From the baby boomers, to Gen X and millennials, there’s no denying that parenting styles change and adapt from generation to generation.
But although the internet is flooded with arguments over which generation is “the worst”, it seems each generation of parents has its good and not so good parenting patterns.
In a thread shared recently on Imgur, a teacher who has taught biology to middle and high school students across all three generations has shared the best and worst parenting habits of each generation.
And boy, some of her responses are very surprising.
Here’s what she shared about the good, the bad and the ugly about each generation of parents.
The Baby Boomers
Although this anonymous teacher doesn’t teach many students with baby boomer parents anymore, she did recall her past experiences with this generation of parents.
The good? According to this teacher, the baby boomer parents she came across were very invested in their children and their futures and usually listened to and took on advice.
But as always, there’s a bad side too.
“They know best… about everything,” she explained.
“Nothing is more frustrating than having someone completely inexperienced with your profession tell you how to do it,” she added.
“They get angry the easiest, and they will go BALLISTIC.”
In the teacher’s worst run-in with a baby boomer parent, an onsite police officer had to escort out the enraged parents after the teacher requested a parent teacher interview with them.
Generation X
The majority of the parents this teacher has interacted with are Gen Xers, so she’s got a lot to say about this generation’s parenting style.
While she did share that Generation X parents provide well for their kids and normally maintain a good sense of humour, there were a lot of negatives.
“My co-workers and I often refer to them as ‘the generation that wanted kids, but didn’t want to be parents’,” she shared.
According to this teacher, a lot of Gen X parents refuse to discipline their kids, while also failing to invest time into their kids and their education.
Another bad habit of Gen X parents are parents who “believe their kid is a perfect angel that can do no wrong”.
“No matter what you tell these parents, and no matter what their child has done, they always shift the blame to someone else,” she explained.
She also found that the largest amount of anti-vaccination parents were found in this generation.
Millennials
The teacher hasn’t met a whole lot of millennial parents yet, but she has got a strong sense of their parenting style so far.
When it comes to the good, millennial parents are polite, good listeners, care about their kids and take advice and suggestions to heart.
But just like older generations, millennials have their flaws as well, including naivety, timidness and a tendency to blow things out of proportion.
“Most of these parents are good are disciplining their kids,” she explained. “But I’ve had a couple millennial parents go into Gordon Ramsey-esque tirades on their children.”
“It’s scary, and not how you should deal with your children having a problem or being in trouble.”
What do you think? Do you agree with this teacher’s assessment of each generation’s parenting style?