Why Baby Boomers Don’t Make Good Parents
By Sandy Morris on Mar 3, 2010 in Baby Boomers, Featured
- Image by cobalt123 via Flickr
There are an awful lot of reasons baby boomers don’t make good parents with probably the #1 being lack of patience.
Now that I have your attention I am not saying that baby boomers weren’t good parents when they were younger and in the making a family part of their lives but as they mature they have a tendency to lose some of the patience it takes to deal with a cranky 2 year old that has to have their way.
Frustration begins to build with a baby boomer when the “Why?” gets repeated over and over with no answer in site. Many become frazzled and just want to escape to the quiet peaceful area of their home. Who would have thought that raising children could be such a challenge at a golden retired age.
To make things more difficult for the aging baby boomer in our current economic times studies show that 2/3 of the woman boomers have a grown child that has moved back in. No longer having the empty nest these same boomers find themselves in a tough love situation. Do you allow them to move back in or say no.
According to the Vibrant Nation survey, Boomer women are dealing with a “Full Nest:”
- 63% have an adult child living with them now (only 41% report ever having returned home to live as adults themselves) and most expect their adult child(ren) to remain with them for more than one year.
- 27% have grandchildren living under the same roof.
- 13% have parents or in-laws living with them as well.
70% blame the economy as the reason for this outcome.
So baby boomers today are often going from empty nest to full nest in a matter of months. The added pressure of having grown children move back home, sometimes with their children and lets not forget the already aging parents of the baby boomer who need care too.
The baby boomer home once again becomes a non-stop, bustling, chaotic mess! And those same baby boomers begin to feel the pressure of having so many people in the house. Soon they find the things they enjoyed doing are done less and less because of the mounting pressure of being Mom again.
So what is a baby boomer to do? No one answer fits all sizes of baby boomers. The decision should not be rushed because of panic in the situation it should be carefully thought through to make sure the change is good for all concerned. Speaking with your doctor is one good advice area, next comes your financial planner and finally talk to your friends. Those friends probably know you better than you think and can give you an opinion that not only comes from their heart but from their minds too.
