Have Boomers Adversely Influenced Succeeding Generations?

While some may perceive the boomer generation as being self-centered and problem children, without the boomers where would civil rights be? Or womens' liberation?

Many boomers wholeheartedly embrace the environment and their desire to keep it intact for their children. This began with the hippie movement of the Sixties. And while many may consider the boomers too left in their ideology, without them would there still be people riding in the back of buses? Would women still be considered the inferior sex?

Some may also believe that without the boomers there would be no war in Iraq. But there have been wars long before the boomer generation was ever born. Wars are about money and politics and in earlier years about religion. Many also believe that the boomers will be an economic drain on society. But many boomers plan to continue working at least part time and those that have money to spend are avid consumers and travellers putting money back into the economy.

Many boomers are health conscious and with their interest in diet, exercise and their wish to keep their brains active, hopefully age-related diseases will be held at bay somewhat compared to the generation ahead of them.

The boomer generation for the most part value family although many do have a liberal view of marijuana usage. Boomers and their offspring tend to have more intergenerational harmony than that which existed with their own parents where there was often a great divide. Miles apart in their musical interests and other things, they often had little in common.

The boomers brought about rock and roll; a type of music still loved, listened to and sang by succeeding generations. Even very young children will sing a Beattle's song. When the boomers were young, no one sang along with Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby. I believe the rock and roll the boomers enjoyed in the Fifties and Sixties will endure.

Boomers influence because of their sheer numbers but as a group, particularly as they grow older, their opinions are quite diverse. Many have become very conservative. Leaving their love beads, long hair and their desire to live from the land behind, they got the call of money and entered universities, eventually donning their suits and ties.

So have boomers had a bad influence on the succeeding generation? Have they made it difficult for the generation to follow? Did they take more than they gave? If you look at the previous generation, the boomers were left with the aftermath of a Great War, and the Cold War that followed. Yes, the boomers have lived during affluent times but can some credit go to them for their good work ethics and their hard working mentality? If boomers wanted something, they were quite willing to work for it. They have never expected anything to be handed to them. Many things might be better because of them. No one will ever know for sure.

The Boomer Generation and Their Future

Boomers are better educated, healthier, more culturally literate and more discerning consumers than the previous generation and as such they will determine their future in a new way also.

Boomers at sixty-five are no longer considered old. In many cases they don't look it and they don't act it. In one study, the senior years have been broken into sub-groups of aging where sixty-five to seventy-four year olds are considered the young-old, seventy-four to eighty-four is considered getting old and over eighty-five is the oldest of the old. So based on that, those boomers who are approaching sixty-five can still consider themselves young.

The boomer generation, as opposed to previous generations, have very different characteristics. They like to be physically active by biking, swimming, skiing, bowling and maybe even sailing if the opportunity arises. They will continue to be intellectually active and many when they retire from their regular careers will have their own in-home offices with high speed internet and plans of pursuing their own businesses so that they can continue to live a comfortable lifestyle.

Boomers are looking forward to achieving new successes, learning new skills, visiting new places, developing new friendships and strengthening family relationships. This is an opportunity for them to try a career they have always wanted. With internet they can become infopreneurs sharing their wealth of information or they may turn a hobby into a business. Whatever they choose to do, it will be something they have dreamed about.

They can enjoy flex-retirement and make plans to accomplish what they want and haven't had time to do before. Some, with their quest for learning, may decide to finish a degree, to learn a new language or an instrument or they may travel. May feel too young and vibrant to want to retire to a retirement community.

Many boomers are unwilling to be stigmatized by age and will seek out transgenerational designs to assist them when their mobility becomes an issue. Life expectancy is at an all-time high with the expectation that this will continue to be the case. Women continue to outlive men and it is estimated that by the time they reach the age of eighty-five there are two times as many women as men even though there are one hundred and five male births to every one hundred female births.

People over sixty-five will soon outnumber children under five. There are now more people sixty-five and older than the populations of Russia, Japan, France, Germany and Australia combined. The United States has more people over sixty-five than the total population of Canada.

I suspect that boomers will deny the relentless advance of aging and will live their lives accordingly continuing to believe that they still have all the world and time before them. And as long as their health remains, they will be invincible.

The Boomer Generation and Aging Parents

The boomer generation is often considered the sandwich generation as they care for their aging parents and children and grandchildren. Caregiving aging parents is challenging as much for the caregiver as for the care recipient.

There is a roller coaster of emotions as we attempt to parent our parents – a role reversal as we try to make decisions regarding legal, financial and medical issues. There are many concerns, the least not being how to keep a parent from driving when the need becomes apparent. In this I was fortunate because my mother was cognitive enough to realize when she was no longer able to drive.

As caregivers to our parents it is important to provide emotional support, keep in regular contact with phone calls and visits, help them stay socially connected, ensure that they have entertainment opportunities, do their grocery shopping if needed, take them to doctor's and other appointments, ensure that there are necessary handrails, no loose rugs and that all safety concerns are looked after. It is important also to be apprised of our parents' medications.

We must be aware of changes in their routine, i.e.: sleeping more than they normally do, skipping meals, not being concerned with hygiene, sudden weight loss or gain, mood swings, problems with memory, depression or anxiety.

We also, in our role as caregivers to our elderly parents, are in a position where it is necessary to deal with problems associated with end of life issues. This is a very difficult time for not only the parent but their child/caregiver. It is a time when both know there isn't much time left and both may realize that some things were left too late. When caring for my mother I found this the most difficult aspect although she had made it somewhat easier by leaving a Living Will which took the onus off me for making those most difficult of decisions. There were things I wished I had talked about and as she stared at me near the end I knew there were things she would have liked to have said as well.

As the sandwich generation, we are forced to think about our own aging as we look after our parents and how we will manage with our own care as we age. Will we be able to retain our own independence? Will we be able to retain our mobility for a longer period of time? Will we be able to stave off cognitive problems that will cause us to be more dependent on others?

We become very aware as we care for our elderly parents how important it is to live a healthy lifestyle and to make efforts to ensure that we remain cognitively alert by doing all in our power to keep our brains active. Many age-related diseases can be slowed or prevented with a good diet and regular exercise. But I believe keeping our brains active is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves. Another is continuing to have an 'I can', 'I will' attitude that the boomer generation has always had.

The Boomer Generation and Their Health

According to studies done recently in the United States, heart disease has dropped by sixty percent, strokes by seventy percent and the death rate for cancer by ten percent. Is the boomer generation aging more slowly because of healthy habits?

Most boomers strive to have a healthy aging process. This generation has the biggest increase in marathon runners and many have gym memberships. Many are concerned about controlling their weight, most practice good nutrition to combat the negative effects of aging, many use supplements and natural rememedies such as taking Vitamin D, C and the B vitamins to increase energy, mental focus and their health. Many of the boomer generation are proactive about their health, stimulate their brain with activities, projects, travel and work. Protecting themselves from the sun is another consideration as is their consciousness about cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Many in this generation don't smoke and drink less than the other generations. And many eat a diet that will protect them against diabetes. The majority are concerned about having more control over their health care as they age.

Most baby boomers are more socially and physically active than their parents were at the same age. Many are into yoga, walking and other forms of exercise and those who are more adventuresome are enjoying kayaking and hiking.

For the boomer generation there is a concern about whether the many services necessary for people as they age will be unavailable. The deteriorating health care system with long hospital waits, shortage of doctors and nurses and the general lack of facilities will be unavailable to a population that by 2025 will total almost one out of every four people.

The baby boomer generation have an 'I can', 'I will' attitude with a strong sense of determination. They use technology to increase their ability to obtain information that will help them help themselves. Internet helps them to make smarter decisions about their health care, allows them to connect with others who have experienced specific health problems, lets them research health questions, obtain services, look for doctors, research medicines and to track their own health conditions.

Most boomers desire to age in place which is to remain in their own homes and live independently as long as they are able to do so. Aging in place will depend largely on their health situation, memory difficulties and mobility problems.

Boomers are obsessed with age and see health and fitness as a way of slowing down the aging process. Few will admit to being seniors and many will only reluctantly admit to middle age. Many dress accordingly. In their parents' generation few women wore their hair long and loose on their shoulders past the age of forty. Now you see ladies approaching seventy with long flowing tresses.

Many will work longer, not only for financial reasons, but often as a need for identity and the wish to avoid the retirement pit and the thought of being considered 'old' by the younger generation.

The Boomer Generation

The boomer generation is like no other generation in history. Born between 1946 and 1964, we have rejected many of the traditional values. We have lived together without the benefit of marriage, women have chosen to bear children with no plans of marrying their child's father, the divorce rate has sky rocketed and more women are in the work force than ever before, often earning more than their male counterparts.

But we have been the healthiest and the wealthiest of any previous generation. We have expectations, know what we want and are convinced that we shall receive - in most cases. Boomers control over eighty percent of all personal financial assets and have more than fifty percent of all discretionary spending power. We spend seventy-seven percent of all prescription drugs and do eighty percent of all leisure travel. Approximately forty percent of all boomers left their parents' religion.

We are the first generation to grow up with television, become involved in protests, sexual freedom, drug experimentation, the civil rights movement and the womens' movement, bringing about many changes; we rejected authority and have begun to fight for the environment. We have witnessed the assassination of J.F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Vietnam War and seen the first American land on the moon. We welcomed rock and roll, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Woodstock. And we have been influenced by all of these things.

Those in the boomer generation for the most part have a strong work ethic, are hard workers, are self-reliant, competitive and have not been afraid of confrontation. They believed they could bring about change and they have.

We were raised in the years of the innocence of the Fifties, followed by the Sixties, an age of discontentment as more and more mothers joined the work force and the traditional family began to die a slow death. The turbulence of the Sixties defined the early boomers generation. The Seventies produced activists. Divorce peaked at fifty percent in 1979. The Eighties was the beginning of technology with the birth of the personal computer. During the Nineties HIV/Aids left an impact on the generation with many newly divorced boomers out dating again.

We now represent 26.75 percent of the American population but some of us can still use a hula hoop. We are better educated than our parents. Over seventy percent of all boomers are technologically proficient. We are healthier and have a higher life expectancy. Most baby boomers have no intention of sitting in a rocking chair and whiling away the hours. We are busy, active and have many plans for our future.

Boomers have not let life happen to them as so many other generations have. We have taken control of our own lives and to a large degree have determined our own destinies as near as we are able to do.

How the Boomer Generation View Themselves

The Boomer Generation view themselves as being much younger than their parents did at the same age. Sixty-five is not considered to be old by many Boomers. It is the beginning of a new life – for some it's freedom to travel and be adventurous, for others it may be starting their own long dreamed of businesses or new careers.

Many, men as well as women, are style and appearance conscious. These Boomers will exercise with a passion and deny the fact of their aging. They will look for ways to continue to appear young. They will exfoliate their skin, use facial masks, use B vitamins, flax seed oil and do facial exercises. They will keep their skin hydrated and eat grapes, honey, fruits and nuts. They will search to discover ways to reduce eye puffiness and sill work towards getting rid of cellulite. They will use injections to help eliminate the lines in their skin. No other generation before us has done this.

They try to keep their bodies active by taking yoga or Zumba classes and their minds by learning new dance steps, an instrument or a new language. A one hundred year old man was recently on the news for having completed a marathon. Although he isn't in the Boomer generation, that is the mentality of many Boomers. It is an 'I can do it' mantra.

For some they fly south to become Snow Birds in the winter months to enjoy life in the warm sun while others look after aging parents who have also lived longer than their parents before them.

But whatever path they have chosen to take, they will do it. They are goal oriented and independent but they are also the 'sandwich generation' and as such many of them will become caregivers for the previous generation.

The Elderly and Dementia

Dementia is the decline of cognitive functions, reasoning and the loss of long and short-term memory. It will impair such activities as driving, doing household chores and personal care and hygiene.

Although it was once considered a normal part of aging, we now know that it is caused by such things as underlying medical conditions but it is most common in the elderly. After 85 years of age, almost half of all adults will have it to some degree.

This decline in intellectual functioning will almost certainly have a negative impact on the quality of life and on relationships. It can affect how people think and it usually gets worse over time.

Dementia is caused by damage or changes to the brain which includes strokes, tumors or head injuries. Strokes are the most common cause, called vascular dementia. Other health issues such as Parkinson's Disease, Huntington's Disease, HIV/Aids, Multiple Sclerosis and Diabetes play a part in dementia. Also an under active thyroid gland, not getting enough B12, reactions to medications or poor blood circulation to the brain which can be a result of smoking is detrimental. Over use of alcohol can also create dementia-like symptoms as can depression which can affect the memory.

The first symptom is usually memory loss. Other symptoms include difficulty understanding words, getting lost in places they know well, inability to make a list and go shopping, confusion, forgetfulness, lack of interest in life thereby becoming anti-social. In most cases they will cease to look after themselves and their homes as the dementia progresses. There may occasionally be some aggressiveness, a tendency towards being argumentative or even violence.

To diagnose a patient, a doctor will first do a physical examination, ask questions and do memory and other mental tests. They will also probably do blood tests, an MRI and a CT scan. There is a medication which can be taken which will slow the progress of dementia.

It will be important for the dementia sufferer to have an active social life, to exercise, to watch their weight, control blood pressure and cholesterol levels and to keep their body, and most importantly, their mind active.

As a family member we can help by putting a list of important numbers by the telephone and by installing handrails in the bathroom. It will be very important to ensure that a family member who is suffering from dementia is not allowed to become isolated.

But most importantly, it is necessary to keep the mind and body active while still young to help delay the beginning signs of dementia. Being proactive by doings things to delay what may later be is better than later trying to control what already is.