02-19-2017, 06:30 PM
From my experience as a mother of 4 children born between 1991-2001, I can DEFINITELY say that the minimum earliest year for Adaptive Generation is 2001.
I myself was a "cusper" born in 1960, so I am very aware of the nuances of a generational change. Most of the parents of my 1990's babies were Boomers or early wave Gen Xers, but Boomers were squarely in charge of the child nurture universe. Since I was a last year cohort of the Boom and had my last child at 41, I saw how things changed almost from his birth and as his childhood has progressed. He is a freshman in High School now.
The parents of children of his peers were GenXers and were increasingly smothering in their child rearing practices.
For example, when he was a baby, mandatory vaccines for infants increased to include Hep A, Chicken pox and Prevnar. When he was a toddler, Mandatory Child safety seats began to be required not just for infants and toddlers, but for children all the way up to 10 years old. Urine Drug screens for pregnant women are mandatory in increasingly more states, along with mandatory reporting to DHS/CPS of any mothers who test positive. In some states mandatory fetal stool is being tested for drugs., Babies and even older Children are being removed from the care of a mother where the expectant mother or the fecal stool tested positive for weed but no harder drugs. War is being waged on childhood obesity....public service ads are out there admonishing parents to make sure their children get out and play. Toddlers are more adept with smartphones and tablets than their parents. A decade ago, unless a teen was affluent, spoiled rotten, or a drug dealer they usually didn't have even a cell phone. Now kids in elementary school have smartphones.
These are just a few examples I have noticed.
Strauss/Howe have repeatedly stated that quite often it is difficult to know when and where a generational line truly can be definitively set until further down the line as events occur. I can safely say from my own experience, it would 2001 as the earliest. S/H often clash with others as to the boundaries of generations---such as for years the "Boom" generation was set from 1946-1964, but S/H set it as 1943-1960. I totally agreed with that! Because even though I lived through the same years as 1961-1964 cohorts and witnessed events from that perspective, I find it far easier to relate to and identify with people a 1-4 years older than myself than those 1-4 years younger.
I myself was a "cusper" born in 1960, so I am very aware of the nuances of a generational change. Most of the parents of my 1990's babies were Boomers or early wave Gen Xers, but Boomers were squarely in charge of the child nurture universe. Since I was a last year cohort of the Boom and had my last child at 41, I saw how things changed almost from his birth and as his childhood has progressed. He is a freshman in High School now.
The parents of children of his peers were GenXers and were increasingly smothering in their child rearing practices.
For example, when he was a baby, mandatory vaccines for infants increased to include Hep A, Chicken pox and Prevnar. When he was a toddler, Mandatory Child safety seats began to be required not just for infants and toddlers, but for children all the way up to 10 years old. Urine Drug screens for pregnant women are mandatory in increasingly more states, along with mandatory reporting to DHS/CPS of any mothers who test positive. In some states mandatory fetal stool is being tested for drugs., Babies and even older Children are being removed from the care of a mother where the expectant mother or the fecal stool tested positive for weed but no harder drugs. War is being waged on childhood obesity....public service ads are out there admonishing parents to make sure their children get out and play. Toddlers are more adept with smartphones and tablets than their parents. A decade ago, unless a teen was affluent, spoiled rotten, or a drug dealer they usually didn't have even a cell phone. Now kids in elementary school have smartphones.
These are just a few examples I have noticed.
Strauss/Howe have repeatedly stated that quite often it is difficult to know when and where a generational line truly can be definitively set until further down the line as events occur. I can safely say from my own experience, it would 2001 as the earliest. S/H often clash with others as to the boundaries of generations---such as for years the "Boom" generation was set from 1946-1964, but S/H set it as 1943-1960. I totally agreed with that! Because even though I lived through the same years as 1961-1964 cohorts and witnessed events from that perspective, I find it far easier to relate to and identify with people a 1-4 years older than myself than those 1-4 years younger.