Just Don't Call Me "Late For Dinner"

As Huey Lewis once opined in a catchy mid-80's ditty, "It's hip to be square." I never could have guessed how prescient Mr. Lewis' words would be.

I've given the Baby Boomers a hard time on a number of occasions. But today you Boomers can relax. I'm going to rant briefly about my own generation -- Gen X. There's been a lot written lately about parents of my generation, and I've been fascinated by some of the discussions that have taken place.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Generation X has approached parenting differently than prior generations. And as more Gen X-ers have become parents, some common behaviors and trends have begun to emerge. Some Gen X parents are setting the trends, and others are oblivious to them. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. Something is going on, but we're not discussing it. We're just going on about our business.

Then suddenly someone gives it a name. No, not a name -- a label. And we all scatter like cockroaches when the lights have been turned on. Someone dared to label it, to define it, to analyze it, to theorize about why and how it became what it is -- and we must now deny that it ever existed. Or that we were ever a party to it. Hipster parents? Oh, no, not us. We're so un-cool. Grup? Who, me? Alternadad? Surely not I. I've always despised labels.

We put it down and suggest that anyone who actually behaves that way is flawed. How lame. Look at those people trying so hard to be cool.

We question the credibility of those who dare to analyze it and theorize about it. What credibility to they have? They don't speak for me.

We don't take the time to consider the strengths and weaknesses of someone's analysis or theory (yes, I see his point here, but I don't quite buy this later part). We don't bother to examine the possibility that hipness and coolness aren't really the defining traits in all of this. Instead, we just reject it in full, saying don't you dare try to label me.

As Gen X-ers (and this is where I part company with my generation), we refuse to allow ourselves to be labeled, defined, categorized. Why? Are we that unable to acknowledge that our behavior isn't entirely unique? Are we that unable to look at ourselves in relation to others?

Maybe our ironic detachment prevents us from embracing any type of label. Maybe we're fighting the battle of who could care less. Or maybe, deep down, we are so obsessed with being hip and cool and indie-alterna-whatever that when the lights come on and the trend is revealed and the labels are applied, we must quickly move on to the next thing to avoid becoming part of the dreaded mainstream.

I hope that's not it.

Because sadly, in running from the hipster parent label, we're running smack into the mainstream -- back into the Boomer parenting model that we were so successfully turning on its ear.