The Last Baby Boomers were born in 1964.

[MineralMan]

They are 54 years old now. They are grandparents. They're not the parents of today's high school graduates and college students. It is Generation X that now are the parents of our latest young adults.

It is 2018. All of the Baby Boomers are either retired or soon to be retired. The youngest of them will be on Medicare in just 11 years. Their children are the parents of the current generation of high school students and college entrants.

The Baby Boomers aren't having children any longer. That's over. It's math. We should do our math.

[DFW]

1. My wife and I are 66, and we are not grandparents

This is a statement I will no longer be able to make in about 15 days.

[MineralMan]

2. Congratulations, Grampa!

My nephew just turned 49 years old. His oldest daughter graduates from high school this June. And he got married later than his peers. Many of his friends already have grandchildren. In fact, his daughter and her boyfriend...well, look out nephew!

[spooky3]

3. Congrats, DFW! nt

[GWC58]

51. Congratulations!

I’ll be 60 on Saturday and I don’t expect to be a grandfather for quite sometime, at least I hope not. My son, an only child, is 12-1/2. He sometimes makes me feel like this 😡 and 🤢 this and 😫 this, but mostly 😁 this.

[Freddie]

77. My brother is also an "older dad"

He's 65 and his only child is 18 and about to graduate HS. He's a single dad as his wife died 2 years ago, and my niece is a great kid heading to her 1st choice college soon. Unlike my kids (now 31 and 27) she seems to have skipped the "horrible rebellious teen" phase. I'm 61 and have 2 grandkids 7 and 3 and another on the way.

[Hortensis]

53. How lovely for you guys! In a perfect world, we'd all have

a baby to love and delight in as much as we wanted and then hand back to loving parents.

Ours are 12, 12, 9, and 8 now. Wonderful and amazing also, but we're in another long baby dry spell.

[oasis]

65. Congratulations. Enjoy the beauty of it all.

[Adrahil]

70. Well, I'm Gen X, just barely...

But my wife was born in 1964... a boomer, just barely.

We have a 15 (almost 16) year old daughter who is a sophomore in High School.

[Ilsa]

93. Same here, but just a few years younger. My little ones

are big, but they don't have little ones yet.

[DFW]

95. My wife and I were 31 when we had our first, 33 when we had our second

We never seemed to find the time for anything. We even had to wait for my brother to invite us to our own wedding, since we didn't have time for it.

Our two girls are now 35 and 33. They may look ten years younger (they can thank Mama for those genes), but that body clock will not be denied. The younger one will bear her first in about two weeks. The older one wants one, she thinks, but doesn't want to get pregnant until she is sure she has found THE man she wants to settle down with permanently. She MIGHT have found him this time, since she just moved in with him, something she has never done before, but the LAST thing we are about to do is apply any pressure. We didn't want it from our parents, and we have no plans to put our daughters under anything of the kind. Children should be wanted, and should FEEL wanted.

[Ilsa]

96. I had my kids in my late 30s, early 40s. ;-) nt

[BlueStater]

4. I never liked qualifying anyone born in 1964 as "baby boomers".

So people born in 1964 are of the some generation as people born in 1946, but not of the same generation as people born in, say, 1971?

[MineralMan]

6. Well, that's not my definition, but it is THE definition.

With demographics, we have to work with the established definitions. The earliest Baby Boomers are 71 years old now, with a few at 72. There's a real difference between 54 and 72. Yes, indeed.

[JenniferJuniper]

22. Not necessarily.

These days it's just as likely to be broken down as:

1940 -1959 - Boomers
1960- 1979 - GenX
1980 -1999 - Millennials
2000 - Gen Z

Fits better culturally.

[spooky3]

39. I've never seen that breakdown. And since 1940 was 6 years away from the end of WWII, children born

that year can hardly be counted as "post war" babies, which is a descriptor typically used with baby boomers.

[JenniferJuniper]

41. Yes, in recent years there has been some shifting

regardless of the reason for the "baby boom" moniker. I was at a work related seminar last year focused around the age groups of workers and the primary speaker explained that passing years gives us better insight into generations and how they may be better grouped.

Even wiki says this about boomers:

"There are varying timelines defining the start and the end of this cohort; demographers and researchers typically use birth years starting from the early- to mid-1940s and ending anywhere from 1960 to 1964."

Someone born in 1963 had a drastically different life experience than someone born in the 1940's. They weren't around for JFK, didn't protest any war, the first presidential election they could vote in was Reagan v Mondale in '84, they probably intensely disliked hippies and listened to very different music. Yes, the were born when lots of babies were still being born, it being pre-Pill, but it begins and ends there.

[spooky3]

42. I personally do not believe that being born within 20 (or even 10) years of another person

necessarily connects you or makes you more similar than you are to someone else with whom you may share some connection.

There is not a lot of good research on generational behavior, though there is a lot of speculating about it.

[JenniferJuniper]

45. Specifically, no. Broadly? Absolutely.

[spooky3]

46. Please provide references to peer-reviewed published academic research

that provides this evidence. If you can't, you are simply expressing your opinion based on your feelings.

[JenniferJuniper]

47. Oh, please.

You don't need peer-reviewed published academic research to understand how the times shape generations.

Just like you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. Or whatever it was that old dude said.

[Hortensis]

54. Or declining to do all that work you can and would do

for yourself if you were interested. The truth is whatever it is and is not altered in the slightest by being produced on demand or not.

One example is not a survey, and this is hardly an objective study, but my husband is over a decade older than me and we've both always seen and agreed on strong generational differences between us. Music alone; I learned very early not to impose Bob Dylan on him. And he'll drink alcohol but has always been ridiculously prissy about pot, won't touch it. There's so much more. Now that he's elderly some are being newly underlined. 1940s gender roles he'd seemed to have outgrown before we married are popping up in things like enjoying old jokes with others his age. They get him a LOOK from me, all right: signs of early senility or merely ingrained generational asshole-ism?

[janterry]

76. I was born in 1964 and am NOT a baby boomer

No one that I went to school with was born to parents who fought in WWII. I was the lone exception - because my parents were much older. My father ran away to fight in the war (he was only 16 at the time).

I am not a grandparent, either. I'm raising a 15 year old.

The definition has shifted and I find it frustrating. For most of my life I was NOT considered a boomer. Now, all of the sudden, I am (at least by some definitions). It makes no sense and it does not speak to the experience of those of us who were born in '64.

[kcr]

64. If it shifts again I may end up a Millennial

It shows how arbitrary and meaningless the whole thing is.

[TexasBushwhacker]

23. The Boomer generation was so big

that some people split it. The first half, 1946 to 1954 are Baby Boomers and the second half, from 1955 to 1964, are "Generation Jones", as in "keeping up with the Joneses".

[Kahuna7]

24. So true. nt

[llmart]

44. I agree.

I believe the initial intent of deeming a generation "Baby Boomers" was meant to be for those born immediately after WWII. Then demographers changed the definition to include more years (up to 1964) because that's when the birth rate started to drop off significantly.

Personally, I would define baby boomers as from 1946 until about 1956. Someone born in 1946 could have quite possibly become a parent themselves by 1964. That would mean a baby boomer gave birth to another baby boomer. Doesn't make sense.

[BigmanPigman]

5. The titles and time frames that they give these groups is always off.

I was discussing it with my sister. We ere born at the end of the Boomer years and are not really the same as older Boomers who are 20 years older than us (a whole generation almost). The older Boomers had a few good years of decent wages and unions. We became adults during the Reagan years and it has sucked since then....wage stagnation, infation/recession, rich getting richer, bi partisanship, etc.

[MineralMan]

8. I'm not arguing. That's the established definition.

I was born in 1945. There is no name for my generation. I'm a War Baby. However, I lump myself in with the early Boomers.

[BigmanPigman]

19. Yeah, the age groups are strangely named and dated.

Boomer (1945-1964) generation X (1965-1984), generation Y/millennials(1985-2004), generation Z (born after 2005). I had to look it up and each group is about 20 years long.
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/03/here-is-when-each-generation-begins-and-ends-according-to-facts/359589/

[BumRushDaShow]

31. If you look at a chart of the number of births during that period

you see why they picked that range, where the 1964 cutoff supposedly corresponds with the legalization of "the pill".

[zipplewrath]

79. 45 - 57ish

As someone who is part of a collection of siblings born between 47 and 60, I'd suggest that 1045 - 1957 or 58 is really the "heart" of the boomer generation. You can clearly see the beginning of the down turn about then that continues until about 1968. I call the generation between 58 and 68 "the watchers". We watched the civil rights movement, the cultural revolution, Vietnam and Nixon, but by the time we were turning 18, it was all disco and Reagan. Strangely, it was also that group that started losing their pensions and watching unions collapse in the middle of their careers.

[BumRushDaShow]

83. I.e., the "Yuppies"

I continually run into folks who were 3 - 4 years older than me (those born 1958 - 1959) who were usually the "older" siblings of my friends (I am a 1962). They are everywhere and through the years, seemed to get so much attention that by the time my group came along, "the rules changed". So we were always "on the cusp".

When you mention disco and Raygun - that older group were over 21 and allowed in the fancy clubs & discos of the '80s (although the fake ids were rampant in the '80s too). Yet I know my high school years ('75 - '79) encompassed the entirety of disco's popular period.

BUT, I still maintain that we were exposed to much of boomer-hood as tail-enders and although it used to bug me whenever I would hear one of the older boomers ask - "Where were you on November 22, 1963", I still have those memories of when a show would come on television and would have the "In Color" thingy at the bottom of the screen, or remember the old (mono) "Top 40" AM radio stations listened to on a transistor radio with a single mono "earphone", or going to the drive-in, etc. (i.e., the stuff you see on those chain emails that go around with a list of "remember when" stuff).... So there is a connection there that hadn't quite reached the significant "break" from boomer cultural traditions seen with the peak of GenX, who were exposed as children to the rise of personal computers (Commodore 64, Atari, Nintendo & "Mario Brothers", etc) and MTV, etc.

[zipplewrath]

88. Older sibilings.

My experience was that with my older siblings, I inherited much boomer culture, despite being born in late 59. Friends who were the "oldest" in their families had a different cultural experience than I did despite being my same age. So my music tastes, and my memories of old TV shows skew several years older than I am.

[BumRushDaShow]

89. Yup.

You got that deep exposure growing up with them and playing with their friends. I had "older" friends who had go-carts (with "real" lawnmower engines) and they had the cap-guns and other cool stuff.

[misanthrope]

18. Precisely

These definitions are taken more literally than they should be.

[spooky3]

7. I don't mean to quibble, but without seeing Census or similar data, and relying

on my own experiences, I would say that there are still a lot of college students whose parents are Boomers. They may not be in the majority, but there are a lot of them. Children who are ages 19-22 now could easily have at least one biological parent who is 54-60 or even older. Many boomers waited (or were surprised) to have a child when they were over age 35, or this may be the youngest of several children.

I'm not sure what your OP is in reaction to, so maybe I would perceive it differently in a different context.

[crazycatlady]

12. The OP is blaming everyone but boomers for helicopter parenting

This was a trend that the Boomers started. I'm the kid of boomers and I remember a very scheduled childhood in the 80s (when Boomers had young kids). Even time at a friend's house was scheduled.

This is not new.

[spooky3]

14. Ah. Thanks for the explanation. n/t

[SoCalDem]

62. Born in 1949..my boys were "free range boys"

out to play after breakfast..swooped in at lunch..back in when the street lights came on..

I think they were the last of their kind

They are late 30's early 40s now and they LOVED their childhoods..and talk endlessly about their adventures whenever they get together

[rufus dog]

37. My wife and I are at the back end of the EXPANDED Boomer range, 1962 and 1964

I say that, because 20 years ago we weren't lumped in with the Boomers.

One kid out of college, one still in college. Typical of our friends of the same age, just finishing up getting the kids though college.

[janterry]

82. Me, too

I don't consider myself a boomer. I was born in '64 - and I'm raising a teenager.

I don't have much in common with early (or even mid-range) boomers. I know in HS and College, I was not considered a boomer....and now - all of the sudden - that changes. Makes no sense.

[appalachiablue]

55. A wonderful niece graduates college this week, 22. Parents b. 1952, boomers.

[LeftInTX]

9. I blockwalk and I can't count on anyone under 65 to be home before 5:30 pm

Even people in their early 70s seem to be working.

Also I have 80 year olds coming to the door who look to be in their early 70s or 60s.

But I totally agree: baby boomers are no longer having babies!

When I was 54, I had a kid in high school and two in college.

[enid602]

10. Balanced budget

Given tRump's recent tax giveaway to the very rich, and the Repubicans' rumored push for a balanced budget amendment, that doesn't bode well for SS, Medicare and Medicaid, as cuts in defense will be off the table.

[skip fox]

11. Born in 1946. Retiring at end of this month.

Just turned in my last grades today (Univ. of Louisiana at Lafayette).

And the personal math changes. I can't get a dog (though I love dogs) for the fear it will outlast me. But I can plant trees, and plan to plant a number of them: Japanese Maple and Cypress.

[AwakeAtLast]

57. Congratulations!

Enjoy your new endeavors!

[TrogL]

13. I'm 62 and not retired

Currently driving a tractor trailer.

[The_jackalope]

15. Well, I was born in 1950, so I'm definitely a boomer

And all my broken chromosomes from 1969 on can attest to that.

I've been married 5 times (you wouldn't believe how expensive "free love" can be.) But no kids. Not then, not now, not in the next 100 karmic lifetimes. I was always embarrassed for my hippie friends who got pregnant. They knew what caused that and how to avoid it, even back then.

[Maeve]

16. I'm a mid-Boomer ('55)

Still had kids in college in my late 50's

Spent my 20's having fun, my 30's having kids, my 40's raising kids, my 50's getting the kids out of the house and now ready to spend my 60's having fun again.

So far, that's not really working out....

[misanthrope]

17. I know grandparents born after 1964

I also know parents of the latest young adults who were born in the 1950s. Our ideas and definitions of generations is kind of screwed up. It is more accurately defined by life experiences.

My grandparents endured Depression-era childhood, fought WWII then started their families in the post-War Boom. They enjoyed the mythological fruits of those heady economic times. Greatest Generation? Sure.

My parents remember when televisions first became a presence in every house. They were in college in the 1960s. Their peers who served in the armed forces were Vietnam vets. My father's younger sister was a self-styled hippie who graduated college and lit out for the West Coast to exercise her bohemian proclivities.

I was a latchkey kid, made so by my parents' divorce during my grade school years. Mom was a single, working mother, a fast-growing demographic in that era. My first detailed political memory was Watergate and the Reagan era began in my adolescence. I remember the rise of television miniseries, cable TV and video games. My peers who saw combat were Desert Storm vets.

However if you go by conventional definitions, I'm a Baby Boomer born in '64. But if you look at our life experiences, our perspectives on society and politics then it is clear my parents are Boomers while my sister and I are Gen Xers.

Those yearly parameters are to be considered general guidelines, not strict definitions.

[crazycatlady]

29. When I was 20

I worked with someone who had her daughter at 16. The daughter was 17? and pregnant. (Sad update, coworker died of cancer about 5 years later. Daughter was caught stealing from her job and arrested. No idea who raised the baby, who would be 16-17 now).

I'm 38 and have no children. I couldn't imagine having grandchildren at my age.

[Borchkins]

20. Don't assume. I'm a boomer. I'm 54, turning 55 next month.

My sons are 16 and 14. One is a sophomore in high school, one is in eighth grade.

I don't get Medicare until I'm 67. I will be working for a good 15 years yet.

My sister is 56, she has an 11 year old in fifth grade.

[spooky3]

38. You can get Medicare at 65. It's Social Security that has the age 67 rule. n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

59. I'm 55, and my two sons are 9, in third grade.

[JenniferJuniper]

21. Born in the early 60's and I don't identify as a boomer at all

Hippies and punks shouldn't even be in same sentence, never mind the same generation. (argh. broke my own rule!)

I prefer to consider myself an elderly Gen X'er.

[treestar]

25. Is there someone arguing that baby boomers are still having children?

Well they still could, according to the Rule Against Perpetuities.

[missingthebigdog]

35. LOL

[crazycatlady]

40. Boomer Donald Trump has a middle school aged kid

[HockeyMom]

86. Men can

Women can't.

[GreenEyedLefty]

26. There is so much gray area on the fringes of generations.

Reading the comments here is so interesting.

My husband was born in 1961 and married me, an X born in 1971. Our kids are 18 and 15. I have one from a previous marriage who is 27, married but no kids yet.

I know his age disqualifies him but my DH is more X-like than boomer. He is looking forward to retiring in 11 years. I'm kind of jealous.

[benld74]

27. I was born in 56, wife in 52

One graduating college
One 2nd year high school

We broke the mold
Neither retired
No Gkids
Must have broke mold

[JI7]

28. Actually 54 these days would more likely be parents to teens

And college kids than grandparents.

[John Fante]

30. When I think of a boomer, I imagine someone who least came of age

during the Vietnam War era. Someone born in 1964 was just a small child at the time.

For these Americans, Generation Jones (1954-1965) makes more sense.

[ProudLib72]

32. There is a 9 year gap between my sister and me

She is a Boomer, and I'm GenX. She has a daughter who is just finishing up 9th grade. I don't think my niece will become pregnant any time soon.

[CottonBear]

33. I'm 54 and have a 9 year old!

I was 45 when I got pregnant and 46 when he was born!

No retirement for me for quite a while!

[MineralMan]

36. That's unusual, statistically, though.

[kcr]

66. People are having kids later

I'm 45 and my oldest is 17 years old, and I'm definitely not the oldest parent I see around. A woman 10 years older than me at the time I had my oldest would have only been 38 and she'd be 55 now. People having kids in their 30s is far more common. Lots of parents of high school aged kids are in their early to mid-50s.

[MineralMan]

67. As I said, most people with children that age are Generation X-ers.

Not Boomers. There are a few of the younger Boomers with kids that age, but that's not typical at all.

Yes, people have been having children later, but even the youngest Boomers are 54 years old now, and that trend wasn't as common when they had their children.

[kcr]

69. Well, that's not what you said. You said we need to do our math.

And the math says that there are indeed Boomers with kids in high school. Look at the chart in this article and see where the birth rate for older mothers really took off. Yeah, math. http://time.com/95315/women-keep-having-kids-later-and-later/

[Crunchy Frog]

60. Ha! Me too, except there's two of them.

[CottonBear]

61. Wow! Lucky you! Twice the fun!

I am so happy to be a parent! My child is a true joy and the light of my life.

I can only imagine that you are even more busy and tired than I am! 😉😀

[Fresh_Start]

34. I'm baby boomer and a parent of college student as well as a grandparent of a high school student

some of us spread out our children

[Demonaut]

43. uuuh...I'm single and born in 62, I still want kids but thanks for the generalization

[llmart]

48. Are you just throwing all this out there for discussion...

or is there some sort of context for your remarks?

I am 69 and just retired in January. I didn't have to. I just decided I wanted to at this time. I could have stayed on at my place of employment if I had wanted to. I live in a mostly older community but many of them are not retired and many of them are in their 60's and 70's.

I didn't become a grandparent until I was 67. My children are 47 and 43.

[kurtcagle]

49. Demographic definitions

I've argued before that 1936 to 1955 makes more sense. The original resource took a half cycle, covering roughly 18 years, as Strauss and Howe's definition of a generation, defining it as the period from midpoint to midpoint of the cycle.

The problem with this was only obvious in retrospect. First, it is very likely that the Boomer generation would have extended considerably longer if it hadn't been for the introduction of birth control in the early 1960s, while at the same time, most of the characteristics that described the boomers really go back to 1941. The birthrate also troughed in 1936, and wouldn't again until almost 1974, so if you use a trough to trough metric (which is more meaningful and definitive) then you're looking at a full cycle that extends 38 years, with a mid-point in 1955, with each "generation" being about 19 years. This also fits into significant world events just as well, which is I think the weakest part of S&H's thesis, The next peak by that measure would have been 1991, which was really where birthrate plateau'd. Since 1991, the birthrate stayed mostly unchanged until 2009, in the wake of the economic meltdown, and has been decreasing steadily after that from 16% to 13% today.

Generationally, those born in the early was years to the mid 1950s had most of the major benefits of the Boomers, and it's perhaps not insignificant that most of the big companies that were important in the 1990s and after were started by men born in 1955 (Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs). Yet those born afterwards (through the 1960s) have faced dropping birth rates, and with it the reduced set of opportunities that seemed to characterize those in the GenX generation. Also by that measure, the Boomers aren't halfway through retirement - they're almost all retired. This also means that they will end up getting the lion's share of pension funds, state funding and so forth, even as we've been systematically cutting all of those now for the last fifty years since this generation came of age.

Finally, note that this more closely matches the observation that Millennials are a lot more culturally cohesive if viewed as having been children of the 1990s and beyond. Those born in the 1980s in general, are much more like those born in the 1970s than those in the 1990s. Of course, it also means that we're just now seeing the birth of the next generation after the Millennials (really, those since about 2008, meaning that most of them are about ten years old).

[crazycatlady]

91. The generation after millennials is Gen Z

I've seen them roughly defined as 1996 and later (probably since cut off as 2018 babies will be something different). They're just starting to graduate from college this year.

I've seen definitions for millennials start from 1977-1985 (people born in the late 70s were in college for the turn of the millennium). I've also seen it start as late as 2004, which makes no sense (someone born in 2004 was not around when the millennium turned). (Interestingly 1977-1985 is sometimes called Xennials or Oregon Trail Generation-- I fall into this category).

9/11 is the life event turning point for millennials. If you were born after 1995, you're probably too young to remember where you were at the time.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

50. Strauss and Howe place the Boomer generation

as being born between 1943 and 1960. They tend to define generations as a cohort who are strongly influenced by a particular event or series of events. They are far less influenced by the actual demographic birth bulge that most people consider all important.

I cannot recommend too highly their book Generations: The history of America's future, 1584 to 2069. For all that it was published in 1992, I find their assessments, and especially their definitions of the generations (as available to them when they wrote it) to be spot-on and remarkably not dated even after a quarter century. I wish more people would read that book.

[Stellar]

63. Thanks, I'll have to read it..

I was born at the end of 1944 and always thought I was a boomer.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

71. You are.

And those born in 1961 or 1964 are not Boomers. They were born in the Demographic bulge (the pig in the python as Landon Y Jones so elegantly put it in is amazing book Great Expectations which came out in 1980) but are not Boomers the way Howe and Strauss so carefully define them.

They spent a very long time working up their theory of generations, and it's sad that their books isn't more widely read. It's equally sad that William Strauss died in 2007, so there will probably never be a revision and update of the original.

Their other books, and most notably The Fourth Turning, are also worth reading.

[radius777]

73. Agree, why better to think of generations

in terms of when the particular generation came of age and the cultural period associated with it - i.e. the boomers in the 60's/70's, gen jones in the 70's/80's, gen-x in the 80's/90's, millennials 00's/10's...

then work back to when those people were born

generation jones is the missing factor in these discussions, they are a unique gen and are the parents of the millennials.

boomers are the parents of gen x, and gen x are the parents of the upcoming gen z.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

90. Generation jones?

I haven't come across that term.

I'm a Boomer, born in 1948, whose 2 children are Millennials, born 1982 and 1987. That's how Strauss and Howe define/date the generations.

They have Boomers born between 1943 and 1960, Gen X (which they originally called Thirteeners) born 1961-1981, Millennials born 1982-2004 or thereabouts. They were winging it with their dates for Millennials because of when they wrote the first book. GenX parents are more likely to be equally Silent generation (born 1925-1942) as well as early Boomers. But a lot of Millennials, especially the early ones, are children of Boomers.

Which is also one reason why assessing the generations and just how to date them is tricky, because of the way people spread out their childbearing. No one generation is solely the child or parent of one other generation. There's a lot of overlap.

I guess you're using "gen jones" for what most people call Gen X, which interestingly enough has almost completely disappeared from usage. People sort of pretend they are all Millennials, and they're not.

Again, the Strauss and Howe book Generations is utterly fascinating and well worth the time it takes to read. I've read it through two or three times and am long overdue for a reread, but I'm going to have to re-purchase it, as my copy is beginning to fall apart. I need to get it in hardback.

[radius777]

92. Generation Jones are later Boomers/early Xers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones
Generation Jones is a term coined by the author Jonathan Pontell to describe those born from approximately 1954 to 1965, while other sources place the start point at 1956 or 1957.This group is essentially the latter half of the baby boomers to the first years of Generation X.

Unlike older baby boomers, most of Generation Jones did not grow up with World War II veterans as fathers, and for them there was no compulsory military service and no defining political cause, as opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War had been for older boomers.

The name "Generation Jones" has several connotations, including a large anonymous generation, a "keeping up with the Joneses" competitiveness and the slang word "jones" or "jonesing", meaning a yearning or craving. It is said that Jonesers were given huge expectations as children in the 1960s, and then confronted with a different reality as they came of age during a long period of mass unemployment and when de-industrialization arrived full force in the mid-late 1970s and 1980s, leaving them with a certain unrequited "jonesing" quality for the more prosperous days of the past. ...

The term has enjoyed some currency in political and cultural commentary, including during the 2008 United States presidential election, where Generation Jonesers Barack Obama and Sarah Palin were on presidential tickets.

Gen Jones is somewhat more cynical than the idealistic Boomer generation, but more hopeful and communal than the nihilistic/alienated Gen-X... basically somewhere in the middle.

I agree fully that people have kids at different times, so there is more variance in who are the parents of any given gen, but I still think it would look like a bell curve where Boomers are mainly the parents of X, Gen Jones mainly the parents of Millennials, and X mainly parents of Z, etc.

What clearly defines generations, as you stated, and as Strauss/Howe conclude, is more about the time period the generation came of age and its cultural identity.

Many heros that come to define a generation can be technically not part (in terms of when they were born) of that generation. For example, Jerry Seinfeld is the archetypal Gen-Xer, yet is technically a Boomer or Gen Jones (born in 1954).

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

94. Thank you for the clarification.

But in all of the many conversations I've had here about generation designations, this is the very first time I've ever seen Gen Jones. It also strikes me as less than useful to designate half of a generational cohort with a separate name.

[LeftInTX]

52. Just got back from another evening of blockwalking

Knocked on over 50 doors...most over the age of 65. Most were not home until the end of my walk. I quit at 8:15. They were all home yesterday, Sunday.

[Blue_true]

56. So what is the point MM?

What strategies do you propose?

[MineralMan]

68. I don't propose any strategies.

I'm not sure what you mean, really.

[Blue_true]

72. I did not get the objective of your post. Maybe I missed something. nt

[ismnotwasm]

58. Imma a combo baby boomer/genxer

I’ve been a Mom since 17, a Nana since I was 38.
I have 9 grandchildren.
I only wish I was close to retirement

[Trumpocalypse]

74. Actually they were born in 59

Those born from 60-65 are considered post boomers.

[Utah Grizzlee]

75. Nah

No one born after the early 1950s is a true boomer.

[Freddie]

78. I'm thinking there should be 2 kinds of Boomers

Those who had to worry about getting drafted (or their brothers/boyfriends getting drafted) and those who did not. Huge difference. My brother, HS class of 71, had a draft # and basically changed his life because of it - went to college when he wasn't originally planning to, and luckily for him the draft ended while he was there. My HS class of 74 had no such worries.

[zipplewrath]

81. absolutely

I was born in '59 and didn't even have to register. Never had a draft card. That was an entirely different experience than my older brother who had to go for an official "physical exam".

[eShirl]

80. Born in 2nd half of 64, I claim GenX as mine.

Nobody is telling me different.

[bullwinkle428]

84. My Mom was 7 years old at the end of WWII, but being a 1964 birth,

it seems awfully strange that I'm still considered a baby-boomer.

[HockeyMom]

85. My SIL born in 1946 had a daughter born in 1964

Mother and Daughter are both Boomers? Really?

I was born in 1948 (older Boomer) and my older daughter was born in 1979 (youngest Gen X). When she gets together with her Cousin and she talks about things from her childhood, my daughter just sits there. "I wasn't born yet when that happened". Fifteen years makes a big difference.

My youngest is a Millennial born in 1984. Now when my daughters get together and talk about things that happened in their childhood, they are very much on the same page. Five years isn't much of a difference as far as these generational things go; the end of one generation and the beginning of the next.

[marlakay]

87. I fit your example born in 56

Retired early, had my kids early 20’s and both my kids have kids the oldest is turning 21 next week because my daughter had her first at 18.

I told my grandkids to wait!

I just visited the neighborhood I grew up in with my girls last weekend, looked totally different and more run down. When we lived there all the homes kept their yards nice. Very middle class. Homes were new when my dad bought and older now and only a few well kept.

You would be surprised but this is Napa a city that either is full now of rich or working poor and some middle class.

Its weird to have a town you grew up in turn tourist, yuppie, expensive to stay in when the town you remember was quiet, sweet and boring.