July 7, 2025 • 25 mins
Instead of talking ABOUT millennials, in this episode, Cindy and Alison talk WITH a millennial. Join us for a discussion about what today's early learners can gain from the influence of millennials.
- Check out our website: https://www.howpreschoolteachersdoit.com/
- Be sure to like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/howpreschoolteachersdoit
- Learn more about Cindy's work, including professional development, family education, and consulting opportunities: https://hihello.com/hi/cindyterebush-RXMBKA
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It. This is Alison Kenttos.
I am an early childhood educator. And this is Cindy
terror Bush. I am an early childhood consultant.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This podcast is for parents and early childhood professionals.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let our experience and research based knowledge become your guide.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hey, preschool peeps, welcome back to the podcast. If you're
looking at YouTube right now, you notice something different. If
you're listening, you don't notice it yet, but you will.
And we're going to talk about that in a couple minutes.
But first we have to do the shout outs that
we always do and that Alison is rarely completely ready for.
But here we are. Okay, I'm ready, Now go ahead
(00:46):
hit it all right?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hi kuwait, Thank you for listening and also shouting out
the people of Delaware.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
There you go see a place I have driven through,
visited and stayed in.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I've driven through.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You have not lived around there. Let me tell you
what it's I didn't realize not they have like you know,
the beach there, of course, but but also they have
like these really great mansions to tour. Oh cool, yeah,
that's cool.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
It was the DuPont family comes from there, and so
we went and we toured a couple of other things,
and they started the Nemorus Hospitals for Children, which is
really good on their property. Right, So we we went,
we toreed a couple of the mansions and just spent
the rest of the day my husband and I looking
at each other saying, it's really good to be a DuPont.
That's where we landed, and yet we're not so not
(01:37):
so here we are doing the podcast and as I said,
you may be noticing things if you're looking at us
on YouTube, and what you're noticing is there's not two
of us here. Today.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
We've multiplied.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
We have Okay, this is me literally multiplied.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Literally multiple of.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Fine, this is us, this is me multiple. So just
in case you're about to contact us again and say
we have a wonderful guest for you, please don't bother.
This is not a format that we use. We happen
to though.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
I know.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
We get just people are like, what are they talking about?
We get emails on the daily of people who want
to be on this podcast, and they're publicists and all
that stuff. So what we're saying is we have not
changed our format. We're not renigging on what we said
when we were like, no, that's not our format, but
we are taking advantage of the fact that my son
is visiting this weekend, and we were like, you know what,
(02:39):
it would be really cool to have Michael on an
episode or two, because sometimes we feel like we're speaking
for millennials, but here Today Live with Us sits a millennial,
so we as hello, we couldn't just we couldn't let
(03:00):
that go. So I said, when Michael was originally supposed
to visit a different weekend and couldn't, and then he,
I said, we're supposed to record that day, it would
be kind of fun to have you in an episode,
and it kind of blossomed from there. So we're thrilled
to have Michael willing to talk to us on this
(03:21):
podcast because well, you know, Michael, listen, Michael is an adult.
Michael can make decisions for his own life. But when
I said we you know, it might be kind of
fun to have you on the podcast, Michael's response was,
and I quote, I'm not entirely opposed.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
So she told me that response.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I was like, oh, then he's for it, so we're
gonna do it. So we're gonna do it here, We're
gonna do it.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah, happy to be here. Not entirely opposed, because I
don't always think of myself as like communicating succinctly the best.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
You're about to learn how and I also don't communicate
very well, and yet I'm still here.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Yeah, So but I figured something new it could be fun,
So why not.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, It's like you said to me once, you have
to say yes in order for things to change in
your life. So this might be very very good for you,
something new and different.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
New and different, and folks, not even just one episode,
a two parter. We we had so much to say
while Mike is available to us that we decided we
can't do it in one part, we have to do
it in two. So we're going to be talking about
and the title of the episode is generational Shifts, and
we're going to be talking about some of this with
someone actually in the other generation rather than making statements
(04:38):
on behalf of right. And we decided in this part
one that we were going to talk about, like what
is what is different about the millennial generation that young
children can actually learn really great things from, But people
who are older than Michael tend to not like about them,
(05:00):
and I can't figure out why.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Do you think it's that they don't like it or
they don't understand it?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Yes, I think a little both both. Yeah. I think
that like looking outside of your own personal experience, what
you were raised with, what you and your head perceived,
you were passing forward, not always aligning. It could be difficult,
not bad, but when you're taught like X, Y Z
(05:27):
is the way and someone's like, but what about element op? Yeah, yeah,
it can be hard for people.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah, yeah, it can. And I think people sometimes feel
like if we say your generation is doing this so
much better, that we're saying you were so wrong and
that's shameful, and that's not what we're saying. We're saying,
you know, as things move along and hopefully there's progress
of some kind, right, and I think that the millennials
(05:55):
have made some progress in some areas. For me, me,
the low hanging fruit of that is how you view
work versus personal life. And I you know, I can
tell you that what was instilled in my generation is
(06:16):
that work is life, Yes, and it was all consuming,
and for many of us it remains somewhat all consuming
because it's hard to step away from that.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Right, it like becomes your whole entire identity, and it shouldn't.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Be your whole entire identity.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
It should not be your identity. And it's taken a while,
and frankly some professional coaching for me to understand that
not working is actually productive. Yes, but I think your
generation does that really well.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah, I think that, and I know that gen Z
takes it a step even further. But I think that
the notion of like taking care of your self, to
be able to, like in your personal space, to take
care to allow yourself to thrive more in your work
space is something that's really important because if you're not
(07:10):
showing up for yourself, how can how can you possibly
be expected to show up for the people around you?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
You know, we say that all the time. So, like Michael,
I always say to teachers, you can't fill from an
empty bucket, right, you can't. You have to take care
of yourself. You can't fill from an empty bucket. You
have to be able to regulate your own emotions, you
have to be able to take a step away, you
have to be able to do these things and take
care lots of self care. Yeah, I think personally, I
(07:39):
learned a lot about self care from people younger than me.
I certainly didn't learn it from my parents' generation, not
mine either, not at all, not at all, not at all.
And so today I do things like I love to
get regular massages. I will take time away to do
(08:00):
other self care things. You know, I'm making sure I
do my walk every day. I what else do I do?
Love a good pedicure, Oh yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I always make sure I get my hair done and
I spend the money on it.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
And I don't care.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
It's my money.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And I also like every day, like wake up a
little earlier than I need to so I can sit
and read my book because that's what I need to.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Do to relax before I go to work.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Not many people do that, They just like rush off.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
But we weren't raised with We weren't RAI any of that.
But coming from me, Michael, so I wasn't raised with it.
How could I have possibly talked that to you? Like?
How did you learn that?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
And some of it is you watch the people when
you're growing up. You watch how the people around you
are navigating, and so like you take lessons for things
to do, things not to do. And then also when
you get out into the world where there's like a
mixture of generations working together, you either you have to
(09:00):
learn to develop like boundaries for yourself. And it's and
growing up, I remember reading and hearing about like how
the generation before yours, like you work your whole life,
you retire, and then people would die in like the
next five to ten years. Yes, and so the concept
(09:23):
to I think quite a bit of my generation and
I'm just gonna keep saying even further gen Z because
they said, I think a much firmer boundary between.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Work and you think more than your generation very much.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
So I've seen a lot of articles about like how
to deal with your gen Z employees. He doesn't want
to do the sixty hours a week that you want
them to do.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
And they're not saying that about millennials.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
They they sort of blump it in and like will
like blame the millennials for like really popularizing this concept
of not making work.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Your millennials, Yeah, yeah, yeah, you pay that yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
And having and through working with like a mix of generations,
you have to learn really quickly like what works for you,
what doesn't work for you, and develop as best you
can the path forward because living life exhausted just to
(10:27):
die in the end is not pleasant. It doesn't it
doesn't seem like a good existence. And I think that
like working to be happy.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
So do you think so? Do you think so? Think
about young children? Right, that's the focus of the podcast
is doing the right things for young children. Yeah. So
in like, let's talk about early childhood settings for a second.
So we have these We have many generations in early
childhood settings, right, Lots of generations who are conflicted about
They argue with each other about this. They don't like
(10:58):
it about each other. And I hear it all the
time people to talk about they'll say things like, you know,
those millennials they don't have a work ethic, or they'll
say the millennials will be like those older people are
out of their minds. I'm not doing it. There's a
lot of conflict that I've seen happen in early childhood
programs between these generations, and it's like not really trying
(11:21):
to understand each other. But eventually your generation is taking over.
And how do you think the young children will benefit
from that?
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Folks WHOA, I don't think they're going to get what
we had, which was like work yourself to death and
then die, right, So maybe they'll have a more like happy,
more casual life in terms of work, like work is
(11:49):
work and.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Life is life. Like they'll be able to separate it, yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yes, or like not take it as like such a
heavy thing, like you have to work until you're like
have dead, you know, like it's just like you know,
like right, like which is what we were raised with,
which was like you And it's weird because like we
were also raised with, your goal is to retire one day.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
You make sure you can retire.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
One day, but then it's like you can't, right, But
nobody prepared us to prepare for retirement. Nobody taught us
for retirement.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
We did not get a lot of lessons on how
to prepare for retirement. We had to figure that out
on our own.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yes, yes, where you feel how it's not like that?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Maybe I do.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Feel like it's stressed somewhat. But I think a lot
of the conversation in my generation is looking around and going, Okay,
how I'm not going to be able to do what
I'm doing now in the way that I'm doing now forever?
So how am I taking care of future me? Whereas
I think the generation before yours due to things like
(12:54):
the Depression, whereas really trying to survive, and so you
learned a lot of lessons I think about the results
of that, whereas I think my generation is trying to
figure out thriving.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
So that's what you've said is very interesting because the
generation you're talking about, the older generation who either remember
or knew the depression, or was raised by people who
survived the depression. Right, maybe they don't even remember it,
but but they were raised by them. So there was
still this flight flight what fight, flight or freeze? Right, flight,
(13:41):
fright or freeze was going on, and then it passes
to the next generation because there was generational trauma. And
we know that generational trauma can go on for many years.
And I wonder if instead of looking at you and
the generation younger than you, we should actually be glad
that some of that generational trauma seems to have fallen
away and you're looking out for yourselves a little more
(14:02):
in today's children, Well, understand, you don't have to work
yourself to death. You work and your personal life don't
have to overlap all the time, right, right, that when
you're at work, it's you know, you want to work
as hard as you can, Yeah, but then you're entitled
to an entire life outside of that, and you really
(14:23):
should foster.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
That, right because I think what's happening now with your
generation is in the past. I think it was like
you work until you're sixty five and then you can
enjoy your life after that. Now it's like, no, you
can work and also enjoy your life at the same time.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
And I don't think that existed before. Yeah. I think
also I was of the time where people were told
like the tomorrow has never promised, sort of a mantra,
and so you say you have to live because you
don't know what's going to be happening in a day,
a month, or a week from now. Things could always
get better or worse, and you I want to have
(15:04):
enjoyed your time.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
So if you think the the generation a little younger
than you is learning to thrive, I hope. So imagine
how the children who are two, three, four, five years
old today could be learning to thrive in ways we
couldn't even imagine, because they'll they'll probably take it an
even step further as they get older, don't you think
(15:28):
I think they're going to grow up, and they're gonna
be like, Okay, everybody put back that four day work
week that y'all took away from my parents' generation that
they had for a little while, and then you took
it away, or the work from home or the work
from home. They're going to be like, oh, no way.
And I think it's good for them. I think we
have to stop bemoaning this. I think it's really good.
I also think that your generation has an entirely different
(15:53):
perception of how to treat people. In some cases then
we were raised with, yes in some ways. In some cases,
I think that kindness and acceptance is handled differently in
your generation than it was in ours. We had to
learn it.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I think we had to learn it, and we learned
it late.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
We did.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
We learned it on our own.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, not in early childhood.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
No, I wouldn't even say in elementary school, right, I
wouldn't say until like adulthood.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Maybe we learned it older.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I think. Also there's the and I've heard this, I've
heard this on social media many times, that there's a
difference between niceness and kindness. An example that I hear
a lot being that people from if you're in a
situation where you've like popped a tire because you've been
(16:47):
driving people from and just quothing the thing. So people
from California will be nice and be like, oh, that's terrible,
but not kind and help you fix the tire. People
from New York will be like, you're an idiot. You
should be able to fix the tire, but they will
be kind and help you fix the tire. That's an
interesting little century, and I think that kindness as opposed
(17:14):
to niceness and acceptance as opposed to tolerance were things
that were really drilled into me because tolerance also says
you have to deal with the people around you, be
okay with that, whereas acceptance says this person is who
they are and that's good and that's okay.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
So you think you got that when you were young,
this person the acceptance, this person can be who they are, yes,
and that's okay. So you got that when you were young. Yes,
I'm so proud of that.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Hang on, proud mom moment here.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Because I was not necessarily raised with that as a lesson.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
You know, we were raised.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
I was raised like it doesn't matter who people are,
roll the same, and that's not true. We are not
all the same, and we should be valuing the differences.
So if you learned about acceptance from me and your father,
we should end.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
The episode right there, because.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It's definitely not what we were raised with. And I
think that the younger children today witnessing your generation, the
people in your generation who have learned this and grown
up with it, I think that's different than us, who
we got it when we were older and thankfully passed
it along to you somehow, I don't know how.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
I don't know how somehow, So they.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Will, hopefully, many of the children in the younger generation today,
it will be like all they know is all this
talk about acceptance. You know. It's definitely a part of curriculums.
Yeah right, it's a part of what the National Association
for the Education of Young Children says we have to
teach children. And for those of you who are interested
in what the National Association says, if you go on
(18:58):
to Google and you look up antibias education, or you
go to NAEYC dot org and you look up their
antibias education goals, it's a fascinating read. It talks about
teaching children in the early childhood years, so that's birth
to age eight, about the difference between fairness and unfairness
(19:20):
and how to stand for fairness. It talks about ensuring
that young children have language to communicate when they have
seen stereotypes, when they have seen unfairness and injustice, that
they need the language to point it out and to
cope with it if it happens to them. Like, there's
these really great pillars of antibias education from NACY and
(19:44):
the conversations that sometimes adults are afraid to have with
young children, but actually they also NACY also puts information
out about what silence does to children. Right, So if
we are silent and we don't talk about this sort
of acceptance with you children, then they don't know what
to do with what they're seeing and perceiving.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Plus, they see lots of stereotypes, and we've talked about
that before, from products from companies, Right, they see lots
of stereotypes. You know, I object to the fact that
the villain is always an old lady. Think about it.
It's true, right, it's true. And that's just one example
(20:25):
of what I objected. Yeah, so you know, I think
instead of looking at your generation and thinking well, that's
no good because it wasn't how I was raised. We
have to really start to treasure the things that you've
brought to the world, right, your generation, you are now
representing an entire generation of people. Yeah, late twenties to
(20:48):
early for of these high Hello, he's in there somewhere.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And you know what's happening now is people who see me,
either at a speaking engagement or on the YouTube channel
are thinking, how could she have a son in that
age bracket? She looks so great.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Yes, that's exactly what's.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It's exactly what's going on in their heads. Yes, you know,
I tend to be someone and people who regularly listen
to this podcast know I tend to be or have
become in my life. I also wasn't raised this way.
Have become in my life very much. Oh well, what
can we do and what good do you see? And
you know, stop talking to me about what children can't do,
(21:30):
and stop talking to me about what this generation doesn't
do the way you did, and tell me what they
do well, because that's what you have to build on.
That's staff folding, learning enough to build on the positives
and the strengths. And if I had to identify if
someone put a spotlight on me and said you must
identify two strengths of millennials. I would say it's that
they can separate their personal life from work and they
(21:52):
value having a personal life, and that they have a
different attitude about differences in people. And you made a
great point about tolerance and acceptance are not the same thing. Yes, yeah, right,
And I think it's important to intentionally teach young children
the acceptance, yes, and that differences are good, which even
(22:14):
is so different than tolerance. How would you even define tolerance?
How do you see the difference, Michael.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
I think tolerating is like putting up with something whether
or not you like it. But like it's not trying
not to use the word in the worth and the definition,
but it's not being okay with it.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
So it's more like I'm willing to put up with it, yeah,
and keep my mouth shut.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Yeah, sometimes very begrudgingly.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Whereas acceptance is loving.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Them no matter what. Yeah. There was a prior episode
where we said, instead of saying we have safe spirit
spaces in early childhood, we should say we create brave spaces.
And instead of saying we teach children tolerance, it needs
to become we teach children acceptance because tolerance is not enough.
(23:12):
It's not enough to simply be grudgingly tolerate the differences
between people. Right, okay, folks, So this we we realize
that there's a lot to talk about with our resident millennial,
the spokesperson of of all millennials, Michael is Now you're it,
(23:33):
You're tagger it. So we're going to actually tell you
please join us for part two of this where we're
going to be talking about some of the shifts Michael
saw growing up in things children do. And I'm excited
to talk with Mike about that because again it's very
different from our experience as the usual hosts of this podcast.
(23:57):
So Michael has had is in a very unique in
between generation that we're gonna talk about on the next
episode of How Preschool Teachers Do It, So be sure
to come back for it. Yeah, and then I think
Michael won't be with us after that unless he wants
to be, unless he wants to just hang out and
be on the camera's fine or jet Loo. Michael, here's
(24:20):
the list of the topics coming after yours. Tell me
if you have something you want to.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Say, Yo, there's some of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
You can talk about.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
I think the people now are wondering how many episodes
we record it one time?
Speaker 4 (24:32):
So figure that out.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
What here's what you need to do. You need to
go to YouTube check out what we're wearing.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Also, we talked about that on the one uh the
preview one last time. We said we record an hour
at a time.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
We do, so you do the calculation. Yeah, listen if
you've been looking on YouTube, you know, and if you don't,
please go there and what is what is it like?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
And subscribe like you subscribe? Ring the bell? What is
the bill about future video uploads?
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Millennial?
Speaker 2 (25:06):
We should record that and just have it and then
we'll just push the button every time and it'll be
his voice, Michael.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
He's a part of every every post, every single episode.
And once again, please don't contact us with your special guest.
No to your special guest.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I don't even respond.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
No. I stopped responding to were.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Like, I'm just I'm like, no, I've already written you.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I'm not mean enough to block them, though. I just
let the emails. Just let it all right, all right, folks,
We will catch you on the next episode of the podcast.
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It. This is Alison Kenttos.
I am an early childhood educator. And this is Cindy
terror Bush. I am an early childhood consultant.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This podcast is for parents and early childhood professionals.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let our experience and research based knowledge become your guide.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hey, preschool peeps, welcome back to the podcast. If you're
looking at YouTube right now, you notice something different. If
you're listening, you don't notice it yet, but you will.
And we're going to talk about that in a couple minutes.
But first we have to do the shout outs that
we always do and that Alison is rarely completely ready for.
But here we are. Okay, I'm ready, Now go ahead
(00:46):
hit it all right?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hi kuwait, Thank you for listening and also shouting out
the people of Delaware.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
There you go see a place I have driven through,
visited and stayed in.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I've driven through.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
You have not lived around there. Let me tell you
what it's I didn't realize not they have like you know,
the beach there, of course, but but also they have
like these really great mansions to tour. Oh cool, yeah,
that's cool.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
It was the DuPont family comes from there, and so
we went and we toured a couple of other things,
and they started the Nemorus Hospitals for Children, which is
really good on their property. Right, So we we went,
we toreed a couple of the mansions and just spent
the rest of the day my husband and I looking
at each other saying, it's really good to be a DuPont.
That's where we landed, and yet we're not so not
(01:37):
so here we are doing the podcast and as I said,
you may be noticing things if you're looking at us
on YouTube, and what you're noticing is there's not two
of us here. Today.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
We've multiplied.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
We have Okay, this is me literally multiplied.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Literally multiple of.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Fine, this is us, this is me multiple. So just
in case you're about to contact us again and say
we have a wonderful guest for you, please don't bother.
This is not a format that we use. We happen
to though.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
I know.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
We get just people are like, what are they talking about?
We get emails on the daily of people who want
to be on this podcast, and they're publicists and all
that stuff. So what we're saying is we have not
changed our format. We're not renigging on what we said
when we were like, no, that's not our format, but
we are taking advantage of the fact that my son
is visiting this weekend, and we were like, you know what,
(02:39):
it would be really cool to have Michael on an
episode or two, because sometimes we feel like we're speaking
for millennials, but here Today Live with Us sits a millennial,
so we as hello, we couldn't just we couldn't let
(03:00):
that go. So I said, when Michael was originally supposed
to visit a different weekend and couldn't, and then he,
I said, we're supposed to record that day, it would
be kind of fun to have you in an episode,
and it kind of blossomed from there. So we're thrilled
to have Michael willing to talk to us on this
(03:21):
podcast because well, you know, Michael, listen, Michael is an adult.
Michael can make decisions for his own life. But when
I said we you know, it might be kind of
fun to have you on the podcast, Michael's response was,
and I quote, I'm not entirely opposed.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
So she told me that response.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I was like, oh, then he's for it, so we're
gonna do it. So we're gonna do it here, We're
gonna do it.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah, happy to be here. Not entirely opposed, because I
don't always think of myself as like communicating succinctly the best.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
You're about to learn how and I also don't communicate
very well, and yet I'm still here.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Yeah, So but I figured something new it could be fun,
So why not.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, It's like you said to me once, you have
to say yes in order for things to change in
your life. So this might be very very good for you,
something new and different.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
New and different, and folks, not even just one episode,
a two parter. We we had so much to say
while Mike is available to us that we decided we
can't do it in one part, we have to do
it in two. So we're going to be talking about
and the title of the episode is generational Shifts, and
we're going to be talking about some of this with
someone actually in the other generation rather than making statements
(04:38):
on behalf of right. And we decided in this part
one that we were going to talk about, like what
is what is different about the millennial generation that young
children can actually learn really great things from, But people
who are older than Michael tend to not like about them,
(05:00):
and I can't figure out why.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Do you think it's that they don't like it or
they don't understand it?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Yes, I think a little both both. Yeah. I think
that like looking outside of your own personal experience, what
you were raised with, what you and your head perceived,
you were passing forward, not always aligning. It could be difficult,
not bad, but when you're taught like X, Y Z
(05:27):
is the way and someone's like, but what about element op? Yeah, yeah,
it can be hard for people.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah, yeah, it can. And I think people sometimes feel
like if we say your generation is doing this so
much better, that we're saying you were so wrong and
that's shameful, and that's not what we're saying. We're saying,
you know, as things move along and hopefully there's progress
of some kind, right, and I think that the millennials
(05:55):
have made some progress in some areas. For me, me,
the low hanging fruit of that is how you view
work versus personal life. And I you know, I can
tell you that what was instilled in my generation is
(06:16):
that work is life, Yes, and it was all consuming,
and for many of us it remains somewhat all consuming
because it's hard to step away from that.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Right, it like becomes your whole entire identity, and it shouldn't.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Be your whole entire identity.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
It should not be your identity. And it's taken a while,
and frankly some professional coaching for me to understand that
not working is actually productive. Yes, but I think your
generation does that really well.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah, I think that, and I know that gen Z
takes it a step even further. But I think that
the notion of like taking care of your self, to
be able to, like in your personal space, to take
care to allow yourself to thrive more in your work
space is something that's really important because if you're not
(07:10):
showing up for yourself, how can how can you possibly
be expected to show up for the people around you?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
You know, we say that all the time. So, like Michael,
I always say to teachers, you can't fill from an
empty bucket, right, you can't. You have to take care
of yourself. You can't fill from an empty bucket. You
have to be able to regulate your own emotions, you
have to be able to take a step away, you
have to be able to do these things and take
care lots of self care. Yeah, I think personally, I
(07:39):
learned a lot about self care from people younger than me.
I certainly didn't learn it from my parents' generation, not
mine either, not at all, not at all, not at all.
And so today I do things like I love to
get regular massages. I will take time away to do
(08:00):
other self care things. You know, I'm making sure I
do my walk every day. I what else do I do?
Love a good pedicure, Oh yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I always make sure I get my hair done and
I spend the money on it.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
And I don't care.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
It's my money.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And I also like every day, like wake up a
little earlier than I need to so I can sit
and read my book because that's what I need to.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Do to relax before I go to work.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Not many people do that, They just like rush off.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
But we weren't raised with We weren't RAI any of that.
But coming from me, Michael, so I wasn't raised with it.
How could I have possibly talked that to you? Like?
How did you learn that?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
And some of it is you watch the people when
you're growing up. You watch how the people around you
are navigating, and so like you take lessons for things
to do, things not to do. And then also when
you get out into the world where there's like a
mixture of generations working together, you either you have to
(09:00):
learn to develop like boundaries for yourself. And it's and
growing up, I remember reading and hearing about like how
the generation before yours, like you work your whole life,
you retire, and then people would die in like the
next five to ten years. Yes, and so the concept
(09:23):
to I think quite a bit of my generation and
I'm just gonna keep saying even further gen Z because
they said, I think a much firmer boundary between.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Work and you think more than your generation very much.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
So I've seen a lot of articles about like how
to deal with your gen Z employees. He doesn't want
to do the sixty hours a week that you want
them to do.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
And they're not saying that about millennials.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
They they sort of blump it in and like will
like blame the millennials for like really popularizing this concept
of not making work.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Your millennials, Yeah, yeah, yeah, you pay that yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
And having and through working with like a mix of generations,
you have to learn really quickly like what works for you,
what doesn't work for you, and develop as best you
can the path forward because living life exhausted just to
(10:27):
die in the end is not pleasant. It doesn't it
doesn't seem like a good existence. And I think that
like working to be happy.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
So do you think so? Do you think so? Think
about young children? Right, that's the focus of the podcast
is doing the right things for young children. Yeah. So
in like, let's talk about early childhood settings for a second.
So we have these We have many generations in early
childhood settings, right, Lots of generations who are conflicted about
They argue with each other about this. They don't like
(10:58):
it about each other. And I hear it all the
time people to talk about they'll say things like, you know,
those millennials they don't have a work ethic, or they'll
say the millennials will be like those older people are
out of their minds. I'm not doing it. There's a
lot of conflict that I've seen happen in early childhood
programs between these generations, and it's like not really trying
(11:21):
to understand each other. But eventually your generation is taking over.
And how do you think the young children will benefit
from that?
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Folks WHOA, I don't think they're going to get what
we had, which was like work yourself to death and
then die, right, So maybe they'll have a more like happy,
more casual life in terms of work, like work is
(11:49):
work and.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Life is life. Like they'll be able to separate it, yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yes, or like not take it as like such a
heavy thing, like you have to work until you're like
have dead, you know, like it's just like you know,
like right, like which is what we were raised with,
which was like you And it's weird because like we
were also raised with, your goal is to retire one day.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
You make sure you can retire.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
One day, but then it's like you can't, right, But
nobody prepared us to prepare for retirement. Nobody taught us
for retirement.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
We did not get a lot of lessons on how
to prepare for retirement. We had to figure that out
on our own.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yes, yes, where you feel how it's not like that?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Maybe I do.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Feel like it's stressed somewhat. But I think a lot
of the conversation in my generation is looking around and going, Okay,
how I'm not going to be able to do what
I'm doing now in the way that I'm doing now forever?
So how am I taking care of future me? Whereas
I think the generation before yours due to things like
(12:54):
the Depression, whereas really trying to survive, and so you
learned a lot of lessons I think about the results
of that, whereas I think my generation is trying to
figure out thriving.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
So that's what you've said is very interesting because the
generation you're talking about, the older generation who either remember
or knew the depression, or was raised by people who
survived the depression. Right, maybe they don't even remember it,
but but they were raised by them. So there was
still this flight flight what fight, flight or freeze? Right, flight,
(13:41):
fright or freeze was going on, and then it passes
to the next generation because there was generational trauma. And
we know that generational trauma can go on for many years.
And I wonder if instead of looking at you and
the generation younger than you, we should actually be glad
that some of that generational trauma seems to have fallen
away and you're looking out for yourselves a little more
(14:02):
in today's children, Well, understand, you don't have to work
yourself to death. You work and your personal life don't
have to overlap all the time, right, right, that when
you're at work, it's you know, you want to work
as hard as you can, Yeah, but then you're entitled
to an entire life outside of that, and you really
(14:23):
should foster.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
That, right because I think what's happening now with your
generation is in the past. I think it was like
you work until you're sixty five and then you can
enjoy your life after that. Now it's like, no, you
can work and also enjoy your life at the same time.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
And I don't think that existed before. Yeah. I think
also I was of the time where people were told
like the tomorrow has never promised, sort of a mantra,
and so you say you have to live because you
don't know what's going to be happening in a day,
a month, or a week from now. Things could always
get better or worse, and you I want to have
(15:04):
enjoyed your time.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
So if you think the the generation a little younger
than you is learning to thrive, I hope. So imagine
how the children who are two, three, four, five years
old today could be learning to thrive in ways we
couldn't even imagine, because they'll they'll probably take it an
even step further as they get older, don't you think
(15:28):
I think they're going to grow up, and they're gonna
be like, Okay, everybody put back that four day work
week that y'all took away from my parents' generation that
they had for a little while, and then you took
it away, or the work from home or the work
from home. They're going to be like, oh, no way.
And I think it's good for them. I think we
have to stop bemoaning this. I think it's really good.
I also think that your generation has an entirely different
(15:53):
perception of how to treat people. In some cases then
we were raised with, yes in some ways. In some cases,
I think that kindness and acceptance is handled differently in
your generation than it was in ours. We had to
learn it.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I think we had to learn it, and we learned
it late.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
We did.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
We learned it on our own.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, not in early childhood.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
No, I wouldn't even say in elementary school, right, I
wouldn't say until like adulthood.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Maybe we learned it older.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I think. Also there's the and I've heard this, I've
heard this on social media many times, that there's a
difference between niceness and kindness. An example that I hear
a lot being that people from if you're in a
situation where you've like popped a tire because you've been
(16:47):
driving people from and just quothing the thing. So people
from California will be nice and be like, oh, that's terrible,
but not kind and help you fix the tire. People
from New York will be like, you're an idiot. You
should be able to fix the tire, but they will
be kind and help you fix the tire. That's an
interesting little century, and I think that kindness as opposed
(17:14):
to niceness and acceptance as opposed to tolerance were things
that were really drilled into me because tolerance also says
you have to deal with the people around you, be
okay with that, whereas acceptance says this person is who
they are and that's good and that's okay.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
So you think you got that when you were young,
this person the acceptance, this person can be who they are, yes,
and that's okay. So you got that when you were young. Yes,
I'm so proud of that.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Hang on, proud mom moment here.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Because I was not necessarily raised with that as a lesson.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
You know, we were raised.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
I was raised like it doesn't matter who people are,
roll the same, and that's not true. We are not
all the same, and we should be valuing the differences.
So if you learned about acceptance from me and your father,
we should end.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
The episode right there, because.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It's definitely not what we were raised with. And I
think that the younger children today witnessing your generation, the
people in your generation who have learned this and grown
up with it, I think that's different than us, who
we got it when we were older and thankfully passed
it along to you somehow, I don't know how.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
I don't know how somehow, So they.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Will, hopefully, many of the children in the younger generation today,
it will be like all they know is all this
talk about acceptance. You know. It's definitely a part of curriculums.
Yeah right, it's a part of what the National Association
for the Education of Young Children says we have to
teach children. And for those of you who are interested
in what the National Association says, if you go on
(18:58):
to Google and you look up antibias education, or you
go to NAEYC dot org and you look up their
antibias education goals, it's a fascinating read. It talks about
teaching children in the early childhood years, so that's birth
to age eight, about the difference between fairness and unfairness
(19:20):
and how to stand for fairness. It talks about ensuring
that young children have language to communicate when they have
seen stereotypes, when they have seen unfairness and injustice, that
they need the language to point it out and to
cope with it if it happens to them. Like, there's
these really great pillars of antibias education from NACY and
(19:44):
the conversations that sometimes adults are afraid to have with
young children, but actually they also NACY also puts information
out about what silence does to children. Right, So if
we are silent and we don't talk about this sort
of acceptance with you children, then they don't know what
to do with what they're seeing and perceiving.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Plus, they see lots of stereotypes, and we've talked about
that before, from products from companies, Right, they see lots
of stereotypes. You know, I object to the fact that
the villain is always an old lady. Think about it.
It's true, right, it's true. And that's just one example
(20:25):
of what I objected. Yeah, so you know, I think
instead of looking at your generation and thinking well, that's
no good because it wasn't how I was raised. We
have to really start to treasure the things that you've
brought to the world, right, your generation, you are now
representing an entire generation of people. Yeah, late twenties to
(20:48):
early for of these high Hello, he's in there somewhere.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And you know what's happening now is people who see me,
either at a speaking engagement or on the YouTube channel
are thinking, how could she have a son in that
age bracket? She looks so great.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Yes, that's exactly what's.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It's exactly what's going on in their heads. Yes, you know,
I tend to be someone and people who regularly listen
to this podcast know I tend to be or have
become in my life. I also wasn't raised this way.
Have become in my life very much. Oh well, what
can we do and what good do you see? And
you know, stop talking to me about what children can't do,
(21:30):
and stop talking to me about what this generation doesn't
do the way you did, and tell me what they
do well, because that's what you have to build on.
That's staff folding, learning enough to build on the positives
and the strengths. And if I had to identify if
someone put a spotlight on me and said you must
identify two strengths of millennials. I would say it's that
they can separate their personal life from work and they
(21:52):
value having a personal life, and that they have a
different attitude about differences in people. And you made a
great point about tolerance and acceptance are not the same thing. Yes, yeah, right,
And I think it's important to intentionally teach young children
the acceptance, yes, and that differences are good, which even
(22:14):
is so different than tolerance. How would you even define tolerance?
How do you see the difference, Michael.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
I think tolerating is like putting up with something whether
or not you like it. But like it's not trying
not to use the word in the worth and the definition,
but it's not being okay with it.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
So it's more like I'm willing to put up with it, yeah,
and keep my mouth shut.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Yeah, sometimes very begrudgingly.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Whereas acceptance is loving.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Them no matter what. Yeah. There was a prior episode
where we said, instead of saying we have safe spirit
spaces in early childhood, we should say we create brave spaces.
And instead of saying we teach children tolerance, it needs
to become we teach children acceptance because tolerance is not enough.
(23:12):
It's not enough to simply be grudgingly tolerate the differences
between people. Right, okay, folks, So this we we realize
that there's a lot to talk about with our resident millennial,
the spokesperson of of all millennials, Michael is Now you're it,
(23:33):
You're tagger it. So we're going to actually tell you
please join us for part two of this where we're
going to be talking about some of the shifts Michael
saw growing up in things children do. And I'm excited
to talk with Mike about that because again it's very
different from our experience as the usual hosts of this podcast.
(23:57):
So Michael has had is in a very unique in
between generation that we're gonna talk about on the next
episode of How Preschool Teachers Do It, So be sure
to come back for it. Yeah, and then I think
Michael won't be with us after that unless he wants
to be, unless he wants to just hang out and
be on the camera's fine or jet Loo. Michael, here's
(24:20):
the list of the topics coming after yours. Tell me
if you have something you want to.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Say, Yo, there's some of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
You can talk about.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
I think the people now are wondering how many episodes
we record it one time?
Speaker 4 (24:32):
So figure that out.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
What here's what you need to do. You need to
go to YouTube check out what we're wearing.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Also, we talked about that on the one uh the
preview one last time. We said we record an hour
at a time.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
We do, so you do the calculation. Yeah, listen if
you've been looking on YouTube, you know, and if you don't,
please go there and what is what is it like?
Speaker 4 (24:55):
And subscribe like you subscribe? Ring the bell? What is
the bill about future video uploads?
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Millennial?
Speaker 2 (25:06):
We should record that and just have it and then
we'll just push the button every time and it'll be
his voice, Michael.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
He's a part of every every post, every single episode.
And once again, please don't contact us with your special guest.
No to your special guest.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I don't even respond.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
No. I stopped responding to were.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Like, I'm just I'm like, no, I've already written you.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
I'm not mean enough to block them, though. I just
let the emails. Just let it all right, all right, folks,
We will catch you on the next episode of the podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.