Understanding millennials

In her presentation, Dr Valerie Jacques began by explaining that the Millennials, those born between 1980-2000, are the first generation to grow up surrounded by the modern “instant gratification” technology of social media and the life-defining events that shaped their young lives.

She further described how Millennials can be identified by their extremes, their overall strengths and weaknesses. Dr Valerie illustrated how Millennials grow up being catered to, micromanaged from one activity to another and pampered by “helicopter” parents – fathers and mothers who closely hover over their children’s every move and personally intercede in their affairs.

In recognising the traits of the Millennials, the participants were able to understand the expectations of the Millennials better and why they are connected 24/7, with the line dividing work from social life blurred and faded.

Taking everything into account, Dr Valerie stressed that moderation in everything is the key to parenting the Millennial child and reminded the participants to learn to see these Millennials differently, to listen and to enjoy their uniqueness with no expectations.

Life would then not be so stressful. At the end of it all, there is still hope with faith as our foundation, believing that God carries us through all our challenges in life and that ‘Everything God created is good.’

Dr Valerie also got the participants to break up into groups of six to take part in a workshop creating a collage on the question, “What are your experiences with millennials?” This was an exciting part of the programme as the participants, who are mostly parents, enthusiastically took part in collage building.

These beautifully crafted collages were then displayed, with the leaders from each group explaining their meaning.

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online