When I wrote a Generation X memoir of our baby boomer parents' divorces, and our own that we try to stave off at all costs, I expected to get a lot of flack from baby boomers--especially from moms. The statistics measuring their child-rearing skills were grim. Frankly, they just weren't there.
After the epidemic divorces of the '70s and '80s were finalized, the dads mainly receded into the background (as everyone whose dad went through the Disco Dan phase can attest). In fairness, though, even if they'd wanted to stay involved, dads didn't have much legal pull. In the '70s, only nine states permitted joint custody; today, every state has adopted it. Consequently, most of us with divorced parents were raised by our single mothers--and at that point in U.S. history, many moms were applying themselves to "self-actualization," plotting career routes and exploring the nuances of their newly found sexual and political freedoms. What were the kids doing?
Generation X, according to a 2004 marketing study about generational differences, "went through its all-important, formative years as one of the least parented, least nurtured generations in U.S. history." Census data show that almost half of us come from split families; 40 percent were latch-key kids. We were making our own meals by age 8, letting ourselves into empty homes after school, numbly watching program-length commercials on TV, and trying to get to sleep while they "entertained" their male--and/or female--friends in the living room.
Read More...
target=_blank>http://chilp.it/854eb8
No comments:
Post a Comment