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Millennials Online Are Sharing The Worst Advice And Pearls Of Wisdom They’ve Heard From Baby Boomers And These Are 35 Of The Most Questionable Ones
Learning from older generations is useful and you can receive some valuable advice, but there are also times when you know that older people are wrong. The things they advise you to do might have worked when they were your age, but now it's different and you have to adapt to the changing times.
Reddit user Nursejoyscuntysister wanted to know what advice isn't beneficial and asked, "Millennials of Reddit: What's the worst 'Baby Boomer advice/wisdom' you've ever been offered?" People had a lot to say and showed with which boomer ideas they disagree with a passion.
This is not the first time Bored Panda has talked about boomers' advice that doesn't work anymore, and if you are interested in what out-of-touch wisdom they are telling the younger generation, you can click here after you're done upvoting this list and commenting your own stories.
More info: Reddit
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#1
I was once told by a baby boomer "If you want a man to stay with you, you'll have to pop out a baby" (or words of that effect). I told her straight up "Any man who would stay for our baby, but not for just me, isn't a man who I'd want staying in the first place".
For f***sakes, is it really that unusual for me to want to be loved for who I am, and not for my ability to procreate? Why would I want to stay with anyone who sees me as nothing but a human incubator?
#2
As a girl: "If a boy bullies you, that means he likes you!"
No. Just... no.
#3
"You don't deserve to make a livable wage at McDonalds, get a real job"
Followed by:
"What, are you too good to work at McDonalds? Grow up and stop being entitled and do what you gotta do."
#4
"Babies just need love, not money."
Sorry, mom, no grandkids until I have a job with a decent paycheck and less student debt.
Kallen Kneeland 3 years ago
Boomer here - and I encourage you guys to put off having kids until you're ready (or not to bother at all). There are far too many humans on the planet as it is (and yes, this is my generation's fault, not yours - we talked about Zero Population Growth in the '70s, but it fizzled out after the fiasco with China's 1-child policy) Sigh
#5
The lab tech at one of the schools I teach at is a retired old fella. Comes in maybe 2 hours a day, real early in the morning to set up labs for the day. Basically has the "job" for his own entertainment.
One morning he caught me in the hall and somehow got into telling me how I really ought to find a job with a good pension. Apparently he worked for some commercial chemistry research lab and retired early once he qualified for their pension program. Then, him and some buddies took some of their early retirement money and bought a big parcel of land. They arranged to have it incorporated into a town, that they ran, then sold off pieces of it for housing developments.
So, he's going through this little history lesson in how the economy used to work and I just stand there and nod. In the back of my head, it dawns on me. He thinks I'm an adjunct by choice. He thinks I teach part-time at three different schools with no advancement potential and minimal benefits because I like it.
Hey Boomers, the reason why us god dammed Millenials aren't doing things the way you used to is that those things don't exist anymore. There's no career track jobs in science with just a MS. There's no more salary for life company pensions. I can't just go "buy me some land" and flip it for a profit.
jk nbt 3 years ago
and there are no pension monthly annuity type retirement programs anymore unless you work for the government... in the US, they only have 401k type retirements in the private sector... people are living longer, they got tired of paying a monthly annuity to people who are in their 90s or even over 100..
#6
I love being told "be grateful you /have/ a job!"
Then they look on in horror as I explain that I can't afford to live on my own while working over 40 hours a week. I don't get vacations. I don't get sick days. I get absolutely no paid time off, even for s*** like Christmas. No time to pursue things I enjoy, no money to see a doctor about my deteriorating jaw.
But it's not their problem, you know? They get to walk away from the conversation.
#7
"You know, your generation doesn't understand that you have to buy a house as young as possible to pay it off quickly". No old man, we get it. We're broke as f*** making 1/3 of what you do in the same work place.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
What is seen as "necessary" for younger folks in some cultures? Is sheer luxury. To me, too, and I'm Gen X. I don't own a cell phone. Why would I? It's wasteful. Gaming? It's a deck of cards. My priorities are: stay out of debt, stay fed, clothed and housed. The end.
#8
"Go outside, get some fresh air! Your mental illness is just in your head! Laugh and smile more, you'll be fine 😊😊😊"
From a family member. 4 years of therapy in and I still struggle daily.
#9
Talking to my dad recently, he was going on about "participation trophies." When I pointed out that we wouldn't have received said participation trophies had his generation not invented them, his response was: "Yep, that's another problem with your generation. Always blaming your faults on other people."
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Gen Xer here, if that matters, and I don't recall a participation award for anything. Ever. Nor my hubby or other Gen-X friends, so.... no idea where those started, or why, but they confuse me.
#10
"You'll feel different when they're your own children."
Yeah I'm not willing to take that risk. Also I'm poor.
#11
My mother told me to, "Just get a job. Tons of places are hiring."
Though, she has come to understand the struggle now as she spends all day applying to jobs and not getting a single call back.
Karl Baxter 3 years ago
In the 80s when I was desperately looking for a job (with 4 million unemployed) my dad told me it was easy. “Just go to a company and ask for a job”. “Dad - it’s the 1980s not the 1950s!” 🙄
#12
"You'll have little ones of your own someday."
No the f*** I won't. Those little bastards tore up my house over the holidays and the mom did nothing but nap on my couch.
Theoretical Empiricist 3 years ago
I decided at 12 that I didn't want kids, and I never regretted it.
#13
"You can't get a job in management out of college, you have to start in the mailroom."
Uuuh... To get a job in the mailroom you need five years experience. That or work for free because internship. And when we have five figure student loans to repay we can't exactly work for free cause unpaid internships don't put food on the table or gas in our cars...
#14
"You have to go out and pound the pavement, dear. You can't spend all day looking for jobs on the computer."
Sisanja Sumner 3 years ago
My mom was like "go in and ask for the boss so you can hand him your documents." Sure mom, the boss of the 4K employee-Company's only waiting for me to hand him some papers. E-Mails are so impersonal...
#15
My first retail job, any time I complained about customers or coworkers to my father I would get, "You just have to suck it up. It builds character, and you'll always have something you don't like about your job or coworkers." A few years ago, he lost his help desk job, and nobody wanted to hire him on for an IT position when he's just a couple years shy of retirement age and doesn't have a degree. After a couple years of being unemployed, he realized the gig was up, and took a part time job working in a grocery store across the street from the one I had in high school.
Now, whenever I go to visit him, I always hear something like, "Can you believe this b****, shikitohno? I just finished building a goddamn corn pyramid, has to be 7 feet tall, and she wants one from the center on the bottom, because she says she can tell those are the freshest. Can you believe it?" No, dad, not a clue at all what you're talking about, but you're character sure seems to be growing.
#16
Marry your own people out of culture and god...
Little did they know I was a Muslim turned Atheist and hated how the women in my country were treated as house wives instead of actual people.
#17
I guess I'm on the old side of the millennials, but I had numerous people tell me not to go into computer science and instead go into some other engineering field because computer scientists didn't make good money, wasn't a good job, not a good fit, etc. Glad I didn't listen to any of them as I make a really good salary now. Why the heck would I take advice on entering a high tech field from people who can barely use a computer?
Viviane 3 years ago
I finally learned to humour people who give bad advice: "That's a good idea, thanks, I'll check it out." Then do what works for me. Wish I'd figured that out yeeeeeears ago when my MIL bugged me to have kids: "Great idea, I'll go poke holes in your son's condoms right now!" Five years later: "Maybe I need to use knitting needles?"
#18
Don't go to a trade school, that's beneath you.
Thanks, Mom. This Film degree from a Liberal Arts school is really paying the bills.
#19
Dad told me when I was young that interracial relationships would never work. He said that "there's a reason the black birds are with black birds and the red birds are with the red birds. Its just nature." I've been with my ethnically different girlfriend for a long time now. Probably the best person I've ever met.
olga lerdahl 3 years ago
Black birds aren't with red birds because they're a different species. Unless your girlfriend is a different species you'll be fine.
#20
My boss recently told me my generation was entitled, and began quoting various articles on how we all think we're special and exempt from criticism etc
AS I was shoveling a dead rat out of the doorway.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
"Young people don't know how to work" ---- my elderly neighbor, to the granddaughter who cleans his house every day atop her own job/home/family.
#21
Not really advice but my neighbor was complaining about how useless and lazy millennials are after I snowblowed their driveway today. Only, it used to be their snowblower. They misused it, broke it, and I fixed it, and I've been doing their driveway ever since. But whatever I'm just some lazy 20-something full time student with a job and enough time to turn wrenches in the garage.
Ryan Deschanel 3 years ago
They have a saying in my country : "trop bon, trop con". It literally means "too good, too dumb". I think they are right. Some people are too good for their own good. Be meaner, it is ealthier for you.
#22
"Just go to college even if you don't know what you want to do."
#23
I was getting my masters degree and we had a guest lecturer come in. He had been CEO of a small company for many years. He basically told us that he stumbled into the job right out of college because he didn't know what to do and gave it a shot. They gave him the assistant CEO position because he had been the assistant manager at a movie theater for a summer. And then 2 years later he became the CEO.
He was basically telling this entire class of people getting their advance degrees in the hopes to get his position that he got his job on a whim 30 years ago.
#24
My mom encouraged me to walk in and give my resume to the manager at our local grocery store because "seeing you face to face makes a difference" thinking it would help. I was given a physical application by a cashier, basically begged to see manager, he showed up, I gave him my resume, shook his hand, he said thank you but looked annoyed at being interrupted and went back to work. Few weeks later they hired a new cashier, she was the cousin of one of the people that worked there. welcome to the new job market, millennials.
#25
My friend's dad got a fantastic job right out of college (with an unrelated bachelor's degree) by LITERALLY GOING INTO A RANDOM BANK DOWNTOWN AND REFUSING TO LEAVE UNTIL THEY GAVE HIM A JOB.
Can you even imagine? Can you??
#26
they still think you can put on your best suit and walk right into any company, shake the CEO's hand and look him right in the eye, and start the next day.
everything is online and entry level positions require 3-5 years experience with no hope for advancement and s*** benefits (if any) and below average salary
"but just start a business if you cant find something!" whatever that means
Ryan Deschanel 3 years ago
"Just start a business. -What kind of business? -I don't know. A business, okay ?!"
#27
Get at least a master's degree so you can be successful. Sure, a degree helps, but coming out of school with a massive amount of debt is not the greatest thing to do. My parents owned a home when they were 25 and 23. They didn't have to worry about having 40k in student loans.
The kicker? I work for my parents and they decide my salary. They know damn well I can barely afford rent, much less a house. Also, my degree has nothing to do with my job, but I had to have it.
#28
"Don't take a job unless it gives 4 weeks vacation out of the year"
Because that's what someone can get fresh from college.
Alison O'Connor 3 years ago
by law those of us living in Europe have to get 4 weeks holidays a year, so am thats every job ;)
#29
If your wife makes more than you. She will eventually become to independent and leave you. This from a 65 and 70 yr old coworkers who have stay at home wives. They also tell me that they don't do house work out of principle. Outside work and repairs only.
#30
First thing you should do is always buy a house.
Houses are not the surefire, idiot-proof investment machine they used to be in decades past.
#31
Go to college and get a degree. Employers will be throwing good paying jobs at you. Total bulls***. Baby Boomers told us this c*** and they're refusing to hire us. F*** that.
Karl Baxter 3 years ago
HE in the UK is like a sausage factory - churning out graduates regardless of their ability to pass the course - but giving them unlimited bites at the cherry to make sure they do and devaluing the degree in the process.
#32
"Have you tried going in in person and giving them your CV?". This was when I was looking for graduate schemes with multi step application processes, usually CV upload > online tests > phone interview > interview/assessment day > sometimes second interview. Me walking into the building with a piece of physical paper would not have helped at all but my parents thought it was my fault that I didn't have a job yet because I didn't do that.
#33
I hardly fit the requirments to be a millennials, but i had huge interest in game devopment but was discouraged saying computers wont get you a job.
Boy oh boy do i like to remind them of that as i now make soundtracks part time and play test games on the side and the entire world is one big computer now.
Mackenzie Neal 3 years ago
The people who say "computers wont get you a job." must not realize that the world is becoming digitalized.
#34
When I was in high school looking for a job my grandmother told me to just go to places and fill out applications; she told me it was useless using the Internet to look for a job. This was in 2008 and every place I checked for a job had an Internet-based application.
EDIT: No one seems to quite understand. You can argue going into a store or calling back is useful to being known or improving your chances at getting a job at some companies. That's great. According to my grandmother, it was pointless to use the Internet as a means of finding available jobs. If I were to follow her advice I would go into countless places and ask if they were hiring there.
Theoretical Empiricist 3 years ago
Also, a lot of places [a] have online-only application processes and [b] make it impossible (or nearly so) to "call back...to being known". HR doesn't want to talk with you unless they start the conversation.
#35
"You should have kids before it's too late."
I'm 26, excuse you?
What do you think ?
Stille20 3 years ago
I am a Millennial. I've been in the work force for 2 recessions and have felt screwed over, but the level of anger in this post sounds like a 16 year old screaming at their parents. People will always give s**t advise regardless of age. Calm down .
Miss Frankfurter 3 years ago
Sometimes the wisest lessons can be learned by listening to music lyrics. And also, it can be very surprising who writes them. Every generation does criticize the music and musicians from the "younger" generation for various reasons. It's just noise. Look how they dress, do their hair. What there music videos are like. Theyre a bad influence etc. Well my fellow Boomers. I remind you of Woodstock and what was said then. Janis Joplin. Jimmy Hendrix. And then there is Bob Dylan. Antiwar trouble maker who makes crap music. The title of one song, " The Times They Are a Changin'". May i remind you that the song was our message to the Establishment telling them just that. Well, now we're that older generation. May i suggest you go back and listen to that song again. Because, guess what? The times, they are a changing. And for those of you who are our future, take note. They always will be.
TC Wilson 3 years ago
I’m not even a boomer, but I’m sick of all the boomer hate. I’ve heard some of this advice before. Funny thing is that the world just keeps turning and we’ve all heard it before. Every generation thinks they’ve got it so tough and that prior generations had it easy. Blah, blah, blah
marianne eliza 3 years ago
I'm a boomer ca. 1960. I was told a lot of those things too. That means they originated before boomers.
Franc Esca 3 years ago
The best thing I ever did was stopped listening to my parents "advice." Of course I never asked them, they just always invited themselves and their opinions, so I stopped telling them. I could see at 21 how irrelevant it was, at 26 i was regretting still updating them.
Bunny Malone 3 years ago
I got “You don’t have the right to say no to sex just because sex is traumatic for you. EVERYONE else is having it, therefore you have to have it too.” and “Abstaining from sex means you’re not a real woman.” (For the record, I’m not transgender and I don’t look terribly androgynous.) Both from a psychologist who works with children in a school.
Vermillion Ace #443 3 years ago
Heard a lot of this before myself, I still think most of it is bunk. Everyone should have a say in what they want to do, not let bad advice drive the conversation.
Skadi Lifdis 3 years ago
My favorite is what my stepmom told me when I was like 13. She told me I'll be raped so just let it happen and don't fight. Uh no.
Bunny Malone 3 years ago
I was born in 1990 and the worst advice I ever got from “boomers” (or anyone) was “You should become a street prostitute - it’s legal.” It’s not, where I live, and those police officers had no right to say that to me - especially since I had already said no several times. I’m glad I didn’t take their advice.
Bruce Mills 3 years ago
I was applying for work in 1996 with my new engineering degree and that was the end of the era of non-internet based job applications. So to suggest it to anyone is the last decade or two is really out of date advice.
jk nbt 3 years ago
sorry young folks, but the world has changed since the WW2 postwar decades... all this advice worked back then... it all seems out of touch now
Memere 3 years ago
It doesn't 'seem' out of touch now, it IS completely out of touch. I'm a Boomer and it really makes me angry to hear this kind of cr*p from other Boomers. After everything we lived thru in the 60's & 70's, some of the so-called 'advice is just unbelievable. smh
Load More Replies...
Raven Waters 3 years ago
Millennials are such entitled fucktards. The world does not owe you s**t.
Stille20 3 years ago
I am a Millennial. I've been in the work force for 2 recessions and have felt screwed over, but the level of anger in this post sounds like a 16 year old screaming at their parents. People will always give s**t advise regardless of age. Calm down .
Miss Frankfurter 3 years ago
Sometimes the wisest lessons can be learned by listening to music lyrics. And also, it can be very surprising who writes them. Every generation does criticize the music and musicians from the "younger" generation for various reasons. It's just noise. Look how they dress, do their hair. What there music videos are like. Theyre a bad influence etc. Well my fellow Boomers. I remind you of Woodstock and what was said then. Janis Joplin. Jimmy Hendrix. And then there is Bob Dylan. Antiwar trouble maker who makes crap music. The title of one song, " The Times They Are a Changin'". May i remind you that the song was our message to the Establishment telling them just that. Well, now we're that older generation. May i suggest you go back and listen to that song again. Because, guess what? The times, they are a changing. And for those of you who are our future, take note. They always will be.
TC Wilson 3 years ago
I’m not even a boomer, but I’m sick of all the boomer hate. I’ve heard some of this advice before. Funny thing is that the world just keeps turning and we’ve all heard it before. Every generation thinks they’ve got it so tough and that prior generations had it easy. Blah, blah, blah
marianne eliza 3 years ago
I'm a boomer ca. 1960. I was told a lot of those things too. That means they originated before boomers.
Franc Esca 3 years ago
The best thing I ever did was stopped listening to my parents "advice." Of course I never asked them, they just always invited themselves and their opinions, so I stopped telling them. I could see at 21 how irrelevant it was, at 26 i was regretting still updating them.
Bunny Malone 3 years ago
I got “You don’t have the right to say no to sex just because sex is traumatic for you. EVERYONE else is having it, therefore you have to have it too.” and “Abstaining from sex means you’re not a real woman.” (For the record, I’m not transgender and I don’t look terribly androgynous.) Both from a psychologist who works with children in a school.
Vermillion Ace #443 3 years ago
Heard a lot of this before myself, I still think most of it is bunk. Everyone should have a say in what they want to do, not let bad advice drive the conversation.
Skadi Lifdis 3 years ago
My favorite is what my stepmom told me when I was like 13. She told me I'll be raped so just let it happen and don't fight. Uh no.
Bunny Malone 3 years ago
I was born in 1990 and the worst advice I ever got from “boomers” (or anyone) was “You should become a street prostitute - it’s legal.” It’s not, where I live, and those police officers had no right to say that to me - especially since I had already said no several times. I’m glad I didn’t take their advice.
Bruce Mills 3 years ago
I was applying for work in 1996 with my new engineering degree and that was the end of the era of non-internet based job applications. So to suggest it to anyone is the last decade or two is really out of date advice.
jk nbt 3 years ago
sorry young folks, but the world has changed since the WW2 postwar decades... all this advice worked back then... it all seems out of touch now
Memere 3 years ago
It doesn't 'seem' out of touch now, it IS completely out of touch. I'm a Boomer and it really makes me angry to hear this kind of cr*p from other Boomers. After everything we lived thru in the 60's & 70's, some of the so-called 'advice is just unbelievable. smh
Load More Replies... Raven Waters 3 years ago
Millennials are such entitled fucktards. The world does not owe you s**t.
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