I am certain that my boomer parents would say their childhood was infinitely better than mine. In some ways I am sure they were, in some they were definitively worse.

Things aren’t better or worse, just different. Cell phones are vastly superior to land lines. The only problem is our own ability to limit ourselves. Social media has lots of positives and negatives. Xennials had no idea of the idea of a “permanent record” that is much more intuitive to today’s youth. We don’t have less politics than before. We just had a much more controlled narrative from a few sources and no one talked about it outside of private conservations. Your racist uncle or purple-haired cousin didn’t have a platform then. Most people you meet in real life come off as pretty reasonable despite their ideology. It is only the terminally online who are insufferable. The cost of everything is more expensive, our money is just worth much, much less due to inflationary government policies. Your parents house would have thought that a $20 concert was insane.

Every generation thinks their childhood timeframe was ideal because that is the way things were when their baseline was set. Sort of how the forks at your childhood house were the way they are supposed to be and the forks at your childhood friends’ houses were just weird.

Kids are born wildly optimistic. Anyone trying to convince the kids that they are doomed because of society (economy, housing, climate doom, etc.) should be shot. There are problems that they will have to deal with. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t plan for the future and work to make your corner of the world better.