The new generation

I was just watching the local “news” and they ran a story about Adulting 101 classes for millennials. These classes are supposedly designed to teach these “adult” persons how to survive daily life by learning how to sew on a button, balance a checkbook and, I guess, boil water. A really astonishing detail is that the classes are being taught by other millennials who, as stated by one student “have been out in the real world for a while and learned all of these things that we need to know, so we can trust them.” Really.

I know, but still find it difficult to accept and understand, that we have raised a truly helpless generation. What were the parents doing when these kids were growing up? All of the situations which these Adulting 101 classes teach millennials how to deal with are things that I, and everyone that I knew growing up, learned before we left home and entered the real world. Before leaving home, both of my daughters knew how to do at least basic cooking, washing and ironing clothes, manage money (not very well at first), sew on a button and repair a small rip in clothing, check fluid levels in the car engine, and change a flat tire.

I realize that I am just a stupid old man, but geez! And these are the people that will be running this country in a few years? God help us.

MIKE O’CAIN

Benton