The Baby Boomer and the Millenial

Drugs, sex, music, war—Many see the Baby Boomers as the first generation to allow outside forces to come before raising their children. Drugs, sex, music, war, reality television—Many see today’s young mothers—Generation Y: the Millennials—as a lost generation and their children are left to their own devices.

I can’t tell you about groups of people, but I can tell you about two phenomenal women. One a Baby Boomer, the other a Millenial.

Like many of you, my family had little money while I was growing up. Truth be told, we still don’t have much, but that’s a different discussion. Mary C. Hodges, Baby Boomer extraordinaire and my mother, had her first child a few months after she turned sixteen. A year or so later, her husband, my father, was shipped to Vietnam. Needless to say, those first few years of marriage and motherhood were difficult for her.

Fast forward to five years after I was born (thirty-five not too long years ago) when the doctors informed my mother I had Dyslexia. There was no Internet back then. Even now, many of the people in the small town I grew up in aren’t privy to the information highway. Teachers and other “professionals” told my parents I would never learn to read. But my mother wasn’t hearing it. Drugs, sex, music, war, ignorance…nothing came before her children. My mother volunteered in the school mornings, then went to her fulltime job (1-10 pm). I remember how bone tired she was. I’d want her to take a nap on the weekend, but instead she’d take us to the library and/or the park.

Since the school didn’t have the aptitude, or maybe the inclination to teach me, she taught me the best she could and found others who weren’t ready to throw away yet another Black child. To make a long story short—I can read, y’all, and some say I can write J. But more importantly, I have learned to appreciate all my mother went through and did for me. Trust me, I’m only giving you a glimpse and, unfortunately, I know many who were not as blessed as me to have such a phenomenal mom.

Next I’d like to introduce you to Daetriel King-Bey, a Millenial extraordinaire and my daughter. Daetriel had my grandson a few months before she turned nineteen. Unfortunately, the vast majority of my daughter’s friends also have children, but they are not caring for them. Daetriel puts me in mind of my mother in that she is tireless when it comes to caring for her child. She drops Joshua (19 Months) at daycare at 6 a.m., hops the bus for a full day of beauty school, then works until 9 p.m.

Since she also works 8-10 hours over the weekend, she is exhausted, yet she always makes time to be with the baby. They live in my house, and I hear her up at O’dark-thirty playing with him before he has to go to daycare. On her one day off a week, she spends the entire day with him. Not having the television watch him while she talks on the phone, surfs the Internet or sleeps, but spends quality time with him.

Drugs, sex, music, war, reality television… I salute and thank all of you mothers out there who tune out the noise of the outside world and are doing your do!

Happy Belated Mother’s Day
Deatri King-Bey