By Preeti Sharma : “Parents call it talking back…. We call it explaining… “
Since birth till 12,13 years of his life a child is entirely under the influence of his parents. They are the one to decide from ‘what to eat’ to ‘what to wear’ and ‘where to go’. With the passage of time a child becomes more influenced with the outer world and parents become overprotective, it creates a drift in thinking which in turn creates a change in actions in one generation which may or may not be acceptable to the other generation. This drift is something we call as generation gap.
“A generation gap is defined as difference of opinions regarding beliefs, rituals, culture, society and values.”
Does this differences arise between older and newer generations only….? Is it really a gap between the two generation….???? If yes then why the modern generation is having more disputes, more breakups and more trust issues than any older generation. Why the newer generation find it difficult to stay together even for couple of years where the older had experience of spending more than 40, 50 years together.????
What we call as generation gap is nothing but just the result of interaction gap..!!!!! It is not necessarily a gap between two generations, it can be between friends, lovers or siblings of same generation (maybe newer or older). It is said this is the gap due to advancement of technology but if we go out and analyse we will find more than modern generation older ones are supporting and using technology efficiently. They are the people who are keen to learn who are ready to update themselves the only thing they need is understanding and co-operation from their younger generation. We say they don’t understand us …… if it is the case then how do they are capable to find a perfect match according to our education, job and nature. No doubts time is changing so does people. Present generation always have queries about parents being orthodox, superstitious and old fashioned. They question the ways of world and many a times go against their parents and grand parents believes. But have they actually seen the real world….. Have they ever developed a mind which can question the rituals and values of their grandparents.
Let’s not go very far away , if I take a close look at my childhood days. I could see many of the things the present generation would be totally missing like playing hide n seek in streets, climbing a tree, collecting honey, cycling just for fun, Playing in fields, watching a cow milking and many more such things. Today instead of talking about rituals and values youngsters consider all these things outdated and out fashioned. The term called generation gap can be filled easily. Human mind works like a muscle, we can always choose to make our life flexible. We can direct it in a way we want it just takes an accepting mind and enough humanity and of course the boldness to take the path less traveled and regular practice to apply the new and bold ideas. The strong will to keep growing with time and develop the mind that understands the importance of change.
“First we are children to our parents, then parents to our children then parents to our parents then children to our children………”
If we see closely generation gap is a myth. We are only making the three generation. How can we face gap with ourselves? What we are facing right now in our relations and families is communication gap. Start sharing the thoughts, start sharing the time, start sharing their experiences and your achievements…. and soon you will realize that there was no generation gap and there will be no generation gap ever…..!