What's the defining aspect of being a Gen-Xer?

Latchkey definitely but I'd expand to say: independence, fuck it I'll figure it out attitude, and willingness/ability to suffer long periods left to our own devices (no internet, crap cable)

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sideways92@reddit

I'm 58(m) and grew up in the rural South. We farmed, but most farmers work a job or two to make ends meet.

My father was, well, wherever he went when I was 13. Dunno.

My mother held down a state job and I worked the farm with my grandparents.

I've often thought of how little supervision we had as a defining trait. I turned 17yrs old sitting on the tailgate of a pickup, a buddy standing behind me, and one sitting either side. We'd trade positions every now and then 'cause the guy standing up had the job of throwing the clay pigeons.

Those of us sitting on the tailgate passed a bottle of Jim Beam back and forth while taking turns with the 12ga shotgun to shoot the thrown clay targets. We'd often mix it with Mt. Dew - god.

I live in DC now and have a reasonably high position at one of the nation's major museums. And there are days when I take my lunch on the Mall and wonder "how the hell did we survive growing up?"

Maybe that's the defining trait? We survived, somehow.

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AirbagsBlown@reddit

There is definitely this sense of wonder about it- "I'm an adult? How?"

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paulio10@reddit

We put periods on the end of our sentences. The way it should be.

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Konafide@reddit

And two spaces before the next one…

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imzadi111@reddit

and...

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ManintheMT@reddit

I had to pull the plug on this one. I work with millennials and Gen Z. One space now.

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OwnScar3202@reddit

The ability to do work a job without supervision.

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PermuhGrin@reddit

Yes, I was just explaining this to somebody else today.

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Overall_Lobster823@reddit

I was never a latchkey kid, so.... no.

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AcanthocephalaDue715@reddit

The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament

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No_Raisin_250@reddit

I’m re reading The Karamazov brothers and the amount of times he mentioned waiting for his brother at the summer house had me crazy, even to the vodka that spilled across the table 😂I couldn’t not think about summer house.

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Gullible-Apricot3379@reddit

I’d say growing up in a world that simultaneously acknowledged danger to children and thought it was perfectly reasonable to tell those children to handle it.

I think Boomers learned to swim by not drowning in the lake they were tossed into by someone who never considered they might drown. Millennials were taught to swim so they wouldn’t drown when they were tossed in the lake. Gen Z was asked if they wanted to learn to swim, and if they’d like to swim in the lake. Alpha watches TikToks about people swimming in the lake.

GenX watched 100 hours of after school specials about people drowning in lakes and saw the warning sign beside the lake as they were tossed into the lake to learn to swim.

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mish_munasiba@reddit

Who cares

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Entiox@reddit

You beat me to it.

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Forgot-pas@reddit

Love for 80’s music

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ManintheMT@reddit

I am visiting NYC this week to see my adult son and every restaurant and bar is playing my bangers, I love it but realize how this ends...

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cshrpmnr@reddit

Being old

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f700es@reddit

Meh

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Street-Reputation-90@reddit

Trauma and unrealized trauma

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RunningWineaux@reddit

I mentioned it at work yesterday in a training session. I will use 5 words when 5 are needed. I am direct and not always nice but you will always know where I’m coming from and where we stand. It’s not rude. It’s direct.

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False-Storm-5794@reddit

Gen-X is most commonly described as beginning in 1965. Generations were commonly described in 20 year increments. Next thing you know Gen-X is trimmed to 1980. Then we read, according to Strauss–Howe, Gen-X is 1961-1981.

This sounds like a rant, but it's not. It is the prelude to the one defining word of being a Gen-Xer.

Whatever.

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bagolaburgernesss@reddit

That's because GenX used to start at 60 & around 1980 or so the boomers started to say 65. So it did used to stretch 20 years then the boomers wanted to seem younger.

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Trolkarlen@reddit

These are all made up.

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WillBrink@reddit

A bad attitude 😏

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Firmod5@reddit

Born between 1965 and 1980, of course.

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Modsmoddy-74@reddit

Figuring out how to transition your music from cassette to CD.

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Capsicumgirl@reddit

I still haven't

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bassplayer1446@reddit

Don't care

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angerintensifies@reddit

Resilience

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armorabito@reddit

I was a latch key, free range kid with a paper route at 8 y.o ( $30 every two weeks , big money in 1977) . Free with economic status, lol.

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Konafide@reddit

Are you me?

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IMTrick@reddit

Being born at generally the right time. Everything else varies.

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Xavelle@reddit

Raise my siblings. My brother was 2 years younger than me and my sister was 7 years younger. I was left alone with them for entire weekends while my parents went out of town starting when I was about 13.

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Savings_Artichoke913@reddit

So horrifying that this is typical. I remember being in 6th or 7th grade with my 7 & 4 year old siblings, whom my parents left me in charge of while they were gone for a couple nights and I couldn’t find any food that I knew how to cook for them for dinner. What the actual hell?

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OPsDaddy@reddit

Feral

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Trolkarlen@reddit

Whatever

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galaknows@reddit

Never mind

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pmick66@reddit

No parental supervision

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Pretend-Excuse-8368@reddit

Yes and being responsible with no parental supervision.

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Savings_Artichoke913@reddit

Our kids (in their 20’s) call us “doomers” because we are always thinking of worst case scenarios and ten different plan “b’s”. Why? Because we had no adult supervision, way too much responsibility and had to figure out things (both minor & major!) for ourselves. I was trained to Constantly. Worry.

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pmick66@reddit

There may have been some occasional lapses in that regard. But outstanding recovery thanks to older boomer sibling observations. Never caught doing that crazy shit.

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Embarrassed_Cat2697@reddit

I work in education and with young kids. All the songs and stories I grew up with have been altered to get all the death and violence out of them. The little old lady who swallowed a fly now vomits rather than dies at the end. Oh, and no more smashing baby bumblebees, either. Now we set them free.

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AbbreviationsGlad833@reddit

Remembering a pre cell phone, pre internet world. And not being really really old.

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snarkmeister99@reddit

Only a little bit old. (Our brains still insist we’re in our 20s though!)

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Sufficient_Space8484@reddit

Very little parental guidance. No helping prepare you for life after high school. The Boomers couldn’t be bothered with actually raising kids.

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1stUserEver@reddit

You know the contra game cheat codes and Jenny’s number

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Fair-Wishbone-1190@reddit

For me, as an only child gen x kid I had to come up with a lot of things to do in my room. Lots of made up games. Listened to music constantly.

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Blue_Plastic_88@reddit

Me too! I was an only child and listened to records in my room so much of the time! And I remember playing with fashion plates in my room while listening to music.

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