Reassessments of ‘The Lost-Out Generation’

I too had a childhood of comfort and privilege--canopy bed, art and music lessons, summer cottage, college education, the whole nine yards. Now I have chosen to put my degree on hold while I raise our two preschoolers and we live on my husband’s salary in a small two-bedroom condo in a decidedly unfashionable part of town.

No trips to England for us, no new truck, no dining out several times a week. We make do with trips to the park, a used car that we’ll run into the ground before we buy another, pizza with friends as our Saturday night entertainment.

Life is full of trade-offs and sacrifices, always has been, despite what many of our baby-boom peers may believe. We have chosen to forgo many of the material trappings that some of our contemporaries seem to feel are their divine birthright, but we have also given up the maxed-out MasterCard, the worries about what really goes on in a day-care center, that frazzled, overextended feeling of having too many needs and desires to satisfy and never enough time or money to do it with.

AMY LATHEROW

Oxnard