Are you smarter than your Grandkids?

General Discussion
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Are you smarter than your Grandkids? I am a Boomer, born in 1950…

My granddaughter stopped by the other day and was going to be picked up by a friend later on… When her friend got there, she came in and said that her car was acting up. The dash was flashing at her and there was a beeping sound.

My granddaughter went out to look and came in laughing and said I needed to see this. It turned out that her friend or someone had hit the hood release and her friend was driving around with the hood only held in place by the safety latch. The car tried to tell her what the problem was but she could not figure out the signs…

With us laughing at her dilemma, her friend gets defensive and starts telling us that her generation is so much smarter than my generation. She actually said, “I do not know how your generation ever invented fire…”

Obviously, that “very smart girl” did not know the difference between inventing and discovering…

I had one more observation to make (I knew about this because I have older and newer vehicles…), I had her go out to her car and get the owner’s manual and I went and got the owner’ manual for my wife’s '85 Corolla. I showed her that my generation was given instructions in the '85’s manual on how to set the value lash on the car…

My granddaughter’s friends’ owner’s manual instructed her “not to drink the battery acid…”

I am a Boomer and my granddaughter’s friend is a “Generation S” or also called “Gen S” (those that grew up in the digital age…). It is satisfying to know that if they ask for the time and you say, “It’s a quarter of…” or “half-past” they have no idea what time it is since they cannot read a clock, they also cannot drive a stick, if there is no microwave, they will go hungry, they cannot write in cursive, for that matter, they cannot write in general, or even observe basic etiquette, like saying “thank you” or “you’re welcome” verses “no problem…”

I do not what the “S” stands for but I bet it sounds like “sits”…

Gen S

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Our daughter cooks, though I never taught her how to drive a stick shift. She will come and help my wife with her phone, now wife wants a new one because she hates all the facebook stuff. Got to ask the kid to get rid of it I guess. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and it is not a broad brush that applies to anyone of any age imhop.

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I had no idea what to get the kid for his birthday in October so I sent him a $170 impact driver with all the attachments. I kinda figured it would collect dust but thought he should have one anyway. Doing some Christmas assembly I told him to get the driver to make life easier. Still in box, battery no charged. No problem, kind of expected it but we got a chance to use it and demonstrate what it does. He knows where to drill into skulls for brain surgery and I know how to use an impact driver. We all have different skills.

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Any lug nut capable battery impacts for cheap?

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Our parents said the same thing about us. Don’t you recall that the Boomers are the Me Generation? I’m not overly concerned. My children turned out well and their children are getting a good start.

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I always wondered how the free spirit boomers of the ‘60s turned into the most controlling group of parents ever, the inspiration for “helicopter parents “.

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Different eras, different concerns, different skill sets.

I taught my kids how to drive a stick shift, they taught me how to manage the Infotainment display.

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Skills age. When I was 12, I had to splice the film and load our 8mm movie movie projector, my dad could not handle that. But he could change the head gasket on a flat head with no problem.
Some tech skills have already passed my abilities. Likewise my brother, he worked in IT from the early 70s, but now has yet to learn how to text on his phone.

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They grew up lol.

I hope my kids don’t do some of the things I did. I think my kids are actually more well adjusted than I was at their age, to be honest.

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And cars today don’t require a ton of maintenance to make 100k miles like cars used to. How many cars today still need valve lash adjusted? (I know there are a few). Let’s see, I’ll take today’s 100k mile iridium sparkplugs over 30k mile copper, 5k-10k mile oil changes vs 2500 mile oil changes…when frivolous lawsuits are allowed to go to trial instead of being dismissed, then companies have to resort to CYA

:man_shrugging:t2:

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You won’t really know for another 10 to 20 years. I always thought my middle daughter was the sedate, sane one. It turns out whe was easily the most daring. She just knew how to keep her mouth shut when she wanted to hide something from us, unlike her sisters.

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Amen to both!

These “generalizations” of today are as useless as the generalizations of our own generation, (A bunch of Dope smoking, Free Love, Radical, Anti American Hippies which also probably included your soon to retire Cardiologist, Surgeon, Attorney and our kids’ beloved First Grade Teacher )
Today we have “Karens” and “Antifa” which are about the same as the “Spoiled Brats” and "Crazy Radicals of 50 years ago.

But as you and Bing pointed out and from my perspective, the reality is that the vast majority of our kids and grandkids are amazingly thoughtful, well adjusted, well educated and socially responsible than we ever were.

For myself, my kids are Conservative and Liberal, Northern raised and Southern educated, well employed, can drive a stick, change their own oil, tires, and have never done so on their own car but have their eye’s firmly focused on inheriting my old classic. We’ll see how they do on the sanding and repainting test. :slight_smile:.

.

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My granddaughter stopped by this morning and I showed her the responses to this posting, “Are you smarter than your Grandkids?”

She laughed and said, “Boy, you really like to scratch the chalkboard with your fingernails…” (Ughhhh, just the thought of that ran a shiver down my spine…).

I thought about that a moment and asked her if she has ever seen a real chalkboard in use, such as in school and she said no. All the schools she has ever attended used a dry-erase board and she has only seen (and heard of) fingernails on a chalkboard have been on TV.

Knowing there is nothing like an actual experience (verses her Gen S’s vicarious experiences on (TV, Facebook, TicTok, etc…) I called around (Office Max, Staples, Wallmart, etc…) looking for a real slate chalkboard and had no luck (what they have is flat black paint on a board…).

I called a couple of antique stores and found one and we went there. The proprietor, a lady of my generation and I commiserated about the “good old days” with remembrances of taking the erasers outside and beating the chalk dust off of them and of teachers who could challenge any major league pitcher or NFL quarterback in in pitching or throwing of an eraser at a disruptive student with surprising accuracy.

With the owner’s permission and my granddaughter waiting with bated breath. I ran my fingernail down the chalkboard. Both of them withered with shivers running down their spines and I was about ready to crawl out of my skin…

After a moment of the three of us laughing and shivering, my granddaughter ran up to the board and ran her fingernails down the board. Damn, we should have sent chalkboards to Guantanamo for the interrogations…

Later, at home, my granddaughter asked me how I would have explained the differences between discovering and inventing to that “really smart” friend of hers.

I thought about it a moment and said, “It’s simple, if we are walking in the woods and I see a stick on the ground, I would say I have discovered a piece of wood; but if I pick up the stick and hit her friend over the head with it, I would say I’ve invented a club…”

We finished our coffee and said goodbye and I reminded her to put her silver out New Year’s Eve so the breath of the New Year could kiss it and bring good fortune in the coming year.

So to all, Happy Motoring and a Safe and Prosperous New Year!

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Ridgid octane brushless with 4 Ah battery and charger at home Depot for $149.00.

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Excellent reply and a part of what makes us all Americans.
Shared experience and part of our continual desire to be the Greatest as an Individual Quest.
An appreciation of the wisdom of the past, an opportunity to make things greater, an appreciation an appreciation of the mistakes of the past and a love of the future!

As parents and grandparents we hear the current “blackboard scratchmarks” of our past and then smile in satisfaction knowing in faith that it will be resolved.

As the the Who said, “The kids are all right”

.

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I hear younger folks sometimes say “ok boomer” as a display of annoyance (similar to "whatever!!!) when a boomer tries to explain something, or offer a boomer’s point of view. Other than the willingness to outright insult the older person to their face, doesn’t seem much different than when I was on the other side of the equation years ago.

Not a common thing, but it happens to me once in a while. I was buying a carton of eggs at a high-price grocery store and the youthful cashier said “that will be $6.99”. So far no problem. I had some dollar bills in my pocket, didn’t want to display the whole lot, so I pulled them out one by one and put them on the counter. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven”. Then I look up wondering why she isn’t taking the money. The cashier said, holding her hand out, “You COULD have put them in my hand!!!” … lol … I think she must have been acting up like this before b/c I never saw her working there again.

Definitely not a one-sided thing. The younger folk definitely seem to understand how to use a smart phone much better than I…

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Heh heh. That was my thought. You went to a lot of work. Back in the days we’d get sent down to the janitor’s room with erasers to use his handy dandy electric eraser cleaner. Everyone liked Mr. Ramus and I think he liked us little ankle biters too. At home we had a real chalk board that we got when one of the old schools built in 1900 was torn down.

As an after thought, ever tried to buy chalk sticks? I wanted some for marking stuff (don’t remember) and looked all over. I bought two boxes when I finally found some. One in my tool box and one hidden.

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Who pays with cash when you can get cash back with most credit cards ?

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Ya see, it’s the principle of the thing. Your purchase doesn’t end up in the cloud using real money so they have no idea what you bought or who you are, unless that is you say “Siri”. She knows everything and can access those little security cameras you’ve got guarding the entrance. As a cyber vet you should know how it works. Sell your soul for a few pennies back.

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Not really getting cash back after you pay all the interest.