Baby boomers have a long history of doing things differently. Our commitment to living life on our terms and often putting our wants and needs first have periodically drawn the ire and criticism of other generations.
For decades far too many baby boomers have been in denial about the repercussions of our actions and the need to modify behaviors such as overspending and to save for retirement. As part of this generation, there are sins of which I am just as guilty as any other baby boomer, save one. I take the Coronavirus epidemic extremely seriously.
Using “you only live once” as an excuse to flout the recommendations of the CDC and other public health agencies for staying home and practicing social distancing is irresponsible. Placing additional burdens on your children or other loved ones who worry about what repercussions your behaviors will have is unconscionable. These fears are real, and they deserve our undivided attention.
Michael Schulman’s March 16th article “Convincing Boomer Parents to Take the Coronavirus Seriously” in The New Yorker paints a horrifying picture of the blithe attitude of many boomers parents towards this ever-growing crisis. Their nonchalance is stressing their kids to the max who are now having to act like parents to their parents.
“But the pandemic has pressed the issue, putting many people in their thirties and forties in the tense new role of protectors and even scolds. It’s a twisted inverse of the generation gap of the sixties, when young boomers screamed across the table at their parents about Vietnam—except that now we’re telling ours not to leave their homes. The literary agent Lucy Carson pleaded on Twitter, “Best advice for convincing a diabetic boomer parent to stop commuting into the city? Rage-sobbing into the phone isn’t helping my cause.” At Vogue, Molly Jong-Fast wrote about a similar dynamic with her “fabulous feminist mother,” the generation-chronicling author Erica Jong. “I know everyone is going to get mad at me, but this is not about your conflicted feelings about growing older,” Jong-Fast wrote. “This is a global pandemic, a disease that is significantly more lethal than the seasonal flu.”
For a generation who spouted, “Don’t be part of the problem, be part of the solution.” to the establishment, now it’s time to say it to ourselves.
Helping to stop the spread is simple. Stay home. Cough or sneeze into a tissue and dispose of it immediately. Wash your hands. Disinfect hard surfaces. Practice social distancing. And, dare I say it, start acting like an adult.