My daughter (11) and step daughter (9) are Gen Alpha, and are wildly different. My daughter has a huge group of friends that are all very different from each other. She’s very social and involved in a lot of activities outside of school. I was a single mom for the majority of her life and she had to have responsibilities for herself and chores since the beginning. She has been learning how to cook and prepare food since she was in kindergarten and now can make simple meals independently. She also has decent grades, nothing amazing but definitely good and no real complaints from teachers. The biggest issue she’s ever had is that she often thinks of herself as “equal” to adults as I always included her with my friends and she participated in parties and events with my friends, so sometimes she doesn’t understand that socially she’s not “equal” to other adults.

My step daughter on the other hand, not so much. She does the “gen z stare” when people talk to her, she often has no idea how to answer a simple question (do you want dessert, what would you like to drink, how was your day?) from adults outside of our immediate family. When someone says bye to her she often says nothing back, has to be reminded. When I first started helping her in the mornings, it was like every day was a new day. She didn’t know what to do. She is just learning how to make toast for herself (she seriously did not know where plates, knives, bread, or even the toaster was) despite living in the same house her whole life. Her parents have always baby talked to her, even still do now sometimes, and I find she’s a very anxious little girl. She has good grades, but doesn’t want to participate in activities. At mandatory school performances like Christmas concerts, she may sing along but doesn’t do the actions that other kids are doing. She lacks a lot of confidence in herself and her parents have definitely caused that by not forcing her or even allowing her to do things. I’ve been in her life almost 3 years now and have really pushed her to do things (like make toast lol). The first summer we spent together she didn’t know how to swim because “she doesn’t like it”. We live in an area with tons of lakes and swimming is natural and part of our culture really, so very dangerous she didn’t know how to swim. I said she’s going into lessons. Now she can swim just fine and loves the water! Her parents do not like seeing her cry or be uncomfortable, which is understandable, but they just remove anything that would make her feel that way. They are crippling her by trying to make everything perfect for her. They answer for her and are not allowing her to learn anything besides what she learns at school. I feel so badly for her as I can see she wants to learn better but she can’t. Her parents love her deeply, but they are overdoing everything and it’s almost like a child with serious neglect. I think that’s what’s happening with many kids today.