Connecting With: Younger Adults

Bridging the gap in connecting with younger adults once known as children, teens, and college students can be challenging. Some parents feel their adult children don't have enough time for them. Relatives and older friends are not always certain how to begin conversations with people they once perceived as "kids." Here are some tips for connecting with younger adults:

• Consider what stage of life they are in. Working full-time? Stay-at-home parent? Busy with continuing education? Try to have a general awareness of their schedules and routines. Don't add to their load by throwing out unwanted advice and needless guilt.
• Understand that many younger adults now connect to the world primarily with the help of cell phones, E-mail, and messaging devices. These are key tools for getting on the same wave length with the next generation.
• Listen to them. Getting advice from older friends and family members is still vital to young adults. They are most receptive when you are willing to listen to their situations without judging or trying to fix things.
• Show interest in their life experiences. One wise mother regularly watches for newspaper and magazine articles that pertain to her children's chosen fields. She reads the pieces as a means of understanding their careers, and then sends the articles to her children. The articles often become conversation starters.
• Accept that cultural norms and tastes vary with each generation. Don't expect to have the same likes and dislikes. Don't judge younger adults for their tastes.
• Being honest about your own life, mistakes, and lessons learned, can be helpful to others. This is not an open door for complaining or reviewing the past, however. Getting beyond the exterior and revealing how you overcame hardships could prove beneficial and possibly preventative.
• Learn from people who are younger. They need to feel their opinions, life experiences, and worldviews matter to the people who matter to them. How refreshing it is to engage in the freedom of continuous learning by interacting with those who have so much to teach us about the generations to come.