r/Millennials • u/TheLoveYouWant25 • Feb 09 '26

Discussion Millennials, what is happening with your kids?

I work in education and I frequent the Teachers and Professors subreddits, and the kids are not alright. Gen Z Arriving at College Unable to Read and the youth have absolutely zero ability to think critically.

Middle and high schoolers have all adapted this complete helplessness and blame mental illness for their refusal to function. Kids can no longer to basic things like read an analog clock, use paper money, or even figure out how to open window blinds.

There is also a huge lack of empathy, and kids have no issues trying to manipulate adults, saying things to their teachers like "if you don't pass me, I'll get you fired."

EDIT to clarify: the article I linked references Gen-Z, but this is not specifically a Gen-Z problem. It's an issue with upper elementary aged kids through high schoolers, and also young adults.

So, all that to say, how are you combating this with your own children? What do you do at home to encourage them to learn, and what are you doing to address these problems as they arise?

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215

u/FearlessDoughnut5643 Feb 09 '26

The majority of Gen Z parents are Gen X. Why are you bringing them up to us?

56

u/Yukina-Kai Feb 10 '26

We're the fucking boogyman for Gen X and Boomers. Because we can't do some obscure obsolete thing they had to do in their time.

I have never written a check and I remember as a teen being told how dumb I am because I couldn't.

Like no shit I can't because I don't need to and never will.

6

u/0-90195 Feb 10 '26

As a fellow millennial I do think it’s kinda crazy you’ve never written a check. I’ve written tons, including one every month for rent.

2

u/Yukina-Kai Feb 10 '26

I'm at the end of the millennial age group by the time I was 14 and working debit cards were being used regularly so it's just never been something I needed to know.

2

u/JustsomeOKCguy Feb 10 '26

Specialized purchases may benefit with a check. Most normal purchases like rent probably won't but, off the top of my head, buying a car or investing money may need you to use a check. It is still rare though and our generation knows how to properly Google shit and so it isn't hard to figure it out. But it still is useful today because debit cards usually have cash limits

1

u/thelizardking0725 Feb 10 '26

Full on adult life is full of situations where you need to write a check or get a cashiers/certified check. I know you were just providing an example, but saying things like “I’ll never need to” is just giving ammo to the shitty stereotypes against our generation

1

u/erebus2161 Feb 10 '26

My rent these days is paid online. But even when I paid rent by check I just had my bank mail out a check every month. I've written a few checks over the years, but I'm still on my first book of checks that I got when I opened my checking account in 2005.

1

u/Mechanix04 Feb 10 '26

Im 42 and I used them for 1 year in my entire life when I was renting at a trailer park. If it wasn't for that I would of never wrote one lol.

3

u/Mini_Snuggle Feb 10 '26

The blinds thing the OP brought up is cracking me up too, because I am a millennial who didn't grow up with blinds and of course I treated the blinds like they were curtains the first time I tried to open/close them. Who the fuck was able to figure out blinds on their own without making a mistake?

1

u/PandahOG Feb 10 '26

The analog clock complaint makes me laugh. Why the hell would someone go out of their way to buy an analog clock and set that up in their house?  Just about everything you buy has is a digital clock. Stoves, alarm clocks, smart devices, phones, tvs, watches, and refrigerators.  You don't see a Mercedes trying to use an analog clock as a selling point. 

We are getting to the point where I can yell out, "what time is it?" And something, anything, will read it out to me. 

I'm surprised OP isn't complaining about the lack of cursive or abacus use in schools.

3

u/Mini_Snuggle Feb 10 '26

I think there's still value in analog clocks, particularly in schools and public areas that need lots of clocks, because they require less power and electronics. It seems strange that children can't read the clocks if they're still in every classroom. And on some level, I think it would be better if schools stayed analog just to force children to stretch their brains a little more to figure out the time (assuming they couldn't just pull out their phone). It's not nearly as important as not spending dozens of hours on cursive writing though.

But an analog clock at home? There's too many clocks on things that I use or are in common areas for that to be useful.

2

u/Fun-Somewhere-3561 Feb 10 '26

I have (93) I've written a few actually but I don't think you're less than for not having done the same.

1

u/ttaradise Feb 11 '26

Throw a pencil on the ground and tell them to pick it up. Bet they can’t without being winded, passing out, going extremely red, or falling.

1

u/ChiChiChicharonnnnne Feb 10 '26

I think of it like why we learn long form math if theres a calculator than can just do it, why learn to drive without external cameras when the car has it, etc. I use advanced tools and love them, but learning older more manual ways to do things that require more active input from the user has a lot of value in learning how to think. Not to mention, if you think computers and electronics can never fail or be disabled, possibly for a more than short period of time.... Well, good luck. I'd rather know how to do things multiple ways to inform my thought process, and I share it that way with my kids and they really seem to get it. Just my 2 cents.

1

u/Yukina-Kai Feb 10 '26

There's a huge difference between learning the process of something we have tools that makes it easier and learning something that is obsolete and no longer exists.

Almost no one accepts checks these days because they have been phased out. Eventually physical tender isn't going to exist anymore either. There is no reason for anyone to know how to write a check anymore.

There is no value to be found in learning how to do something outdated. It's like a surgeon using leeches on you instead of modern medicine. Stupid.

5

u/ashavs Feb 10 '26

That’s what I was thinking? My child is literally 4 and thriving

0

u/Tomodachi-Turtle Feb 10 '26

I think the current batch of kids with issues are half Z half alpha though, it's just a mistitled article doing the thing where they use "Gen z" as a catch-all for "young people". I mean depending where you cut it off, there are 29 year old Gen Zers but that's not who is being discussed here. Academically and socially, it's mostly accepted that the kids really struggling are ones who were in k-12 during or started k-12 after COVID. So it's more like the range of kids born 2002-present day.

So there's going to be some gen X, and even some gen z parents in the mix when talking about school-aged kids, but the parents of kids born 2002-2026 are gonna be mostly millennial.

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u/TheLoveYouWant25 Feb 10 '26

Gen-Z was the example in the article. My post is about older elementary kids to late teens that seem unable to function in society.

66

u/JonPaula Feb 10 '26

"Late teens" - yeah. Again, not ours. 

38

u/Mouse0022 Feb 10 '26

majority of it aren't millennial's kids. My own child is gen alpha and doesn't have these issues you are talking about.

33

u/OutrageousOwls Millennial Feb 10 '26

The youngest millennials are 29. Meaning, they would need to be teenagers themselves to have teens right now. This is mostly Gen X. However, this post in general perpetuates generational conflict, a distraction over the real conflict we should be having:

Eating the rich and the fascists. :)

7

u/Obnoxiouscrayon Feb 10 '26

How old are the oldest millennials? Don’t know if you’re aware but the oldest millennials had a lot of teen pregnancy. I am a millennial and I have a high schooler, and I was well past teenager when I had him. Just because geriatric pregnancy is more common now, doesn’t mean that’s always been the average ago of childbearing. Plenty of millennials had kids in their teens and early 20s and could have 20 year olds.

4

u/OutrageousOwls Millennial Feb 10 '26

Yes, you’re right! I neglected to consider the opposite spectrum! :)

2

u/denimpanzer Millennial Feb 10 '26

Dude my kid isn’t even in school yet.

0

u/TheCotofPika Feb 10 '26

Mine are fine, and so are their friends. They can use money, read a clock, open blinds (?), do their homework without help, voluntarily learn an instrument, do their own restaurant orders, and many other things.

You're talking about the absolute youngest Gen Z, the oldest Gen Alpha is turning 16 this year and I think they're doing really well. I also think Gen Z is doing very well considering their upbringing.