Yeah, it makes me rather sad these Millennial posts are the ones getting the most traffic. Hey readers! Go tell me you’re a donor and that you donate blood on a regular basis, provided your are able to do both! Bah.

@Andrea:
Gloves! I love soft, warm gloves! My favorite pair of gloves are two gloves inside one another. I look like I have muppet hands, but they’re warm!

Seriously, though, spend, spend, spend. Keep your money people, keeeep iiiit. Think of how broke you will be when you retire! Save for that!

@Susan Mellott:
There’s all sorts of names for my generation. Millennial, Me Generation, Gen Y, Net Generation (though that one I thought was for the group under me). Half the time when people write about “generations” I can’t figure out which age group they’re talking about.

The parent’s fault-child’s responsibility transition is something I struggle with in my head. Where I stand is that past high school, the child needs to start handling his or her self. However, when the children hit this age, the parent can’t look at their kids’ problems and claim they had nothing to do with it. I err on the side that upbringing has a large impact on who you become. I see it in my friends in massive ways, and we’re all at that transition point of striking it on our own.

The personality/nature over nurture thing is another thing I struggle with. After taking my Introduction to Women’s Studies course, I swayed into thinking that much more of our behavior and thoughts are the result of nurture over nature/begin socialized to act and think in the manner we do. Except then there’s the examples such as my brother.

One day we came home to find an entire imaginary basketball tournament on all sorts of papers. He would play the games against himself, and decide who moves on. My dad was pretty much in shock. He had done the same thing when little, and as far as I remember, that was the first I knew my dad had done it. So what were the chances of my brother doing the same independently? Boggled our minds.

On this note, I’m a first born and take very strongly after my mother, while my siblings are both more like my dad.

I agree that it is better to do things on your own. Goes back to my reply to Valerie; if others bought it, it’s not yours!

Anyway, my sister and I are baby boomers and she was just like the people on the show and I was ridiculously independent – moved out the second I could and didn’t take anything from anyone. To an extent, we actually were treated differently due to different times in my parents lives. I was in my teens when my parents were fighting/divorcing and they were mad at everyone, including me. When my sister (5 yrs younger) reached that age, they felt bad and wanted to give her stuff.

OK, so there is that. But I think it was very much part of our personalities too, regardless of how they treated us. I was always wanting to be independent. My sister always used her ability to please to get things. I wouldn’t have been caught dead doing that, or even appearing like it. This started when we were very young. Granted, first borns and youngest childs are treated differently from the beginning, but it seemed like I took after my mom and my sister took after my dad.

I understand people saying it is because of how their parents treated them, but I really don’t have a lot of patience for that excuse much after someone is 18. I don’t care what your parents did or didn’t do, “man-up” and take care of your own self! Get a clue. It isn’t rocket science and I think people who can’t figure it out regardless of their parents are either very lazy or don’t care to think real hard. Or at least, they need some counseling if they can’t get past their upbringing.

And just because you can get stuff from someone easily by going along with them, doesn’t mean you should. I see women like that and I feel ashamed to be a woman. It is dishonest and childish. Maybe I’m harsh, but I think people should do for themselves regardless of how easy it may be to let someone else do for you.

And yes, my sister’s daughter who is in her early 20′s is a ‘me generation’. Gets flatscreen TV before paying rent. Doesn’t know whether her stove is gas or electric while looking right at it. Has parents who are similar and I can see how she could model off of them and how she would not have learned some lessons earlier but now is the time to become an adult and figure it out. I’m glad I don’t have kids.

Storytime:

I was on the bus last week heading home and these two freshman in college were talking about spring break. Apparently one of them has property (and by that I meant his parents) in Florida and were planning a trip.

Guy #1 (whose parent’s own said property): Dude, we should totally go to Florida for break!
Guy #2: That would be awesome! How would we get there? It would be cheap if we drove and got some people to split gas money with.
Guy #1: Drive? That would take forever! How about we fly? It’s only, like, $500!
Guy #2: Uhh. I’m not sure…
Guy #1: Come on it’s not that bad – use Christmas money!

I got the impression Guy #1 had some money – or at least has no idea on how to budget. Or both. All I could think of was, omg that could buy me gas for months! Or textbooks! Or just plan go towards school!

But in summary, yeah there are some people who need to grow up – pronto.

RT @OrganizeFISH: Okay, I'm acknowleding this Millennial thing against my better judgement. http://sn.im/tltq6