So being treated as special, they’ve learned to feel entitled to their specialness, and consequently they expect things to come their way. We as parents are responsible for the over-coddling. But all that love and attention wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It led them to become trusting individuals — in general, and of institutions and organizations, and to feel confident in themselves. And while their sense of entitlement may have fed unrealistic expectations, who doesn’t expect to conquer the world at their age, regardless of how you were parented?
They may be externals, but in some respects they should be:
Unlike Boomers, Millennials grew up in a much more uncertain world. There’s no such thing as job security, marriages don’t necessarily last forever, retirement is not without it’s job to cover expenses, salaries are less than adequate, financial crises can wipe out your family, the next person walking into your school might be armed. There’s no way to avoid hearing of these things because the news is all over your computer. Bad things can happen to you and your family and your powerless to do anything to prevent them. That’s what external locus of control is about, a sense that you lack control over your life. Under these conditions, you have to be a little out of touch to believe there aren’t uncontrollable outside forces that could work against them.
They like and need their parent’s home:
There’s two reasons. Economics are a bigger problem for today’s kids than for Boomers: most are saddled with massive student debt, and starting salaries make buying a home something they can achieve in their 30’s and not their 20’s. More importantly, they like their parents, and don’t feel a need to escape. We liked ours as well, but this is the first time that two generations treat each other almost as peers. Growing up in democracy-styled households has led Millennials to feel much more emotionally connected to their families. Millennials I know view their parents as part of their social, and by that I mean friend, network — they get together with them because they want to, not out of a sense of responsibility.
