There are certainly many things the Boomer parents generally did right when raising their kids. Teaching them the importance of manners and respect. That actions do, in fact, have consequences. That a little manners go a long way…all of these things are truly good values to instill in kids. But—and we are speaking in broad strokes here—being able to openly discuss difficult feelings was not one of the skills passed down by this generation. And many Gen X and millennial kids can sadly attest to this. This is why the term “dishonest harmony” is giving many folks of this age group some relief. They finally have a term to describe the lack of emotional validation they needed throughout childhood for the sake of saving face.In a video posted to TikTok, a woman named Angela Baker begins by saying, “Fellow Gen X and millennials, let's talk about our parents and their need for dishonest harmony.”Barker, who thankfully did not experience this phenomenon growing up, but says her husband “certainly” did, shared that when she’s tried to discuss this topic, the typical response she’d get from Boomers would be to “Stop talking about it. We don't need to hear about it. Move on. Be quiet.”And it’s this attitude that’s at the core of dishonest harmony. “What that’s showing is their lack of ability to handle the distress that they feel when we talk openly about uncomfortable things,” she says. “What they want is dishonest harmony rather than honest conflict.” @parkrosepermaculture Replying to @Joe Namath #boomerparents #toxicparent #harmony #genx #millennial #badparenting #conflict #nocontact ♬ original sound - Parkrose Permaculture “Keep quiet about these hard issues. Suppress your pain, suppress your trauma. Definitely don't talk openly about it so that you can learn to heal and break the cycle,” she continues. “What matters most is that we have the appearance of harmony, even if there's nothing harmonious under the surface.”Barker concludes by theorizing that it was this need to promote a certain facade that created most of the toxic parenting choices of that time period. “The desire of boomer parents to have this perception that everything was sweet and hunky dory, rather than prioritizing the needs of their kids, is what drove a lot of the toxic parenting we experienced.”Barker’s video made others feel so seen, as clearly indicated by the comments. “How did I not hear about dishonest harmony until now? This describes my family dynamic to a T. And if you disrespect that illusion, you are automatically labeled as the problem. It’s frustrating,” one person wrote. “THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'm a 49 yo biker sitting in my bedroom crying right now. You just put a name to my darkness!” added anotherMany shared how they were refusing to repeat the cycle. One wrote, “This is EXACTLY my family dynamic. I’m the problem because I won’t remain quiet. Not anymore. Not again.”“I love when my kids tell me what I did wrong. It gives me a chance to acknowledge and apologize. Everyone wants to be heard,” said another. Of course, no parenting style is perfect. And all parents are working with the current ideals of the time, their own inner programming and their inherent need to course correct child raising problems of the previous generation. Gen Alpha parents will probably cringe at certain parenting styles currently considered in vogue. It’s all part of the process. But hopefully one thing we have learned as a collective is that true change happens when we summon the courage to have difficult conversations.

If it feels like you're meeting more and more older teens and young adults who don't have their driver's license, it's not your imagination. Gen Z has been much less interested in driving than previous generations, according to Department of Transportation data shared by USA Today. In 1983, about half of 16-year-olds had driver's licenses. By 2022, that number declined to about a quarter. During that same time, 18-year-olds with driver's licenses dropped from 80% to 60%.There are some explanations for what's caused the drop. For one, thanks to video calling, young people don't need to drive to see each other like previous generations did. Even if they do get together in person, improvements in public transportation and the proliferation of ride share offerings like Uber and Lyft have made it easier to do so without a car. Driving is also expensive, especially when you take the higher insurance premiums of young drivers into account. Gen Z has grown up more environmentally conscious than previous generations, and have grown up hearing about the blight of carbon emissions on the planet. But in addition to that, there appears to be a sharp increase in anxiety around driving, and some experienced adult drivers are defending those fears as warranted.According to a survey of non-driving teens by insurance comparison website The Zebra, nearly 1 in 4 said that they haven't gotten a license because they are afraid to drive a car. While it's easy to chock that up to the general increase in mental health disorders among young people, the fear of driving may be warranted.In our car dependent society, choosing not to drive might seem like an odd decision, but there may be some wisdom behind it. As a user on X posted, "Honestly, I don't understand why ppl shame teens for not wanting to know how to drive. Why do we act like it's not terrifying?" and many people shared their experiences of car accidents really messing them up. — (@) Statistically speaking, driving is the most dangerous thing most humans do, and Americans do it more than any other nation. But because we drive so often, the risk factor isn't something we think about as much as maybe we should. Young people learning to drive today are logically more aware of the risks than previous generations. Ask a boomer what they learned in Driver's Ed and it's a far cry from what Gen Z learns. Boomers didn't even have required seat belts when they learned to drive. Kids today have not only grown up with seat belts but with high tech car seats and various booster seat iterations specific to their age and size. Those safety restraints keep us all safer, of course, but they are also a constant reminder of the dangers inherent in being in a moving vehicle. Being a passenger is one thing, but the responsibility of being the driver of that moving vehicle is entirely another. Driver education courses have also evolved over the years to include graphic warnings about driving under the influence and distracted driving, which previous generations only got a fraction of. The idea is to scare teens who believe they're immortal into understanding the danger that comes with doing those things, but for young people who are already prone to feeling anxious, seeing those terrifying scenarios can make the fear of driving worse. Most young people I've spoken to who have completed Driver's Ed but aren't in any hurry to get their license say that driving just makes them too nervous. Some of them have decided after a couple of years that they wanted their license, so it's just delayed a bit. Others don't have any plans to and seem to be doing fine with other ways of getting around.Holding off on driving simply doesn't need to be viewed negatively, especially when the risks of driving are real. Driving may be a valuable skill to have, but there's no reason that skill has to be mastered by a certain age. If a good portion of Gen Z isn't feeling it and choose to walk or bike or carpool or use public transportation instead, more power to them. Those choices are more affordable and better for the environment anyway, so let's embrace the idea that choosing not to drive is a reasonable one and not judge or shame anyone for it.

As a participant in the Amazon Associates affiliate program, Upworthy may earn proceeds from items purchased that are linked to this article, at no additional cost to you.Ah, the joys of family game night. Bonding with your loved ones over the rush of competitive adrenaline. Friendly (hopefully) rivalries and vendettas as you try to vow to vindicate yourself after a crushing defeat. Kids and adults alike learning the subtle art of trash talk—but in the end, also learning to be good winners and losers. The benefits of playing games together as a family are wide and deep, as games develop both mental skills and shared family memories. And when those games don't involve screens, they can provide a nice tactile respite from the virtual world. However, finding board games that are simple enough for young kids but don't turn into "bored games" for adults can be a challenge. Most games that adults enjoy are too complex for the kindergarten kiddos and most little kid games are mind-numbing for grown-ups. But some games strike just the right balance between simple-to-learn and challenging-enough-to-be-interesting, making them fun for nearly all ages. (By the way, even when a game has an age recommendation, that doesn't mean a younger kid can't play it. Just make sure they're past the choking hazard age of putting game pieces in their mouths.) Here are 10 games that people say their whole family enjoys, from age 4 or 5 all the way up to the grandparents. Sequence SequenceAmazon Sequence is kind of a mix between a card game and a board game, and it's a great introduction to standard card decks for very young children since they don't need to know the values of them. On your turn, you place a colored chip on a card on the board that matches one of the cards in your hand, which you then discard and replace with a new card from the draw pile. The goal is to get five of your colored chips in a row on the board. One-eyed jacks let you remove another player's piece and two-eyed jacks are wild. Simple, fun, largely based on the luck of the draw but you can also utilize some strategy to increase your chances of winning. Find Sequence here. Blokus BlokusAmazon Blokus is a great game for increasing geometric awareness, and it's also fun for everyone. On your turn, you simply lay one of your pieces on the board, touching any of your other same-color pieces but only at the corner. It starts off easy, but becomes more challenging as the board fills up. The goal is to fit the most pieces on the board. When no more pieces will fit, the player with the fewest remaining pieces wins. Find Blokus here.Labyrinth (Junior and Original Editions) m.media-amazon.com Labyrinth and Labyrinth Junior are both great for a huge range of ages, but if you've got very young ones (like 4 or 5) you might want to start with the Junior edition. Don't worry, it's still fun for adults, but the regular edition is just a bit more of a challenge. The goal of the game is to collect treasures along the maze, but on each turn a player moves part of the path, changing the way the paths interconnect. The game play is simple, and it's a great one for helping kids understand strategy without directly having to teach them. Find Labyrinth Junior here and Labyrinth (original) here. The Uzzle The UzzleAmazon The Uzzle is an arranging game, and if you've ever played something like this with kid, you know they can legitimately beat adults at it. There are two main ways to play The Uzzle. Each player gets five cubes with different colored shapes on each size. Then you either have each player draw a card with a pattern on it and whoever arranges their cubes to match their card first wins, or you draw one card that everyone uses and races to complete before anyone else. The cards have four difficulty levels so play can be adjusted to meet the level of players. Find The Uzzle here. Dragomino Dragonimo Amazon Dragomino is a younger player version of Kingdomino, which is a fan favorite people also say is good for a wide range of ages. Game play is a little challenging to explain without having the pieces in front of you, but here's how it's described:"Dragomino is a Card Drafting and Tile Placement game using a Pattern Building mechanic. It’s like playing dominoes with a twist! On your turn, Pick a domino to add to your kingdom. Try to match it to the dominoes already in play. Each matching dominoes scores one egg. which is either empty or has a baby dragon inside! Who will find the most baby dragons?" And the reviews are stellar for both Dragomino and Kingdomino (which has a similar game play, just not quite as simple and without the dragon theme). Find Dragomino here and Kingdomino here.Qwirkle QwirkleAmazon Qwirkle is Mindware's best-selling board game, providing fun for families since 2006. It's a tile-laying game, similar to Dominos, but with its own twist. Here's a video that explains how to play in two minutes. Basically, you make rows based on either color or shape, playing your tiles and drawing more so that you always have six tiles to work with on each turn. You earn points based on the tiles you play and the player with the most points wins.Find Qwirkle here.Yahtzee YahtzeeAmazon Yahtzee is a classic for a reason. Though it says ages 8+, younger kids can play with the help of an adult to keep score. Since the play itself only involves rolling the dice from a cup, any age kid can play, and it's actually a great game for teaching adding as they learn to keep score themselves. Super simple and based almost entirely on luck of the roll, it's exciting no matter how many times you play it. Find Yahtzee here.Spot It! Spot It!Amazon Super simple in play and a test of everyone's powers of observation, Spot It! is more fun than it sounds. Everyone has a stack of cards with the goal to be the first one to get rid of them by matching an item that's on their card with an item that's on the card on top of the discard pile. The items on each card are different sizes, so it's not quite as easy as it sounds. But it's simple enough that the youngest kids can play. Find Spot It! here.Buildzi BuildziAmazon If you've ever played the dice game Tenzi, Buildzi is from the same creator with a similar premise, only instead of rolling dice, you're racing to stack shapes. Stacking games are a good challenge for all ages, and kids even sometimes have an advantage due to their small hands. Grown-ups may have more developed fine motor skills, though, making for a delightfully even match up. To play, each player gets a card with an arrangement of blocks they have to stack to match without the stack falling over. Kind of a Jenga meets Tetris meets Tenzi game. Find Buildzi here. Pengoloo PengolooAmazon It may look like a game just for little kids, but any adult who enjoys memory games will enjoy Pengoloo. Super simple play instructions from the game maker:"On each turn, players roll the color dice and look underneath two penguins for eggs of the same color. If you guess right, the penguin hops on your iceberg. But watch out, other players may remember what egg it hides and steal your penguin on their turn! The first to collect six penguins on their iceberg wins."Find Pengoloo here.Happy gaming, everyone!

Grief is something that touches everyone. There's no escaping experiencing the pain of losing someone you love. It's one of those human experiences that transcends race, gender and socioeconomic status. If you're a human being on this planet, grief is inevitable and while everyone processes grief differently, there are some similarities.Kevin Fredricks has been very candid on social media about the unexpected loss of his older brother, Jason Fredricks, last year. Recently, the comedian shared a relatable yet humorous video sharing what his intrusive thoughts have been like this past year while grieving. It takes talent to make such a serious topic funny. When the video starts out, Fredricks is laying in the bed watching television when out of nowhere you hear an intrusive thought, "Aye, remember that time your brother died? That is wild that it happened. Why'd he die like that, he wasn't even doing nothing and he died? That is so crazy. Oh, don't go to sleep I'll remind you in your dreams."The intrusive thoughts seem to come when he's either content or enjoying life. They're a stark contrast to what is being portrayed on the screen, yet the realness of the thoughts resonates with a lot of people. Commenters shared their own experiences with intrusive thoughts related to grief. @kevonstagetiktok I just be minding my business and here come GRIEF to ruin my day. ♬ original sound - kevonstage "I be laughing and it just come out of nowhere like why you happy," someone shares."'Your mother is never going to meet your kids. She would’ve been the best grandma.' Sends me sobbing every time. Intrusive thoughts are so real," another person writes."Me in Lowes a couple days ago... crying looking at drill bits bc my dad had the nerve to die," one woman says."This has to be one of the most relatable videos about grief! I do this daily thinking about my dad," a commenter writes."I really appreciate how chill and casual this grief voice is. Of course sometimes it’s different, but most of the time it’s exactly like this. My father died 8 months ago. Thanks for the laugh," someone shares.Grief shows up in all sorts of ways, but unexpected intrusive thoughts seem to be one way many in the comments experience extended grief. Fredricks doesn't offer a solution to how to fix the thoughts, his video simply allows space for others experiencing grief to share it with someone else and sometimes that's the best option.

All throughout human history, leaders of nations have been guarded by elite warriors.  That only makes sense, because there is so much to lose if a king or a president is killed.  So considering the fact that we are currently the most powerful country on the entire planet, you would think that the people that are protecting our national leaders would be extraordinarily impressive.  But actually the opposite is true.  On Saturday, we had a bunch of obvious DEI hires trying to protect Donald Trump, and he almost died. Somehow, a 20-year-old amateur with a rifle was able to scale a building on to a roof that had a direct line of sight to the platform where Trump would speak, and he was able to stay up there for nearly 30 minutes without anyone from the Secret Service doing anything about it. Members of the crowd could see a man with a gun up there, but the Secret Service didn’t take action and they allowed Trump to speak anyway. Either this was incompetence on a level that is difficult to comprehend, or something else was going on. Once Trump was hit, Secret Service agents rushed to the stage. But as Christopher Rufo has pointed out, the female agent that was attempting to shield his torso was way too short, “leaving his head and neck exposed after he stood up”… He said: “Scene one: after President Trump ducks, a group of agents leaps to him and protects him with their bodies. A female agent who rushes to the stage acts bravely, without a doubt, but the point of the ‘huddle’ is to protect the president. The agent was much shorter than President Trump, leaving his head and neck exposed after he stood up.” If a second shooter had been ready to shoot at that point, Trump would have been in grave danger. But at least that first female agent was trying to do the right thing. Another female agent on the stage appeared to be cowering behind Trump. It took the Secret Service an eternity to get Trump off the stage and to his vehicle. After finally arriving at the vehicle, three female agents appeared to be very frightened and very confused… Then, he added, “Scene two: as Trump enters the escape vehicle, a female Secret Service agent fumbles her gun and cannot find her holster; another female agent appears confused and, in the moment of crisis, decides to use both of her hands to put on her sunglasses; a third looks frightened and uncertain.” On Twitter, Michael Yon did not hold back as he criticized these agents… Absolute humiliation for this gaggle of female Secret Service Agents. Look at the disorder: – Can’t holster weapons – Gear falling to the ground – Erratic, fearful movements – No show of force, composure DEI Secret Service make Presidents LESS Safe Look, I am sure that these women are very nice people. But they are not suited for this sort of work. Let’s not fool ourselves. Not everyone is suited for every type of work.  Personally, there are many jobs that I would be terrible at. Why is it so hard for our society to admit this? Everyone is good at something, and those that are good at particular tasks should be hired to perform those tasks. Needless to say, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle should not be serving in her current position.  According to the New York Post, she was hired because Jill Biden personally pushed for her… Embattled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who is facing congressional outcry and calls to resign over security lapses leading to former President Donald Trump’s near-assassination Saturday, landed her role thanks largely to a close relationship with first lady Jill Biden, The Post has learned. After everything that has happened, Cheatle says that she has no plans to resign. So she is going to continue to have an opportunity to reshape the Secret Service. It is being reported that her goal is to have 30 percent of all Secret Service agents be women by the year 2030… In a statement Monday, which did not acknowledge the agency’s failings in any way, the Secret Service chief touted “changes” would be coming to Trump’s security apparatus for the duration of the campaign. But the lukewarm missive did little to quiet the doubters, who have lambasted Cheatle for prioritizing woke “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” initiatives — like pledging to make the Secret Service 30% women by 2030 — over providing robust and effective security. If a woman is the best candidate for the job, then hire that woman. But the women that were attempting to protect Trump on Saturday should definitely be doing something else. Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker was absolutely horrified by their performance… On the day of the shooting, Trump’s security detail included three women, who former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told The Post appeared totally ill equipped when Crooks opened fire. “The women I saw up there with the president — they looked like they were running in circles. One didn’t know how to holster, the other one didn’t seem to know what to do, and another one seemed not to be able to find her holster,” he said. “DEI is one thing, competence and effectiveness is another, and I saw DEI out there.” This is not about giving everyone a chance. Personally, I would love to have the chance to play in the NFL. But if I was given the opportunity, I would be the worst player in the league by a very wide margin and I would probably get very seriously hurt. Of course the Secret Service is far more important than the NFL.  If a competent sniper had been targeting Trump on Saturday, the ultimate outcome would have been very different… In an interview with KJRH in Oklahoma, former SWAT sniper Maj. Nate Norton of the Sapulpa Police Department lays out the scary reality: “I’m glad they’re calling him a shooter because he ain’t a sniper,” Norton said. “If he was a sniper, President Trump would be dead on the very first shot. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about this. This is somebody that has some weird, sick agenda and did at best mediocre train(ing) in my opinion. Because at 130 yards, 190 yards, that is piece of cake gravy range for somebody that shoots.” At this pivotal moment in our history, we desperately need all of our national leaders to be protected from those that would seek to do them harm. And we need the very best people possible doing that job. Interestingly, on Monday Trump was “surrounded by an almost all-male security detail” when he arrived at the Republican National Convention… Donald Trump arrived at the Republican National Convention on Monday surrounded by an almost all-male security detail – a dramatic change from the Secret Service team he had Saturday when an assassin’s bullet nearly killed him. Two days after surviving the assassination attempt, Trump made a triumphant appearance at the RNC’s opening night in Milwaukee. He sported a large white bandage over his right ear – a stark reminder of how close shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks came to fatally shooting the former president. I am glad that some changes have been made. But it is probably only a matter of time before someone else tries again. When that day arrives, hopefully competent professionals will be protecting Trump. Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com. About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s  books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today. The post Did DEI Almost Get Donald Trump Killed? appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

from Sputnik News: The attempted assassination of Donald Trump may lead to further clashes between the Dems and the GOP, ex-US Army psychological warfare officer and State Department counterterrorism analyst Scott Bennett told Sputnik, raising suspicions about the Secret Service’s conduct. Former President Donald Trump was injured in a shooting at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13 […]

by Donald Jeffries, “I Protest”: I had actually almost finished another piece for Substack when people began texting me yesterday about Donald Trump being shot. I never watch the news, so unless MeTV broke into their weekly airing of Three Stooges shorts, I was not going to know about it from my large and trusty […]

from The Red Elephants:  TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/