I was bowled over the other day when my daughter, telling me of a contemporary of mine who had not got around to acknowledging a gift, dismissed the matter with the remark, “Well, that’s typical of your generation!”

Hey! Wait a minute, I thought! Surely that’s my line! After all, ever since I can remember, it has been the prerogative of the older generation to complain about the younger generation and make sweeping generalisations about their lack of courtesy, their casual attitude, their idea of punctuality and so on. Yet, if the truth be told, somewhere down the line, things appear to have changed. Through some peculiar alchemy, and while we have been looking the other way, a radical shift has taken place amongst our young. While we, the older generation, have been trying to adjust to a fast changing world, the younger generation has stopped behaving in the manner we expected of it! Nor is it just in the matter of answering letters and writing thank-you notes. What has happened is that the young have become far more sensible, level-headed, focused and purposeful than we thought they would be, or for that matter, than we were at their age.

Work-wise the world has opened up for them, and there are many exciting avenues of employment that they can pursue. Yet, for the most part, they go down the traditional route, just as their parents did. They become professionals. They join the Civil Services. Or multinationals, business houses and banks. And when they think of jobs, they, as their parents did, consider seemingly dull matters such as prospects and pensions.

But here the similarity between the two generations seems to stop. The young, driven by a determination to excel, work at a frenetic pace. The hours they keep are crippling, and leave little or no time for relaxation. But their sights are set much higher than those of the older generation, and the material rewards much greater. Where, for instance, their parents struggled at the end of their working lives to find a home for their retirement, these youngsters aim at buying a flat or apartment and moving in within a few years of starting to work. Far less fearful and far more adventurous in their attitude to life and work than we ever were, they do not hesitate to change jobs if that is what it takes to get ahead faster, something their parents generally lacked the courage to do. Clued up on all fronts, they start thinking about the stock market even before they have any real money to invest!

There is good reason, perhaps, for this change. When we were young, the world moved at a slower pace. Admission to schools and colleges was relatively easy, and there seemed to be enough jobs to go around. Accommodation was easily and cheaply found, and the stresses and strains of today were absent. There was time to grow up slowly and take each phase as it came. All this has changed. If today’s young are overly stable and responsible, and old before their time, it is perhaps because they cannot afford the luxury of being otherwise. However, like many other mothers, I can’t help bemoaning the fact that our children work too hard and, in the process, lose out on many intangible benefits.