Are you a fan of the millenials we are generating one way or another? Maybe we senior greys are teaching the young ones to be more tolerant in their days ahead. As Boomers, or the over-sixties, however we define ourselves, we can all note on a checklist or survey, some of our worse foibles.

Firstly, one annoying habit can be, as I do, commenting often to offer younger generations financial advice. Just because most of us managed in our days in those times, does not mean some of us really understand the changing economic climate. We had reasonable expectations that we would marry in a veil of white, saving together as a married couple team, and that most of us would own our home within a forseeable future time span.

That achievable dream may be off the menu for many young couples these days, as some homes cost a fortune. Unless, of course, millenials are going to rely on their bank of Mum and Dad for a home deposit, or gain equity in the property market through an inheritance. Some acquaintances and I have also indulged in complaining that younger generations have no sound work ethic like we have or still have, calling them all lazy. I have had several conversations, even with my sequence of lawn-mowing males. They were all bemused by the real-world fact that they could not hire a reliable apprentice or assistant to support their business.

These guys wanted someone reliable to turn up, drive a ute, mow lawns, control weeds, trim bushes and gardens. On the third day, the young males stayed home in bed, leaving their new boss in the lurch, expecting their middle-aged parents to get to work to buy them privileges. I know personally of two such brothers who were like this. Finally, they did grow up and join the taxation system. They were only thirty years old, better late than never. Despite this, most teenagers I know study hard and maintain part-time and holiday employment, pleasing their employer and attaining their best. No complaints about them! I must say such young people seem to bear us no hard feelings. As Boomers, we can annoy anyone else as we glorify some parts of our distant childhood.

For example, we can praise our generation for drinking water from a hose and eating mud pies. I wonder if any of us are truly reflecting on the real merits of drinking water from a rubber hose that had been sitting in the hot sun for three hours, as we had. Washing down mud pies with such a beverage tasted total crud. Nothing like a Bunnings sausage sizzle, a lovely fizzy drink, or latte. Modern cuisine is definitely more socially acceptable for the ageing palate.

I guess we all mean well by talking such irrelevant nonsense. We can embarrass everyone else by our practical need to place all phone chats on speakerphone, cause we are all dodging an audiologist. Ain’t we sweet! I also suppose most of the silvers here moan about things in young ones we should really understand are genetic.

We tell millenials to smile all the time, then say they are being oversensitive about their exams. Have you ticked anything on the Boomer’s annoying checklist? This final one is a doozy. On Saturdays, my touchy laptop can cease to function, due to its owner here clicking some wrong button, or downloading some malware I have been directly instructed not to.

I phone or text my quiet achiever young geek, who turns up by 2pm on the weekend, to restore my screen to normalcy. That is modern rocket science. I smile and say, “Don’t work too hard!” He wanders home to inspect his own screens, pondering such grey tips from a senior for the weekend, as I asked him to visit and work in the first place.

Yes, I guess we all mean well, as Boomers give great advice. Millenials, smile at the dumbs things we do………..