-1980): Helicopters and harm-prevention. This generation of parents has conflicting stereotypes, with the Latchkey Kids on one hand and the Micromanaged Achievers on the other. Based on emerging popular beliefs about Gen Z, the Helicopter Parenting style seems to have had the bigger influence.
- Millennials (~1981-1994),Gen Z (~1995-2012), and Gen Alpha (~2013-2025): There are hypotheses, but we don’t really know yet!
In Part 2, I’ll try to predict how the next generations of parents will react, compensate, and over-correct when crafting their parenting styles. What will people say about Millennials and beyond, as parents?
sabbatiblog 