"Boomers just ended up raising miniature adults." ... I just had to stop, rewind, and watch the last few minutes again. Damn. From the age of five on, I really was taught which of my interests would be a "good" career, and which wouldn't. Fun fact: Everything I enjoyed was not a "good" career.
And for those that choose what we enjoy, get ready for a lifetime of "way to waste your life on X instead of going into the trades." Cause remember - your only value is how much you make. /s
I know exactly how you feel. I was raised by a single mother who worked the graveyard shift at the hospital. I wasn't allowed out of the house outside of going to school. Thus video games became a big part of my life. When I expressed interest in doing something with video games when I grew up, I was told that they were a waste of time and I needed to find a "real" job. I'm 31 now and nearing the end of my first year of college for game design. I regret waiting this long to finally start.
Yep! By age 10 my friends and I were making college plans. In middle school, I *really* wanted to be a meteorologist, but it wasn't good enough. None were until finally settled on law because it was the most acceptable
Oh yeah, I did well in school and seemed to naturally understand the material, so that got pushed on me constantly. I would only be happy if I went to college. I was so smart, so I was wasting this amazing brain I have because I just wanted a job to pay the bills. Yada yada, it was all bullshit. My proof is POF. How many profiles did I see where the education level was listed as something like bachelor's degree, master's degree, etc, but the job title was factory worker, cashier, or fastfood. College guarantees nothing. In fact, sadly, so many of those folks ended up having crushing student debt to deal with on top of working a low paying job. Lower class people can be, and often are, happy, but that's hard to do when 1/4 of your paycheck is going to a loan that isn't getting payed off any time soon. It's incredibly sad. My ex-girlfriend was in that boat. She's an emt working at a chemical plant. She makes almost $18 an hour which, here in southern Indiana, is good pay, but she's barely getting by, because her wages are being garnished to cover her student loans. Around here, a person making that much should be covering their bills and then some. They shouldn't feel constricted unless they are living outside their means, but she always seems to be running low. The bills get payed, but there's nothing left, and she sometimes goes to work without a lunch to bring with her, because she doesn't have enough to pick up something on the way, and there are no leftovers from earlier. Side note here, whoever invented the 21 day swing shift is a sadistic bastard. It wasn't even for her emt training if I'm not mistaken. She took classes for medical transcription and billing. Of course, noone would hire her without experience, and now, just a few years later, her degree is worthless, because so much has changed that she would have to take all of the classes over again.
@@brenthunter5078 I graduated college 2 years early with a bachelors in computer science, Fortunately before i still ended up working at target for a few years, i managed to pay off my debt. But i know i was lucky in that... considering how millennials as a collective beat all other generations with accrued debt with 1.6 trillion in student loan debt alone before the youngest of us even reached 25. It was baffling to me just how many of my coworkers at target also had bachelors... a few even had masters. One of the team leads literally had a doctorate. Yet all of us still... were working at target because there werent enough jobs in our fields. And despite the notion many older Gen Xers and Boomers believe, they werent useless degrees either. We graduated into one of the worse economies and job markets in US history. After being lied to, since early childhood by people we were suppose to trust, about what we needed to do to succeed. Its kinda wild how so many of us were shackled, by achieving crushing debt for a piece of paper most of us dont use, after spending years of our lives to get it. And then those same people who told us to get it wonder why we arent further along in life.
One of the biggest lies ever perpetuated.. Most of the smartest people in history died poor or at best in modest conditions. You don't need tons of intelligence to rise to the top, merely enough, with lots of cunning.
"Stew? What're you doing?" "Making chocolate pudding. . . " "It's 3'Oclock in the morning. Why on earth are you making chocolate pudding?" "Because I've lost control of my life. . . " I feel ya, Stew. . . I feel ya
I grew up in a household where my parents were constantly screaming at each other about paying the bills, threatening each other that we'd be living on the street. Needless to day, I'm very financially conservative to this day.
My parents divorced pretty early, which didn't really bother me at the time but it might've actually set in motion my view on relationships, which is that they never last and if they do its unhappy, for financial reasons. My dad was pretty strict and cynical and I feel like these days I'm slowly becoming like him. But I also realize more that what he's said is sad but true
My dad use to always say, "I'm not raising kids, I'm raising adults." I always thought it was an odd thing to say because I was a kid...not an adult lol
I get the reasoning, you're working with an end product in mind. But the flaw is that it can cause one to be so focused on reaching that end product that they forget the process to get there. Tempering is needed in order to have an outcome that is stable. If you take raw material and simply try to force it into the shape of the final product without processing and refining the materials first, then you will be left with something that has approximately the right appearance, but that is being held together by the crafter and will fall apart or shatter when let go or put under any stress. That is what we are seeing happening with people now. The initially appearance of being well put together and having one's life in order, but then failing and crumbling appart when required to face lofe on their own. Some people can assemble themselves into a cohesive form and function, but others never manage to pull their lives together.
The parents never tried to actually interact with or watch the children. They didn’t try to figure out what was going on by just plainly observing their children. It was all about worrying about being a good parent but they didn’t actually do anything to be a good parent.
I think 1) we have to remember this is a TV show so they're only going to be showing the adventurous times. We're not going to see the boring days in between where Didi plays with Tommy alone while Price is Right is on in the background. 2) I think the whole premise of the show also plays into the idea that you can turn your back on your kids for 2 minutes while you do dishes and they're suddenly covered in peanut butter. And since the show's writers definitely pulled from their own lives and experiences, they probably just wondered what their kids were imagining while playing with a toy truck in the sand box and expanded on that. 3) There's instances where the kids are doing this stuff and parents ARE watching. The pirates episode, Didi is watching from the window telling someone on the phone they're playing pioneers and she wished she had her camera. 4. The number of times adventures happened cuz grandpa fell asleep... xD
Sounds exactly like my grandparents who were part of "The Greatest Generation". My grandmother was an abusive alcoholic who alienated most of her children and my grandfather was "there" physically (sometimes) but not really there emotionally, if you know what I mean. From the outside they seem like good parents but from the inside they couldn't have been more dysfunctional.
I don't see them being neglectful but rather taking a break. Many parents get so much pressure about how to parenting well, and leaving the kids alone for 5 minutes helps. And you probably say "But they left the kids alone for hours!!!", and is a yes and no, on one hand if there are in a safe place they can be left alone longer while we as viewers we see everything by the lens of the babies, for them one hour is like a month, so they feel more fullfilled with their little adventures than an adult would.
@@kappadarwin9476 Exactly using simple things like safety scissors made me ambidextrous because all were made for right handed and I had to learn to work with it
@@AnimeGirlYaoiChan I'm not purely ambidextrous because I can't write with my right hand at all but everything else I can do with ether hand so at least something good came out of being a lefty.
They used to play Nick ads with facts about the show. I think they played the same three like a million times. I still know that the woman who plays Deedee also voices Tommy's grandma. Like, why tf do I know that?
I was always interested in the non-traditional gender roles of RR parents, Stu, while a freelance toy designer, was a stay at home dad while Didi went out and worked as a teacher, Drew and Charlotte were both business people but it was clear that Charlotte had the higher position and paycheck, Chaz had to play duel parent roles as a widower, and Betty was interested in fitness and female empowerment coming off as the more dominant partner than the more mild-mannered Howard. I even recall an episode where all the women are gathered around the tv for the Super Bowl while Drew and Stu were in the kitchen cooking.
@@jessehenderson2967 The best part about television back then was that progressive ideas were inched in subtly, in a natural way, not performative, like many of the messages inserted in shows today.
@@GenerationNextNextNext so true. Watched RR and rockos modern life the other week and both those shows had very progressive ideas in the shows but it was so subtle that I almost didn’t notice it until I really payed attention to the show. Side note: rocko has aged like fine wine, tbh it was ahead of its time and predicted many of the modern issues we face right now literately 25 years ago.
@@GenerationNextNextNext There's no way that isn't cringe. I'm sorry, but how many of these people CLAIMING to be trans are doing it to put a big stamp of "social outcast" on themselves to make up for another internal feeling? Or that they enjoy bossing the big companies around. Rest assured, many claiming to be trans today will not have transitioned in the next generation, thus rendering the word meaningless. Since I do care about more acceptance for people who transition and enabling a more flawless genetic transition. That's our future. But for posers who do so for all the wrong reasons, I don't care.
Broke: conspiracy theory about the babies of Rugrats being invented by angelica's mind. Woke: Conspiracy theory about The Rugrats inadvertedly portraying the anxieties of our parents, and the decadence of the American middle class
@@tariqthomas9090 the second one probably more accurate anyway, except there was nothing inadvertent about it. The makers of Rugrats knew exactly what they were doing, and Nickelodeon shows in general satirized society in some way.
I remember my dad loving Rugrats, laughing his ass off at Mr. Pickles. 5 year old me didn't get why. I was just stoked that my dad liked the same cartoon as me. We all used to love the adventure episodes when the normal house got transformed into fantastical make-believe worlds.
He was probably laughing at himself with Stu. Anyone with their own business, as small as it can be, can relate to Stu. If you also had an uncle who happened to work in a more traditional career, then he was for sure laughing at himself.
Every few years a new one comes up remember Dr. Oz and the horrible raspberry ketones, oh wait that causes breathing problems woops. always some douch bag claiming he knows the secrets to what ever just buy his book.
Ah yes the "loser career" storyline. I swear teachers and parents back then used "loser career talk" as a threat if you didn't study. That sentiment died down because we literally were watching Spongebob live his best life as a fry cook. I think that the recession and the pandemic ended that "get a real job" talk. I know my mother is proud that I have a job and can financially support her when she lost hers; I still felt guilt over not being the successful office drone that reached the upper middle class.
That's Stu, LOL. If you think about it: the guy knows some electronics and rudimentary engineering, so he wants to make toys for a living, risking it in the private sector for an unconvetional idea, while his brother is more traditionally career-oriented. The very first sceneof them in the Rugrats film shows them arguing over Stu's career and how much time and money he spent making a fucking flying machine shaped like a pterodactylus (remember that?). Stu hated not being able to work with his hands so he'd rather keep making failed projects than wirking in a desk job. He didn't make it into the traditional fit for a man, but takes pride in his work.
@@UBvtuber I studied a lot, to the point i was considered a genius, but obsure languages don't translate to marketable skills. At least I have a job, most of my peers probably lost theirs during the pandemic and have a 100K+debt. I was considered "retarded" by my teachers.
You’re definitely right about the pandemic ending a lot of parenting quips like the “get a real job” talk. Also parents used to complain about kids screen time and video games. You don’t hear them complaining about that anymore with quarantine
Letting kids be kids is something the public school system doesn’t understand. Test, test, test, test. All I heard in elementary school was “we’re preparing you for middle school.” In middle school it was “we’re preparing you for high school.” In high school it was “we’re preparing you for college(even though we know at least half of you or more won’t go to college).” There was never time to just be. Not even at home. Always always always doing homework that doesn’t actually help you learn. The only thing I learned through homework was how to BS my way through it. Just tell them what they want to hear.
That's because the school system got modeled to forego instruction at the benefit of education, by that I mean you're not taught, you're just being crammed for evaluation and you can dump it all away afterwards because it doesn't matter in the job world. And the school system got into this because in the 20th century it's been geared and hardwired to produce obedient cogs and simply wrangle the misfits until the "real world" destroys them.
I'm still doing that even now that I am in college. It's honestly so mentally taxing and I didn't even go in for the EdUcaTIoN part. I'll finish the semester/year but that's it. I'm just lucky to have grandma and grants.
@@davidb3155 I have thought about that option before. The only thing with trades is a lot of them are highly physically. When I think about it I am someone relatively suited for office type jobs. I might not like phone calls and writing long reports but things like, looking over stock, checking balance. Heck even just filing papers is something I like. The issue is those types of jobs can be almost entirely automated. At least the ones that would pay a lot. Otherwise it's something like being an educator. I liked being a student teacher aid and helping grade work. I don't think I could stand kids though. I do hope I can find something so I'm keeping optimistic about it. I just don't know what "it" is yet.
And now I finally understand why a huge part of the kids that were in honor rolls and "gifted child" programs are anxious wrecks masquerading as adults today. Even the ones who were there because they actually enjoyed the academic part of school.
Yep, I was in "gifted child" programs, honor roll, AP and IB classes all throughout K-12 and now I scam boomers for bitcoin after dropping out of graduate school after an existential crisis turned into a mental breakdown.
my adult ass being on honor rolls and in gifted programs..... In my early 20s I left the US and start doing my own thing. so glad I did that shit. in my 30s I am pretty successful. not filled with anxiety and not pretending to be an adult. A lot of why these kids grow up to be anxiety ridden adults is because they trusted the pipeline they were put in, only to find out that pipeline/path was broken, and didn't have the flexibility to take the unbeaten path in life. That's in no way their fault. That's literally how their parents raised them to be. To rely on a structured environment when in life, that structure just doesn't exist and really never existed. We have a lot of freedom, and with it does come responsibility and that shit is hard for people to handle.
@@betsapp91 Yeah they're effectively just the guys doing Stage Design in a play while Boomers are the ones who wrote the play and Millenials/Zoomers are the actors forced to perform in front of the crowd.
See, i always had that thing I wanted to be. It just never meant anything. First I wanted to be a Fire fighter/police officer, because as a kid, that was what I thought was a good guy. Then I heard dentists get paid a lot... Then i saw Snow Dogs and some of the rank ass teeth he had to work on and that scared me away. Then a pro-wrestler, comic book artist, computer programmer, graphic designer. And eventually, i just settled on Unemployed Filmmaker...
My parents were born in '58 & '61, late boomers and they literally have the characteristics of ALL of these characters morphed together. They definitely suffered that whole economic stress and anxiety and smothered the crap out of me and my sister, and people wonder why so many young people live with their parents; we all have this idea that if we don't save as well as indulge not only are we missing out on life but we are also gonna be living on the streets.
@@Pikminiman When I was a kid I didn't tell my parents I need new shoes, since the old ones had holes in them. Later when my old friend's gran got me some. My folks were embarrassed they didn't get me shoes. They even had the gal to sham me for accepting charity! When through out childhood my parents talked about finances a lot as a kid - so I didn't bother them with what a needed or wanted. Sad really.
"...prone to suffering from real bouts of anxiety...like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders" Yep, sounds like a typical Monday ...Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
I'm a Canadian minimum wage worker who barely works full time and I could buy a house if go out of the city. Just stop trying to buy a house in expensive cities.
@@Reticulating-Splines If your career require from you to live in a big city but said career cannot pay enough to make living in a big city doable, then that is not a career. It's a dead end dream.
I also like to point out regarding Chas Finster (Chuckie's dad, I forgot his name) being a single dad at such an era. I think Mrs. Finster passed away when Chuckie was barely a year old and so Chas really had to double up on being the ultimate parent for his son, but being quite an easily nervous and retentive guy over his child which reflects on Chuckie being a sympathetic, easily scared character.
You left out the most boomer moment of the show- the episode where the babies kept taking their clothes off and the twins' mother tells Tommy's "the 60's are over we lost".
@@BelieveIt1051 Tbh I can't tell the difference between the Karens, Feminists, and Boomers at times... they all scream "ITS THAT PHONE!" at the end of the day and victimize themselves.
@@BelieveIt1051 i mean, which generation did you think make up the bulk of second-wave feminism, the main target of mockery whenever feminism came up in this era of cartoons?
@@DixyRae What do other cartoons have to do with this? Like, if Ren & Stimpy mock some boomer feminists that doesn't mean Rugrats showed boomer feminists. The fact is, feminists exist in every generation. It doesn't make the feminist a boomer.
For all the 'no, they were Gen-Xers' - the youngest parent was Deedee, who was 32 at the beginning of the series. Meaning all of the parents were born in 1959 or earlier. Gen X was 65. They're Boomers.
To add a bit more verification to that, I distinctly remember an episode that was mostly a flashback to an adventure that Stu and Drew had in their father's electronics repair shop when they were about Tommy and Angelica's ages, respectively. The flashback was animated in black and white, and I recall there were were thinly-veiled parodic references to The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Rocky and Bullwinkle. At one point, one of Lou's customers also mentions having difficulty starting his Edsel. All of the context clues line up, and point to that particular flashback occurring sometime around 1959 or 1960. That absolutely confirms Stu and Drew as being Boomers.
@@Josh-sv7wj Let's assume these parents were all born around 1950. They'd be 20 in 1970, and probably not be having kids until their late 20s/early 30s due to the Sexual Revolution, so having kids between 1978 and 1982, as Gen X was reaching its final years and giving way to the Millennials. We have to understand that generations are not defined by who gives birth to whom, but rather by what period of time one was born in. Both Gen X and the Millennials are products of the Boomers, as Gen X and the Millennials both grew up under different circumstances due to the rapidly increasing development of technology and shifting culture. Gen X would also have some members who would be considered young members of the Greatest Generation, while Millennials were entirely sired by Boomers, with some Gen X parentage towards the end in the mid 90s.
This is sooo relatable, reminds me so much of my mom especially. She always worried about not raising me right and therefore tried way to hard and maybe cared a bit too much. I felt smuthered by this for a long time in my teens. Now in my twenties, the past couple years i've been so stressed about not becoming someone succesfull i went trough some dark times. After quitting my third study i've come to realise i don't have to be perfect or succesful and i feel so much more free. I feel i can go in directions with my life i never even considered before, even without having to go to college again. So many people around me seem to be obsessed with materialism and becoming succesful it's sometimes hard to realise there is so much more than that.
I was a money addict till my late 20's ..then I was like _What am I doing? Im trading all my time for this stupid money. Making rich assholes richer?.. Im out!_ Now I just chill lol.. way better.
This made me think of my mom as well. She is borderline obsessed with money and class. She judges everyone by how much money they make. And she keeps telling me to go back to college so I can get a better job. Even though it's not important to me right now. Maybe not ever. When her ex boyfriend died from a car crash, she only lamented that he didn't have life insurance, so his family couldn't get any money.
I can relate, in my thirties now. I was raised by a blue collar single mom. I noticed a lot of the worries mentioned here. College was constantly being pushed on our generation by teachers, your friends parents, your family, and any other adult worried about your success.
My parents got married at 20 and bought their first house at 21. They are so much less understanding than actual boomers because they became adults at just the right time in the '90s for my dad to make a bunch of money on computers and the internet. They got lucky but don't see it they see it as hardwork to build their empire (they're still married) and so they think hardwork will make you rich now when that isn't necessarily true. The hardest working people I know work two jobs and raise a family and barely make ends meet. I don't know where I'm going with this but I feel like parents who became adults in the 90s are far more damaging than actual boomers are
George Prchal They do. Gen X is alive and well and in many ways overlooked in a lot of ways. This is especially since they were the 1st wave of children a lot of Baby Boomers had and subsequently through the poor development of the job market the 1st unofficial parents of a lot of Millennials. Lol.
And... now I notice my fellow-Millennial friends and family that have children follow the same behavioral patterns. It's easy to shit on boomers as if they're personally culpable for this shit, but in some ways it's just the natural endpoint of a meritocratic culture (whether that meritocracy is real or an illusion). We use universities as a sorting mechanism - the people that're most neurotic, most workaholic, least likely to challenge authority figures, most likely to define their self-worth as a human being from external factors like a report card or a paycheque... these are the people that are the most productive workers. At 11:25 you see older Tommy (? never watched all grown up) freaking out about a single test that could completely ruin his future. Those same people grow up, become business leaders, and somehow we're all shocked when they're obsessed about the slightest short term move in their company's stock price or quarterly earnings?
Holy smokes I did not expect to find you guys here. But yes. Kinda terrifies me how self-worth is now being judged by what position you held, what latest supercars you owned, and how high your GPA is in college.
Yes, universities are well known for not producing challenging ideas, and I for one have never seen students protesting authority. Sarcastic reply aside, I do like your guys channel! Keep up the great work!
@@bencochrane6112 They protest the authority, yell, wave flags and hold signs and then they join the workforce like everyone else because they need food on the table. And how about this year? Governments of the world are doing whatever they want. no one is questioning them. Everyone is an obedient little sheep.
@@mikshinee87 That's not true in the slightest. There have been historic protests and progress for worker/citizen centric movements/governments across the globe this year. Even my country, the shitty Right Wing dystopia U.S.A, has a population which is finally starting to open their eyes and see past the decades, centuries, of propaganda. Joining the workforce doesn't make someone an obedient little sheep. What a ridiculous assertation.
This hits uncomfortably close to home. Like... Yeah, did I ever feel like my parents expect me to go to college, excel there, get a high paying job for a house and family. Is it nothing what I imagined my life to be? Sure. Do I like having them around? Hell, no. Do I still love them? Hell, yes. Am I depressed and not able to pursue a carrer without their judment and feeling I am not successful enough? Yes.
Thats when you have to do things for your own happiness, your own approval, your own pride and your own love. Can't always live for other people and try to be who they want you to be
@@mindofzena8447 Well I respect your advice, but things cannot be generalized in just one conditions. What if you live in a stagnant, third world countries? The choice is quite obvious.
My boomer parents always wanted me to attend high school and go to study at a university and of course this became the most important goal of my life (and still is to this day). But as a teenager I couldn't handle the pressure and I started wasting my days smoking pot with my mates. Although I went to high school at first, I failed it and dropped out two times in a row. In my early 20s I tried again, succeeded and now I study at University. And now after I found a new student job, my mom tells me that I should find a "real job" instead...
The trick is to just stop caring about their approval. Sounds hard to do and I won't lie, it is-- but at some point you have to decide who you're living on this planet for. You, or them.
Oh god that ending made me so sad. We spent our childhoods watching other kids have fun on tv rather than having fun ourselves. Our imaginations really only turn on when the electronics turn off.
No your attempt at an imagination is horrible. For me, that never has left. Ill leave it at that. Lol, youre also in the wrong time period. Even in the late 90s, early millennium, technology was a box computer that was in the living room. I wasnt allowed on it unless i asked. Also, i think it was considered a middle class thing. Not everyone had those. Ppl still had pagers back then. Well, i think my dad had a cell. But it sure as wasnt connected to the net.
I’m curious about what differences in parenting were present between Boomers and GenX. My parents were born in 67/68, too young to be Boomers and right at the start of GenX. I’m a part of the youngest subset of millennials, mid-late 20s, and saw way more helicoptering among my peers than kids older than us.
I agree. My parents were born in 58/60, in between Boomers and Gen X (although they do lean more towards what we think of as Boomer mentality), and I'm a Xennial born in 82. I know it's probably weird to say, but I think the difference between Xennials and Millennials is if you graduated before or after 9/11. I graduated in May 01, my brother was a grade behind me, and I don't think some of the major shifts that happened didn't quite affect people my age or a little older as they did kids who were still in school. Maybe it is just me who feels this way, but I do think that's partially why I don't feel right calling myself a Millennial, even though I technically could.
@@slkjvlkfsvnlsdfhgdght5447 A very good question to ask. My parents, for example, would very solidly fall under the boomer category as they were born in the 50's but they were also born in colonies and lived through their countries' independence. The childhood and early adulthood experiences they've described are wildly different from the boomer experience described in even this video.
@@slkjvlkfsvnlsdfhgdght5447 It's just kind of something I've vaguely thought about, more than a concrete theory. It would be interesting to see an actual sociological study on it though.
@@slkjvlkfsvnlsdfhgdght5447 To a certain extent, I think it still applies bc 9/11 kicked off the truly bonkers era of foreign policy we're still dealing with. America can't go through a thing without bringing everyone else along.
Damn. I just realized that I'm jealous of my high-school classmates who are dumber than me but more successful. Basically they started "adulting" that is moving out, working a job in an office, drinking fancy coffee and wearing professional looking clothes. These people don't do anything important and their jobs could easily be automated or done by some slob in his pajamas. Holy shit, they just turned into their parents.
same. the more you learn, the more you start to understand that more than anything else, our economic system rewards social connections and dogma, just like it did in the olden days. also that the social script is incredibly limiting.
@@ethanstump What I can't understand is how these drones got into these "professions" when they never had any experience. I could easily do or learn-to-do their jobs but I can't make it to the interview despite having a degree. Also, why do children of professionals getting middle class jobs, where working class kids can't break into that despite their education?
@@pacodance29 I'm familiar with that word and seen plenty of it in government roles but for some reason a bunch of drones ended up in good places with no evidence of nepotism whatsoever.
@@professordogwood8985 Maybe it doesn't have to do with technical abilities but rather social abilities. I believe they may "talk their way" into the careers during an interview, for example. If the job they are doing is more "fluid" in a sense that you don't need hard skills (programming, understanding evolution or calculus, critical thinking and analysis, you get it), they tend to do well. I see some colleagues that were on the lower end during high school and today are doing well. Idk, maybe it's luck, or people change, or whatever..
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the rugrats. Its interesting looking back that they were playing and I was sitting in front of a TV just watching.
The first thing to come to my mind, when thinking about Rugrats, is that Tommy's parents were self portraits of the married couple that created the show, as new parents. And that, later on, they divorced in real life.
Pops comes home* "How was your night with your friends?" Pops:"we had a round of russian roulette" "Did you win?" Pops: "I dont think you know what russian roullete is "
Eeeeyup. I'm 26 (born in '94) mom was 21 and dad was 24 when they had me. They were born in '72 and '69 respectively, definitely full-blown Gen-X. But I absolutely still relate to this video, they were a lot like boomers so I'm not sure. Straight up, Gen-X just isn't even talked about. It's like they never existed. And like only The Boomers were this awful people. But nope... Yeah no, I had a _pretty traumatizing_ *GEN X PARENTED CHILDHOOD.* Man, *FUCK all generations* before Millenial and Gen Z, tbh!!! 🤣😆 (except, of course, for the good apples in each).
Same, I was born in 92 and my parents were born in 68. Now that I re-watch this, yeah, all the adult characters seem well into their thirties (or even older).
I just had the most terrifying of flashback. How my father wanted to learn many things to help me to be a successful grown-up but never allowed me to do or learn what I wanted. The constant reminder that I should not disappoint him in any way. How he almost gloated when he saw me failed at trying to achieve what I really wanted. How he pushed me to study a career I don't like and to this day haven't used. How his perpetual pressure caused me depression and he made a surprise Pikachu face when it happened.
I know this message doesn't mean much but your dad is real jerk for projecting his desires onto you. I always hated those kinds of parents who wanted their children to be financially successful so they could mooch off of them. It really shows how much of a class act he is.
@@kappadarwin9476 Hold the phone, we don't know Clara's Dad's Intentions here. There is some chance that he really _is_ just blind, and tried to do well, but failed in multiple things he wasn't aware were important. Then again, maybe he's the kind of Dad you're talking about. I just don't want to assume positivity or doom.
@Jeremiah Kivi The "baby boom" came after the soldiers who served in WWII started coming back home and making babies because they were relieved they weren't going to die by kraut machine gun fire. It spans from '46, when the first couples got their hanky-panky on, to '64. If the show takes place in '91, assuming they were the tail end of the boomer generation, they could be anywhere from 27 to 45. P.S. I think you're at least as bad at math as you assert Wisecrack is.
@Jeremiah Kivi Go ahead, Google the years that cover the baby boom, get a calculator(you obviously need one), and you know, maybe go sit in a 2nd grade class during math time and brush up on your two-digit arithmetic.
Man, I had like the exact opposite of the Rugrats' situation. If I was doing chores, I was helicopter'd like a prime time police chase, and I wasn't allowed to play video games or even READ until after my aunt had gone over my chores and homework in meticulous detail to make sure I had everything squared away to perfection. And then I was put on ADHD medication when I was 8, and the mood swings they set me on had me throwing myself off the roof of our house because I'd been yelled at one too many times about how lazy I was for not finishing the lawn mowing. If I stopped chopping wood for half a second to get a drink of water, my uncle would teleport out of nowhere to tell me exactly how much of a fat, lazy burden I was and how he couldn't wait to get me out from under his roof. I attempted suicide 3 times at the ages of 9, 12, and 16. That first attempt at the age of 9 was when I threw myself off the roof. I landed in an ivy bush instead of the concrete front porch, and dazedly walked back to my bedroom where, a few minutes later, I watched the milk man pull up, drop off some milk right next to the bush I'd just flattened, and drive off. I then spent the next few hours hiding in my closet having an existential panic attack as I fully realized my own mortality and how the earth as a whole wouldn't even blink at my passing, which is when I developed a debilitating fear of heights so severe I'm literally incapable of climbing a ladder to change a light bulb without hyperventilating. Now, to be completely fair, the VAST majority of why I initially became suicidal was because of those goddamn pills, but what kept me feeling that way for another 7 years was the explicit, unambiguous disinterest my aunt and uncle had in what could have possibly driven a ***nine year old*** into ***jumping off a two story building.*** Instead, they waved it off as me "playing" and "exaggerating" when I told them I had wanted to die and almost did. I'm now 26 and have held a job for a full year now. I had been going to therapy, but the current world situation has had me stop. This job though is the biggest deal for me because it's the longest I've ever held a job, and the first job I've had since 2015 that wasn't a 3 week long seasonal job. I'm not living the life I always wanted; my uncle made sure to nurture doubt in my own creativity as much as possible, while my aunt actively picked at and tore down my dreams and goals as "unrealistic", which is even more infuriating since they've recently turned right around and bought my younger cousin an $8k custom gaming computer and Webcam set up so he can stream Fortnite, but hey, my ideas of being an author, or a video game/book reviewer on RU-vid, were just terrible and completely unrealistic. That said, I'm tentatively starting on outlines for two different stories I've thought up, both of which are taking cues and tropes from romance anime (both drama and comedy) and viewing them from different lenses. One is about a man who travels the world looking for his Cinderella. If you know Toradora, then my second story idea is basically that, except Ryuji and Taiga are fighting because (due to never actually communicating with each other civilly) both believes that the other is trying to break up Kitamura and Minori, all because they stumbled across one another (playing on the crash-into hello trope) while spying on a date of Kitamura and Minori's. I don't expect this to get seen by very many people, but the stress has been building lately, and being able to vent about the bad and also highlight the good has lightened my load by a significant amount, so thank you for posting such a surprisingly needed video, and know that life is always worth living, because it can always get better if you work at it.
This is quite the life story you've told here. It gives me hope that you're still considering writing your stories even after everything you've gone through. I'm hoping that things will continue to get better for you and I'm so grateful you're still with us. Thanks for sharing!
I'm 29 and, despite never truly attempting suicide, you hit the nail on the head for my childhood. I was popped full of adderall at 7 (1998). I stopped the pills this year, and although it hurts, it has helped both financially and mentally. I also have Asperger's and have less and less panic attacks off of those damn pills. I also found a creative niche that had helped me make friends finally when I was 19 and due to this niche I have made more and more friends. But man...that really sounds rough. I wish I could give you a hug right now as we seem to have similar perspectives on life and our upbringings. I wish you the best.
Honestly adhd medicine isn't for everyone, I'm 19 and the doctors prescribed them to me when I was like 8 due to me having Asperger's, with each new type of medicine they tried it just messed me up more and more such as causing ticks to happen or me puking early in the morning.
Can we please highlight how gender bending Rugrats was?! Like Charlotte being a BOSS at her job and both her and DeDe financially supporting the household while Drew and Stu, maintained the house?!
@@ManictheMod Not exactly. I consider "stay-at-home" dads are fathers that take on the more "caretaker" role in the family, which Didi kinda does, as Stu is sometimes away from home, probably at inventor cons or is required to go to some nearby company, doing a sales pitch for his inventions. Rugrats in Paris is apparently the only actual time he was required to go do an international trip (afaik).
im 22 and finished college and my parents immediately urged me to go back to school for a master's degree. like i don't even know what i want to do with my life at this point, at least let me find a damn job and live it a little.
I just met up with my cousin who immediately got a masters degree and went straight to becoming a school dean at like 24-25. I don't know the full details but she apparently crashed hard a few months ago, lost her job, apartment, and car and is still recovering. I just really don't understand her.
@@joelsasmad it's burnout, dude. sooner or later she was gonna burn out from all the expectations and responsibilities. it's why this style of parenting is awful. it teaches the kids nothing about their lives and only serves to add a shitload of unnecessary stress to their lives. parents need to learn when to detach and let their kids just be themselves. if i decide i want to go to law school, i want it to be after I've had experience in said field so i can decide if it is the kind of lifestyle i can manage. not because i was told to. I'm living my life for myself. I'm in the driver's seat, and whoever is in the back is just along for the ride. Not backseat driving the entire time
Im 26. I went to graduate school in the moment of trying to find myself and I kinda regret it. But I kinda don’t. It was a very stressful time. I’m going back to school for media, something I did while in undergraduate school and I’m more excited about it than anything. My parents are Gen X, and they’re always pushing me to find a better paying job, don’t waste time or money..I’m slowly learning to live for me, because they stress me out lol ..I’m sure they learned from my boomer grandparents
I never watched the show, but being a mid 90's baby, i wanted to thank you for showing me these major factors that have resulted in my upbringing. This explains many things about why us millennials are the way we are.
I hope people remember the episode that Angelica was potentially going to have a younger sibling the darker implication of that episode is that Charlotte was indeed pregnant but had a chemical pregnancy
That’s a fan theory. It’s also theorized that she had an abortion (as she increasingly panics about having another baby + she’s a workaholic with zero time for Angelica).
@@TabbyeLynne Also the implication of fertility issues. I heard Didi and Stu had them as well which was so surprising they had Tommy and Dil. Also Tommy was a Preemie.
I was waiting for a video to explore the Boomer parents on Rugrats. Also: Daria, King of the Hill, Rocket Power, As Told By Ginger (Lois and Macie's parents sound like late Boomers), Stranger Things. (Please do a video The Take on Boomer Parents as a follow up to the Sally Draper video). I recommend "The Mommy Myth" by Susan J. Douglas for insight into the mothering exhibited by the Rugrats Moms (especially Didi). Angelica was 12-13 in "All Grown Up!"
@@franklinlara1831 I was just about to say that. King of the Hill is a fascinating cultural artifact on many levels. It baffles me how overlooked it is.
Daria is so great. But I feel that it's less a reflection on the Boomers themselves as a group much as it is the suburban dream lifestyle that turned out to be more dystopian than utopian. That was a big arching theme in the mid to late 1990s across lots of media, as we see in American Beauty and The Matrix especially, and the song "(21st Century) Digital Boy" by Bad Religion, although that was a bit earlier in 1994.
Yup. I got super lucky and somehow ended up with a part time engineering job (36 hours a week) paying $41 an hour, but no benefits. And I was able to set my own schedule for a third of those 36 hours. I worked 3 days a week. Somehow my parents thought it wasn't good enough, and I should look elsewhere for a "real job" with benefits. After a year of arguing with them, I finally broke down the numbers that even AFTER paying for my own health insurance and maxing out my IRA, I was making more money than I would at any other company in the city. To some people, if it doesn't meet their traditional expectations of good it's not good enough. I lost that job in March due to COVID, but it was amazing while it lasted. As far as I'm concerned, if I can pay my bills and I love coming into work each morning I don't care what anyone else thinks at this point.
Best job I ever had was delivering junk mail. Surprisingly well paid, got to set my own hours, and only had to visit the office once a week to hand in my time sheet and pick up new leaflets. I made enough in 25-30 hours a week to live comfortably (renting a small place on my own), I was by no means rolling in money, but I had enough and I also had time to do things. The constant "when are you getting a real job" from family got real annoying, and yeah even pointing out I was making enough money just lead to "but you're not working 40 hours".
But what if you were a child that was left alone constantly but also couldn’t play outside so all you did growing up was watch tv? My mom wanted me to have the advantages in the future that she never had, so she did pay for my English classes and music classes growing up, for French classes in high school and Portuguese classes in College. So I am both independent, self-sufficient and imaginative but do everything with anxiety and I’m depressed. I also don’t know how to keep a schedule and I’m always seeking immediate gratification in the form of tv, RU-vid and books.
part about the birthdays is interesting because I feel right now is when people go over the top for toddler’s birthdays. when i was growing up it was family dinners with homemade cakes and once school aged they were at home parties with hotdogs and simple games. i was a lower middle class canadian millennial myself.
Even baby showers are crazy. There's all these ridiculous gender reveal parties (to the point where they start FIRES!) and "sprinkle" parties where the parents demand more shit for their kid instead of buying it themselves. The only difference between today and 20 years ago is that everyone is documenting and uploading life events in seconds to show how "speshul" they are.
I never saw it as child neglect. I just thought it was letting children be children. The last thing I'd want as a kid is to have my parents hovering over me the whole time. I got my batman and my Tonka truck, let me fucking dig some dirt. Especially because the show was about them being alone, just like how the show is about the group of babies. When the other babies went home, I'm sure the parents spent time with their kids like most normal families. Or maybe not, they never made that spinoff, so we'll never know
@@DarrenNoFun reminds me of the episode where the kids had a simple cardboard box. Pretty much all the babies except Angelica had wonderful adventures (race car, space ship, a cave/ house) with it. Even when it got ripped up, they STILL played with what was left but transformed what the box was to them (a pair of wings, a mask, even swords).
@@DarrenNoFun I think you seem to forget that most of the child characters on this show are 1 year olds. Angelina was 3 and she was the oldest of the group. There's a difference between hovering 10 year olds and hovering over toddlers. Also, didn't they lose their babies IN A FOREST in one of their movies? Even their newborn infant. Plus in the other movie when they got stranded on an island, all the children got lost IN A JUNGLE. All of the adults there, and not one of them could watch the kids properly. I get that parents aren't perfect and that they make mistakes, and I understand that giving your kids some space is good for them, but come on. How do you screw up THAT badly? And MULTIPLE times too? 😂
I can see this difference in my parents' approaches to me during my childhood. My father is older than my mother. My father was allowing me more freedom compared to my mom who was always a bit too much invested in my stuff. She sent me to various sports activities, she was very hard on education. My father, on the other hand, was very protective of me, but he never forced me to do something, he always trusted me and only occasionally expressed his thoughts on the kind of the games I've played, that they were too violent for his taste, for example. However, he never would've forced me to watch, play or do something that he perceived to be good. He knew that a kid is an individual who can give decisions of his own. Thanks to this, I'm not drinking, I'm not smoking, I have a healthy body.
You are correct. There were early and late boomers. The 1950s though 1976 were the late boomers. They were the hippie tree hugging gen or also known as the snowflake boomer gen. Interesting how they called us, millenials, snowflakes. They were talking about themselves. I love psychology, ahaha. XD
@@luanneneill2877 Other historians would disagree because there were also a huge baby boom during those times. They were considered to be the last of the baby boomers.
@@Featheryfaith7 Which historians? That would pretty much wipe out Gen X, in that case, since they were born between 1965-80. Don't think your info's correct. From Wikipedia: Generation X ( Gen X for short) is the demographic cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media typically use birth years around 1965 to 1980 to define Generation Xers, although some sources use birth years beginning as early as 1960 and ending somewhere from 1977 to 1985. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-truisms-wellness/201602/baby-boomers-generation-z A detailed look at the characteristics of each generation. If you were born in the U.S. after 1946, you are a Baby Boomer; if you were born after 1964, you belong to Generation X; and if you were ... www.history.com/topics/1960s/baby-boomers-1 Watch a brief video on the hugely influential Baby Boomers - the generation of Americans born during the post-World War II period between 1946 and 1964.
It’s such an interesting thought given that growing up my mom didn’t want me watching rugrats because “their heads were shaped funny” and that all came from a fear that if I was an outsider socializing with the “non beautiful” I wouldn’t be able to deal with the struggles of life. I wasn’t too scared to shut down that mentality even as a kid but the result, there are lots and lots of things made more difficult for me growing up because instead of embracing what was, my parents were terrified of me not being in the winners circle mold. I didn’t want to participate in that nonsense, so I have so many memories of sitting on the floor during vacation doing nothing. Because nothing was better than going away from the mold
Weren't the Carmichaels super successful? And their kids highly educated? Susie's mother was a doctor and her father was the creator of an extremely successful television show. And in the Rugrats in Paris film, Susie is shown to speak fluent French. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be born into THAT family than the one where the parents leave their babies with a sleeping octogenarian.
Exactly I was just saying that I can relate to this because my parents were both military so I had a lot time with grandparents who were boomers lol. But only as much as a black woman could. (Referring to that comment about how the economy for boomers growing up was great for “everyone”) 😂😂 my great grandfathers(both sides) weren’t even allowed to take advantage of their GI bill once they came back from war because they were black so that was funny to hear.
My mom was an early boomber but all my friends parents were late and did this to my friends. While my mom left me alone and was supportive of whatever i did - i still got second hand anxiety watching my friends parents push them to do better and felt like my mom didnt push me enough. Also. Things like making a castle in 5th grade. My mom told me my castle didnt look as good as everyone elses and wouldnt because their parents made them for them while i did mine alone. I was jealous of theirs but they were jealous of me because their dads wouldnt let them touch their own project
I grew up with Rugrats. I’m of the generation he’s talking about. I had tons of unstructured play time! The two boys from down the street and I used to roam the far reaches of our neighborhood by ourselves all day. We pretended our bikes were horses. We were pioneers on the Oregon trail and I was Laura Ingles Wilder. We built big lean to’s around trees, and other forts. We had so much freedom! I still grew up to be neurotic. lol
I always feel so well-adjusted when I look at these often-unrelatable accounts of boomers and millennials, as I've had neither brand of toxicity, being a Gen Z raised by Gen X raised by Silent Gen.
They were like the ass-end of the boomer generation. They were the first to see the fallout from the boomer nonsense. Not really a fair comparison here.
Hey Arnold is IMO the deepest and best of the 90s nicktoons. Fun fact Clasky Csupo’s animation company also made Duckman, which I consider more mature than South Park and from 1994
"Watching tv kids go on adventures of a different era, was extraordinarily appealing." - That was also Hey Arnold and Ed, Edd, n Eddy in a nut shell. Great shows.
I read a post comparing what boomers did to the market and the economy with wiping yourself in the bathroom, using up the tp to the last square and leaving it to whoever comes next to hopefully notice it before it’s too late to get up and get another roll...
All the praise and encouragement and aspirations to excellence turned "gifted" kids into really discouraged adults who discovered that everything had been a lie from parents who were worried more about appearances and self esteem than actual excellence. You're not actually smart, you're straight up average. You can't be anything you put your mind to, you could only be middle class if you put your mind to it and got lucky.
Advice for my fellow millennials. Be the parent you needed when you were a child. And once your kid is 18. They have to start being adults. No one is going to coddle you for your whole life.
