“OKAY, BOOMER” – LESSONS FROM MY BOOMER PARENTS

First things first. Have you heard the saying “okay, boomer” yet?? It’s becoming more and more popular with our younger generation. And the first time I heard it, I instantly felt disrespect for our older generation.

What does “okay, boomer” mean? After doing some serious research, it turns out people look at it two different ways: one is POLITICAL and one is AGEISM. 

The first, the political meaning, is referring to the Baby Boomers leaving our economy in a horrible state for the younger generation. You’ll just have to guess if I believe that or not! My Mama taught me not to talk politics 🙂

The only thing I will say is every generation has its issues.  

The second, being ageism, is an interesting way to use it. Ageism is just another form of discrimination. And, depending on who is using it and in what context, this could totally be the case. 

I thought about this saying, “okay, boomer”, and the different ways in which people are using it. All I could think of was my parents. Both are Baby Boomers, and both have taught me SO much.

And yes, I’m going to tell you what that is and why I would NEVER say “Okay, Boomer” to my parents or anyone else!

1. HARD WORK

My parents own an oil company, for heating homes. They worked together: my Dad did the physical labor, my Mom did the paperwork. My childhood winters consisted of rarely seeing my Dad. I can’t even count the amount of days he worked 20 hours and only slept 5 because there’s too many. There were nights he slept even less.

I grew up with a second phone system ringing in our house, which never stopped when it was cold. We got so used to it, we didn’t even notice it in the middle of the night when someone called to say they ran out of oil or had a broken furnace. And my Dad would go out at 3am to fill up their tank so they weren’t cold. 

My Dad’s hands, to this day, are stained from oil. He didn’t start wearing a wedding band until a couple years ago because he didn’t want to ruin it.

I watched my parents go through REALLY long days, sleepless nights, and all while dealing with 5 KIDS! 

If that’s not hard work, I don’t know what is! And let me tell you, I work the same way! I’m all in, I do what I have to in order to get the job done, and that’s all there is to it. 

So to my parents who slaved away for years, THANK YOU for teaching me the importance of hard work and getting the job done. It’s taken me many places in my life time so far, and continues to. 

Would I ever say “Okay, Boomer” to someone like that?? No way!

2. SACRIFICE

My parents both made sacrifices in their lifetime. As an adult, I realize more and more what those were. 

When you’re a kid, you don’t ask your parents questions about their past or when they were younger. They’re just your parents and that’s all you know them as.

As I got older, piece by piece I learned things about my parents – things like places they went, what they wanted to do, where they thought they would be. 

My Dad Sacrificed…

I was in college and home for Thanksgiving. I went down to my cousins house that night to say hi to everyone who was home from school or whatever state they moved to. And my Uncle (actually, he was my cousin but he was more my Uncle) told me how the town petitioned to get my Dad released from the Navy.

So what??

Okay, so I knew my Dad was in the Navy. What I didn’t know was why he came back. Turns out it was to take over the family business when my Grandfather passed away. And from what I understand, it wasn’t his first choice but was for the good of the family.

I always hated when my Dad had to go out late at night or in the middle of the night. He worked hard, like really hard, and it bothered me. But when I heard coming back to take over an oil company wasn’t his first choice, it really hurt my heart. 

He’d been doing it for years…what would his life have been like if he did what he wanted? Would he have been happier, would he have even had kids? And he kept doing it because he had a family. 

My Mom Sacrificed… 

Now that I’ve had a kid, the first thing I know my Mom sacrificed was her body! Holy heck, having a kid destroys your body and changes it to a whole new one. And she didn’t have just one kid, she had 5…say what??

And we didn’t have a babysitter or a nanny. We had my Mom. My Mom drove us to every concert we were in, every parade we participated in, every sporting event, every swimming lesson, every skiing lesson…you name it.

(P.S. Want to read the misconceptions I had of having a kid?? Click HERE check out the post to see what they were 🙂 )

I don’t remember my Mom doing anything for herself. She didn’t spend mornings putting makeup on and doing her hair. She was making us breakfast and getting us ready for school and making sure we had everything. 

When I think about it, she was legit Wonder Woman. I honestly don’t know how she had the energy!

Furthermore, I found out as an adult my Mom was about to leave with the Peace Corp right before she met my Dad…she was expecting to travel and have no kids. Clearly she didn’t leave and she did have kids!

3. GIVING

I can confidently say myself and my siblings have all learned the same lesson from my parents…to give and to give without expecting.  

I’ve seen my parents give not only money, but time and resources. We didn’t eat out often but when we did my parents gave a beyond generous tip. I remember asking my Mom about it. She said “they don’t make a lot for an hourly wage, most of their money comes from tips. They work hard. And so does your father, so he understands and wants to give.”

We grew up going to Sunday School and church. My parents never had an empty hand when it came to giving. They always gave us envelopes to put in the collection plate. And we always participated in the food drives and the car washes and anything else they needed help with. 

My brothers are the best friends you could ever have. If you need help, they are more than happy to help you out. I won’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve moved and how many times my brothers have helped me do it…if you ask them I’m sure they could tell you an exact amount! 

4. INDEPENDENCE

This was huge for my Mom. So, what do I mean by independent??

• Do laundry
• Do dishes
• Clean
• Financially support ourselves

My Mom didn’t want us to have to depend on someone else, she was determined to have us know how to take care of ourselves. 

Want to know how she did it?? Well, we did not have a dishwasher – we were the dishwashers! Also, when we were of age to drive my Mom loaded up the car with laundry and off we went. We had to do the entire house’s laundry. 

My mom, to this day, tells the story of how she was the proudest Mom when my oldest brother went to college. He wrote a letter home saying how he was the only one who knew how to properly do his laundry and therefore was the only one who didn’t have an itchy butt LOL

5. DREAM BIG

There was no lack of support in my house. If we wanted to do something, my parents supported us. They just wanted us to be happy and do whatever we were doing well.

They made sure we had the opportunities to thrive. We all played musical instruments and there wasn’t a concert my parents missed. They were at every single one. 

I was a hardcore sax player from the time I was in third grade through college. I was determined to play the stage of Carnegie Hall and not once did my parents believe this to be impossible or out of my reach.

One of my older brothers was obsessed with motorcycles. He wanted to race, and he didn’t want to go to college. Because our parents wanted us to go to college, they told him racing school could be his college. They would pay for it, support it, and help him get where he wanted to be. 

They drove 4 hours to go watch him race. Their reaction? He was great at it and they were happy to see him happy and doing what he really wanted. 

Now I ask you, is that someone you would say “okay, boomer” to – ever?

CONCLUSION:

My parents are Baby Boomers. And they aren’t the only Baby Boomers I know or have met in my life. The one thing I can say about the Boomers I have met – they know how to work and they aren’t afraid to work. 

There’s a story that circulated recently about a senior citizen in the grocery store. The cashier gave her a bit of attitude about all the plastic bags she was using for her groceries. The woman very politely responded to the young girls remark. 

She mentioned how in her day they walked to the grocery store and didn’t drive 2 blocks away. And, how instead of using gas in the lawn mower they had a push mower and used their muscles. She mentioned how they used cloth diapers and washed and reused them instead of using disposable ones.

The point is, every generation seems to have their own problems and maybe they would have done things differently than the prior generation. But, does it need to be handled so disrespectfully and in such a dismissive way by saying “okay, boomer”? After all, they did raise us…

Just a thought to ponder.

And on that note, and as always,