Woman explains how boomer parents rooted for 'dishonest harmony' and many find it too real

With every generation, a lot of aspects of life change including the parenting style. Today's parents on the internet are often seen flaunting about how their gentle parenting works wonders in a child's emotional development. However, older generations like the Boomers would not quite agree with this. In a daring attempt to point out the flaws of Boomer parenting, an organic lifestyle enthusiast, Angela Baker—who goes by @parkrosepermaculture on TikTok—made an eye-opening video. Baker's take on how Boomer parents refuse to accept anything other than harmony in the family even if it's fake seemed relevant to many Gen X and Millennials.

Baker started her video by addressing fellow Gen X and Millennials who were on the receiving end of Boomers' dysfunctional parenting. She then explained the idea of "dishonest harmony" in the family etched in the minds of Boomers. Though she hadn't faced it while growing up, she had noticed this in her husband's family. Her bold opinions often invited criticism from the older generations who wanted to silence her but that didn't stop her from stating the facts. "When I've been trying to talk about the toxic ways that we were parented as kids, I get a lot of Boomers telling me to be quiet, telling me to stop talking about it," she said. She has been asked to move on from sharing her honest opinions about their parenting.

"But that's showing their lack of ability to handle the distress that they feel when we talk openly about uncomfortable things," Baker said. She emphasized that despite knowing about their insensitive parenting approach, Boomers chose not to handle the truth instead of facing their flaws. "What they want is dishonest harmony rather than honest conflict," she added. The woman pointed out how Boomer parents don't want their children to bare their souls about these "hard issues." They simply ask them to suppress their pain or emotional trauma. "Don't talk openly about it so that you can learn to heal and break the cycle," Baker sarcastically stated.

"What matters most is that we have the appearance of harmony, even if there's nothing harmonious under the surface," she said. For Boomers, it was important to put on a false facade of a happy family rather than prioritizing the emotional needs of their children. "I think that a lot of the desire of Boomer parents to have this perception that they put out to the world that everything was sweet and hunky-dory rather than prioritizing the needs of their kids is what drove a lot of the toxic parenting we experienced," Baker added in the end. The video garnered over 716K views and many users couldn't help but agree with her reasoning.

"It’s all about image. I had to be happy and compliant. Do not talk about the uncomfortable things ever," said @ugirls64. "How did I not hear about dishonest harmony until now? This describes my family dynamic to a T. If you disrupt that illusion, you are automatically labeled the problem. It's frustrating," chimed in @purrrentice. "As a millennial with a ten-year-old, I thought parenting would be difficult patience-wise because of Boomer parenting. Turns out, it's really easy to validate a kid's feelings," remarked @neichasart. "It’s almost like we need an entire generation to pass so that we can raise a generation without trauma and change the world," added @riotofhealing.

You can follow Parkrose Permaculture (@parkrosepermaculture) on TikTok for more parenting and lifestyle content.