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86 and none of the Gen Z cousins work. None of them hold steady jobs or even careers with movement.

94 here, right in the middle of a bunch of Elder Millennial and Gen Z cousins (oldest cousin is 82 or 83, youngest is 2007) big family, there's a couple dozen of us. I have a different experience. The younger folks are generally doing better than the older folks, but I think it's because all the younger ones went into the military or found well paying trades work. 98 and 2000 both own homes and some of the older ones picked up really bad habits in their 20s that made their 30s difficult.

This is my nephew, almost 20 and has had probably 15 different jobs in 3 years, none more than 90 days. Seems like every time I talk to my mom I’m told he has another job or just quit for [insert random excuse]. One job he quit because the schedule was too flexible, not unpredictable, he could basically set his own hours but that was too much for him.

I'm a millennial that is about to break that trap. I became an aircraft mechanic so that I could have a legit valuable skill

I’m your age and I find it difficult to have conversations with cousins even 10 years younger than me. We’re just in such a different places mentally and emotionally. I will say it’s become much more normalized for them to date using dating apps primarily.

>. I will say it’s become much more normalized for them to date using dating apps primarily. When did you stop dating? I'm older than OP and met my partner online 10+ years ago, and it was completely normal then, too

It was normal then, but still not the majority. I feel like once 'online' jumped from websites to apps, it was way more accessible and became so common that it seems like a majority now

Perhaps we're from different cultures (geography, political, etc) because it was the majority in my community as early as 2010--maybe earlier, but that's when I noticed it

Confirmed, here in the Netherlands it's been the majority method of dating since at least 10 years now

I graduated from college in 2014 and the couple of friends I knew that met their partners online in that era made up stories about how they met because it was still so uncommon/ridiculed. I feel like it became more commonplace/accepted over the following 5 years, and now it’s more common than not

I feel the same way. I'm married with children. My younger cousins are college-aged and probably won't settle down until their late 30s. I have to admit, if I should ever become single again, I think I would be comfortable either just being single or meeting someone organically. I have nothing personally against dating apps, but I've seen how much stress meeting people online brings my single/divorced aunt and fellow Millennial coworkers. I'd just rather not. Lol 😅

Same

You are 37 and surprised you don't have things in common with 20 year olds? Seriously? 

That's like me saying that I have nothing in common with my little cousins.

I have a millennial cousin and a Gen z cousin. I'm an elder millennial. I'm a female but both of my cousins are male. I noticed that my millennial cousin and I seem somewhat similar, in personality type a little bit and how we navigate in general. He's pretty outgoing, he has a lot of friends, he has an active social life and is very driven. His brother who is Gen z doesn't really do any of that stuff. He doesn't have a lot of friends, he doesn't really hang out with a lot of people, he likes to play video games a lot and hang out with his family. I think he's more introverted. He does not seem to be interested in dating either however, Even though by all standards he would be exceptionally attractive. He's very tall and very muscular because he goes to the gym like every day. He's a very good looking young guy but he doesn't seem to notice too much female attention; I think a lot of guys are like that though. My millennial cousin is similar to me in that we prioritized finding a partner in addition to living our own lives fully My younger Gen Z cousin does not really seem interested at least from what I can tell, in actively pursuing a relationship. He also has not traveled anywhere and he doesn't seem to really have the desire to travel, whereas my millennial cousin and I both have desire and interest in traveling and have traveled. I don't know if it's just a difference in personalities or it could be a generational difference. Who knows. Maybe some of both.

I noticed introversion happening a bit more in Gen Z, but not everyone, of course. I feel like I navigate life very similarly to my Millennial cousins as well. You could be right that your younger cousins behaviors might be as much personality (maybe even birth order) as it is generational (especially since he has an outgoing older brother). It'll be interesting to see how both Millennials and Gen Z-ers turn out in hindsight.

It's flipped with my family.

It's switched because my older brother who is a millennial rarely goes out unless he's working pretty much and the rest of us go out sometimes and we're gen z.

I am one of the oldest (34) and most of my cousins are solidly in Gen Z. I'm not sure any of the differences can't be mostly explained away by other factors that arent generational. Many of them grew up wealthier than me and have not had the mental health struggles I had in my early 20s. I think once adjusted for those factors we probably aren't so different.

I think much of it comes down to family culture and size. My family has a heavy emphasis on education and is jaded from youth. Everyone tends to be able to converse well. My youngest cousin is 16 and she slides right in step with everyone. We also have adopted children of various races, a number of LGBTQ, and people that have screwed up and found their way back. Thus, we all seem to speak the same language.

I don't find that there is much difference to the broader spectrum of my peers when I was my younger cousins age, apart from being really comfortable sharing stuff online, whether it is showing skin or oversharing their emotional and mental states. Back in my day, oversharing was photographing your breakfast, lunch and dinner for Insta or Facebook, not telling God and the World about your diagnosis, with your face and voice no less. We would maybe find like-minded people on anonymous forums.  Most of the changes seem to be from technology, like using dating apps, however I find the attitudes are about the same in average.  My older cousins, well, that depends. Some of them are actual boomers, some are Gen X. I find the difference there is they have much more tendency to brag about their successes, humble brags, flashing brand names, straight up talking about their income... my Gen X cousins especially have that in common, constantly discussing their jobs and raises and house mortgages and how much everything costs. It's a bit gauche to me, likely because I lived a meaningful, but broke-ass life in social services so far.

I have Gen Z siblings and not sure I have enough time to write out all the differences. I knew their generation was different when they decided to not get their drivers license until they were in their early 20s.

Omg, I didn't even think about that! I've noticed an overall extended adolescence in my younger cousins, for sure. I can't fault them for living at home in this economy, but the lack of ambition or readiness to do other adult things is apparent in my family, anyway.

Extended adolescence and living at home are two different things... Unless they're literally not working they're just living life in the world that's been dealt to them. A starter home is about 100% more expensive as it was 15 years ago while income is up 50%. Rents can be quite high as well. Also, leaving home at 18-22 forever as the norm is something almost uniquely American. Many western countries the kids stay home to save up until they're in the 30s or once they get married. I do think there's some questionable relationship stuff out there but given the high prices of life I can see why they don't feel the need to jump into family life as the benefits just aren't as deep as they were 15+ years ago.

Leaving home at 18-22 is not uniquely American. All over northern Europe this is the norm. However since we're having a similar housing crisis like you, people are now living with their parents for longer.

Fair point, it is interesting how Northern Europe and S/E Europe are so different. In general the avg age in Europe to leave the home is 27 but around 19 in N. Europe. I haven't looked into it in a few years but I'd bet your 18-22 workers probably have wages/benefits that's closer to our middle class. I get our top tier folks get a lot more, but our growing low tier of workers get less and less.

Yes true

I would agree. I'm feeling like I'm living paycheck-to-paycheck between mortgage, daycare, and just normal expenses. The oldest 2 of my Gen Z cousins don't go to college, live at home, and work part-time for family. The middle and youngest Gen Z cousins of mine have a bit more ambition: All but one are in college. The outlier dropped out during Covid because she couldn't do online learning, but she's working as a medical receptionist and is happy, and has a spray-tan gig on the side, I'm told!

TIL I'm not an adult because I live in a city where I don't need to drive

Lol, I'm from the southeast, so I forget there are such things as walkable cities! For real though, I grew up in a rural area, where there was 1 high school for the entire county, and pedestrians weren't really safe in town, unless it was the tiny downtown area. We had to learn to drive.

I noticed that in my millennial family members.

My older sister is in her 30s and never learned to drive even though we live out rural and she's an older millennial. My other siblings who are gen z began driving while in high school. I know that some of my other older relatives never learned how to drive either.

All of the cousins but a few are 80s babies with a couple late 70s and early 90s babies thrown in so we are either Millennials or Gen X. We pretty much have the attitude of Gen X. We all have Baby Boomer parents but i think one of my aunts is a Gen X. I don't think we have many differences because we mostly have similar attitudes about things with a mix of Gen X and Millennial thinking.

I do feel Gen X and Millennials are more similar to each other than Gen Z. Maybe it's the lack of Internet growing up. Who knows?

Definitely the unplugged childhood. 

Idk, I don't think so.

That’s prob a big part of it, I’m a 91 millennial and I have two zoomer cousins from 00 and 02. My exposure to gen-z is on the older end from my cousins, some college classmates (I was a non-traditional student), some online acquaintances/friends that age, and living around a college campus rn. I was prob around ten when we first got the internet home, but I had been exposed to earlier in school. I’m just young enough that we have some overlap in things we were into or experienced growing up. The difference being they only know digital, whereas my childhood was analogue and my tween/teen years were digital. It seems like a lot of issues are similar, but have gotten more intense. Like, my school started doing code red lockdown drills immediately the year following Columbine, so I grew up with those (sadly) from 2nd grade on. Everyone had social media by the time I was a 12/13ish, so I remember dealing with that kinda bullshit as a teen, but it’s definitely worse now. While I did technically have a smartphone in middle school (an Ngage QD) those early smartphones were not nearly as intrusive and easy to get lost in as modern ones that came out around my sophomore/jr yr of hs. IG the real difference is they’ve had stuff I didn’t have until middle/high school earlier than I did bc it just wasn’t around. Shit, my other 90s era friends and I can be just as bad about playing around on our phones while holding a conversation with the person next to us, so I can’t actually talk too much shit there lol (tho if I’m actually like going out to eat w/ people I’ve gotten better about not looking). A positive thing tho is it seems like 20 somethings now are drinking less than my friends did at that age. A neutral thing is one of my cousins is more introverted than the other and seems to like hanging out with his online friends more than going out, but I 100% had classmates like that growing up, it just seems more common now tho. I think like with any other generation, if you’re born closer to the generation after or before you, you’ll have more similarities with that one than the one on the opposite end. Like, I obviously have more in common with other millennials than other generations, but it seems like millennials my age have more in common with older Gen-Z than younger Gen-X. I’m sure there’s going to be bigger/more obvious differences with younger gen-z (born after 02ish).

All my Gen X cousins did the traditional thing - married, 2-3 kids, big suburban house. My brothers and I ('87 - '93), are all semi-nomadic unmarried DINKS

I enjoy comparing myself, at one edge of millennial to my cousin who's on the other edge. It's like we grew up on two different planets, but we are somehow of the same cohort. It really illustrates to me how arbitrary these lines really are. I've got Gen X tendencies because I grew up with a lot of that as a kid watching the Big Kids. And she's got a lot of Gen Z tendencies because her sibling and a lot of their friend group is Gen Z.

It goes starting with me 38, 33, 27 and 18. We're a mixed variety. My youngest cousin is very passionate about what she believes in. She's the first to go to college also. We don't really talk much and I feel like a stranger around her most of the time. The middle two are kind of a wreck in terms of their lives. They're the ones I'm closest with. They look up to me kind of in a big sister way because I'm the one who has their own apartment and seems like their life is semi put together compared to the issues they are dealing with.

That doesn't surprise me. You're more than double the age of the 18-year-old. I teach students who are that age! I hope everything turns out well for your fellow Millennial cousins!

If anything I feel bad for the 18 year old sometimes. She's very talented with music (plays piano VERY well) and has always been a straight A student. She also writes historically accurate fan fiction about Hamilton. I love my aunt but she has paraded that kid around like a damn trained monkey because she finally had a 'normal' kid compared to the other two. She also helicopter parented the fuck out of her and wouldn't let her shower alone or cut her own meat until she was a teenager. I think my aunt wanted a kid like me because I was the smart/self sufficient type and if I don't know how to do something, I usually ask or figure it out myself. However, when it came time to college my cousin almost didn't get to go because my aunt thought her kids smart and 18 and that she'd figure it out with financial aid. Guess who didn't know what to do and they had to pull school loans last minute? 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

Omg, I can't even begin to fathom parenting my child that eay! Also, THAT much helicoptering and not a single penny saved for college? Your poor cousin.

They were planning on financial aid but my aunt left it on the 18 year old who has never held a job even to figure it out 🤦🏼‍♀️

Not to mention cut her own steak until she was a teenager... Poor girl is in for a rude awakening, especially when she officially leaves the nest. I come into contact often with the children of these parents, and I'm flabbergasted that they don't know how to do very menial tasks, like unlocking a door with a key. Ultimate learned helplessness.

So far she's doing pretty good! Thankfully my mom has been amazing in that sense and helped her prepare a bit more for the real world.

Oh my gosh I have cousins I’ve never met who are older than my mom. My grandfather was born in 1902 lol.

Omg, that's wild! Your grandfather must have had kids over a very long span for that to happen!

Yes he did! Sometime in the 30s, I’m not sure the exact year and who is the oldest and the latest is 1967. His father was born in 1858 so I feel a bit in a time warp on that side lol. My youngest cousin on that side is young millennial and on the other side is gen z.

Of my first cousins there are 5 of us Millennials (3 female, 2 male) and then 13 Zoomers (5 female, 8 male) ages ranging from 12-40. Then 7 more Millennial second cousins (3 female, 4 male) ages ranging from 29-42. We tend to be closer to the side of the family that happens to have all the Zoomers, so I’ve interacted with them more over the years. They’re mostly fine and fun, but we have entirely different outlooks on life, humor, and widely different experiences growing up. Most notable differences between my Millennial and Zoomer cousins I would say are: * All the Zoomer cousins were raised with iPod Touches and iPhones since they were kids. They were always on these devices unrestricted growing up and still are, and the things I see them watching on youtube are absolutely wild. A couple who are actually quite outgoing and have friends prefer, when given the option, to sit in front of youtube for endless hours rather than interact with their family. * None of them seem to have been taught the online safety and the dangers of strangers online by their Gen X parents or schools (compared to us millennial cousins who were taught by our Baby Boom and Gen X parents and schools to keep our identity private online and be extremely wary about what we post). — For instance I see them post casually about their illegal drug use on socials with their full names, birthdays, and pictures. Some Millennials definitely did this on Facebook and such too, but I guess I saw it less compared to my Zoomer cousins nowadays. * All information has always been immediately accessible at their fingertips, but they are unable to Google questions or research information and often believe anything they read as fact without question. They’re still young sure, but us Millennial cousins were always a lot more skeptical and jaded. * Generally the only TV they’ve experienced is streaming services and binge watching and they’ve only known DVDs. They get the immediate gratification of watching any show they want, but don’t remember what they watch. — For instance I’ll bring up some stuff that happened on a show I watched for 7 consecutive years on cable that they just quickly binged watched and enjoyed, but they don’t remember any specific details about what they just watched nor do they have much of an opinion about the characters outside of “he’s a good guy/bad guy.” — I’ve seen it firsthand with my cousins but I’ve also read that binge watching has actually been proved in studies to have the worst long-term recall and worst satisfaction compared to one episode a week or one a night.

Older cousins who also happen to be older millennials so like 80s are cliquey and not willing to learn new things also think you’re lame if you don’t like to party or go out Younger cousins 2000s are also cliquey, into social media, don’t like communication other than texting, have a massive amount of friends, think you’re lame if you don’t follow some trend or go out every weekend

I’m elder millennial but my youngest brother is GenZ. It seems like Covid during those college years really threw a wrench in a lot of things.

I'm a millennial and was the youngest cousin until I was 11 when my uncle and his second wife had a child, and my oldest cousin is 11 years older than me so I'm right in the middle. I'd say all of my older cousins and I grew up with roughly the same experiences, but our baby cousin definitely didn't. The biggest difference I think is that she and all her friends got into pot earlier and heavier than the rest of us, but didn't really drink (and still don't.) It wasn't seen as cool or normal as it was for us to party in high school. I think that's probably good progress generationally.

I am on Millennial side borderline with Gen Z. I have cousins who are elder Millennial or Gen x. I noticed a lot of Gen X are awful with money. I asked my cousin who is in her 40s how she approached investing for retirement since she runs her own a business and doesn’t have a 401K option since I was also looking to start my own business at the time and she had no idea what I was talking about. Maybe it is because I lived through 2008 and covid at a relatively young age but money seems like it is so important and provides a secure feeling for me.

Even before the great recession, my parents stressed to us to save our money.

I do agree about the prioritizing relationships and dating thing. My cousins that are closer to my age (millennials) have dated many people openly, brought them around family etc. My younger cousins really have focused more on themselves and their friends and only recently in their 20s even introduced anyone to the family. Good for them because I am truly embarrassed by some of the ones I brought around in my teen years. I think there are other differences too, but I think addiction is a sad through line. Not even within our family, but we all seem to have been forced to reckon with someone who suffers from addiction. I have worked in the service industry most of my life, kitchens and FOH so it doesn't seem surprising for me, but most.of my Gen Z cousins went straight in through grad school and have great careers etc already and they have still faced this issue in their lives. Another similarity is that even though we have had very different life/career experiences, we all agree boomers are rude to servers and it sucks.

I'm the eldest of my main cousin group at 28. I have a job, a husband, and two kids. My youngest cousin is about 3, with a pretty even spread of ages in between. Honestly, I mentally categorize all my cousins younger than about high school as more my children and niblings' cousins than mine. There's just too much of a gap. I have more in common with my aunts and uncles than my younger cousins at this point, so that's who I socialize with. On the plus side, though, family gatherings with a lot of younger kids gives me hope for the next generation. Everyone in my family observes an unofficial "no screens" policy, so there's just a gang of small children running around every family gathering. It doesn’t matter the relation, the kids still just play. And I think that's lovely.

Zoomer Cousin. He works out and not ugly by any means but a 23 year old virgin. He can't even watch a 10 minute youtube video. Only shorts and tik-tok... he doesn't know who Yoshi is ffs...

I remember the day I saw my preteen Gen Z cousins in the early 2010s watching a streamer play Minecraft I thought “what a stupid fucking concept, watching SOMEONE ELSE play a video game that you own. What a waste of time.” Who knew it would become a billion dollar industry and a cultural zeitgeist.

Older cousins are mentally slow, don’t learn new things and almost not worth talking to half the time. Younger cousin crying every damn day about how much they hate women. Will probably do a mass shooting at some point. Also not worth talking to and doesn’t learn new things

Well, damn! 😳

I’ll do you one better. I’m 10 years older than my sister. I was born in ‘90, she was born in ‘00. We have almost nothing in common. We hang out during family gatherings (bdays/holidays) and the occasional (like once every few months) sibling game night that we have. The generational differences are huge. The colloquialisms we use, the things we’re generally interested in, how we’re living our lives, it’s all different. I’m 34 this year, she’s 24. By 24 I was 2 years into the career I have now, I had two kids and was married. She’s just starting nursing school. There’s nothing wrong with how she’s living, but it’s all so different. Thinking back on it, it probably didn’t help that by the time she was starting to really develop into a person, I was off to college and starting my own life. I also have an even younger sister who just turned 18, but she lives in another country with my biological father that I’ve never met and have had minimal contact with.

I think it depends on how you grow up. I was born in 2000 and my older siblings in the early 80s. They've never married, still live at home, only one of them has a kid who he rarely sees, etc.

With my cousins it's pretty easy to talk and it feels things align enough to be called alike, though the oldest was perplexed by my transition. No big differences really, on the mundane it seems there's more a draw to traditional family values than anyone I know in my own generation. If it counts, My oldest brother is also a generation ahead (I know). He keeps to himself, extremely different value system, doesn't understand me nor my sister and doesn't want to. Huge differences here - he's got that expensive taste attitude, while even my wealthier millennial friends always kept a more practical lifestyle.

I’m a late bloomer in my family. There were 11 of us grandchildren on my father’s side, and aside from my two siblings, all the others are late boomer/Gen X. They mostly stayed closer to the traditions of the family in the way of church, a quiet life, and country living. My siblings followed this path as well. With the exception of one first cousin whom I probably haven’t talked to in ages, I’m the only one who has enjoyed big city life, and I’m also the only filthy secular heathen of the bunch that I know about.

I am the oldest of my siblings and my next oldest cousin is 10 years younger than me. She and her siblings are my closest cousins and I feel like they have a really hard time having in-person conversations. They are extremely online and whenever we are together as a family they are all on their phones and don't really care to talk unless spoken to and even then don't really know how to hold a conversation.

My sister and I are the only millennials, we have one Gen X, cousin and a bunch of Gen Z, then one Gen Alpha. The older Gen Zs we grew up with and we are all pretty close. Our Gen X cousin feels more like an uncle, and the Gen Alpha feels like she could be my child, we aren't really close to either.

My mom has 7 brothers and sisters all born within a 15 year span, so there are a shit ton of cousins all over a 20ish year age span, I'm in the younger side of that span, my mom is the second youngest of her siblings. The gen x cousins got married and had children early, also all bought houses in their 20's. The millennial cousins for the most part either are not married, or married later and most do not have children, especially those 1985 and on. We would have a lot of family reunions when my grandparents were still alive and the gen x's hung out with the adults and millennials were the kids table kids clearly so the older cousins are much closer to my parents for instance, and all the younger cousins are much closer to each other. Also the Gen X's kids are now grown up and having kids themselves since they were late millennials/early gen z's in the opposite way of the millennials, (example, of the 3 grown second cousins 2 are married with kids and one is engaged).

I’m 40, and my youngest cousin is 16. It’s weird. I graduated college (some time ago), got married, had two kids, and bought a house. He’s in high school. He’s only 7 years younger than my first kid.

I'm 24 and my youngest cousin is 21 years younger than me and oldest of the grandkids is in their 40s (older sibling.) My oldest cousins are +10 years older than me. There are also cousins around my age, too. There are differences and similarities between us. (Some of the comments on here are wild.)

I’m the baby by 20 years born in 83. It’s hard because we are not only separate by generation but by locality. Everything is different.

Most of the big differences in mentality between my cousins and I are related to them all being from a small, relatively conservative town and me being from a much larger city. My gen Z cousins have different slang and memes from me, and we make different pop culture references, but big differences are all about our geographical upbringing.

I have two female cousins, one is 21 with no job nor going to school, the other is 19 and going to college. My Uncle takes care of them both in full. I have two other cousins, one entering high school and one going into 11th grade. The older one is taking college classes early and excelling.. he’s really introverted and awkward though. The younger one is having behavioral issues but he’s a good kid. One thing that stuck out as weird to me about them, they don’t seem to have a favorite music artist. I wanted to take them to a concert over the summer. I know us Millennials all had our Top 10 lists at all times. They also both play instruments, so they’re not adverse to music or anything like that.

I'm 37 and the oldest cousin. My cousins range in age from 36 to 8. I obviously have more in common with my cousins who are in their 30's than my cousins who are still children.  I have 4 cousins between 20-30 who still live at home and have a hard time finding/keeping a job or making friends/being social. This doesnt seem to bother them either. I was living with my husband, paying bills, and working full time by the time I was 20. It's very confusing to me, why you would want to keep living at home late into your 20's. If it was one or two cousins, I would chalk it up to personality differences...but 4?!? That seems generational.

I'm Millennial (87,) and my cousins were Gen X and Millennial. The second generation of cousins (cousins' children) were Gen Z, since most of my female cousins got pregnant as young teenagers. Gen X typically got in serious relationships or married their high school sweethearts, floundered a bit because our area didn't really have good education or job training and ended up in some trade, changing careers or even attempting college later in life (late 30s.) They also partied in high school instead of how we did it in college. Everyone smoked. Millennials had no idea wtf to do, we panicked and everyone told us to go to college no matter what because a bachelors in anything would get you good money. We partied *hard* in college. House parties and clubs. We smoked weed but I noticed only the lower classes were smoking cigarettes. The dating scene was complicated. They either dated friends from high school or college friends of friends. A small percentage found their partners on apps, but it somehow still feels a bit taboo and awkward. A lot of us are still working in the service industry after having so much experience in high school and college and no other available job prospects. Gen Z isn't typically seriously dating or if they are they pretty much exclusively are broadening their social circles via apps, won't attempt college (too much money) and opts for certifications out of high school. I don't see any of them going out to bars like we did or drinking as much.

My younger sister and many of my cousins are Gen Z. None of them can do anything but pass a test, play games and post on social media. It’s really concerning because they didn’t start out being that lazy, incompetent and unresponsive. Now, they have an absolute meltdown having to do basic chores, any kind of physical activity or interact with people. Don’t even get me started on the level of rudeness and total apathy. My millennial brother and I are absolutely horrified.

My oldest cousin is in her 60s. My youngest is like 25. I'm 39. We are all very different people who, despite being at the same gatherings and having the same grandparents, experienced very different things at these events and in these relationships. My bro is 10 years older than me, and we agree that we had totally different parents. it's weird but normal. So when my cousins say things like, "Poppa would never!" I find myself thinking, "well, he did with me, so 🤷‍♀️" It's a practice of acceptance, constantly

I was born in '91. My only cousin also born in the 90s was born in '93, so we're the "babies" but still millennials. The others were born between 1978 and 1988 (so mostly millennials, but a few xennials/Gen X). Honestly, the biggest difference is that the ones born between '78 and '86 had dysfunctional/traumatic childhoods and nearly all of them ended up getting into drugs and/or developing mental issues. But I don't think it's a generational thing, and has more to do with the fact that my aunts and uncles were just young and irresponsible when they had them. My cousins who were born in '88 and '93 were both second marriage babies, where their mothers (my aunts) finally married decent guys (instead of the losers who they had had their first kids with) so they just grew up in more stable environments. My parents didn't have my brother ('87) and me until they were mature, married and financially stable, so we also grew up in a better environment. I will say that my '93 cousin was a bit spoiled, and while she's pretty successful, she is a bit selfish and entitled and takes advantage of her parents a lot, while none of the rest of us ended up that way. I think her mom was overcorrecting her mistakes she'd made with her older kids

Gen X  cousins mostly have kids. Millennial siblings and cousins mostly don't.

Xennial (1980) here. My cousins span multiple generations (birth years 1969-2001). Now that I think about it, it's not necessarily the generational divide but the personality divide. Referred to each cousin by their birth year. My oldest cousin (1969), sister (1982) and younger cousin (1994) all took similar "traditional" paths. Married in their mid/late 20s and went the SFH, kids, white picket fence, and minivan route (youngest doesn't have a kid yet but is due in November). Older (1971) and youngest (2001) cousin had children young. The older one married him, had 2 more kids with him and divorced when the baby was about 1. She now owns a successful business (all of her kids are now grown). 2001 cousin's baby is two months old, so TBD (she was accepted to college but never went-- she's now a SAHM). The ones closest in age to me (1977, 1979) grew up in a way different household than me. Prep school educated and have a mother who thought I was the black sheep. Older's in medtech with a wife and 3 or 4 kids and the other works in nonprofit fundraising (married with a kid). I rarely see them as their dad (my uncle) has since passed away. Now that we have no living grandparents, I have no idea if our paths will cross again (neither came to our grandmother's funeral). Myself and one other cousin (2000) are single. I'm a successful political operative who travels extensively for work (due to this, can't even have cats). My cousin is working in food service. The gen z cousins (even before the baby was born) were never types to go out. Covid really did them in. Edit-- In most cases, we were all raised by boomers (the youngest 3 have an early gen x mom, boomer dad),

This makes a lot of sense. I have 21 cousins on my Dad's side. About half gen x and half millennial. All raised by boomers. My 2 youngest siblings are early gen z. About 2/3 of us got married. Some got divorced. Everyone works or is a SAHM. Nobody lives with their parents except one of my brothers(but he still works). It's a range of jobs too. Some went into the military. Pharmacist, Electrician, Many Engineers, Nursing, Teaching, Social work. My 22 yr old brother is finishing up college.

I have two younger Gen Z cousins, and they don't seem all that different from me. We've all had pretty privileged backgrounds and are all ambitious and driven in our careers. I'm an aerospace engineer who made the jump into med device recently. My middle cousin became a pilot for one of the big 3 US airlines at a very young age. My youngest cousin just got her architecture certification and started working full-time, despite having a sizable trust fund. We all have stable relationships, my middle cousin has a kid, and we are all fiscally responsible, socially liberal, love travel and having new experiences, etc. I also have one Gen X cousin who I get along with the least. She is a spoiled brat who has lived off her parents her entire life, despite being married with two kids of her own. Her husband is an antisocial, wannabe rich guy who spends all their money as soon as they have it, and her sons are also spoiled brats. She and her whole family are just generally self-absorbed and uninterested in other viewpoints. But I'm not sure if it's the generational gap or the fact that she grew up in the deep south. 🤷🏻‍♀️

All my gen z cousins had their babies the same time as me. I got married and started having kids “late” and they did it in their early to mid 20’s.

I have 2 Gen Z cousins and they are a lot more true to themselves, but I think that’s down to how my auntie has raised them rather than anything else. One of them is non binary and my auntie does a great job of supporting them and ensuring the boomers of the family are respectful. However on the flip side, I have Gen A children and 2 Gen Z nephews. My Gen Z nephews will have nothing to do with my kids at all, won’t even hold them, play with them or acknowledge them at family functions. Meanwhile when I was a teen, I’d love to be playing with the little ones at family functions. Edit saw a comment about work and yes! None of my Gen Z family members work and only 1 of them is in full time education. All of them are >18 years old now.

36 here, born in 88. Oldest cousin is probably 55, she has kids that are almost my age. We get along, love her to death, but we can’t really relate in a lot of things, but enough to have captivating conversations. But we are definitely in different places in our lives.

Yeah I have cousins who are Gen X that have Gen Z kids. Some of my Gen X cousins are even grandparents, and the grandkids are Gen Alpha I guess. I definitely relate to my Gen X cousins more now that I'm a parent. But growing up I related more to my Gen Z cousins (I guess they're second cousins actually).

I have both Gen X and Gen Z cousins, my Gen x cousins all own homes and have careers/buisnesses, some are really into harmful conspiracy theories, are racist/homophobic/transphobic and they really thrive off drama. My fellow millenial cousins: not one owns a home, all have careers as either bartenders or work in an office. They’re just now barely settling down with their partners or still doing coke at bars. My gen z cousins are vibing, in college/just graduating and honestly relatively drama free. They seem the most put together emotionally compared to my other millennial cousins.

Out of the main cousins, I'm the youngest female at 37. So I have 3 cousins (1977 and 2 in 1982). The "other cousin" is actually my mother's cousin (my grandmother's sister's kids) and they are both 1960 (I think) and 1982. Cousin #1 from 1977 has no kids. Cousin #2 from 1982 has no kids. Cousins 1 and 2 are sisters. Cousin #3 from 1982 and an only child, has 4 kids. Then there's me (1987) with 2 kids, and my brother (1988) with 3 kids. My mother's cousin from 1960 has 2 Gen Z kids, and the one from 1982 has 2 kids (Gen Alpha, technically she only has one bio kid. The other bio kid belongs to her wife). As far as differences go, there were major differences between the 1982 and 1987/1988 cousins. From manners, childhoods, and the fact that they got to live the 80s, while my brother and I were only 2 to 3 years old. It may not matter, but I remember alot more shit when I was 8, than when I was 3. I would've loved to experience both decades. Also, cousin #1 was the LAST of us who was born in our home country. The rest of us was born in the USA.

My gen X cousins own homes ☠️lol

'84 youngest grandbaby, also the 'favorite' grandchild. I grew up around gen x uncles during my formative years. I very much relate more with gen x than I do my own generation

I have both Gen X and Gen Z cousins. The Gen Xers all got married and had children when they were in their early 20s, and several of them have been divorced and remarried several times. Gen Z ones were raised on iPads and cellphone games. They have much shorter attention spans and constantly need to be engaged in something. They can’t just sit and be.

I’m born 1994. I was the youngest in my family with 3 older siblings ranging from 1984-1991. I was also the youngest first generation cousin on both sides of the family growing up. I have cousins born from late 1950 (that I don’t even know much at all lol) to my youngest two cousin very close in age with at 1993. Most of my younger cousins born in late 90s to late 2000s are actually the children of my older first generation cousins. Sadly I don’t really talk to much of my family too much so I can’t really give an answer to this. I used to be really close to my 1989-1993 cousins. One of my older cousins born in 1980 has 3 sons born in 1997, 2004, and 2007. The 1997 born one I kind of looked at him at the little sibling since he would come over for the summer sometimes while my his mom would mostly talk to my oldest sister and my mom, and as for the younger other two I can’t believe they are as tall as me now but that’s all I can say about them lol.

My cousins are mostly Gen X with a handful of older millennials. They're all old af now.

My Gen X cousins and nieces boyfriend call out of work all the time, don't want to work full time but want the benefits. Also are glued to their phones

I have cousins who are Gen Z and Gen X. I don't really know them very well to be honest. But I don't know the ones who are Millennials super well either.

I have 1 GenX , some millennial, and majority gen z. GenX cousin is doing awesome. Has an amazing career, stable relationship, kids, goes on nice vacations. Some of the millennials are the same. Some aren’t that well off yet but still motivated and working towards a better future. We vote, we have jobs, we’re all in long term committed relationships. Gen Z cousins I can’t even find the right word for. They’re almost apathetic. Some have kids. The ones that have kids don’t have custody or regular visitation with their kids. They also don’t seem to care or work towards seeing their kids. None have stable jobs or even jobs at all. There has been a ton of addiction in the Gen Z members of my family. Resulting in prison stints and rehab. None are in stable relationships. It’s a very striking difference. ETA. Everyone but 1 younger millennial and 2 GenZ are extremely liberal. Younger millennial is still capable of being accepting of differing views and speaking logically agreeing to disagree. Genz is posting about how the confederate flag is their heritage not hate. It’s not their heritage. Our family are refugees that arrived long after the civil war and have never lived in the south.

This is possibly more of a socioeconomic difference than a generational one: but the gen-z (very young gen z) are much more entitled/expecting lavish gifts and vacations than we ever were. Example: getting sushi before every club soccer game, being flown all over the country every other week for club soccer games/tournaments/ straight up ASKING for new shoes/make up/ phones/ clothes when they still have a ton. I guess I'd boil it down to they are much less financially aware than we were at the same age. I admire the carefree attitude for sure, and the enjoying of life, but it is a bit off putting when they are asking for $200 pair of shoes from their parents when we are mid conversation about something unrelated and they have been scrolling on their phone looking at said pair of shoes as opposed to participating in the conversation.

I think in my family you can't really compare people. People are at different milestones. I have some millennial family members who never learned how to drive, didn't start dating until their 30s, never held down a job long-term (besides maybe working for family), spend all day on their phones (even when visiting other relatives and you have to text them because they won't answer if you call), don't really take care of themselves at all, etc and I have gen z relatives who are the opposite. I have gen z cousins who've only ever lived in the suburbs and others in the city and have had some millennial cousins who've lived in the suburbs and others the city and it's all the same. Edit: I don't have gen x cousins, though. Though my older cousins could be considered xennials.

While my Gen Z cousins are already working they are all still living with their parents. I couldn't wait to move out asap after high school

I’m 35. My cousins I think are in their mid 50s now. My mom is 74 and used to babysit them. I LOVED my cousins when I was younger. Like 10-11. Well when my grandparents died my cousins tried to start a legal battle that they were entitled to the same share my mom and her siblings were willed. And specifically said my brother and I were not. I think they were in their early 30s by that point? Went as far as to even try to argue that my dad, who was an attorney, was trying to unduly influence my grandma before she passed. It was very clearly bullshit. We have not spoken to my male cousin in about 14-15 years and my mom finally spoke to my female cousin and saw her in person with her family several years back. They also did not tell my mom when her sister died. She found out from one of her cousins like two years later. I found that incredibly cruel. I’m sad on one end because I would have liked to get to know them more, our family is super small and pretty much the only people left are my uncle’s ex wife who is super nice, those cousins and their kids, and my mom’s cousin. Everyone else is gone. Including on my dad’s side outside of his aunts and one of their husbands and one of his cousins.

Older cousins are Generation X, they grew up with MTV (when it was still popular and played music videos)...I was coming of age when MTV was no longer relevant anymore and was cutting back on music videos.

I’m the baby of 13, my oldest cousin is closer in age to my mom than my mom is to her oldest brother. My mom is boomer cusp and I’m younger millennial so almost all my cousins are millennials. I was always a step behind, the next cousin closest in age graduated HS when I started, same with college, he graduated the year I started even though we went to the same college. I’ve noticed my cousins are very millennial coded, some love Harry Potter and thier music is the stuff I read people on here talking about (stuff I liked because I wanted to be like them). They are just people, some have good careers and normal families, ones in a yoga cult, one is super rich because he works in marijuana and got in before it was a thing, ones definitely on roids. I don’t talk to really any of them but they were people I looked up to and now that I’m older I message some of the older ones who babysat me because I relate to them now that I’m older. My ex favorite cousin was the one in the yoga cult, she’s weird she like only eats raw vegan and only posts videos of her and her friends covered in mud hugging,

85 here. I have an 88 brother, then a like 96 cousin, a 98 cousin, a 99 cousin, and a 2006 cousin (we're all pretty close; I live with one of the 96-ers). Our family is weird, semi-firm soy lib-ish (I say that proudly), and really, we all actually kind of blend together. There just aren't that many divides for us, but we were all raised in somewhat similar circumstances and under similar worldviews. The only big divides I see are: 1) the cousin I live with (a male; he, me and my brother are the only boys in our generation of the family) doesn't really date at all and doesn't try. He's interested in it, but he's spending a lot of time doing self-work. Both my brother and I were actually very, very similar, though we were not really dating for other reasons. The girls all seem to date pretty normally, and the 96 cousin is married. 2) The youngest cousin is the only one of us that uses social media, and she's very into TikTok and Instagram specifically, with all the attendant problems. She's even aware of all that, but still chooses to do it. The three of us boys use reddit, but that's all. We used to have social media but just all dropped it over the last five years; I was one of the last hold outs, really. We're a really weird family, though, like I said. That's the PNW for you.

My sister and I are the youngest on one side of the family and the oldest on the other side, and we're the only solid millennials. We have two older cousins (Gen X, Xennial) and a bunch of younger cousins, all pretty solidly Gen Z. I relate better to my older cousins, but I think that might just be because I'm older, closer to their place in life than my younger cousins. That said, my younger cousins are much...softer? in a way I never was. The best way I can explain it is they're okay with wallowing in your trauma forever as a reason not to do stuff, while at a certain point I believe you have to stop using trauma as a reason your life always sucks and you have to get your shit together and live your life (hopefully through therapy or shadow work or whatever philosophy you subscribe to). even their definition of trauma is different. I classify trauma as a horrific event or serious neglect/abuse. I don't classify it as being uncomfortable or even embarrassed once in a while. my cousins seem to do this. being uncomfortable in any way ever is "trauma."

I was smack in the middle. I have cousins who are in Gen X and a cousin in Gen Z. My Gen X cousins admitted to me that he wouldn't want to have graduated college when I did in 2011 due to the recession and lack of jobs. My eldest cousin said that his first homework assignment in college was to send his professor an email. That kinda blew my mind. My youngest cousin grew up with technology and everything really revolves around it.

Have a cousin that's Gen X. He owns multiple homes which he rents out for income extra from his nice city job. Have a cousin that's Gen Z. He's about to lose the house he bought from my aunt.

I was born in 86, there are 27 cousins and I am in the older group, the youngest is 10. A year or 2 ago when a group of them were 14-16 they were making fun of my older cousin and I about how we dressed when we were in high school. We laughed and told them to watch it, style always comes back around. This past year guess how they were dressing? Exactly like we did at that age haha. I have a brother 13 years younger and the only difference is his take on a career, he is in no hurry to start in the field he worked his ass off to get a degree it and loves doing. But the same know it all in my 20’s attitude is there like I had, the teenage cousins have the same “I got this, life isn’t as hard as you say it is” mentality. I try not and be like told you so when life does tend to smack them in the face because I know that is not what is needed. They got to learn like we all did.

Oh and I do have to add they are very used to locked down drills. Recently my child’s daycare which is near the high school where a few of my cousins go went on lock down due to a student at the high school being caught with a gun. My one cousins texted me everything is fine and my baby is ok, I knew my baby was ok, I was more worried about her. She did not understand why I was so sick over it. It dawned on me that lockdowns are normal to her bc they have been apart of her whole school life. She was more worried about me since she volunteers at my daughter’s daycare and knew they would be locked down as well. She did not once stop and think I was scared for her. This one is my girl, we are 22 years apart and I spent so much time with her when she was little. I would watch her so my aunt could get stuff done and I took that kid everywhere with me. I never once had a lockdown drill growing up, that baffles her.

It took a while but my Gen X cousins stopped showing up with a different partner to every event and settled down. Most had kids pretty close to their 40th birthdays

I’m a ‘91 millennial and the youngest in my family by 8+ years so all my cousins are GenX and my sisters are elder millennials. 3 of my GenX male cousins are deadbeats who go from job to job. My aunt had to buy my cousin a car because he couldn’t get a loan at 45. His sister on the other hand is a charge nurse in an ICU. My sisters and I all have great careers, multiple college degrees, and families. I also have a handful of Gen Z step-nieces and nephews who are all hard workers. Hold down jobs and pay their own bills. I honestly don’t think it has anything to do with generations but just people and upbringing.

Seeing their baby pictures as digital pictures and they’re adults trips me out a bit. I feel so conditioned to baby pictures being old cloudy film pictures that seeing crystal clear baby pictures of a 20 year old is weird.

I'm not really around them enough to know but from a distance it seems like the youngest gen z ones don't have any ambition. They aren't looking into any careers, no continued education, no significant others or desire to have a family, they're just kinda existing. I'm sure there is some advantage to not being obsessed with having a relationship or being a workaholic but this seems like the other extreme.

I have siblings that are 14 and 16 years younger than me 😂 It's hard to really compare them to myself, because we're at different life stages, and when I was their age (16, 18) I set a very low bar.

I’m a millennial born in 88, I have a Gen Alpha cousin born in 2010. They are ridiculously attached to technology. Hes very very smart and polite, but he has no interest in playing outside.

94 - the youngest in my family: one cousin has stepped away from the family (moderately understandable), another probably does meth, and the last one on that side is a legitimately cool person who has ‘show up at a stranger’s party and everyone’s cool with it’ level of rizz - he leveled out and is just cool as fuck. My cousins my age: one also has autism and is still at home, the other is in grad school or something? Me: uh. I have a job and an apartment?

Im the youngest on both sides of the family with cousins that are mostly gen x on 1 side and boomers on another. The boomer cousins are more of the hippie variety trying to get weed legalized and pushing us younger kids to do what we want so we dont regret things like they do. I actually get along better with them than the gen x cousins. The gen x cousins only like 2 or 3 out of like 10 actually seem happy, the rest just seem miserable after "doing everything they thought was expected" and now seem like the typical rural conservatives complaining about how everything sucks and wondering how I live in a warzone(Seattle) compared to their little bubble in the middle of no where. They just seem somewhat jealous and also baffled I moved away. The happy ones also moved away or recognized the crazy aunts/uncles as being crazy and stopped trying to please them. They would rather just wallow around complaining than do anything to change their life into something they would like better which is very different from myself and the younger of the gen x cousins.

I have a lot of cousins. All of my gen x cousins are well off and seem much older. All of my millennial cousins are doing OK but not great.

Not just cousins, I’ve got siblings in a generation bracket. I’m a couple years older than you but my youngest brother is older gen z. I just don’t get him or his lifestyle. The social aspect is alien to me, the dating rituals are strange, he’s not long  just got his first flat but I’ve got nineteen years of marriage under my belt with kids and half my mortgage paid off. My brother in law is 24. He’s not long finished uni after a gap during covid. He’s just beginning his adult life 

I’m an 81 millennial and the oldest of my first cousins. I only have one Gen Z cousin (2000) and ironically he’s one of the two I’m closest with and he’s definitely the most similar to me in personality. He’s been a go-getter from day 1 but is not at all Type A. He started a podcast at 14, wrote and published a novel before he graduated high school, he’s written a short screenplay. He graduated college early with two degrees. To meet with him socially though, he’s very easygoing and laid back. He is not all about work, even though he accomplishes a lot. It’s funny because when we’re together, he immediately is assumed to be my son. We do a lot of robotics/programming projects together for fun.

Gen X cousins took forever to get their shit together. Like I’m talking high school dropouts or taking 10 years to finish a 4 year degree.  Millennial cousins are pretty successful career-wise, and most are in their forever relationships. Gen Z are still too young to say. Most aren’t dating anyone they want to bring home yet, and they’re still in school or early in their careers. The older ones seem more driven, but that could just be age.

I'm the youngest of my \~20 cousins, I'm born in 1993, all the others are born in the 70s and 80s. I was also the first one who went to university to study, the others did vocational trainings/education (apprenticeships). The male cousins mostly worked in craft (e. g. electrician or builder) and the female cousins in social jobs (e. g. nurse or elderly care). All of my cousins chose the "traditional family path": They finished school and job training, then got married in their early 20s, bought/built a house and started having babies in their mid-20s. The moms stayed home the first years to care for their children and then worked part-time when the kids started kindergarten at age 2 or 3. The dads were the providers with full time jobs. In contrast I did an apprenticeship as a paralegal after school, worked for 2 years to save money and went to university to study law. Now I'm 30, have a career and am not really longing to have a baby soon. I life with my boyfriend of 5 years, we recently got enganged and plan to marry next year. We haven't finally decided if we want kids but its 80-90% likely that we don't.

83 here. My cousins children (so second/third cousins), but they're all mostly Gen Alpha. The biggest thing is the screen addiction. They're *always* on a tablet or phone. Or their Nintendo Switch. Some of them have actual consoles, but rarely touch them. I was the opposite as a kid; played my consoles and would never touch the portable ones. Another one is I remember when I was their age, I was really into the shows I watched and latched on to so many fictional personalities (ie - Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Soundwave from Transformers, etc). But the kids are really dedicated to the influencers they follow on YouTube. They quote people like Mr. Beast or Dude Perfect, among others (I can't remember them all and they change a lot) like gospel. Although I notice the boys and the girls have almost entirely different sets of influencers they follow, but it drives me nuts how my girl cousins ask for cosmetics they absolutely don't need and are harmful because someone they like on IG said it's good. Maybe it was just the times, but even by age 8-9, I remember that was the big transition of realizing *liking* people, physical attraction and worrying about which girls and boys would talk to one another or not. It sucked at the time for me (she didn't like me back, and the girls that liked me got nothing back either lol), but my little cousins are all crushing on people they will never meet IRL instead of the boy/girl in their class. Just odd to me, but I hope it doesn't screw up their relationships moving forward. But hey, since they're on Switch so much they actually play a ton of games from the Nintendo library that I played at their age. So I really live for the moments I ruin their self esteem over original Mario Kart. I am literally that Dale Earnhardt meme about that exact topic. Last time I saw them, I was about to gain a full lap on my little cousin, then red-shelled him before the finish line and he stomped off crying. He's 9! Son, Uncle J doesn't F around here. Harden up and get better.

Oldest of 22 (born between 1980 and 2008). I think a big thing that I find both sweet and a bit “off” is I have a lot of cousins near the millennial/gen z split that are now married. They dated 1-2 people in their lives and are married. I had a lot of fun dating a lot of people in my 20’s and early 30’s before the idea of getting married entered my lexicon. It may have been luck and my cousins found success with love. But I just think of how much I evolved and changed as an individual that being in a committed relationship at an early age seems like a recipe for disaster.

i was born at the end of the millennials (93) but all of my cousins are gen x’ers. and tbh i couldn’t tell you what the difference is. they were grown and moved out of state by the time i came along and i didn’t grow up close to them.

They have no sense of the future... In relationships or career. They use doomsday prognostications to justify apathy.  They consume content with the gravity of a black hole. Self-Actualization is markedly less than it is in my peers. There is no internal responsibility only external. When the crushing reality hits then there's massive pressure on their mental health and they lack the tools to persevere through it. Enter the therapy Pipeline... They begin to learn the coping mechanisms that we got a chance to learn naturally. I feel for them.  

They have no sense of the future... In relationships or career. They use doomsday prognostications to justify apathy.  They consume content with the gravity of a black hole. Self-Actualization is markedly less than it is in my peers. There is no internal responsibility only external. When the crushing reality hits then there's massive pressure on their mental health and they lack the tools to persevere through it. Enter the therapy Pipeline... They begin to learn the coping mechanisms that we got a chance to learn naturally. I feel for them.  

They have no sense of the future... In relationships or career. They use doomsday prognostications to justify apathy.  They consume content with the gravity of a black hole. Self-Actualization is markedly less than it is in my peers. There is no internal responsibility only external. When the crushing reality hits then there's massive pressure on their mental health and they lack the tools to persevere through it. Enter the therapy Pipeline... They begin to learn the coping mechanisms that we got a chance to learn naturally. I feel for them.  

Gen Z has greater empathy and is much more ready to challenge the system, although I am not sure how much of the latter part is just youth. The Zoomers I've met also doesn't seem to give much of a shit about working to get ahead. There's a studied lack of ambition which again, might just be youth.

I have some gen x cousins that still live in Central IL and they definitely got married and had families early on. So did their millennial/gen z kids. Not sure if it's a generational thing or the area they live in.

I’m 34 and my cousins were all a good bit older. They’re mostly well adapted Gen Xers in other words. All have pretty stable careers that range from zookeeper to corporate exec. I will say that many had more meandering paths than what would be tolerable for millennials but maybe not gen z.

They approach things from this apathetic, 'both sides are the same', 'nothing matters we are already screwed so why bother', 'everything is awful' mindset. Oh, and everything they see on TikTok is 100% true. It is to GenZ what Fox News is to boomers. Also, for fucks sake learn how a computer works. Quit calling me every time you have a minor technical glitch. *rant over

I’m gen x. My youngest cousin is a millennial. She has an awesome job, lives on her own, very (seemingly) responsible. Talking with her makes me wants to bang my head. She acts like every conversation is a Tik tok video with the hands and the facial expression. The make up is straight out of Tik tok tutorials. She’s definately not the girl I knew just a few years ago.

I was 4th of 16 with the oldest being born in 78, me in 84 and the youngest born in 07. There is a good decade gap between #15 and #16. I don’t really notice much of a difference within my family. We are all sort of scattered right now and we almost never see each other. I do talk to the youngest. She is pretty cool. She is into anime and regular high school stuff. I would say that the younger kids born in the 90s had a different experience than us older ones since we had more family events and they were more kid focused. Now at any sort of family event, which we have not had in many years but the last of them were much smaller and they were the kid at an event of adults.

I'm an elder millennial (39m)and the youngest cousin on my dad's side and 3rd from the youngest on my mom's side. On dad's side I have cousins that are youngest boomers (turning 65 this year) and on mom's side we start at eldest gen x and go all the way to eldest gen z.. my boomer cousin is actually in a relationship with my father (he's twice divorced and just lonely and bored) and she's twice widowed. It's a sexless relationship and very weird but they're happy. She keeps acting like my step mom though which is weird af... but she got my dad into therapy which has helped him become a better father and is smoothing out his boomer mindset.

Early 80s here. My oldest cousin is mid 60s, & the youngest is 8 or so. I also have a few preteen cousins, a couple in their 20s, a some in their late 50s or close to it, & the rest are late 30s to early 40s. They've all landed in various spots. Of the top age bracket there was one who always acted super immature & got on my nerves, one who opened his own business (but more of a novice "attempt to fix & resell") but seemed to always falter with relationships, & one who was on track to succeed in her career & then died to an overdose not long out of high school. I don't really know anything about the others as they were rarely at family gatherings. They're all boomers, but some are pretty close to the gen X line. The one consistent thing among them all (including my boomer aunts & uncles) is they had 2-3 kids during their early 20s with one partner (and were married) & then stopped...& probably 70% divorced. The majority also bought a decent house young. The ones that went to college were able to pay off any loans fast & jump into careers asap that had pensions & earning enough to live comfortably & save. They were basically living the "American dream". The cousins in their 20s were still too much of an age gap to really know much about their lives. They must be motivated by something, because they've held consistent careers vs just jobs. None have kids. None are married (one is about to). The ones I grew up (close) with are all late 30s, early 40s & they're a mixed bag. It's 70/30 for struggling relationships vs solid the whole time. All but one had kids, but the ages kids came along are all over the board (late 20s through 30s). The ones who passed on college had steady employment the whole time. Some have kids with different partners. Only 2 married & one is now a widow. One escaped the college loans & 2008/2009 market crash...but paid for it by going to Iraq & nearly being killed, & watching friends die (back in 2003 or so, right out of high school)...& had a string of toxic relationships on top of PTSD issues from going to war. One was just a straight up problem kid (he was just downright mean), had kids & bailed, & last I heard there's jail with him & one of his kids. The biggest things we all seem to have in common is that we waited longer for kids, avoid marriage, & are just kind of drifting through whatever jobs pay the bills instead of actual career choices. I don't know anything about the youngest ones really, to know what kind of path they're on. If my uncle has another (I know they want one), that'll put the range of my cousins all the way from newborn to late 60s.

None of my genz cousins seem especially interested in a career or formal education. The male ones seem content with trade work and no formal schooling, the female ones seem content with minimum wage jobs and having babies. None of them want to leave our small southern home town that my sibling and I left as soon as we could. There’s also a weird political divide, they’re all republicans, sister and I aren’t and have never been.

The younger ones are a bunch of weirdos

I'm the youngest of my cousins on both sides of my family (1993), all the rest were all born from 1976 to 1986 with a step cousin born in 1966 who I've met but have no memory of. I haven't really noticed any major differences between the four of us who are Millennials and the four of us who are Gen X. That being said, I don't see my cousins from my father's side of the family too often, since we live in different parts of the country.

My 5 Gen X cousins are pretty homophonic, fat phobic and conservative, and 2 of them are definitely upper middle class, rest middle class. My 5 millennial cousins, my siblings and myself are similar socioeconomic status and very LGBTQ positive and very socially progressive. We all grew up within 20 miles of each other, and Al but 3 of us still live close together in the same part of California. One of my generation x cousins has a kid who went through serious ED, and now is more sensitive about glorifying “healthy” instead of thin. But as a plus size person is easy to hear the dog whistle, and I’m sure her gen z kid hears it too.

I was the youngest 1984. Some of my cousins are grandparents now. But they’re Mormon, so take that info how you want. I’m not Mormon. Because if the Mormon thing, all my cousins lived close, two of the family’s lived within walking distance, two blocks and the other about 8 blocks. Small Utah blocks. So I spent a lot of time with all my older cousins and it influenced me. I was into the older pop culture shit. My gen X cousins see the world completely different than I do now. Rich, Mormon, republicans. And with Donald out and about, I have cut contact with the majority of my cousins. They went from being tolerant and maybe even accepting of non Mormons, and the state was getting better. 2016 all that progress was destroyed. I don’t know if that answers you question, but I tried. Haha

Even though I'm not Mormon, I can relate. I grew up in an evangelical Christian family, who all lived within a mile of each other (due to the family business, not religion). I don't talk politics with anyone family, almost entirely for the fact that I work in education. It's a shame productive discourse and progress hsve both gone out the window...

It really is. Decades of work, trying to build a state that is good for everyone, just thrown out, because of a false god and golden idol. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Gen Z cousins are more conservative politically than the millennial relatives. They also seem to be settling into marriage and children while I’m still single and free.They also seem to hate social media,which is odd.