What do you think your grandparents would lament that we missed?
Posted by Superpriestess@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 16 comments
I am so grateful that I grew up during that time where we had freedom, analog childhoods, no social media, more face to face connection. I lament that kids don’t have that today. I’m also glad that i could play three sports and get through school without too much pressure to do every single activity. I feel like I became an adult at 18 and had skills where I could manage my life in a way kids today don’t.
The question that occurred to me today was— did my grandmother have those same thoughts? Did she lament that I didn’t go around in a horse and buggy? Or that I didn’t chop wood on the regular? What do you think— if anything— your grandparents would lament you didn’t have or do in life?
Express-Cow190@reddit
My grandmother survived the siege of Malta during WW2. She saw a man driven so mad with thirst he drank kerosene and died. She described what being in the blast radius of a bomb going off feels like.
My grandparents were happy I grew up without experiencing any of that. Life was hard for them and by every measure if you wanted your kids/grandkids lives to be better than your own her wildest dreams have been well surpassed.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
Their society and culture. My grandma often complained about how shocking the 90s were. Didn't stop her from staying up and watching Howard Stern's E! Show. 💀
CubicleHermit@reddit
Ah yes, the folks who lives through WWII, or if they were older (like mine), both world wars... who remembered some very overt sorts of racism, and the depression finding the world more peaceful. Add in if they ever encountered the McCarthy-era blacklists, or before WWII, the sort of strikebreakers who didn't just resort to litigation and scabs.
That's not like unbelievably rosy-colored glasses or anything, but I'm glad the one of my grandparents I got to know wasn't like that.
59apache01@reddit
I think it was because that generation saw so much shit, they chose to focus on remembering the good times instead of all the problems. My grandparents talked about the Depression years frequently. Said they were glad to have lived through it because it brought families and neighbors closer plus they learned serious financial and survival skills. But they said on more than one occasion that they did not miss the uncertainty and unknown that they faced constantly. Never knowing when the next layoff was going to happen or who was going to be getting evicted next.
Superpriestess@reddit (OP)
Grandma! I’m shocked SHOCKED
FiveCrappedPee@reddit
Well they would often accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.
seriouslysocks@reddit
Maybe not quite a lament, but I’ve always thought they would question the carefully arranged display of random antiques in my living room. I think they’d side eye their snuff crocks, metal hot water bottles, and clothing irons proudly propped up on my mantle.
From there, I slide into wondering if my grandkids and great grandkids might start collecting band-aid boxes from the 90’s, or have framed collections of our used shoe inserts.
autocosm@reddit
Using mercury as a topical antiseptic
DenaliBurnz@reddit
Natural physical fitness. Delayed/denied gratification.
Otherwise I think they would quit complaining about having the virtual world at your literal fingertips everywhere you go in your luxury and leisure filled society.
Superpriestess@reddit (OP)
Natural physical fitness is a great one— massively more active lifestyle and careers.
Mudcreek47@reddit
It's really wild to think just 100-120 years ago at the turn of the 20th century people essentially lived the same as people did during the time of Christ or Julius Caesar. And then to think that during their lifetime our grandparents or great grandparents started out the same way yet got to see someone land on the moon.
Superpriestess@reddit (OP)
I know right? My grandmother was born in 1909 and to think she was born into the Industrial Revolution, pre-world wars, pre-antibiotics, pre-airplanes. She lived 90 years and saw the dawn of the internet 🤯
Sodamyte@reddit
Polio.. my grandparents were evil and wanted us to suffer
PatchworkGirl82@reddit
My grandparents and great-grandparents did teach me things from their younger days, because they knew being self-sufficient was important. My great-grandparents were born in 1899, and lived until their 90s.
Mission-Jackfruit138@reddit
Living in the country, it probably was farming or having a giant garden. My grandparents had a huge garden until their late 70s. Would can everything themselves. Even grow their own potatoes.
My parents did a scaled down version with tomatoes and sweet corn. I did a few years but gave it up.
ihatecatboys@reddit
I think for my family it was a connection to the church. I wasn't raised religious, my father wasn't religious himself as an adult, and my grandparents were definitely not pushy about making either of us be religious, but it was a huge part of their personal and social lives and something they had always grown up around.