Baby Boomers Lifestyle - How Baby Boomers Are Different From the Previous Generation

Baby boomers lifestyle is different from the previous generation because they have had to adapt from the culture of their parents.

The two big differences in the generations are work and family related. I am not here to judge but to point out why this difference occurred.

In the fifties and sixties returning veterans could start work for a company and expect to retire after working there for 40 years. There was job security, company loyalty and it was the way things worked then...not now.

I am now 65...for those of a similar age ask yourself how many of your elementary school classmates did not have a mother and father, living at home with them.

Dad went to work; Mom stayed home and raised the family. This was not isolated to one region of the country I went to 11 schools in grades 1 through 12; my dad was an Army officer.

Divorce was unheard of then... a two-parent family provided a stability the baby boomer generation takes for granted.

Fast forward, to today,the baby boomers lifestyle finds divorce rates at 50% or higher, the two-parent family is no longer a given...in some places, they are in the minority.

The job market for Boomers has vastly changed. In the 1980s, companies were bought and sold like Monopoly pieces. Pension funds went out the window; job security was something only the post office afforded. Mom could no longer afford to stay home... she had to work. The baby boomer lifestyle changed from their parents lifestyle.

Boomers discovered the necessity of day-care, multiple jobs and a culture that did not think of divorce as a scarlet letter.

That has made the Boomer generation more independent and self-reliant than the previous generation. The stable home and cradle to grave relationship with one's work is outdated.

Only time will tell if the generation of the Boomer's parents was the "greatest generation". For sure the baby boomer lifestyle is different form their parents lifestyle.