Life on Tapp: Stop giving Gen Z a hard time and cut them some slack

Blaise Tapp writes: Not a day goes by without yet another ‘Gen Z snowflakes aren’t like us oldies’ or ‘our grandchildren will be breastfed until they are 15’ type story appearing somewhere in the news chain. I made the second one up but you get my drift. This toxic narrative is depressingly relentless; that those born this century are digitally dependent, emotional weaklings who are allergic to daylight and don’t know how to make real friends. What’s more, they’ll be living in the spare room until they’re old enough to consider taking up crown green bowling.In my experience, those who fall for such cobblers include those who still carry a comb in their top pocket and consider lasagne to be exotic fare. Trouble is that this view is also shared by people all of us know – they might be loved ones, neighbours or the bloke you see when you take the dog for its daily constitutional. But taking a dim view of younger generations is nothing new – mini skirted Baby Boomers were tutted at by their pipe smoking elders while members of Generation X – my tribe – were considered to be party loving oiks with a terrible taste in music.Look, as a father of two kids aged under 15, I do share some of the most common concerns and have a great deal of solidarity with the Smartphone Free Childhood movement, although I do struggle to see how its ultimate goal can be anything other than a pipedream.However, the idea that our young are screen obsessed zombies, who have shunned activities which have shaped millions of childhoods throughout the ages. Take my youngest as an example – he has more clubs than Jack Nicklaus – and is typical of his peers, whose parents puff out their cheeks when going through the list of their extra curricular activities. Such clubs – swimming, karate and Cubs, to name a few, are all highlights of his week and while he still consumes plenty of content narrated by shouty Americans, he is getting the childhood we did.Activities like these are positively booming with long waiting lists for some, and, in many cases, are run by those in their teens and early 20s. Such groups and clubs instil a sense of belonging and allow our kids to develop healthy, wholesome habits. It's about time we cut them some slack.