1990s: Bye Grandma
May 2, 2019
By AHNZ
Grandmothers “weren’t” crucial for the survival of their grandchildren, they ARE crucial….
“Why would it be beneficial for females to stop being able to have children with decades still left to live?According to a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the answer is grandmothers.”- New Evidence That Grandmothers Were Crucial for Human Evolution
In the past grandmothers also found themselves spouse-less a lot sooner, “their husbands were generally older than they were and died younger than they do now, leaving grandmothers free to be helpful to their grandchildren. Today, women marry men similar to them in age…” according to parenting professional, Roslyn Ross.
1960s Generational Schism
Baby Boomers refused to enter this mould of grandmother or, really, to be grandmothers at all. Or, often, to die either. Not that they wanted to anyway but why should they? The State was already doing it.
The parents of the Boomers saw their kids as Austin Powers and Tim Shadbolt and all those freaky Hippies etc, and flew into a panic! Civilisation was not safe in the hands of these youths. When these greedy children grew up, their parents wondered, would they look after them in retirement? No! So they grew The State. The rights and responsibilities of being grandparents, of being elders, was handed in to National 3.0 like some item of lost property.
Passing the torch….to themselves
Bookends for Baby Boomer Grandmothers like Cher and Madonna look nothing like the women in the top image who could easily be younger than either!
The last grandmas like the ones in the top picture became extinct by the late 90s in New Zealand. The new breed is too invested in their own life going on (and on) rather than step back to be support people for the upcoming generation as was done in the past. Boomers got all the money and resources and protective legislation to ensure they keep the spotlight upon themselves and they don’t need to be of service to families or dress or look accordingly.
“… but she was always old. I don`t know if she was always old or maybe I was young at the time and she was only 50ish.That was in the late 1950`s and early 60`s.I remember that all old ladies of that time wore frocks and thick brown stockings.”- Facebook comment to the above image
Canadian author and activist Stephen Jenkinson argues we’re missing out on the leadership and wisdom we once received from elders in the community. “And there’s little old person wisdom so much as there’s just old people.”
“Something’s happened to ‘old’.” he says. It sounds like he doesn’t offer solutions so much as outline the problem. You can hear that in this recent Radio New Zealand promotion of the book and this twanging trailer for it..
Note: In the comming year Millennials will for the first time outnumber Boomers
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Image ref. Viral; Shared by West Coast South Island history; FB 2019
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