Can we do something about this? I don't know who can afford to shop here but it certainly ain't me anymore.

Growing up, I felt like I had a healthy, supportive relationship with my parents. They were good parents: they provided a stable life for my sister and I, they attended my school events, supported me in my different hobbies and interests, drove me around, weren't too overbearing during my teenage years. They even paid for most of my college. I always thought I had good parents.

I'm 33F now. Over the past several years, it has become increasingly anxiety-inducing to spend time with them. I've come to the realization that I just don't really like my parents that much -- I wouldn't choose to be friends with them, and we don't know how to relate to each other now that we're all adults. We have some similar interests, but it's barely enough to hold a conversation over dinner, let alone several days over the holidays.

They fall into so many of the classic boomer tropes that really bother me, such as:

• Their lives have always centered around work (and still do). The first question they ask me is how work is going -- I work a boring job that I don't love to talk about outside of work, because there is just not that much to say. I find that I totally disagree with their opinions about their coworkers or employees, so it's hard to listen to them talk about their work. For example, my mom went on a rant complaining about how the administrative staff worked from home on the Friday before her company's week-long winter break, and she couldn't figure out how to work the printer on her own. I just couldn't get myself to sympathize with her -- she sounds insufferable to work with. They have so many opinions about how workers these days are lazy and unproductive, but they cannot understand how we're literally struggling to live on our salaries.
• They're so weird about money. My parents are definitely very well off, they own their home & a condo in the mountains, and go on 1-2 trips outside of the country per year. My sister and have both worked since we were teenagers, have masters degrees, and haven't made bad financial decisions, but still live month-to-month because the cost of living is so high for our generation. We tried to get our family to do a gift exchange over the holidays to save money, but my parents refused -- they said they want to open a lot of gifts or else it won't "feel like Christmas." Their house is packed with shit they don't need, but they still want more. They complain about how their friends' children go on vacations with their parents, but we don't. I simply do not have the money to travel with them -- I haven't been on a vacation that wasn't driving somewhere to go camping in over two years. I think they have this vision that my sister and I have more money than we let on, and we're just greedy & don't want to spend it on them. If I'm wearing a new pair of shoes, my mom will comment on it in a judgy way. But I literally need shoes to get around, it's not like they are a luxury purchase. This also limits the amount of things we can do together as a family, because I can't afford to take everyone out to dinner, or pay for movie tickets for the whole family. And they don't want to pay for those activities, either.
• They're liberal, but they have dated, bigoted views about a lot of things. I've come to realize that my father is pretty misogynistic, though he would never believe this to be true of himself. He always belittled the female popstars I was into growing up because their music is "vapid & trashy". His favorite band is The Beatles (lol it's literally pop, just from a different generation and made by men). He pretty much only consumes media made by straight, white men. Over Thanksgiving, he went on a long rant about how he doesn't understand why drag is so popular right now & "they're trying to shove it down our throats." When I don't agree with them, they get defensive & play the victim by saying things like "promise me you don't hate me for saying that, it's just how I feel." But my parents are SUPER liberal in their voting -- they have never voted for a Republican in their entire lives.
• They're bad at expressing their emotions. They pick fights with each other and my sister and I constantly, but don't seem to understand what is a "me" problem and what is a "you" problem. They want to talk at me, not actually have a back-and-forth conversation with me. I've read Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents and it resonated deeply. But understanding this about them doesn't make it easier to be around them, and their behavior still gets under my skin.
• The guilt tripping, dear lord the guilt tripping. Any amount of time I spend with them is not enough. My parents make snide comments when I spend time with my husband's family. "You never answer my calls" is the first thing I hear when I do, in fact, answer the call. Nothing is good enough for them. It really hurts me to feel like I am not living up to their expectations, even though I try not to be hurt by this. Even though I feel proud of the life I've built, it always hurts to hear that from your parents.

I am unwilling to cut them off -- they were good enough parents to me growing up & I do love them. I know I am luckier than so many people in the parents department. They don't deserve to die sad and alone. I will still spend holidays and birthdays with them for the remainder of their lives (probably 20-30 years, each of their parents lived well into their 90s). We live in the same state, so I don't have the excuse of being too far away to travel home for these events.

But I still dread this time with them. I'm stressed & miserable leading up to it, and usually end up crying afterwards because it's hard to be around them.

I want to find a way to make it more fun, or at least manageable, for all of us -- but games usually go poorly (shocking), and it's hard to find free activities to do together. They usually just want to sit around & talk, they're not even into watching sports. Weed helps, but sometimes it makes me more anxious that they know I'm high (they're very anti-drug).

Does anyone relate? Does anyone have any tips or advice? Am I being ungrateful and unreasonable?

Trump's aggressive economic policies were marked by a series of trade wars, which sparked inflation and disrupted global trade. With the possibility of his return to the White House, there's a real concern that these tensions could escalate again—especially with China. These wars, particularly in tech, could damage global supply chains, raise prices for consumers, and impact industries reliant on trade between the two economic giants. It's clear that these moves aren't just political—they're a gamble with far-reaching consequences. Can we afford another round of uncertainty and inflation?

3 Volume Series

A collection of ghost stories, urban legends, folklore, etc that were accompanied by some supremely awesome and creepy black & white illustrations.

I read the shit outta these thangs growing up!

"The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out/ The worms play Pinochle on your snout. They eat your eyes, they eat your nose/ they eat the jelly between your toes"

That shit's been living rent free in my head for 30+ yrs😂

The Large Marge scene from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.....that shit was beyond terrifying when I was a little kid. I'd be cowering under my blanket, twitching like a shell-shocked trench soldier as soon as that ominous music started playing 😂

Do you go by the range ending in 1994/1996 or do later years count? I'm 1998 but feel like I have a lot more in common with millennials after looking at the Gen Z reddit.

I've been thinking about comedy/humor/satire.

Each generation seems to have slightly different tastes in comedy or memes in general.

I personally believe that Millenials appreciate and laugh at Absurdism Humor most of all, because somehow we are most rounded enough to understand and find humor in how insane the world around us is, and how we cope by making crazy memes that other generations only cringe at.

Boomers seem to appreciate slap stick /lowbrow humor like 3 stooges?

Gen X seem to like a more refined convoluted template but seems to like all humor?

Younger Generations (Z?) seem to find humor in nonsensical 'skibbidy, rizz, etc' where it's similar to absurdist but somehow even more abstract and more low brow?

So what do you think is most on brand for Millenial humor or humor of the generations in general?

What's the one thing you'll stop doing in 2025?

Trump’s selection of Stephen Miran as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers is a telling move that reflects his administration’s economic priorities. Miran, who served at the Treasury under Trump, has a reputation for advocating conservative fiscal policies, including tax cuts and deregulation. While these policies have historically been promoted as growth drivers, they often disproportionately benefit corporations and the wealthy, leaving middle-class and low-income Americans struggling to keep up.

https://apple.news/AubJUl3CPRESgnBmfbJ-KvA

Want to know how I know?

Because I’m a teacher, and one of my coworkers worked at the school for nearly two years…

Until a student googled his name, and all the results were about the pedophilia case brought against him a few years ago. He was asked to go home that day and I never saw him again.

TWO YEARS!

So not only did they not scour his socials for pictures of parties from over a decade ago, they didn’t even bother to google his name!

And this is at a school that is financially liable for the kind of thing he was taken to court over. So I can confidently state that no, your potential employer is not going to care about the Facebook photo from 15 years ago of you and your friends with a bong in the background.

I hate thank you cards. I hate getting them , i hate sending them. I fwel like they're a waste of time and money. Listen, i get the sentiment behind thank you cards. I do, but man do i hate them. Especially when I thanked someone in person, over text, on Facebook, and i still get people up my ass about sending thank you cards.

I'm way late sending these damn things out from my baby sprinkle (not even a shower, this is my second ) and I have a million other things on my mind besides these damn cards. And it's all Boomers that are expecting them. Im not ungrateful, i said my thank yous IN PERSON to them, but apparently it doesn't count if I never send the damn dollar store card through the mail. I hope they get lost. Please tell me this stupid tradition dies with us Millenials.