"The tyranny of life milestones"

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My "silent generation" parents emphasized individuality and figure it out your self which both hurt and helped me but helped me more than it hurt me. It meant there was less hovering or helicoptering, much less. Individually meant milestones were less important because not reaching one was not considered a pathology, a reason to panic. The bad part about that was the expectation was that you would grow out of it which is not always the case. They also emphasized humbleness which left me unequipped the work world back then and completely unequipped to deal with today's social media world of becoming an influencer by "owning" as many people as you can and being as snarky as you can.

Is Your Child Ready for First Grade: 1979 Edition

I'm a part of Generation X. My parents didn't have very high expectations of me. My dad didn't expect me to get very far in life. I remember how lousy I felt at the age of 15, when my 12 year old sister was making her own money, babysitting. I felt suicidal that whole year.

I am sorry you felt that way and hope things are better for you now. It hurts when others are allowed to do things, while you get held back from doing them. I had those type of situations happen in my youth by my one set of living grandparents during visits. My cousins could do no wrong, but I was always looked down upon. My grandfather would often take them fishing, yet I was always left behind. My parents could not get that behavior to stop no matter how hard they tried. It plain sucked.

My comment on being Generation X: Our generation is often called the “latchkey generation” as both parents were often working while we were growing up. We tend to be the most adaptable to technology, as we can remember a time before personal computers, yet learned to use them when young. Generations after us often cannot fathom a time where computers were not everywhere, let alone the smart phones that they live on. Our parents generation looked down on us as they thought we were lazy, but actually we were evolving in ways that they could not understand. Unfortunately we are also called the “forgotten generation”, as there are so few of us compared to the other generations.

I don't know if this is somehow particular to my family or if it's more generalized than that, but, between generations, my extended family is shrinking, and it's shrinking fast. My generation (me + siblings + cousins) is 13 people, I think (I'm one of the youngest). The next one is, I don't know, 5? And it looks like that's it. Maybe one or two more in the future, but very possibly none. Several unmarried, several married with no children, in my generation. It's not for a lack of money, it's by choice (some have explicitly stated they don't want children). Apart from me (because of my disabilities), "we" are all significantly better-off than our parents.

The importance given to life milestones here has changed dramatically from my parents' generation to mine.

A long time ago, I (and even my family) drew "that line in the sand - cast in concrete (pardon the expression)" to be done with the "tyranny of life's milestones!"

The main concern is handling the tyranny of well..........plain old mundane parts of life!

I've heard, read, and even understood by osmosis for that matter - "If you want god (I mean "god" in a secular context) to laugh, announce your plans!!"