She called me one day absolutely astounded because her daughter had asked her if she knew the meaning of a simple sheng word.
Unbeknownst to them, millennials or Gen Y actually invented sheng. With our love for hip hop and the increased exposure to Western influences, coupled with adopting English as a first language, we could not help but -ism the language of the day. Just like how the media is currently gushing over Gen Zs and their bravery, the media also used to gush over our influence on culture and language back in the early 2000s.
Even though my sister has been a parent to teenagers for years already, I think this is when it hit her that these young kids really do think she’s an ancient artifact with no knowledge of youth and pop culture.
Come to think of it, I believe we all acted the same with our parents. We all tried to teach them the new things, speak around them in words they would not understand and always clash with them on the trends of the day.
It wasn’t until I saw pictures of my own mother in short dresses and heels that it occurred to me that my mother was not always a mother. That she was an icon in her own youth. That she was part of the culture and trend of her time. As a mother to a Gen Alpha and a possible Gan Beta, I can’t help but think about my future and my techy kids, who will grow up thinking I once belonged to the ancient civilisations of the world.
Even though my son is three and barely knows anything, he argues when I try to show him the correct way of doing something. His “no, no, no’s” leave me frustrated and exasperated for the moment and for the future. He might grow up speaking a different dialect of the same language we laid a foundation for, but to him, I would be a fossil who doesn’t understand the ‘struggles of the day’.
I fear for my future and being seen as some sort of relic who doesn’t understand the advanced technology of the future. The world will be very different when my children grow up, and I will definitely be as out of touch with their generation as we were with our parents' generations.
At this rate, being an ‘uncool’ old parent is basically the rite of passage for any parent of teenagers and older kids. It’s no longer a matter of if but when.
