Xennials (1977-1985) with Older Boomer parents (1946-1952) how do you feel as you see your aging parents age and are you supporting/helping them in any sort of way?

I saw this stunning quote from an Atlantic article that got me thinking:

“There are more self-storage facilities in the U.S. than there are Starbucks, McDonald’s, Walmart, Home Depot, Domino’s, Dunkin’, and Costco locations combined.”

My aunt recently told me she had to sell things online because one of her three storage units now costs $740/mo. By the end of the conversation, she added that she’s spent $50,000 on storage units, mostly for old furniture, over the past decade. My parents also have three storage units that my brother and I may have to deal with.

Was this a boomer trend? Does anyone our age rent storage units over multiple years, or will a bunch of these places close soon?

[Edit: since people are really focusing on my family due to the framing of this post, a little context. My parents started with storage units because my father had to retain paper records for his clients by law (and no one regularly shredded them, so the storage needs grew). My aunt got divorced and moved from a multi-level home to an apartment (she planned to buy another house, but it didn't work out that way, and she is just now starting to get rid of furniture intended to fill a future house). Mildly hoarding, sure, but it's not some crazy reality TV stuff. :)

I am a dad of a 10 year old daughter. How should I approach, or should I at all, talk to my daughter about grooming and body hair? I don’t want to make her self conscious but she has recently developed significant underarm hair. Is this something that should be addressed or is it even a consideration for Gen Alpha? I’m Xen so I really have no clue. Kids are mean and I just want to make sure I am not setting her up to be bullied by not talking to her or getting her to someone who can show her what to do.

I vote for "Who needs water bottles? We had one sip from the school water fountain all day."

Did you?
Uggh it was sooo lame and I’ll be honest, the real reason was because I would have tripped over my insanely baggy pants and wallet chain, lol.

Anyone else recognize this little guy?

The thread about caring for aging parents brought this up for me.

Has anyone reconnected with an estranged parent towards the end of their life? Or will you if/when the time comes?

I haven’t spoken to my dad since the day my daughter was born. She is now 18. My brother’s estrangement from him has essentially been from birth. We are also estranged from two of his sisters but have very limited contact with a handful of cousins/one of his brothers.

He had a heart attack in 2018. We found out because my cousin’s ex wife felt we should be informed and called me. It wasn’t serious and so at that time my brother and I decided we weren’t going to make contact.

My mom recently passed and it has made me think a lot about who will be there to hold my dad’s hand when he dies. As of right now, I’m pretty sure it will not be me or my brother, especially as he didn’t reach out in any way when my mom died (his sister extended condolences “from the family”).

To be clear, I don’t intend to try to reconnect with my dad while he appears healthy (ish). He made his decisions and my priority now is keeping my kids from being hurt by him. But if the call comes, there is still some small part of me that thinks I should at least be there for him as he dies.

I know this doesn't apply to all of us, but my early memories are mired with instances of abuse from my mother. She once threw a ceramic bowl at my head for walking into the kitchen when she didn't want me to. I got the shit kicked out of me so often.

Obviously, I made the decision with my kids to raise them differently and never looked back. Happy to say, I have 2 older teens who actually enjoy hanging out at home and aren't riddled with anxiety, struggling with low self-worth, and self-medicating with drugs and alcohol just to survive another day.

Good times.

Left right left right b a start.

Or select start.

yes, Weird Al’s Bad Hair Day will be in there.

'95

MP3 labeled something like Nirvana - Enter Sandman (Metallica Cover Live Unreleased).mp3.

When the download finally hit 100%, you’d fire up Winamp completely pumped to hear it. But instead of Kurt Cobain, you got a cheap Casio keyboard demo beat and some guy screaming. It was a bizarre way to discover him, but I actually fell in love with it. I still listen to Wesley Willis to this day.

I love how Scooby-Doo is just a compendium of villains. All the designs are classics & also a lot of fun in general.

My favorites are easily Space Kook in the first gif & Old Iron Face in the second gif.

I'm born in 83 lol