Supporting Junior: The Ingratitude of Sons and Daughters: Boomers Helping Unemployed Family
A working life can be rewarding, especially when one is able to reach a position of seniority, earning the respect and remuneration associated with a successful career. Psychological articles show us that if you want something done efficiently it is always more effectively done by a busy person rather than someone who is unfamiliar with multi tasking.
The same principle applies to work ethics: people who have become accustomed to a pressured working life can take on extra work more effectively than someone who might not have been exposed to a regular work routine. In our modern employment market, the work ethic is becoming undermined by the absence of strong job opportunities. A great number of younger people, on being disappointed in the job market, rely on the income of parents or even grandparents to enable them to make ends meet.
Baby boomers with large families will sometimes find they are better qualified to earn a higher salary than their children and grandchildren and so continue to work long after the conventional retirement age, due to what they see as necessity; to support the family financially through an economic downturn.
Psychological articles state that many of the children and grandchildren who are the recipients of baby boomers’ generosity in providing funding for food; clothes; pocket change and other expenses, display a woeful lack of appreciation for the sacrifices being made of their behalf.
One of the main reasons for this seeming lack of gratitude is simply familiarity: people who have not had the experience of a responsible working environment will rarely understand the effort that is required to hold down a job in a competitive market or even appreciate that they are privileged to receive necessities bought with baby boomers’ hard earned cash. In fact, they are often so used to receiving money in this way that the idea of earning their own living is novel in the extreme.
To say that this bread winning structure within a family is destructive is to understate the long term effects, not only on family relationships but also on baby boomers’ physical and emotional health. When a person reaches the age of sixty or more, a natural slowing down process should commence prior to retiring. It is not acceptable that older family members should automatically become liable to undertake a lengthier career for the sake of younger individuals without either the ability or the opportunity to earn their own living.