The Magpie's Nest

Huh, on the one hand I HATE being accused of being maternal, on the other I am about ready to fight the world in a Denny's parking lot for not being better to the teens in my favorite fandom discord. Guess no one looking to me to be responsible for them avoids that little hang up, just general server etiquette. Hell if wanting a better world for them doesn't make me feel more like I have skin in the game re:voting etc.

I wanted to go off on a tangent related to my recent post concerning an article about burnout in millennials. I am not posting this as a reply there for 2 reasons: 1) I don't want to derail the basic 'this is a thing' conversation; 2)I have had most of this simmering in the back of my brain for awhile, just couldn't get it congealed into words.
One valid criticism of the article I have seen from more person, is that burnout and a lot of the factors leading to it, are not unique to millennials. I think that this is exactly why it is hitting us so hard. We don't have the hope of a way out that previous generations had because we saw what happened to them.

Boomers hoped that by playing by the rules they would have at least the stability of their parents. They started in the mailroom, kept their heads down, had 2.5 kids and a white picket fence. They also had their pensions taken away after heart attacks from over work.
Gen X said fuck that and tried going their own way. People gave them a raft of shit over putting off kids and 'real jobs' to pursue their passion and come up with a life that wasn't based around the 9-5. They got the housing crisis taking the house they sunk what little they had after the dot com bust.

Now we have a third major generation that knows deep in its bones that following the path leads to nothing good and straying from it gets you eaten by wolves. We try to bolster a 'real job'(or more likely a retail job) with pursuing our passion by monetizing our hobbies; in the hope that when the rug gets yanked out from under us we will have some form of income dependent on how many hats we can knit instead of our bosses whims.
We try to buy stability that we know can be taken at any moment. We know the big things like school loans and mortgages can leave you indebted with nothing to show for it. We are constantly told if we sacrifice our morning latte on the later of savings, we will never have to fear making rent. If we can't have the big one time things like houses and degrees, or consistent small things like a morning latte, what does that leave but intermittent splurge like avocado toast and 'treat yo self' culture?

TL;DR when presented with a no win scenario as our life plan, it is hardly surprising we are stressed.