26 Things Millennials Got Rid Of That Younger Generations Should Appreciate
For a while, every time a chain restaurant had a bad quarter, there was an article asking what I, a guy who had just eaten shredded cheese over the sink, planned to do about it. It was as if the entire casual dining industry was waiting for me to order an appetizer.
So I like that millennials on Reddit are finally taking credit for a few things we actually wanted gone. Some of these were rules we grew up assuming we’d have to follow forever. Others were just weird little inconveniences nobody ever bothered to question. My favorite answers are the ones that make you remember something you used to deal with every day and realize you haven’t thought about it in 20 years.
1. The Office Tattoo Taboo
“I remember in high school thinking I’d never be able to get a good job if I had any visible tattoos, and now here I am with arm and hand tattoos in a corporate job, thinking about what to get tattooed on the back of my head.”
2. The Communal Bathroom Towel
“Those dispensers in public and school bathrooms were just one disgusting, continuous loop of a communal towel. I like to think we millennials were responsible for its long-overdue demise. More often than not, that towel was already damp from someone else using it when it was your turn to dry your hands. All that nasty towel did for me was force me to dry my hands on my pants. Sometimes, I still wonder if that towel ever got washed.”
3. Jokes About Hating Your Spouse
“The ‘old ball-and-chain’ type jokes. My husband is my best friend. I don’t make jokes about hating my spouse. I think now people actually like their spouses.”
4. Dressing “Your Age”
“We killed looking old and frumpy. In my 30s and 40s, I’m just getting started on my hotness. I will be wearing bikinis and cute gym fits until I die.”
5. Suits As The Default Office Uniform
“Business formal as standard office wear. I hear some of the youngest entering the workforce are trying to bring it back. I suggest all millennial managers fire them.”
6. Changing Out Of Your “School Clothes”
“Electric can openers and fabric softener, but mostly ‘school clothes.’ My kids just have clothes, and I don’t freak out if they don’t change when they get home because they will get the good clothes dirty.”
7. Being On The Hook For An Entire Wedding Season
“Ironing [is the worst]. Physical punishment is abhorrent. Reusable cloth napkins and hand towels are better than paper ones. No formal wear unless explicitly stated, no gemstones, and no elaborate weddings, for that matter. I’ll be there for your special day, but all the bridal showers, gift registries, weekend-long bachelor and bachelorette parties, and wedding-party expectations in general are absolutely soul- and wallet-sucking!”
8. Styrofoam Plates At Holiday Dinner
“Disposable and single-use everything. It’s bull****. We use cloth napkins, towels for spills, handkerchiefs, storage containers instead of baggies, and durable clothing instead of cheap things. If any of these things get stained, life goes on. For example, we have plates and a dishwasher, but we’re gonna eat holiday dinner on f***ing Styrofoam? [No thanks.]”
9. Treating Perfect Attendance Like A Family Accomplishment
“I don’t make my kids function past their ability. My parents both worked, so school for us was daycare, complete with a before- and after-school program (11-plus hours a day). If we were sick or struggling, we had to do it anyway. There was no version where anyone took a day off. Fevers were dosed and ignored. My mom bragged that we were really healthy and didn’t miss a day of school from kindergarten to eighth grade. That’s nine years of perfect attendance! I believe my kids have shaped my life in a way that I can step away from work to let them be home when needed.”
10. Skinny Jeans
“Skinny jeans. I’d say you have no idea how happy I am that baggy women’s jeans are back in fashion, but you all understand perfectly.”
11. Thank-You Cards For Everyone
“We just got married and sent them only to my older family members who would be offended if they didn’t get one. My friends and cousins have a general understanding that we know we are all grateful. No need to spend money on a stamp.”
12. “Children Should Be Seen, Not Heard”
“I speak to my kids like they’re actual people with feelings and opinions, and I hear them out when they defend themselves. There’s no such thing as ‘talking back’ to me. They’re just talking. They’re allowed to get a little loud when they’re excited or upset. They can choose not to eat what I made for dinner. I’m not making anything else, but I’m not forcing them to eat it either. Little things like that.”
13. Calling Lab-Grown Diamonds “Fake”
“I have boomer family members who scoffed at lab-grown diamonds as being ‘fake.’ I said, ‘Do you want some American in a white coat in a laboratory to make a diamond that’s 100% the same chemical compound and structure as a natural one that you can’t tell the difference between, or do you want some slave in a third-world country to dig up a natural one so you can wear it?’ Also, you save thousands of dollars for something that looks and handles EXACTLY the same, if not better. They all said, ‘OK, good point.’”
14. Getting Married And Having Kids On A Deadline
“Generational trauma, and marrying and having kids at a young age. I remember celebrating even more when I turned 37 and was not married or having children, while my mom was four kids deep and had two husbands. I am so happy with my life choices and prioritizing my mental health and not being a martyr when it comes to everything that goes wrong in my life, like the rest of my family.”
15. Settling For Bad Chain Restaurant Wings
“A couple of years ago, I stopped at a popular restaurant chain to wait out a severe thunderstorm. Those were probably the worst chicken wings I’ve ever had in my entire life, literally all bread and no chicken. On a semi-related note, it never really sat well with me how some people treated eating at local restaurants vs. chains like some sort of pretentious hipster thing. What’s wrong with trying something new and different?”
16. Expecting Grad Students To Work Endlessly
“I am the millennial manager in my lab, and I refuse to continue the toxic bull**** and outrageous expectations of working endlessly that I was subjected to in my early years in science. I care about my grad students’ mental health and well-being.”
17. Having Kids So Someone Will Take Care Of You Later
“Bringing children into the world to have someone care for you in old age, and then acting as if you did them a huge favor.”
18. “The Wife Does The Cooking”
“We ended the ‘wife does the cooking’ notion. Not a single millennial couple I know has a sole cook. Both people in heterosexual millennial marriages can and do cook for their spouse and families.”
19. Treating Your Own Bedroom Like A Luxury
“Shared bedrooms with siblings. I remember when having your own room meant you were either an only child or rich. Today, a kid not having his own room borders on child abuse by our standards.”
20. Refusing To Consider Mental Health Medication
“My father refused to allow my brother to take medication for his ADHD because he didn’t want his kid ‘all drugged up.’ He didn’t even tell my brother he had ADHD until he was about to enter college. My brother spent 18 years thinking he was just a bad kid because he couldn’t concentrate in class, especially if the topic didn’t interest him. I made an offhand comment a few years ago about how I’m sure I have anxiety. I proposed that being on medication for it might help me be able to go out, do things in crowds, and just not feel like I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop. My dad immediately said, ‘That’s the problem with people. They think that being all drugged up is going to help them with everything.’”
21. Constantly Criticizing Your Own Appearance
“We’ve stopped being so self-deprecating about our appearances. All I ever heard from my mother and grandmother was how fat and ugly they thought they were.”
22. Embarrassing Your Kids In Front Of Other Adults
“Actually wanting to engage with your kids and be excited by what they want to do, instead of humiliating your kids to impress or not be embarrassed in front of other adults.”
23. Acting Like Therapy Is Something To Hide
“Refusing therapy! I think we have been successful in normalizing therapy and being open about mental health. I can’t imagine how helpful it will be to younger generations.”
24. Using Physical Punishment As Discipline
“I ended the trend of talking down to your kids and beating them with anything you can reach when they act up or do something wrong. Instead, we talk about the problem at hand and find ways to help them fix the problem. My kids have much higher self-esteem than I ever did and still don’t have. They also know where they can go if they need help with anything at all, and they use us the way we are intended to be used.”
25. Brushing Off Gaslighting As A Family Misunderstanding
“Casual family abusive behaviors have previously been normalized. For me, the big one is pointing out gaslighting. I love that my generation has refused to buy into being told that we are the problem when we are not. I love that we point out when someone is being gaslit, whether it’s ourselves or others. I think this is partly because previous generations didn’t have a word to describe what was happening to them, but also because they just sucked it up and went on, calling it family affection, misunderstandings, or whatever. No, gaslighting is abuse, and millennials are quick to call out abusive behaviors. This goes along with that willingness to go to therapy, I think. Future generations, you’re welcome.”
26. Needlessly Lying To Kids
“I have actually thought a lot about children and lying. I’d never tell a child, ‘Honesty is the best policy.’ That’s neither realistic nor true. I’d tell them that lying is a powerful skill that they need to learn to wield in life, but it is dangerous, too. Like learning to use a knife or the stove, you are going to hurt yourself, but that is better than hurting others. Also, lying is fundamentally a form of disrespect to whomever you are lying to. Likewise, I’d ditch the idea that everyone deserves respect by default.
“Everyone deserves dignity, courtesy, and tolerance from the start, but not respect. If you love and care about someone, you should avoid lying to them, especially needless lies. I always get grossed out when I hear someone is a ‘prankster.’ Pranks are lying for selfish sport. It’s narcissistic. It’s not even like I was pranked growing up or anything. It is just a foul concept.”