Those Millennials. They’ll never understand the Boomers.
Small Fry!
I was supposed to babysit the grandkids, so I texted my daughter “What time are you bringing the small fry over tomorrow?” Apparently she assumed fry meant one child, and reminded me both children were coming. I knew that. I texted back “Small fry IS plural.” Small fry means children. Small fry can also mean insignificant people, and small young fish. Look it up). Apparently she’d never heard the phrase before. She thought I should have called them “small fries.”
Small fries are what you order at McDonald’s.
She asked her husband for his opinion. He thought small fries was correct. When I texted my daughter that her father agreed with me that it’s small fry, she wrote maybe it was a generation thing, and we were becoming “old farts.”
Old farts?
Is this a generation thing? I had an uh-oh moment because the narrator in my novel In the Context of Love is a woman born in 1957; she calls her children small fry. Will readers not get it?
Interestingly enough, my husband came home from work the next day to tell me about a presentation he attended titled They’re Just Not That Into You – Working Across Generations. According to the handout, Boomers see themselves as flexible leaders with lots of wisdom, but the Millennials see the Boomers as hardworking old hippies whose minds are set in stone. As for themselves, Millennials think they are great at multitasking and communication, but Boomers see them as romantic liberals with piercings and tattoos.
That explains a lot. I guess you could say Boomers consider Millennials small fry? Maybe, maybe not, but the presenter said Boomers and Millennials get along well in a work environment. Boomers give a directive, and the Millennials get a team together to work on the directive, and then return for feedback. All is well. However, both of them have a hard time with Generation X. Boomers give a directive, and Gen X says “don’t bore me with the details.” They go off by themselves to do the task, and then return, confident the the job was done right, but “I don’t want to hear it if it’s not.”
Here’s more on the generations from the presentation handout (*note: These are not my opinions!)
Baby Boomers:
(born 1946 to 1964)
Positives: They are idealists who believe in working your way up and paying your dues. Optimistic. Experienced. Connected achievers. Believe in loyalty.
Negatives: They are workaholics, title conscious, stubborn, condescending and anti-technology. Uncomfortable with conflict.
Boomers see Generation X as wannabes.
Generation X:
(born from 1965 to 1980)
Positives: They are driven, empowering, flexible and entrepreneurial. Independent. Self-reliant.
Negatives: impatience, hands-off management style, unstructured and cynical. They have permanent anxiety.
Millennials:
(born from 1981 to 2000)
Positives: They are conventional, confident, team oriented, and achieving. Tech-savvy. Enjoy collaboration. Strong multicultural awareness.
Negatives: A distaste for menial work. Lack of experience. Sheltered. Impatient. Confidence beyond ability. Lack skills for dealing with difficult people. Entitled.
They see Generation X as yuppies turned political.
Generalizations and Exceptions
These are, of course, sweeping generalizations, and certainly there are exceptions. After all, I am not anti-technology. In addition, my Millennial daughter has great skills for dealing with difficult people, although she sometimes has difficulty putting up with her old fart parents.
Linda K. Sienkiewicz is the author of the award-winning novel In the Context of Love, a story about one woman’s need to tell the truth without shame.
Angelica had always suspected there was something deeply disturbing about her family, but the truth was more than she bargained for.
Sarton Women’s Fiction Finalist
Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist
Readers’ Favorite Finalist
USA Book News Best Book Finalist
Great Midwest Book Fest Honorable Mention.
“…at once a love story, a cautionary tale, and an inspirational journey.” ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of National Book Award Finalist, American Salvage, and critically acclaimed Once Upon a River,and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters
“With tenderness, but without blinking, Linda K. Sienkiewicz turns her eye on the predator-prey savannah of the young and still somehow hopeful.” ~ Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of the #1 NY Times Bestseller, Deep End of the Ocean
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My birth year is sometimes included in Gen-X, other times Millennial. I write in my blog that I’m a gen-x /millennial cusp because of that and the fact that I don’t feel I quite fit in either generational group just right. 20 years is a broad swath. I’m old enough to remember life before the internet, but young enough to have easily adapted to it. In any case, I am familiar with the term “small fry”. 🙂
Fun post!
Twenty years is a broad swath, and surely there is lots of overlap! I’m glad to know you’re familiar with small fry. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment, Keisha!
Fry is a collective noun, so ‘small fry’ is correct IMHO. As for the definitions of the generations, I have two sons born in the same bracket who couldn’t be more different in their outlooks and expectations.
“Fry is a collective noun” — That certainly sounds official! Thank you! About your two sons, it’s difficult to pigeonhole people into strict definitions. My husband and I are both Boomers, but he was in Vietnam when I was still in high school, so our coming-of-age experiences were vastly different.
I guess they’re just guidelines for the marketing bods.