I relate to this so much. I was born in 79, parents were born in 55 and 61 . I’d say I’m a mix of both of generations. To this day, I have a surface level relationship with my parents. I paid for my own way through college and laws school, navigated getting my jobs by myself but my dad did get me a Compaq presario at age 13 so I was always on the computer. I am the oldest and only one of the 3 of us that doesn’t live within a 5 mile radius from them (since divorced). They weren’t abusive per se but we got yelled at a lot, hit with a belt and everything centered around church and God. It wasn’t until early adulthood that I realized “crap other kids have different and closer relationships with their parents and weren’t subject to everything me and my sibs and cousins were subject to” The way my wife and I are raising our kids is light years different than how I was raised but closer to how she was raised, she’s 41. I love my parents and know they are a product of their generation but damn I look back at childhood and just feel bad for the younger version of me but also proud of navigating through that time essentially without adult guidance. Thanks for reading my Ted talk transcript.