IThere was a time when, at dinners, parents showed off by comparing their children’s baccalaureate grades or by slipping the number of “skipped” classes. Today, a matter of time, we show off differently. Parents (sometimes the same) measure their virtue or their luck by praising the will of their heirs to change the world, through their masters in renewable energies or their jobs in the social and solidarity economy.
Parents were consultants cost killers, marketing executives with a poor social record; but at the time of the last judgment, their legacy could be redeemed by the careers of their offspring. The latter will be their carbon offset. Just as corporate social responsibility (CSR) departments can help greenwash a business, CSR kids help mum and dad greenwash. Their friends may well have more educated offspring, theirs are more virtuous.
How do we recognize them?
They were delighted that their young people joined a management school, they are now proud that barely graduating they no longer want to do management. They have already told all their friends that their children are vegetarians. They are the ones who have to take care of the vermicomposter that the son has installed in the kitchen. They checked the “hidden amount” option by contributing to the Ulule campaign for the start-up in solidarity with their descendants… They advertised it on their LinkedIn account by starting their message with “I’m not used to talking about my private life here but …”. They tell themselves that anyway, it’s always good to have a committed paragraph on your CV.
They never manage to remember the exact title of their daughter’s master’s degree. It was by listening to them that they decided to get into permaculture, at least for their second home. They were nevertheless a little reassured that, after their trip around the world, their children could find this job in “green finance” or in the development of new sectors at TotalEnergies.
How they talk
“Our children don’t want to live like us and that makes you think a lot. “” It was not in my scope to live like that. “” They are hyper-engaged, not in the action but in the reflection. “” He has a fixed-term contract in a big box but he is in a process of mutual aid. “My daughter insisted that I take a mushroom leather bag. “” Well there is still a little ambiguity, if we take them to the end of the world for the holidays, it is true that they do not ask us the question of the plane. “” They are still really careful. “” I never had that courage. “” Their deconsumption is not obvious on everything. ”
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