I can now consider myself part of an older generation. I’m not “old” yet – at least in my opinion, but I’m older. Old enough to know there are some misunderstandings younger generations have about older generations.
Occasionally a young person in our church will ask for some of my time to talk through some life issue – usually involving a career decision. Often they are so apologetic for “taking my time”. What they don’t understand is how much these conversations fuel me for everything else I do. I can’t do it all the time, but I love when I can. Those type encounters cause me to reflect on misunderstandings I’ve observed from younger generations about older generations.
7 Misunderstandings Younger Generations Have About Older Generations
1. We enjoy helping you.
Your inquisitive nature is not a burden to us. We don’t consider your questions to be dumb. We realize we all have to learn somewhere. There is no higher compliment than to be asked for wisdom – or seen as knowing something worthy of your attention towards us.
Investing in a younger generation is one of my favorite parts of leadership.
2. We wish we had asked more questions when we were your age.
Younger generations are inquisitive. You want to know. In fact, you can Google most of your answers – and have been able to all your life. We admire your desire for answers and often wish we had learned to ask questions earlier. Instead, we learned too many things the hard way – by experience.
While experience is a great teacher, we might have avoided some painful experiences if we had asked for more help.
3. Older Generations don’t think we know it all.
At least most of us don’t. And we are okay with it. Actually, the truth is more opposite of that. Frankly, the older we get the more we realize what we don’t know. That doesn’t frustrate us as much as it did when we were younger.
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