How many times have you felt that your parents don't understand you, that

they have no respect for you as an individual? How often do you shake your
head in frustration and blame it on the 'generation gap'? Parents! They are
like aliens from another planet altogether! You and they are in different
camps; strangers forced to live under the same roof Right? Wrong! There is a
way of bridging what appears to be a yawning chasm. If you genuinely want
to improve your relationship with your parents (and give them a big shock in
the bargain!) try listening to them, treating them just like you would listen to
a valued friend. Instead of always whining, 'You don't understand me", stop
and think. Do we ever try and understand them? Parents are under a lot of
stress, too. When we are worrying about our upcoming Math exam, they are
worrying about the boss in the office, and just how they are going to pay for
our braces. Like us, they have days when someone humiliates them at work.
Sometimes, they don't know where the money for all the applications you
send to foreign universities is going to come from. Your mom may seldom
have a chance to go out and enjoy herself. Your dad's colleagues may deride
him because he cannot afford membership to a club.
Yes, weird though it may sound, parents are human too. They may have
dreams they've sacrificed because they want you to realize yours. Once you
step into their shoes and try to look at things from their point of view, two
wonderful things happen; one, you feel a new respect for them, and two, you
will find that you can actually get your own way without heated arguments.
Today, when you come back from school or college, ask your mom or dad,
"How did your day go today?" or "Tell me a little more about your job." or "Is
there anything I can do to help you around in the house?" You'll see the
visible difference it makes to the atmosphere at home. And each day, try to
keep your promises - to do your homework, to clean your room and to write
letters or telephone if you are living away from home. Seventy five per cent
of the youngsters claimed that the teenage years were a time of stress and
anxiety for them - anxiety about exams, jobs, parental expectations, peer
pressure, love lives, the need to look good and dress smartly, and well, even
the state of the nation.
Generation gap means difference in attitude, or lack of understanding
between younger and older generation. This generation gap has always been
there but these days it has reached to an explosive stage. The values and
patterns of life have changed to a great extent. Today, everybody likes to live
and behave in his own way. This attitude has widened the generation gap,
which can never be filled. It is now destroying family life completely. The
elders look after the children and make all sorts of sacrifices to bring them
up. Naturally, they feel they have a right over them. They want their children
to follow their instructions as they have certain expectations from them. But
the children, when they grow up, want a complete freedom in their thoughts
and actions and unfortunately their thoughts and actions are just opposite to

those expected by the elders. They revolt when any kind of restrictions are
imposed on them. Consequently, the family breaks up and everything gets
ruined.
In India, we are yet in the initial stages, but the gap has appeared and it is
going to grow bigger day by day. So it is not only the responsibility of the
younger but also of the elders to fill this gap with their love, affection and
trust. The problem, in fact, has grown and intensified due to the rise in
complexities of life. These complexities have arisen in the wake of
modernism where everything allied to tradition, custom and the world was to
be turned upside down. The problem arises mainly when parents forget how
did they behave, what problems did they encounter and what feeling did
they feel when they were children, especially teenagers. When the children
enter the stormy teens the problem of generation gap comes out with
greater intensity then ever. Children too fail to see their parents point of
view and blindly stick to breaking rules. For them, at this age, their friends
suddenly become important dislodging the parents from the vantage point.
This causes great anxiety to parents and the friction increases between the
children and the parents.
At this time, grandparents can play a constructive role in order to bridge the
gap of thought, attitude, and way of life and approaches to it. Generation
gap is not that serious a problem if families can learn to sit over dinner and
talk or sit in the living rooms over a cup of hot comforting coffee and talk the
things out, ironing the difference and sharing the experiences. When this
communication barrier is transcended and the ice broken, the problem does
not remain that serious anymore. Talking it out calmly and coolly, with the
idea of sorting things out, changing for each other and changing for better
can be the most helpful instrument in bridging the generation gap. Family
outings, vacations, tours, to picnic-outings, often with the family etc can be
effective ways to initiate intimacy between parents and children. Watching
movie and discussing them, putting forth the different viewpoints can be a
beginning to inculcate the habit of a healthy dialogue between members of
the family. Such small things and steps can do wonders in initiating a healthy
family atmosphere and reducing friction between two generations that are
right in their own respects. Their only fault is that they are viewing the same
object from opposite directions. Age, time and experience or the lack of it,
forces them to do so.

Sencondh article
Summary: It is a fact of life that the generation gap or "clash" is something that has existed and will continue to exist
as long as man exists on this earth. It is not restricted to certain parts of the world, to certain times of human history
or to certain cultures. That is why this "clash" is a fact of a life accepted by all generations, all over the world and
through all time.

Generation gap is a more modern term for the difference between generations, or milder than the
extreme definition which calls this difference as the "clash" between the opinions, the attitudes and
the behaviors of the younger and the older generations. The inevitable progress of time and
technologies makes the introduction of new ideas, new believes, and new values unavoidable. As a
result this difference in the general outlook at life arises which is manifest in the difference of opinions
and social values, in addition to the difference mannerism and behavior between young people and
older people within the family as well as within the social contexts.
Perhaps, the gap generation that exists now between the younger and older generation can best be
indicated by the difference of ideas between the young people and the older people in the family,
namely the grand parents and the aunts or uncles who might be much older than their nieces and
nephews, as is the case in "such" societies. Where bigamy is legal. The technological advances play a
great rule in enlarging the gap as the younger generations are quicker to accept and adopt these
technologies so that they consider the conservative and technologically suspicious elders of their
families very old fashioned in their, tastes, opinions and out looks toward life. On the other hand, the
older people despise the modern values which they call the" internet" and "globalization" values. They
consider the young generation shallow, lacking knowledge and moral depth. This difference can best
be seen in the difference of interests and hobbies. The young people of today get their knowledge
from the "internet", and they hardly read other than light magazines, while the elders of their hardearned, profound book based knowledge. The difference includes the moral and social values, as the
different generations see notions such as marriage, love, happiness, decency, and decorum from
different perspectives. Within the family sphere that leads to much arguments and sometimes clashes
between the young people and the elder family members, especially the grand parents.
Within the social context, the young generations' behavior in general is looked upon by disdain by the
older generations. It is natural that every age has its own social codes which include the manner of
dressing, of behavior, and of farming relationships with others. For example, grand mothers never
approve of wearing jeans, or tight fitting skirts in Saudi Arabia in the same way that western
grandmothers disapprove of the bare belly-blouses and the spiky hair of their grand daughters.
Moreover, the elder generations hold fast to tradition and old customs, which they consider as part of
their cultural heritage or social values. Younger generations, however, prefer to adopt modern values,
and as a result they create their own ways of behavior. In other words, the younger people behave

according to the current universal manners which tend to treat the elders in a comradely way, and to
consider the old notions of respecting the elders, of being restrained and decorous in their presence as
rigid and old fashioned. Further more, the younger generations always revolt against the traditional
rules concerning the choice of friends, spouses, and against the close family relations where the
siblings are of one heart, and where they all remain under the guidance and control of the parents.
Nowadays, individuality prevails and the elders have lost their power over the younger members of the
family.
It is a fact of life that the generation gap or "clash" is something that has existed and will continue to
exist as long as man exists on this earth. It is not restricted to certain parts of the world, to certain
times of human history or to certain cultures. That is why this "clash" is a fact of a life accepted by all
generations, all over the world and through all time. Fortunately the "clashes" are not serious, and
different generations continue to love and endear each other though most of the time they do not see
"eye to eye."