How would you define a typical "baby boomer?" (grandparents, Canada)

[CArizona]

I'm lost! I hear the term "baby boomer" or talk about the "baby boomer generation" every so often. But I haven't paid much attention to it or the other generational categories...I've seen a few posts where younger people seem to blame "baby boomers" for the state of the country today...I can't imagine blaming my grandparents or other "elders" in this fashion when I was younger!...Anyway how would you define and describe a typical "baby boomer?" Just curious...Thanks!

[Caladium]

There's no such thing. It's a stereotype applied to a huge group of people, many of whom have very little in common.

[texdav]

I think bommer are just that a group defined by the times they were born. Can't even say its one generation really as far as influence.As far as the young I can't even say its as a gopup that they blame their own failures on boomers as many are sucessful beyond boomers expectations. Its was the same blame game with a minority in the 20's and in the 60s' also.

[arwenmark]

beyond the years they were born there is no such animal as a typical baby boomer

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by CArizona

I can't imagine blaming my grandparents or other "elders" in this fashion when I was younger!

I'm glad to hear you avoided this crutch. It's one of those things you sometimes hear young people say, however, and has been ever thus. When I was in college (many decades ago) I knew kids who said "Don't trust anyone over 30" and thought for sure their parents had created all the problems of the world. We also thought our generation invented sex. Ah, youth.

[Wwanderer]

There is no "typical" baby boomer, as far as lifestyle or attitudes go.

The term simply defines a demographic--children born directly after the end of WW2, up to about 1960 or so I believe. The actual years covered vary between the U.S. and other countries, like Canada, because the troops came home at different times (later in Canada, I think.)

[Curmudgeon]

I believe that the commonality, if one exists, is for those of us in the vanguard of the boomers, born in the 40s, who lived through the worst of the cold war years, the "Summer of Love," the Cuban missle crisis, Baty of Pigs, the Berlin airlift and Vietnam. The later boomers were lucky to miss most of those or be too young to truly experience them. They were defining events in our lives, especially for those of us who spent our late teens and early 20s in uniform and lived through the homecomings that weren't. We also experienced the first satellites/space shots, the first men to orbit the earth, the first men on the moon and other triumphs.

Of course, that's just a personal perspective based upon my own experiences.

[LoveBoating]

Wife and I are "Baby Boomers" and don't mind the term! She was born in '48 and I in '49. A lot of the Classic Rock groups I love are of the "Baby Boomer" age, some the same age as us!
As far as blaming that Generation for all of todays problems, go ahead, BUT that sure as He** doesn't mean we are listening or even care!

[CArizona]

Great posts! Thanks...Aren't some "baby boomers" accused of "being spoiled" and "spoiling" their kids? (Which supposedly led to all of materialism we have today?) I remember hearing this a few times...This wasn't really the case for me. From the time I was small my parents always told me that it would be easy to "spoil me" since I was their only child...They said that they made a firm and united decision NOT to "spoil me" when I was born...They didn't want me to turn into a self-centered "brat" who made unreasonable demands on everyone around me as a child and later on as an adult...Likewise I didn't automatically "say yes" to everything my kids wanted either... But something did "go haywire" at some point along the way! We have become an extremely materialistic society today compared to how "things used to be" when I was growing-up!...How do you feel about it? When did things start to change and why? Thanks for the input and insights!

[Curmudgeon]

I had neither the means nor the desire to spoil my children when they were growing up. They received everything they needed and some things they wanted in keeping with what I hope was good sense and certainly within our ability to provide.

Now in adulthood I am not materialistic and my wife and I live simply and modestly. Much like when we were each raising children (we married but 15 years ago), we have everything we need and some of what we want and are content. The rest will either wait or we'll do without. "Keeping up" has never been high on either of our lists.