Astrological Analysis: Generation Y and Helicopter Parents

August 16, 2008

The Millennial generation, or Generation Y, has entered the workplace and their Baby Boomer parents are keeping a closer eye on them than ever before, in many cases taking a very active role in post-college recruitment that continues through a Millennial’s young career. Many leading employers are, perhaps unwillingly, embracing the idea of so-called “helicopter parents,” so just how has this swinging change in demographics affected the workplace?

Many Generation Y experts define a Millennial as under 30 or born between 1979 and 1998. As a group, or stereotype, they are tech savvy, keen to succeed quickly and friendly with or reliant on their parents much more so than Generation X that preceded them. Both groups had very different influences and patterns of parental involvement from a young age. Trick is, Generation Y started entering the workplace after college or grad school about three years ago, which is when some surprising tales started emerging from employers about helicopter parents.

This the is first generation of children whose parents put a computer mouse in their hand as soon as they could sit, and the generation who taught their parents how to code in html. While their parents were brought up on re-runs of the Three Stooges and Tom and Jerry cartoons, they had “He-Man”, “Transformers” and “Gem”. While their parents had Lincoln logs, Barbie dolls and baseball gloves, they had “He-Man”, “Transformer” and “Gem” action figures along with a plethora of other mass marketed items including personal video games. No waiting until you were old enough to enter a bar, electronic games were literally at their fingertips. Boomer children were sent out in the neighborhood to play with their friends and not bother their parents until lunch or dinner time, with nary a parent going out to see what was going on. Yet these same Boomers raised children whose time was carefully segmented into play dates, self improvement lessons of all kinds, and even personal and family therapy. Now these same parents, who didn’t care a hoot about what their parents wanted, (remember the 60’s and 70’s?) are micromanaging their children’s employment futures. And the kids are not only letting them, they rely on them to do it. What gives?

While the experts define Generation Y as being born from 1979 to 1998, the ones that are entering the employment market are from the first decade of this demographic. These young adults were born with the planet of individuation, Uranus in either Scorpio or Sagittarius, the planet of high spiritual ideals, Neptune in Sagittarius or Capricorn, and the planet of transformation, Pluto, is in Libra.

Their parents. the late Boomers, were born with Uranus in Cancer or Leo, Neptune in Libra or Scorpio and Pluto in Leo.

What we are seeing is an interaction of two astrological factors, the sign Pluto was in for these parents and the quadrant emphasis of the signs the outer planets were in for these generations.

The parents were born from had Leo in Pluto and whose outer planets zodiac rulers are oriented in the second quadrant of the natural zodiac chart. Debbie Kempton-Smith says of the Pluto in Leo generation:

Pluto in Leo is the Woodstock Nation . . . we behave obnoxiously to our parents and our children do not stand a chance . . .We are obsessed with being the center of attention . . . we are used to getting our own way. . . we use each other as catalysts for our own self-centered transformation.

The second quadrant, according to Mary Plumb is:

where we deepen ourselves and begin to share ourselves through creative expression and work.

Boomer children then are not seen as individuals but as direct extensions of their parents’ success as individuals.

The Gen Y children, have Pluto in Libra and a third quadrant emphasis in their outer planets.

Jeffrey Wolf Green says of Pluto in Libra:

These individuals have been learning how to develop and object awareness of themselves and to understand their sense of individuality in a social context . . they have been learning how to participate in relationships as an equal.

The third quadrant is:

where we meet others as equals and intimates and develop an expanded view of life.

Pluto in Leo transformed a generation whose self involvement transmuted into a extreme involvement in their children’s lives. But is this a case of the tail wagging the dog?

The Pluto in Libra children do not see their parents so much as authority figures, but as managing partners in their lives. These children, providing that there is no mitigating factors, such as abuse in the parental relationship, are not only willing, but eager to accept their parents as friends and companions in this lifetime. It is unique relationship, probably not born out of the parents’ success as parents, but the unique nature of this generation.

Employers, get use to those Helicopter Parents. They aren’t going away any time soon. The kids don’t want them to!

If you have a question you would like this astrologer answer on these pages, send it to starrynightastro@aol.com along with your birthday, birth place and birth time.

Image from Wikipedia distributed under a Creative Commons License.

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