But who made all the kids wear helmets and gave out the participation trophies?

I've seen the video above floating around Facebook a few times over the last year, but when I saw it recently it got me more worked up than usual. While I try to argue that I'm not part of the Millennial generation, I am and I've come to accept it. I certainly see some of the problems in the younger end of my generation that the Baby Boomers and Generation Xers complain about, but I still think some of the complaints about Millennials are ridiculous.

Take this video for instance. It makes the following claims:

1. You left home in the morning and didn't return until the street lights came on 
2. You didn't wear bike helmets 
3. You didn't have gaming systems or hundreds of TV stations
4. You had to try out for Little League and people were cut

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out the following:

1. You're the ones who are not letting your children leave the house in the morning and not return until the street lights came on
2. You are the ones who started making kids wear bike helmets. It's not like one day a 10 year old was like, you know what would make this better, a foam and plastic hat.o
3. You kicked things off with Pong and then Atari and so on. You bought the systems for your kids and let them play all day and night. 
4. Children don't give themselves participation trophies. Adults give them out. Maybe you were a little bummed that you got cut from Little League in 1978? 

You can't go blaming "kids these days" for living the life you created for them. 

There is no doubt that the world we live in today is not the same as the world of the 1960s, 70s or 80s. But then again, maybe it's not so different, and that is actually what is sad. Perhaps you remember the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968? Or the race riots in '67 and '68. Given the news in the last couple weeks (or years), We clearly haven't come very far as a society. 

Millennials and their children are the future. Rather than tear them (and the world you created for them) down, why not have a conversation with them. Learn a little bit about them and what they want out of their life and this world we live in. If you listen, I bet it's not much different that what you want.