The Generation Grand Canyon

Back in the 60s, I believe, the term "generation gap" was coined. It refered to the huge difference in ideology between the WWII era parents, and their free-loving, hippie children.

So what happens when people are two generations apart? Like say, a 17 year-old girl, and her grandparents in their early 70s?

(FYI, this is my own picture of the Grand Canyon on our recent spring break trip. I just wanted you to know I didn't swipe it off Google or something.)

I was struck by this the other day when my parents and I were sitting at one of Danni's softball games. There were two different conversations that brought this point home to me.


The first one happened because there was a girl on the team who was taking some class, that class, whatever class it is where you have to carry one of those fake babies around with you? Several years ago, teachers tried to demonstrate the difficulty of taking care of an infant by having kids carry an egg or a sack of flour around with them. But now, we have simulated infants, dolls that cry when they are wet, hungry, handled too harshly, etc. They don't ever cry for lengthy periods of time for no apparent reason, which to me makes them not very realistic, but I digress.

(Thank you, Mary, for pointing out that this is Baby Think-It-Over. I didn't know what it was called. This picture, I totally swiped from Google.)

Anyway, the girl's mother was "babysitting" the doll. It started to wail a couple of times; once to have a diaper changed, and once to have a bottle. My father did not understand what the doll was all about. I told him it was for a class the girl was taking. He automatically assumed it was a class on babysitting. I told him it was supposed to teach teenagers that taking care of a baby is a lot of work, and they really don't want to have one while they're still in high school. He was flabbergasted, but luckily managed to avoid the stroke I thought for sure was inevitable.


The second conversation was between my mother and me. This was Tuesday, so the day before Danni's birthday. It went like this:


Mom: "So, what are you getting Danni for her birthday?"


Me: "Well, I'm going to get her an iPhone. I've already talked to her about it, because she's going to have to wait until the 20th of this month. That's when I'm eligible for an upgrade on my phone, so it will be a lot cheaper for me to get it that way. She's fine with waiting. Plus her iPod has a cracked screen, and getting the phone this way is going to be cheaper than an iPod Touch, which is what I was planning to get her in the first place."


Mom: "What's an iPhone?"


Me: Speechless.

Danni living with my parents for a year is going to be very interesting. I know she won't give them any trouble and will be respectful (or I'll kill her), but it's going to be interesting.