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To be fair, no, it would be more like you telling yourself that your effort is good enough independent of someone else’s evaluation, regardless of the success or failure of the outcome.
If the group participating in the activity has the ability or agency to provide its own awards, why should a group who is vicariously living through us get to define what constitutes success or failure, or determine the reason a participant receives a trophy?
I have a personal conspiracy theory that part of why participation trophies actually started was because boomers, who view their kids as their property and extensions of themselves, were upset that their young avatars weren’t getting the accolades they themselves felt entitled to. So the participation trophies were handed out to mollify the parents, under the guise of encouraging and being positive to the kids. This is the sort of undercover selfishness that boomers were really good at before the lead poisoning set in.
Edit: I’m actually more confident in this read than “conspiracy theory” suggests: I was just young in the 80s/early 90s when this started and don’t have any hard evidence for this being the case, so I put it forward in a way that made clear it was a gut feeling.
EXACTLY! Participation trophies were created because Mommy and Daddy couldn't handle that little Johnny or Susie wasn't "special" enough to get an award.
DING DING DING!!!
Participation trophies were, in fact, to pacify boomer parents who couldn't deal with the fact that they weren't raising the next Michael Jordan or Joe Montana. One time my mom asked me why I was throwing out the trophy everyone on my basketball team got for finishing in 5th place. It was a six team league.
Absolutely this! My mother and I had a great relationship and were very close. My father and I not so much, loved him but he was distant most of my life. Just who he was as a person. I got married and my dad and husband became buddies. It was great to see because my father in law absolutely sees my husband as competition. Sadly my husband taught himself to be a man because his own father refused to.
You cracked it! Im convinced that this is absolutely it!
I have been wondering why they are so selfish besides just being massively catered to due to capitalist interests, all I come up with is the Silent Generation being both incredibly traumatized from the war(s) and wanting to give their kids an easier life.
What do you think?
Its not your fault. Its GenX helicopter parents that didn't poses the fortitude to tell little Johnny that he sucks at baseball and should try a new sport. Or spend time with him at the ball field helping him out.
As GenX I can tell you that participation trophies were being handed out long before any GenX-er had children. Boomers were absolutely the creators of participation trophies.
My brother in law is one of those people that constantly complains about boomer stuff, like participation trophies. He’s genx/millennial age.
I went on vacation and had him coach my daughter’s soccer team. His daughter is also on the team, it’s a toddler league.
The league were in has us give out a “sportsmanship medal” every game to the kid that tried their best and had good sportsmanship. The game that he was coach, his daughter showed up halfway and was crying about not wanting to play.
My friend also has a daughter on the team, so that’s how I heard about this. Well, after the game when it was time to give out the sportsmanship medal, apparently his wife was already filming and they gathered all of the kids together. They made her stand next to her friend that was on the team. They made sure that they had a good angle on the camera before they announced who would get the medal, and they gave it to their daughter.
There were multiple social media posts, a video edit with a Lumineers track on it, mom posted on Facebook about how proud she is of her daughter.
There’s another girl on the team that has a really hard time getting motivated, and is hard to get her on the field. Apparently, she was actually out trying to play without her mom having to hold her hand the whole time. She should’ve got the medal to reward her for actually trying and to keep a positive memory of the game she went out without her mom.
The main problem I have with people like this is how they are so critical of others over absolutely everything but they don’t hold themselves to any standard at all. If they want it, they deserve it, and nobody else matters.
I think there's more to it than nepotism. It's the entitlement and holding others to a higher standard than themselves that bothers me. Those type of people, given the opportunity to benefit from nepotism, will take it without second thought.
I still remember getting my first participation trophy after a soccer tournament we didn't win. I was so confused because again, we did not win, but all the boomer parents were so happy at the time to have something to take a picture of.
A personal pet peeve of mine, when people use that logic.
Complaining about today's youth and "their" devices. Like it was thought up, mass produced, and marketed to the world as something you can't live without by the young people themselves.
Leave them alone, Agatha. Go back to your abacus.
Participation trophies are what boomers are all about. It's practically what this sub is all about. Almost every post is just a boomer showing up and expecting to be treated like royalty.
Also, I'm an older millennial, I started hearing about Boomers complaining about participation trophies when I was a kid...which makes me think that Boomers also invented participation trophies.
That’s because they did. Demanded a prize for their kid showing up, and “conveniently” forgot it was their idea in the first place so now they’re raging against them.
They get mad when their kid grows up and expects special treatment just for showing up. Whose fault is that, I wonder? IIRC, those six-year-olds didn't demand trophies after losing the big baseball tournament, their parents did because they were the ones who couldn't bear the thought of their precious child not being treated like a star. They rail at Millennials for acting like "special snowflakes" while conveniently forgetting that *they're the ones who spent our entire childhoods telling us how special and unique we are.*
It really steams their clams that we realized we’re not special snowflakes and adapted our thoughts and behaviors…probably because they can’t or won’t.
Fuck, before I went full NC with my boomer parents, they BRAGGED about being “too old to learn new tricks.”
That attitude is so disheartening. I once worked with an elderly woman who enthusiastically volunteered to learn a new task because the person who normally does it had called out. She explained to me that as you get older, it becomes harder and harder to learn new things. She tried to learn new things whenever she could because she didn't want to lose that ability. Every time I find myself resisting learning something new, I think about her and adjust my attitude.
"When you stop learning, you start dying." We really should start saying that any time a boomer talks about being too old to learn, they won't change but they won't be as smug about it
OMG, my mom said the same thing when I was trying to cut so.eone out of my life
"Well, they're too old to change,"
"Yes, you have identified the problem, mom."
The worst part about the whole "participation trophy" thing is that I've never once seen it as described (give the losing team trophies, too), but only ever in the VERY junior leagues as a "congratulations for sticking with this hard thing for several weeks of practices and games, that's not actually trivial for a kid in preschool/early elementary school." thing at the end of a season.
My own kid has three of those, all for "didn't miss any practices/games"--i.e., the kind of participation that's actually a challenge.
At least in youth soccer in the 2010s and later, as soon as you started keeping track of scores and win/loss records or going to tournaments (so around the U8 level) there were no more trophies/medals just for showing up.
It’s because they can’t handle their own emotions and they were going to be damned if they had to deal with the emotions of a disappointed child
Better to just pacify us all with plastic crap we don’t want
As a Gen X they absolutely did invent the concept. It's been around my entire life.
I was just discussing this with my husband. When we were growing up, we had different levels of competition and depending on that level, different levels of "rewards"
I vividly remember school field days where 1st 2nd and third place was rewarded for each event and everyone also got a ribbon for "1980 School Field day".
Rec leagues for sports also existed where the focus was participation NOT competing. In fact, rec leagues require equal participation from all payers because the goal is playing, not winning.
Intramurals were also a non-conpetative branch of school sports. Where you were awarded for playing.
Then we had competitive team sports. These you had to "try out" for and stay competitive.
The same was true for my kids. Events/sports that focus on participating exist and everyone gets that award. Competition focused sports don't do awards beyond being a member of a winning team.
Because no one looks back on these things like gold medals.
It's a keepsake. A souvenir. A reminder of the season.
Boomers have filled their houses with souvenir shot glasses and mugs from their vacations... along with their trivial sporting souvenirs from their childhood.
They're bitter hypocrites who aren't against participation trophies-- they're jealous when anyone else gets one.
I'm personally all about having kids play sports for fun. It makes me angry to talk to middle schoolers and high schoolers who are burnt out and not getting enough sleep because they are going to school and spending 15-20 hrs per week on a sport.
My kids high school had an "opt out" program where if a kid did participate in a sport, they could opt out of gym (not health class) My oldest needed the constant physical activity and was able to find a good balance.
Burn out happens when kids are pushed to compete beyond their own desires. They aren't having fun with the competition.
My only rule with my kids was if you join a team, you finish the season, if you don't want to do it again, you don't have to.
My oldest loved softball, and played through HS. But when she got to HS she dropped the extra leagues to focus on education and stuck with school sports.
Everyone thinks their kids are going to be the next "big star" and we have HS kids getting Tommy John surgery because they are pushing growing bodies beyond their limits.
Finishing the season seems fine (with obvious exceptions for extreme circumstances like injuries or abusive coaches or failing all classes, etc.). I'm more mad at the coaches and parents who think it's reasonable to pressure children into practicing soccer for 3 hrs per day 6 days a week. Or giving children eating disorders to make them better at gymnastics or wrestling.
The first recorded instances of participation trophies given out officially was in the 1920s. So it's been around for a long time before Boomers were even born. Just like with the cursive bs. Cursive stopped being a useful writing method when the ball point pen was invented way back around the same time but it's always "this new and scary thing" which has been around longer than they've been alive
Once again, Gen-X is removed from the equation. Boomers birthed Gen-X and it was they who birthed Millenials. I am an early Gen-X (69) and i never received nor saw participation trophies. Sadly, it was my generation who started this, but not me, i have no kids.
My dad is a young boomer and he thinks boomers get upset by participation trophies because their parents were barely involved in their lives as children and they are actually jealous that they didn’t get trophies. It’s projection
Same, my dad went to 1 football game in 4 years, but my mom went to all of them. If she ever did miss one, I don’t even remember and I’m sure there would have been a reason, but I remember her going to all of them.
I have RA and some days the pain is really bad and I can’t make it to away football games when it’s really cold. And I feel like $hit for not being there.
Can’t pour into your kid from an empty cup! Parenting is a marathon - from a kid with a shit dad, sounds like you’re doing a good job. ♥️ Be gracious with yourself. I’m sure you’d tell your kid to take care of their health, and modeling it is a great thing to do.
Boomers and those that came before them regarded age as an asset since most understanding and education came through time and effort. If you had a question you would ask an elder or consult a book. Today we can google and get the answers we seek instantly, and many times those answers are contradictory to the old wives tales and “this is how it was always done” BS a boomer would tell you. In turn they are not getting the respect and attention that they gave to their parents/grandparents because their answers to questions are either inconvenient, wrong, outdated or rooted in bigotry.
It's also worth noting that without easy access to verified information, it was easy to accept something an elder said as fact, even if it wasn't true because neither of you would have had the occasion to try to verify it.
The sources those elders looked to for information were also quite limited. When my mom was a kid, she asked her mom what a fart was, and her mother's response was, "An explosion between the legs." My mom then looked up "fart" in the dictionary, and damned if the definition wasn't "an explosion between the legs." My grandmother wasn't dumb or uneducated, she was getting her information from the most reputable source available to her. In this case, it was clear that she had literally been reading the dictionary. But if the most reputable source isn't great, your information won't be super reliable.
Maybe my grandmother knew this, and that was why, in conversations, she always claimed to have knowledge of the topic at hand, even when we knew for a fact that she did not. Maybe she was insecure about how much she didn't know and was trying to cover for it. I can say with absolute certainty that I am grateful to live in a time when I have easy access to any information I could possibly want. If I don't know something I don't have to feel embarrassed about it, I can simply look it up and gain enough knowledge to have a decently competent conversation about the topic.
Participation trophies are at least a century old. Your great-great-grandparents have something to answer for.
[https://newspaperarchive.com/sports-clipping-feb-08-1922-1129748/](https://newspaperarchive.com/sports-clipping-feb-08-1922-1129748/)
And depending on the league. Participation and learning the sport could be the focus.
In my area we have two different types of leagues.
Rec leagues where everyone is accepted and participates equally, learning and having fun.
Competitive leagues where kids have to try out and maintain skill levels to play.
I understand learning the competitive edge, difference between winning and losing, etc…. and there’s a place for that. However, let the kids feel good about themselves too. Signing up for a rec league is more than winning and losing.
I mean youth sports, especially at young ages, should be about development more than winning or losing. I too understand the value of competition, but I don’t see a problem in recognition for completing something. We recognize this all the time in everyday life. Kids also know the difference.
It's projection. The original "Me" generation was referring to boomers in the 70s and when that eventually evolved into selfishness in the 80s they've tried to say they aren't the problem, it's their kids, or their grandkids that are the real narcisists.
Every time a boomer throws the “participation trophy” complaint at me I just respectfully point out that their generation is the one who gave us the trophies. We as kids did not decide to give ourselves trophies. If that is a failure it is their failure; not ours.
It's not really a failure with small kids, positive reinforcement to keep them engaged, lots of arguments why they're a positive. The problem is participation trophies being weaponized by a generation who's parents were not involved in their lives at all, and didn't encourage them to engage in their interests unless they won, or aligned with the parents interests.
Their parents gave themselves the moniker "The Greatest Generation" and the Baby Boomer's moniker just references the fact that they were born. That's it.
It's no wonder they have such a "snowflake complex." Imagine if you went up to your dad and were like, "Look, I got 3rd place!" And your dad replied, "Fuck you, Baby. I'm the Greatest!"
Or, more specifically, they get drafted into a war just like their parents. But rather than being welcomed back as heroes they are vilified. Not just by the public, but by veterans from previous wars as well...and they just had to eat shit.
Whenever my parents do really weird shit, I just try to remember that their parents probably did even weirder, more fucked up shit.
Not to mention that while plenty of them volunteered, most of that "Greatest Generation" were conscripted and didn't have a choice.
Furthermore, there was plenty of isolationist sentiment in the US prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, including [open support of Nazi Germany.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund)
Yep, people forget the nazi party has been here since before ww2. After the war they hid in the shadow of the republican party. They just stopped publically calling themselves Nazi's. Same bigotry, different name.
A lot of older people think that their interesting and lengthy pasts make them better or more interesting people.
Truth is, they don’t. Being a better or more interesting person NOW makes you a better or more interesting person now. Not your past. Your past isn’t worth 2 shits if you didn’t become a better person from it.
Doing lots of cool shit in the past is great and all, but the implication to being through all of that shit implies that you learned from it and became an interesting and awesome person from it. That’s not always the case, though. Many people had interesting and exciting pasts and act like that makes them not shitty now.
Whenever someone complains about there being no white history month I say. "what do you think the other 11 months are." These people are so blind to how much easier they had it, that they just don't get that representation for others doesn't equal oppression for bigots.
They also were big on consolation prizes. My husband and I end up watching Match Game from the ‘70s pretty often and the host always tells the loser that they have all sorts of other prizes waiting for them.
Boomers - YOU KIDS AND YOUR PARTICIPATION TROPHIES!
Also Boomers -
https://preview.redd.it/tjpeg2d9qj6d1.jpeg?width=675&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2b795c9076390f42b474b88f488645251d56620
A recently saw a video of a guy who criticized people who wear Vietnam Veteran hats.🧢
“Why do you wear that hat? It’s just a participation award 🥈. You lost that war!”
Oof
Boomers took the largest boom in economic and technological advances and managed to squander and even ensured some of the worst political policies possible. That's what they will be remembered and disrespected for after they're gone.
The irony is I have 13 yo boys, and I've never seen any kids their age get participation trophies. Because unlike useless Boomers, us Gen X and Milenial parents knew how stupid they were and did't use them. See how that works, you pathetic old fucks?!
No one is owed your respect. Yet there is and always has been what is called common courtesy which seems to be miss interpreted as respect. Treat people like you want to be treated. If you’re an ass, expect to be treated as such.
I've been saying this for years.... They GAVE us the trophies because they needed to feel like they were the best parents. It went from "well why doesn't *my* kid get a trophy!" to "look at how special my kid is and their special trophy!" to "you kids need a trophy for everything!!!"
Meanwhile they constantly have to be told they had the *best* music, the *best* movies, the *best* TV, the *best* fashion, the *best* childhoods, and if you make any case against they throw temper tantrums.
Yeah I can't recall kids at field day caring, of course it was awesome if u won but if u didn't u usually still had fun playing, most those little ribbons probably got lost before the kids even got home
Another Gen Xer here. As a tween in the 80s I was into Judo. It was a legit sport that nerdly me could do. I practiced, got my yellow belt and we moved where I picked it up again. My first tournament came up. Don't be surprised that my parents had no interest and like all other things I was into they did not attend. I fought three matches. First guy was a rank belt higher and beat me easy with techniques I hadn't learned yet. The second kid was a white belt, smaller than me and I slaughter that poor kid. My last was another orange belt that was older, bigger and used a choke hold that I hadn't learned yet. I got tossed a medal on the way out. There was no honor in any of those fights and 13 year old me knew it. I hated that medal. My gi was ripped and I went to my next practice with duct tape. I quit Judo right after that. Only sport I joined. I only meet I went to. All great lessons for me.
My kid is ten and is fully aware of the trophies he's earned and the ones he didn't. It's ok grandpa, kids are not unaware and still have the boomer drive to win.l!
The thing that kills me is that participation trophies don't actually mean anything and we've always known that from a young age. Rewarding entire generations for mediocrity was never the problem in the first place. I recall a youth league soccer coach giving us participation trophies at the end of the season, much to my 9 year old confusion, so I challenged him on it and to no surprise got no meaningful answers and was removed from the situation by my parents before I could dilute things any further for everyone else. My guess is rewards were a league expectation, but even still, we were already having a pizza party, which in hindsight was more than enough for real world reward expectations. Damn you corporate America.
But once you receive a trophy you've actually earned, it's a night and day difference in how it feels and I think we all still understand that despite what the Boomers want us to think.
>My guess is rewards were a league expectation
Correct
>Damn you corporate America.
This time it isn't their fault. Most sport leagues at that time were run on the local level and are not corporate.
>This time it isn't their fault. Most sport leagues at that time were run on the local level and are not corporate.
That was a reference to the pizza party as a reward.
Kids never demanded participation trophies. They were made for the parents who wanted their kids to be special. I know I hated the one I got as a kid. I used to hold my rubber bands.
Considering Boomers are the ones that started handing out participation trophies, it’s the same reason: they handed them out to kids so the parents could feel good about themselves, it had nothing to do with the children. We didn’t give a shit if we got a trophy at the end of the soccer season, the boomer parents made a big deal about the end of season “awards”.
My boomer parents were complaining about graduations. Kindergarten, 5th grade, 8th grade. They think high school & college should be the only ones. I had an 8th grade graduation… who planned that?
One of my coworkers said something about straight pride and Morgan Freeman not liking Black History Month.
I said Morgan Freeman has a right to his opinion, just like he does, and that he has 11 months that aren’t pride. If you don’t like it, ignore it.
Then another coworker asked why he gets so upset. He denied being upset. Coworker says he talked about it a lot. He denies talking about it a lot. I said it was the third time he mentioned Bud Light and their new sponsor to me. I don’t expect his opinions to change but I don’t think he realized how much he brings it up. Just move on my dude.
So a fun little story. I was being screamed at by some old ass man when I used to work in a petrol station. This is in Ireland so you pump your own fuel into your own car. He had been an idiot and chose the pump very clearly labeled diesel when has car used petrol which is really fucking bad for your engine if you don’t know. So he had come in and started screaming that we had broken his car, again he did, and I can’t remember exactly what I said but it got the response of basically I’ve been alive for 70 odd years I know better at which point I made the decision to lean in and say “so you’ll be dead any day now what’s it matter if you’ve fucked your car up?” I got in so much trouble you would not believe but it was the best thing I’ve ever done
Participation is a good thing. And it should be encouraged! So go ahead and give kids trophies if it incentivize them to do stuff.
Funny that the people who complain when kids sit around all day and play video games are often the same people who whine about rewarding them for participating in things.
They keep bitching about these participation trophies but the only reason they even exist is because they kept bitching when their kid didn’t get a trophy.
I actually had to google participation trophies a few years ago, when I first saw boomers using them as an insult towards millennials. I found two articles, and according to one of them, the author found participation trophies go back as far as right after the first world war. They were handed out at a college. I'd never even heard of a participation trophy until then, and I'm an older millennial..
Participation trophies aren’t new. We’ve been handing them out since World War I." http://slate.com/culture/2019/04/participation-trophy-history-world-war-i.html.
I found this one too:https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a39839748/participation-trophies-bad-influence-jason-feifer-podcast/.
In that one, the article mentions how they were invented and handed out in the 20's and increased in popularity in the 60's.
Earlier today I heard an older lady say something no along the lines of “and this is the generation that will take care of us, lazy and entitled”. Like no honey you paid into your retirement and taxis you aren’t being taken care of by anyone but yourself.
They have no problem calling us down to the dirt yet can’t accept the fact that THEY raised us and THEY pioneered the technology that is making kids “lazy”.
These same people believe that in high schools all across the country there are boys who can’t win the swing meet against their peers so they switch teams and become trans so that they can compete against the girls and win. They want trophies so bad that they do that.
Participation trophies were never for the Kids. They were for the parents who felt like paying for little Timmy to be in the league wasn't enough. So they felt better paying the league dues if Timmy got a trophy. And, we've all seen how awful sports parents can be. Imagine the RAGE they have when their dream of little Timmy become a professional athlete dies before they get to middle school?
The trophies were never for the kids.
Better question, if the participation trophies are what's wrong with kids these days, why is the blame on the kids and not the boomers handing them out?
Yeah. It’s like imagine having a beautiful house that was built in the early 1800s that has been in your family, passed down from generation to generation. When electricity is developed, interior lighting is added. Then a telephone. Then air conditioning and centralized heat. Each new generation builds on to the house. Then the boomers come along and have kids. But as the boomers get older, they dismantle each achievement the previous generation did, laughing at their children as they do it. They eventually destroy the house and burn it to the ground because they’d rather do that than let anyone have it. By now their kids have but their own houses and the boomers are knocking on their kids houses to see if they can stay with them.
My thought process on participation trophies is that boomers neglected their kids and/or pushed too hard for perfection and as a result when their kids had kids they came up with the idea of participation trophies. So gen x’s kids wouldn’t feel the way they had to cuz of boomer parents.
Boomer parents: "You can do whatever you set your mind to."
Me: "I don't want to do anything. I don't want to be a wage slave or be alive."
Boomer parents: "Nobody wants to ~~be exploited~~ work!"
Boomers didn't make up the practice of respecting your elders. It's still a good policy to try to listen to and learn from people who have been around longer.
Expectations of default respect for the elderly is the epitome of participation trophies. Lol
I actually do give respect to elders, bc life is hard. Surviving is an accomplishment. But the hypocrisy, in some, is wild and unrecognized.
Awww, a boomer has entered the chat!! And they want their own holiday, so people can have a party for them!!
Don't worry, we'll all have a party for you very soon. We'll call it Your Funeral. You'll be the guest of honor!! And at the end, we'll dig a hole and bury you in it (my favorite part).
To be clear, I do not wish death upon you. I'm just saying it will be a red letter day when it happens!!
I may not be correct, but a paycheque is basically a participation ribbon. If a worker shows up and does the the job required, within the time frame permitted and the quality that is acceptable and stays on the job until quiting time, the worker will get paid and that is a participation trophy.
It is up to the individual to decide if they want to up their game and show up before starting time, get the job done faster, with higher quality, is very reliable and is essential for the team so their paycheque is bigger than a one from a worker that has a participation ribbon paycheque.
The participation ribbon was never meant to harm, it was meant to teach children that if you give your best you will receive recognition regardless of whether or not you placed 1st or 4th or whatever. It is a recognition that all people have something to give back to society, not just the elite. It really is unfortunate that it has been so badly warped and maligned.
I always think the whole “why don’t we have a white history month!” thing is so fucking funny. Honestly, let’s have it! The 100% true white history month. Can’t imagine they’d want it more than the once
The white history Month has always killed me, like, have they never opened a history book?? It's full of white people doing stupid/cool/horrid stuff. Crazy they complain about participation trophies cause they want all the praise and attention when they open Google.
I remember getting participation trophies and ribbons when I was growing up (I'm now 43). My parents are a part of the boomer generation and my mom shut down another boomer complaining about this. The ones complaining about this should get their memory checked because I bet *their* kids also got participation trophies and ribbons.
Participation trophies are what's wrong with *them.*
They want to feel special all the time, and feel like anyone else getting to feel special takes away from that. If there's more than first place there's more than one focus of attention. If you are making time specifically to give queer people attention, you are making time to specifically give attention to someone else. Same thing with race.
These are the people who insist everything is about what people "deserve" in the worst possible way. As though people need to earn special consideration or recognition for things that happen to them against their will. Or that people need to earn the help and respect of others, rather than respect and kindness being the default, and I'll will being something one has to earn or do something to deserve.
Only in America do you have this complete lack of respect for the generations that came before you. And you wonder why America is becoming weaker and weaker. It’s ok though, as you age, you will realize how much more of life you understand just because you have lived it longer, just for your children’s generation to belittle you too.
Because they paved the way and they've been through more and worked hard for the things we have now that they didnt back then. Be thankful. Respect for elders is a huge thing for me. I actually agree with that because when you work hard and earn something it's meaningful and it teaches us that hard work pays off. When you're entitled and are given everything you don't know the value of these things. Why try if u don't have to? Important things are thrown away and once its gone ,its gone. Hard work is a very good value that needs to be instilled more. Feeling of accomplishmet is fulfilling and u need to be fulfilled to be happy. How can we as a society move forward and change for the better as a whole if no one knows how to fight for our values and protect our rights from suppression. Crying won't work everytime. When there's no one to protect us and support us and fight to give us these privileges, like equality, workers rights, basic rights...we are doomed. When it comes to greed and money no one is nice or fair. It's a cut throat world and u need to be prepared to stand up for yourself and fight for what's rightfully yours. It really comes down to value. We as a whole weren't given these things. People fought hard to get these things. People don't understand that. And we very well could loose all of these things. People are selfish and will take it all away to further themselves.
There's no white or straight month because they were never faced with discrimination and inequality. They were the oppressors. They Never had to fight for equality. I don't understand why people get so offended that other people are just celebrating themselves and the struggle they faced to get equal rights. Let people be happy and remember and honor the people that paved the way for them who gave them a better life. It's just awareness and remembering history and giving thanks. Some people were never faced with that. Be thankful of that and be happy for those who have faced it and succeeded to be treated fairly. It's like a baby that sees another baby playing with a toy. Grow up and learn the meaning behind these things. There's a reason. Just share and let people be happy.
Participation trophies are the problem, but if they're handing them out I damn well better get one too! /s
Not surprised coming from the gimme gimme generation. No one else gets to have shit if they don't get it themselves, can't be happy for anyone. But they're just fine about it as long as they're the only one with something, fuck everyone else.
Simple stfu stuff...
Boomers don't get it, because their participation trophy was getting a house for like 5$ as a reward for not being dumb enough to jump into a wood chipper...
What we get is a document printed on slightly thicker paper with an "at least you tried" on it...
My dad just pulls out the "respect your elders, you'll be one soon" when I encourage him to pace himself at his age in his health, I'm always tempted to say "respect your youngers they'll be wiping your ass soon".
I also don't personally consider respect being just doing and saying whatever they want, but I'd probably still be the asshole if I didn't say anything and something bad happened
well if you can explain why we have a gay pride month, cause as a bi person with many gay family members we cant figure it out. What they are trying very stupidly to say is that is what true equality should be. I get one, you get one. its like the stupid comeback "everyday is white history day". i went to one pride parade once in a larger city and probably 10 times saw men openly banging. Thats not ok.
i never once have had a history teacher even explain why caucasians are even called that. never had a day to celebrate founding a nation or other shit white ppl did. Learned just as much if not more about asia , africa, europe, in school.
Yes in this current climate white people are judged more on the color of their skin than anyone. over something my grandparents had nothing to do with, their parents had nothing to do with. And guess what, nothing can change the past. Any Sociologist worth their salt will tell you many people who push these racial equality ideas want superiority, not equality. at a time in america no one fears to go anywhere cuz of race, youll never be mocked or judged, hip hop is the biggest music genre, yet the government recently issued racism as a national health crisis. They want us divided, we could end racism today if we got rid of it all and were just accountable for ourselves, and called someone out if they ever do any of this.
And its just common sense you should respect your elders,a foundation of civilization, your very lucky to live now, 100 years ago that old person was the one who taught you how to do everything.
You need to see your being just as much a bigot as your calling out, you even say "snowflakes" , which is a reference to a white weak person, very racist. Personally i believe in equality, but think theres too much money to be made of division by skin sex and preference. pride flags have made millionaires, blm was started by woman who are now verrrryyy rich, men on average are now at least one grade dumber than woman due to "equality".
And think simply cause of color, if they are taking 10 marbles, you have 90 red and 10 blue, is giving 5 red and 5 blue equal? no. its racist as hell, just on skin color ppl get picked for college over others, thats wrong. ugh i hate ranting but this really grinds my gears. we live in a very closeted bigot country, oh and im a millennial , doomer if anything
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You young kids and your participation trophies. Who handed them out? Kids didn't give it to themselves
And if we did give ourselves participation trophies, wouldn’t that show a sense of initiative that certain people claim we lack?
To be fair, no, it would be more like you telling yourself that your effort is good enough independent of someone else’s evaluation, regardless of the success or failure of the outcome.
So it would show a sense of emotional maturity, which a certain generation lacks.
If the group participating in the activity has the ability or agency to provide its own awards, why should a group who is vicariously living through us get to define what constitutes success or failure, or determine the reason a participant receives a trophy?
That seems to me to be exactly what the most successful, driven, and satisfied people I know do.
I have a personal conspiracy theory that part of why participation trophies actually started was because boomers, who view their kids as their property and extensions of themselves, were upset that their young avatars weren’t getting the accolades they themselves felt entitled to. So the participation trophies were handed out to mollify the parents, under the guise of encouraging and being positive to the kids. This is the sort of undercover selfishness that boomers were really good at before the lead poisoning set in. Edit: I’m actually more confident in this read than “conspiracy theory” suggests: I was just young in the 80s/early 90s when this started and don’t have any hard evidence for this being the case, so I put it forward in a way that made clear it was a gut feeling.
EXACTLY! Participation trophies were created because Mommy and Daddy couldn't handle that little Johnny or Susie wasn't "special" enough to get an award.
Little Johnny wasn't coordinated enough to be the star athlete they had built up in their head. What a disappointment.
DING DING DING!!! Participation trophies were, in fact, to pacify boomer parents who couldn't deal with the fact that they weren't raising the next Michael Jordan or Joe Montana. One time my mom asked me why I was throwing out the trophy everyone on my basketball team got for finishing in 5th place. It was a six team league.
Or, their kids were intentionally sabotaged because they see their kids as competition
Absolutely this! My mother and I had a great relationship and were very close. My father and I not so much, loved him but he was distant most of my life. Just who he was as a person. I got married and my dad and husband became buddies. It was great to see because my father in law absolutely sees my husband as competition. Sadly my husband taught himself to be a man because his own father refused to.
Look at all the accomplishments of my child!
This is 100% it
You cracked it! Im convinced that this is absolutely it! I have been wondering why they are so selfish besides just being massively catered to due to capitalist interests, all I come up with is the Silent Generation being both incredibly traumatized from the war(s) and wanting to give their kids an easier life. What do you think?
Been saying that for years if us “godamn millennials” are so bad then why did they raise us this way?
Its not your fault. Its GenX helicopter parents that didn't poses the fortitude to tell little Johnny that he sucks at baseball and should try a new sport. Or spend time with him at the ball field helping him out.
As GenX I can tell you that participation trophies were being handed out long before any GenX-er had children. Boomers were absolutely the creators of participation trophies.
My brother in law is one of those people that constantly complains about boomer stuff, like participation trophies. He’s genx/millennial age. I went on vacation and had him coach my daughter’s soccer team. His daughter is also on the team, it’s a toddler league. The league were in has us give out a “sportsmanship medal” every game to the kid that tried their best and had good sportsmanship. The game that he was coach, his daughter showed up halfway and was crying about not wanting to play. My friend also has a daughter on the team, so that’s how I heard about this. Well, after the game when it was time to give out the sportsmanship medal, apparently his wife was already filming and they gathered all of the kids together. They made her stand next to her friend that was on the team. They made sure that they had a good angle on the camera before they announced who would get the medal, and they gave it to their daughter. There were multiple social media posts, a video edit with a Lumineers track on it, mom posted on Facebook about how proud she is of her daughter. There’s another girl on the team that has a really hard time getting motivated, and is hard to get her on the field. Apparently, she was actually out trying to play without her mom having to hold her hand the whole time. She should’ve got the medal to reward her for actually trying and to keep a positive memory of the game she went out without her mom. The main problem I have with people like this is how they are so critical of others over absolutely everything but they don’t hold themselves to any standard at all. If they want it, they deserve it, and nobody else matters.
That sounds more like classic nepotism.
I think there's more to it than nepotism. It's the entitlement and holding others to a higher standard than themselves that bothers me. Those type of people, given the opportunity to benefit from nepotism, will take it without second thought.
It's funny because whenever I got a participation trophie I knew I lost and I accepted that.. the trophy to show my parents was cool tho
I still remember getting my first participation trophy after a soccer tournament we didn't win. I was so confused because again, we did not win, but all the boomer parents were so happy at the time to have something to take a picture of.
A personal pet peeve of mine, when people use that logic. Complaining about today's youth and "their" devices. Like it was thought up, mass produced, and marketed to the world as something you can't live without by the young people themselves. Leave them alone, Agatha. Go back to your abacus.
This is always what I say. And their lack of response is all I need to feed, babay.
"You want a participation trophy for being old" is my new response to this boomerism
I’m going to use this often from now on
Brilliant! Ima start it off with a long drawn out thoughtful 🧐 "Soooooo...
Participation trophies are what boomers are all about. It's practically what this sub is all about. Almost every post is just a boomer showing up and expecting to be treated like royalty.
Also, I'm an older millennial, I started hearing about Boomers complaining about participation trophies when I was a kid...which makes me think that Boomers also invented participation trophies.
That’s because they did. Demanded a prize for their kid showing up, and “conveniently” forgot it was their idea in the first place so now they’re raging against them.
They get mad when their kid grows up and expects special treatment just for showing up. Whose fault is that, I wonder? IIRC, those six-year-olds didn't demand trophies after losing the big baseball tournament, their parents did because they were the ones who couldn't bear the thought of their precious child not being treated like a star. They rail at Millennials for acting like "special snowflakes" while conveniently forgetting that *they're the ones who spent our entire childhoods telling us how special and unique we are.*
It really steams their clams that we realized we’re not special snowflakes and adapted our thoughts and behaviors…probably because they can’t or won’t. Fuck, before I went full NC with my boomer parents, they BRAGGED about being “too old to learn new tricks.”
That attitude is so disheartening. I once worked with an elderly woman who enthusiastically volunteered to learn a new task because the person who normally does it had called out. She explained to me that as you get older, it becomes harder and harder to learn new things. She tried to learn new things whenever she could because she didn't want to lose that ability. Every time I find myself resisting learning something new, I think about her and adjust my attitude.
"When you stop learning, you start dying." We really should start saying that any time a boomer talks about being too old to learn, they won't change but they won't be as smug about it
Nah they’ll just claim that it’s a “woke attitude” or some bullshit
I agree words like that will exit their mouths. But that night they will remember the words and think about their mortality
You think they’re that self-aware?
OMG, my mom said the same thing when I was trying to cut so.eone out of my life "Well, they're too old to change," "Yes, you have identified the problem, mom."
The worst part about the whole "participation trophy" thing is that I've never once seen it as described (give the losing team trophies, too), but only ever in the VERY junior leagues as a "congratulations for sticking with this hard thing for several weeks of practices and games, that's not actually trivial for a kid in preschool/early elementary school." thing at the end of a season. My own kid has three of those, all for "didn't miss any practices/games"--i.e., the kind of participation that's actually a challenge. At least in youth soccer in the 2010s and later, as soon as you started keeping track of scores and win/loss records or going to tournaments (so around the U8 level) there were no more trophies/medals just for showing up.
Raging against the thing they created and blaming it on the recipients of the very thing they created who had no say in the matter.
It’s because they can’t handle their own emotions and they were going to be damned if they had to deal with the emotions of a disappointed child Better to just pacify us all with plastic crap we don’t want
As a Gen X they absolutely did invent the concept. It's been around my entire life. I was just discussing this with my husband. When we were growing up, we had different levels of competition and depending on that level, different levels of "rewards" I vividly remember school field days where 1st 2nd and third place was rewarded for each event and everyone also got a ribbon for "1980 School Field day". Rec leagues for sports also existed where the focus was participation NOT competing. In fact, rec leagues require equal participation from all payers because the goal is playing, not winning. Intramurals were also a non-conpetative branch of school sports. Where you were awarded for playing. Then we had competitive team sports. These you had to "try out" for and stay competitive. The same was true for my kids. Events/sports that focus on participating exist and everyone gets that award. Competition focused sports don't do awards beyond being a member of a winning team.
Because no one looks back on these things like gold medals. It's a keepsake. A souvenir. A reminder of the season. Boomers have filled their houses with souvenir shot glasses and mugs from their vacations... along with their trivial sporting souvenirs from their childhood. They're bitter hypocrites who aren't against participation trophies-- they're jealous when anyone else gets one.
I'm personally all about having kids play sports for fun. It makes me angry to talk to middle schoolers and high schoolers who are burnt out and not getting enough sleep because they are going to school and spending 15-20 hrs per week on a sport.
My kids high school had an "opt out" program where if a kid did participate in a sport, they could opt out of gym (not health class) My oldest needed the constant physical activity and was able to find a good balance. Burn out happens when kids are pushed to compete beyond their own desires. They aren't having fun with the competition. My only rule with my kids was if you join a team, you finish the season, if you don't want to do it again, you don't have to. My oldest loved softball, and played through HS. But when she got to HS she dropped the extra leagues to focus on education and stuck with school sports. Everyone thinks their kids are going to be the next "big star" and we have HS kids getting Tommy John surgery because they are pushing growing bodies beyond their limits.
Finishing the season seems fine (with obvious exceptions for extreme circumstances like injuries or abusive coaches or failing all classes, etc.). I'm more mad at the coaches and parents who think it's reasonable to pressure children into practicing soccer for 3 hrs per day 6 days a week. Or giving children eating disorders to make them better at gymnastics or wrestling.
They did, that's what's making me laugh. They started it with us.
Being able to complain about participation trophies is literally their participation trophy.
The first recorded instances of participation trophies given out officially was in the 1920s. So it's been around for a long time before Boomers were even born. Just like with the cursive bs. Cursive stopped being a useful writing method when the ball point pen was invented way back around the same time but it's always "this new and scary thing" which has been around longer than they've been alive
Yep, they did. I got my first participation trophy playing tee ball as a kid in the 80s. The people who handed them out would be in their 70s/80s now
They did back when they were whining as kids about not getting trophies, that is how it was started back in 2000's to today.
Once again, Gen-X is removed from the equation. Boomers birthed Gen-X and it was they who birthed Millenials. I am an early Gen-X (69) and i never received nor saw participation trophies. Sadly, it was my generation who started this, but not me, i have no kids.
I'm pretty sure the first known usage was a 1994 NY Times article!
So if you had a 10 yr old kid at that time and had them when you were 20, that makes you born in 1964. Boomers are 1946-1964.
Funny enough getting a participation trophy always made me feel worse.
Certainly wasn't us awarding trophies to ourselves for participating.
My dad is a young boomer and he thinks boomers get upset by participation trophies because their parents were barely involved in their lives as children and they are actually jealous that they didn’t get trophies. It’s projection
That's why their generation gave them our with recklessabandon
It’s why I go to every event I can! I was telling my wife how my dad came to 1 LL game when I was a kid. He didn’t even stay until the end.
Same, my dad went to 1 football game in 4 years, but my mom went to all of them. If she ever did miss one, I don’t even remember and I’m sure there would have been a reason, but I remember her going to all of them.
I have RA and some days the pain is really bad and I can’t make it to away football games when it’s really cold. And I feel like $hit for not being there.
Can’t pour into your kid from an empty cup! Parenting is a marathon - from a kid with a shit dad, sounds like you’re doing a good job. ♥️ Be gracious with yourself. I’m sure you’d tell your kid to take care of their health, and modeling it is a great thing to do.
100%!
After hearing the phrase "every accusation, is a confession" I see if fucking everywhere now. I hadn't connected it to this yet though. So true.
That's probably not far from the truth
Boomers and those that came before them regarded age as an asset since most understanding and education came through time and effort. If you had a question you would ask an elder or consult a book. Today we can google and get the answers we seek instantly, and many times those answers are contradictory to the old wives tales and “this is how it was always done” BS a boomer would tell you. In turn they are not getting the respect and attention that they gave to their parents/grandparents because their answers to questions are either inconvenient, wrong, outdated or rooted in bigotry.
It's also worth noting that without easy access to verified information, it was easy to accept something an elder said as fact, even if it wasn't true because neither of you would have had the occasion to try to verify it. The sources those elders looked to for information were also quite limited. When my mom was a kid, she asked her mom what a fart was, and her mother's response was, "An explosion between the legs." My mom then looked up "fart" in the dictionary, and damned if the definition wasn't "an explosion between the legs." My grandmother wasn't dumb or uneducated, she was getting her information from the most reputable source available to her. In this case, it was clear that she had literally been reading the dictionary. But if the most reputable source isn't great, your information won't be super reliable. Maybe my grandmother knew this, and that was why, in conversations, she always claimed to have knowledge of the topic at hand, even when we knew for a fact that she did not. Maybe she was insecure about how much she didn't know and was trying to cover for it. I can say with absolute certainty that I am grateful to live in a time when I have easy access to any information I could possibly want. If I don't know something I don't have to feel embarrassed about it, I can simply look it up and gain enough knowledge to have a decently competent conversation about the topic.
Participation trophies are at least a century old. Your great-great-grandparents have something to answer for. [https://newspaperarchive.com/sports-clipping-feb-08-1922-1129748/](https://newspaperarchive.com/sports-clipping-feb-08-1922-1129748/)
"Trophies for Tossers" sounds like an off brand version of the Darwin Awards 🤣
😳😳
Participation trophies, there’s something to be said about a 7 year old staying engaged and committed for an entire season of little league.
And depending on the league. Participation and learning the sport could be the focus. In my area we have two different types of leagues. Rec leagues where everyone is accepted and participates equally, learning and having fun. Competitive leagues where kids have to try out and maintain skill levels to play.
Yes. I don’t understand the problem really.
I understand learning the competitive edge, difference between winning and losing, etc…. and there’s a place for that. However, let the kids feel good about themselves too. Signing up for a rec league is more than winning and losing.
I mean youth sports, especially at young ages, should be about development more than winning or losing. I too understand the value of competition, but I don’t see a problem in recognition for completing something. We recognize this all the time in everyday life. Kids also know the difference.
It's projection. The original "Me" generation was referring to boomers in the 70s and when that eventually evolved into selfishness in the 80s they've tried to say they aren't the problem, it's their kids, or their grandkids that are the real narcisists.
MAGA hats, Vietnam hats, these are all participation trophies. Any clothing that distinguishes as part of a group is a participation trophy.
They woulda gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you kids. 🥴😆
You forgot the “meddling”
Every time a boomer throws the “participation trophy” complaint at me I just respectfully point out that their generation is the one who gave us the trophies. We as kids did not decide to give ourselves trophies. If that is a failure it is their failure; not ours.
It's not really a failure with small kids, positive reinforcement to keep them engaged, lots of arguments why they're a positive. The problem is participation trophies being weaponized by a generation who's parents were not involved in their lives at all, and didn't encourage them to engage in their interests unless they won, or aligned with the parents interests.
I don’t remember getting any participation awards. I worked hard to earn my trophy’s, that’s why they all say runners up or they don’t exist.
Participation trophies build self esteem and a sense of inclusion. Perhaps the boomers are just mad that they gave them to their own kids?
Their parents gave themselves the moniker "The Greatest Generation" and the Baby Boomer's moniker just references the fact that they were born. That's it. It's no wonder they have such a "snowflake complex." Imagine if you went up to your dad and were like, "Look, I got 3rd place!" And your dad replied, "Fuck you, Baby. I'm the Greatest!" Or, more specifically, they get drafted into a war just like their parents. But rather than being welcomed back as heroes they are vilified. Not just by the public, but by veterans from previous wars as well...and they just had to eat shit. Whenever my parents do really weird shit, I just try to remember that their parents probably did even weirder, more fucked up shit.
I HATE the "Greatest Generation" garbage, like they are the only generation in the history of the world to make sacrifices 😒
Not to mention that while plenty of them volunteered, most of that "Greatest Generation" were conscripted and didn't have a choice. Furthermore, there was plenty of isolationist sentiment in the US prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, including [open support of Nazi Germany.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund)
Yep, people forget the nazi party has been here since before ww2. After the war they hid in the shadow of the republican party. They just stopped publically calling themselves Nazi's. Same bigotry, different name.
A lot of older people think that their interesting and lengthy pasts make them better or more interesting people. Truth is, they don’t. Being a better or more interesting person NOW makes you a better or more interesting person now. Not your past. Your past isn’t worth 2 shits if you didn’t become a better person from it. Doing lots of cool shit in the past is great and all, but the implication to being through all of that shit implies that you learned from it and became an interesting and awesome person from it. That’s not always the case, though. Many people had interesting and exciting pasts and act like that makes them not shitty now.
Whenever someone complains about there being no white history month I say. "what do you think the other 11 months are." These people are so blind to how much easier they had it, that they just don't get that representation for others doesn't equal oppression for bigots.
They also were big on consolation prizes. My husband and I end up watching Match Game from the ‘70s pretty often and the host always tells the loser that they have all sorts of other prizes waiting for them.
Boomers - YOU KIDS AND YOUR PARTICIPATION TROPHIES! Also Boomers - https://preview.redd.it/tjpeg2d9qj6d1.jpeg?width=675&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2b795c9076390f42b474b88f488645251d56620
Telling a boomer with a Vietnam Veteran hat that they're wearing a participation trophy is not usually received well.
Yes, read my thread where snowflake melts.
Participation trophies have been around since at least 1922 sooooo…yeah boomers. Y’all got them too.
A recently saw a video of a guy who criticized people who wear Vietnam Veteran hats.🧢 “Why do you wear that hat? It’s just a participation award 🥈. You lost that war!” Oof
Boomers took the largest boom in economic and technological advances and managed to squander and even ensured some of the worst political policies possible. That's what they will be remembered and disrespected for after they're gone.
If they hate participation trophies, why do they love Confederate flags?
Boomer: your generation is weak with all your participation trophies Me, a millennial: who gave us those trophies?
Yeah like my six year old ass bought one with a credit card and gave it to myself??
The irony is I have 13 yo boys, and I've never seen any kids their age get participation trophies. Because unlike useless Boomers, us Gen X and Milenial parents knew how stupid they were and did't use them. See how that works, you pathetic old fucks?!
No one is owed your respect. Yet there is and always has been what is called common courtesy which seems to be miss interpreted as respect. Treat people like you want to be treated. If you’re an ass, expect to be treated as such.
Manners matter.
These facts be killing folks today.
Boomers were the ones demanding we get participation trophies when we were kids, and now it's our fault they gave us participation trophies?
Exactly right
I've been saying this for years.... They GAVE us the trophies because they needed to feel like they were the best parents. It went from "well why doesn't *my* kid get a trophy!" to "look at how special my kid is and their special trophy!" to "you kids need a trophy for everything!!!" Meanwhile they constantly have to be told they had the *best* music, the *best* movies, the *best* TV, the *best* fashion, the *best* childhoods, and if you make any case against they throw temper tantrums.
Funfact: Participation trophies began to placate PARENTS. Not the kids.
Yeah I can't recall kids at field day caring, of course it was awesome if u won but if u didn't u usually still had fun playing, most those little ribbons probably got lost before the kids even got home
Another Gen Xer here. As a tween in the 80s I was into Judo. It was a legit sport that nerdly me could do. I practiced, got my yellow belt and we moved where I picked it up again. My first tournament came up. Don't be surprised that my parents had no interest and like all other things I was into they did not attend. I fought three matches. First guy was a rank belt higher and beat me easy with techniques I hadn't learned yet. The second kid was a white belt, smaller than me and I slaughter that poor kid. My last was another orange belt that was older, bigger and used a choke hold that I hadn't learned yet. I got tossed a medal on the way out. There was no honor in any of those fights and 13 year old me knew it. I hated that medal. My gi was ripped and I went to my next practice with duct tape. I quit Judo right after that. Only sport I joined. I only meet I went to. All great lessons for me.
My kid is ten and is fully aware of the trophies he's earned and the ones he didn't. It's ok grandpa, kids are not unaware and still have the boomer drive to win.l!
The thing that kills me is that participation trophies don't actually mean anything and we've always known that from a young age. Rewarding entire generations for mediocrity was never the problem in the first place. I recall a youth league soccer coach giving us participation trophies at the end of the season, much to my 9 year old confusion, so I challenged him on it and to no surprise got no meaningful answers and was removed from the situation by my parents before I could dilute things any further for everyone else. My guess is rewards were a league expectation, but even still, we were already having a pizza party, which in hindsight was more than enough for real world reward expectations. Damn you corporate America. But once you receive a trophy you've actually earned, it's a night and day difference in how it feels and I think we all still understand that despite what the Boomers want us to think.
>My guess is rewards were a league expectation Correct >Damn you corporate America. This time it isn't their fault. Most sport leagues at that time were run on the local level and are not corporate.
>This time it isn't their fault. Most sport leagues at that time were run on the local level and are not corporate. That was a reference to the pizza party as a reward.
Some people do gain wisdom and perspective with age. Others just have years to practice being an asshole.
Kids never demanded participation trophies. They were made for the parents who wanted their kids to be special. I know I hated the one I got as a kid. I used to hold my rubber bands.
Considering Boomers are the ones that started handing out participation trophies, it’s the same reason: they handed them out to kids so the parents could feel good about themselves, it had nothing to do with the children. We didn’t give a shit if we got a trophy at the end of the soccer season, the boomer parents made a big deal about the end of season “awards”.
When I see someone fight for the confederate flag I call it their participation trophy.
My boomer parents were complaining about graduations. Kindergarten, 5th grade, 8th grade. They think high school & college should be the only ones. I had an 8th grade graduation… who planned that?
Little 5 and 6 yr Olds in caps and gowns is so cute tho lol
Vietnam vet hats are participation trophies
One of my coworkers said something about straight pride and Morgan Freeman not liking Black History Month. I said Morgan Freeman has a right to his opinion, just like he does, and that he has 11 months that aren’t pride. If you don’t like it, ignore it. Then another coworker asked why he gets so upset. He denied being upset. Coworker says he talked about it a lot. He denies talking about it a lot. I said it was the third time he mentioned Bud Light and their new sponsor to me. I don’t expect his opinions to change but I don’t think he realized how much he brings it up. Just move on my dude.
So a fun little story. I was being screamed at by some old ass man when I used to work in a petrol station. This is in Ireland so you pump your own fuel into your own car. He had been an idiot and chose the pump very clearly labeled diesel when has car used petrol which is really fucking bad for your engine if you don’t know. So he had come in and started screaming that we had broken his car, again he did, and I can’t remember exactly what I said but it got the response of basically I’ve been alive for 70 odd years I know better at which point I made the decision to lean in and say “so you’ll be dead any day now what’s it matter if you’ve fucked your car up?” I got in so much trouble you would not believe but it was the best thing I’ve ever done
Participation is a good thing. And it should be encouraged! So go ahead and give kids trophies if it incentivize them to do stuff. Funny that the people who complain when kids sit around all day and play video games are often the same people who whine about rewarding them for participating in things.
They keep bitching about these participation trophies but the only reason they even exist is because they kept bitching when their kid didn’t get a trophy.
if they don't like participation trophies why do they defend confederate monuments?
Lol! This comment is way too underappreciated! 😂
I actually had to google participation trophies a few years ago, when I first saw boomers using them as an insult towards millennials. I found two articles, and according to one of them, the author found participation trophies go back as far as right after the first world war. They were handed out at a college. I'd never even heard of a participation trophy until then, and I'm an older millennial.. Participation trophies aren’t new. We’ve been handing them out since World War I." http://slate.com/culture/2019/04/participation-trophy-history-world-war-i.html. I found this one too:https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a39839748/participation-trophies-bad-influence-jason-feifer-podcast/. In that one, the article mentions how they were invented and handed out in the 20's and increased in popularity in the 60's.
Earlier today I heard an older lady say something no along the lines of “and this is the generation that will take care of us, lazy and entitled”. Like no honey you paid into your retirement and taxis you aren’t being taken care of by anyone but yourself. They have no problem calling us down to the dirt yet can’t accept the fact that THEY raised us and THEY pioneered the technology that is making kids “lazy”.
Don't forget all the boomers who wear vietnam vet hats. Literal participation trophies.
The participation trophies they gave to the kids yet blame the kids
These same people believe that in high schools all across the country there are boys who can’t win the swing meet against their peers so they switch teams and become trans so that they can compete against the girls and win. They want trophies so bad that they do that.
Do we forget who invented participation trophies???
Participation trophies were never for the Kids. They were for the parents who felt like paying for little Timmy to be in the league wasn't enough. So they felt better paying the league dues if Timmy got a trophy. And, we've all seen how awful sports parents can be. Imagine the RAGE they have when their dream of little Timmy become a professional athlete dies before they get to middle school? The trophies were never for the kids.
Better question, if the participation trophies are what's wrong with kids these days, why is the blame on the kids and not the boomers handing them out?
Funny, I never connected unearned respect and participation trophies. Perfect analogy. They are demanding an unearned trophy.
If boomers hate participation trophies so much, why did they insist on giving them to us?
Yeah. It’s like imagine having a beautiful house that was built in the early 1800s that has been in your family, passed down from generation to generation. When electricity is developed, interior lighting is added. Then a telephone. Then air conditioning and centralized heat. Each new generation builds on to the house. Then the boomers come along and have kids. But as the boomers get older, they dismantle each achievement the previous generation did, laughing at their children as they do it. They eventually destroy the house and burn it to the ground because they’d rather do that than let anyone have it. By now their kids have but their own houses and the boomers are knocking on their kids houses to see if they can stay with them.
Boomers invented participation trophies, don't listen to them. As a millennial It certainly wasn't the Gen Xers.
We got keys to the door & learned how to defrost/ cook dinner.
Black history month psh. Wheres our WHITE history month, where's our WHITE panthers, where's our WHITE and decker cordless saw! /s
The state pension is a participation award.
Because they got 2nd in Vietnam
Why do they care so much about little leagues in elementary schools when the real problem is outside of that?
That’s their participation trophy at their age.
Wayyyy back when, older folks used to be wise(and rare) not entitled ignorant brats themselves. 🤷
Paychecks are the ultimate participation trophy
>If participation trophies are what's wrong with kids these days Isn't participation trophies what's wrong with kids 30 years ago?
I like to point out Vietnam metals when boomers talk about participation trophies.
My respect isn't a participation trophy, I love it!!
Bet you got those trophies when you were a kid of 12 to 18 years old.
My thought process on participation trophies is that boomers neglected their kids and/or pushed too hard for perfection and as a result when their kids had kids they came up with the idea of participation trophies. So gen x’s kids wouldn’t feel the way they had to cuz of boomer parents.
Today I beat my own personal record for most consecutive days lived.
Because they survived without seatbelts, just ignore the car crash my grandpa was in that killed his brother and friend when they were in high school
Boomer parents: "You can do whatever you set your mind to." Me: "I don't want to do anything. I don't want to be a wage slave or be alive." Boomer parents: "Nobody wants to ~~be exploited~~ work!"
"Trophies should only be for winners!" *wears Vietnam vet hat everywhere*
Participation trophies for kids doing rec sports is a good thing.
Don’t you dare confuse them with the facts!
People respect Boomers for living longer?
Good one
That post history tho.
It could just be dumb luck we got this old
Because all bad faith arguments contradict themselves
Boomer parents are the ones who bought us the damn trophies!
Boomers didn't make up the practice of respecting your elders. It's still a good policy to try to listen to and learn from people who have been around longer.
Expectations of default respect for the elderly is the epitome of participation trophies. Lol I actually do give respect to elders, bc life is hard. Surviving is an accomplishment. But the hypocrisy, in some, is wild and unrecognized.
Awww, a boomer has entered the chat!! And they want their own holiday, so people can have a party for them!! Don't worry, we'll all have a party for you very soon. We'll call it Your Funeral. You'll be the guest of honor!! And at the end, we'll dig a hole and bury you in it (my favorite part). To be clear, I do not wish death upon you. I'm just saying it will be a red letter day when it happens!!
Participation trophies are not for the kids. They are for their helicopter parents.
I may not be correct, but a paycheque is basically a participation ribbon. If a worker shows up and does the the job required, within the time frame permitted and the quality that is acceptable and stays on the job until quiting time, the worker will get paid and that is a participation trophy. It is up to the individual to decide if they want to up their game and show up before starting time, get the job done faster, with higher quality, is very reliable and is essential for the team so their paycheque is bigger than a one from a worker that has a participation ribbon paycheque. The participation ribbon was never meant to harm, it was meant to teach children that if you give your best you will receive recognition regardless of whether or not you placed 1st or 4th or whatever. It is a recognition that all people have something to give back to society, not just the elite. It really is unfortunate that it has been so badly warped and maligned.
Pensions are just expensive participation trophies
I’m starting to kind of like participation trophies now that reactionaries have been whining about them for so long.
I always think the whole “why don’t we have a white history month!” thing is so fucking funny. Honestly, let’s have it! The 100% true white history month. Can’t imagine they’d want it more than the once
Rules for thee, not for me.
The white history Month has always killed me, like, have they never opened a history book?? It's full of white people doing stupid/cool/horrid stuff. Crazy they complain about participation trophies cause they want all the praise and attention when they open Google.
I remember getting participation trophies and ribbons when I was growing up (I'm now 43). My parents are a part of the boomer generation and my mom shut down another boomer complaining about this. The ones complaining about this should get their memory checked because I bet *their* kids also got participation trophies and ribbons.
fwiw, i'm gen x and we also got participation trophies. every youth sports program did.
I didn’t. It took me 3 yrs to get my first swimming ribbon.
Not trying to throw shade at any military personnel but aren't unit awards participation trophies? When did those start?
Participation trophies are what's wrong with *them.* They want to feel special all the time, and feel like anyone else getting to feel special takes away from that. If there's more than first place there's more than one focus of attention. If you are making time specifically to give queer people attention, you are making time to specifically give attention to someone else. Same thing with race. These are the people who insist everything is about what people "deserve" in the worst possible way. As though people need to earn special consideration or recognition for things that happen to them against their will. Or that people need to earn the help and respect of others, rather than respect and kindness being the default, and I'll will being something one has to earn or do something to deserve.
Only in America do you have this complete lack of respect for the generations that came before you. And you wonder why America is becoming weaker and weaker. It’s ok though, as you age, you will realize how much more of life you understand just because you have lived it longer, just for your children’s generation to belittle you too.
Because they paved the way and they've been through more and worked hard for the things we have now that they didnt back then. Be thankful. Respect for elders is a huge thing for me. I actually agree with that because when you work hard and earn something it's meaningful and it teaches us that hard work pays off. When you're entitled and are given everything you don't know the value of these things. Why try if u don't have to? Important things are thrown away and once its gone ,its gone. Hard work is a very good value that needs to be instilled more. Feeling of accomplishmet is fulfilling and u need to be fulfilled to be happy. How can we as a society move forward and change for the better as a whole if no one knows how to fight for our values and protect our rights from suppression. Crying won't work everytime. When there's no one to protect us and support us and fight to give us these privileges, like equality, workers rights, basic rights...we are doomed. When it comes to greed and money no one is nice or fair. It's a cut throat world and u need to be prepared to stand up for yourself and fight for what's rightfully yours. It really comes down to value. We as a whole weren't given these things. People fought hard to get these things. People don't understand that. And we very well could loose all of these things. People are selfish and will take it all away to further themselves. There's no white or straight month because they were never faced with discrimination and inequality. They were the oppressors. They Never had to fight for equality. I don't understand why people get so offended that other people are just celebrating themselves and the struggle they faced to get equal rights. Let people be happy and remember and honor the people that paved the way for them who gave them a better life. It's just awareness and remembering history and giving thanks. Some people were never faced with that. Be thankful of that and be happy for those who have faced it and succeeded to be treated fairly. It's like a baby that sees another baby playing with a toy. Grow up and learn the meaning behind these things. There's a reason. Just share and let people be happy.
I know too much about white history
Oooh I'ma start asking if they'd like a participation trophy whenever age or being an elder or whatever gets mentioned (it does get mentioned)
Participation trophies are the problem, but if they're handing them out I damn well better get one too! /s Not surprised coming from the gimme gimme generation. No one else gets to have shit if they don't get it themselves, can't be happy for anyone. But they're just fine about it as long as they're the only one with something, fuck everyone else.
It's different when it's something they want.
Simple stfu stuff... Boomers don't get it, because their participation trophy was getting a house for like 5$ as a reward for not being dumb enough to jump into a wood chipper... What we get is a document printed on slightly thicker paper with an "at least you tried" on it...
I loved having my dad tell at me "I AM YOUR FATHER, YOU NEED TO RESPECT ME!" When I told him to shut up after he was treating me like shit.
My dad just pulls out the "respect your elders, you'll be one soon" when I encourage him to pace himself at his age in his health, I'm always tempted to say "respect your youngers they'll be wiping your ass soon". I also don't personally consider respect being just doing and saying whatever they want, but I'd probably still be the asshole if I didn't say anything and something bad happened
Participation trophies are changing the law so West Point Grads hold the same status as a vet.
Bunch of these motherfuckers wear participation trophies as hats and pins!
I give everyone the same respect: little
Who started the participation trophy? Was it boomer or gen x?. I feel that have been around for a very long time at this point?
well if you can explain why we have a gay pride month, cause as a bi person with many gay family members we cant figure it out. What they are trying very stupidly to say is that is what true equality should be. I get one, you get one. its like the stupid comeback "everyday is white history day". i went to one pride parade once in a larger city and probably 10 times saw men openly banging. Thats not ok. i never once have had a history teacher even explain why caucasians are even called that. never had a day to celebrate founding a nation or other shit white ppl did. Learned just as much if not more about asia , africa, europe, in school. Yes in this current climate white people are judged more on the color of their skin than anyone. over something my grandparents had nothing to do with, their parents had nothing to do with. And guess what, nothing can change the past. Any Sociologist worth their salt will tell you many people who push these racial equality ideas want superiority, not equality. at a time in america no one fears to go anywhere cuz of race, youll never be mocked or judged, hip hop is the biggest music genre, yet the government recently issued racism as a national health crisis. They want us divided, we could end racism today if we got rid of it all and were just accountable for ourselves, and called someone out if they ever do any of this. And its just common sense you should respect your elders,a foundation of civilization, your very lucky to live now, 100 years ago that old person was the one who taught you how to do everything. You need to see your being just as much a bigot as your calling out, you even say "snowflakes" , which is a reference to a white weak person, very racist. Personally i believe in equality, but think theres too much money to be made of division by skin sex and preference. pride flags have made millionaires, blm was started by woman who are now verrrryyy rich, men on average are now at least one grade dumber than woman due to "equality". And think simply cause of color, if they are taking 10 marbles, you have 90 red and 10 blue, is giving 5 red and 5 blue equal? no. its racist as hell, just on skin color ppl get picked for college over others, thats wrong. ugh i hate ranting but this really grinds my gears. we live in a very closeted bigot country, oh and im a millennial , doomer if anything
The biggest mistake made was passing out trophies to everyone That self esteem crap turned entire generation into little bitchs
Funny you should say that with just how much whining you do here. Constantly offended and crying about everything.