The Stay-at-Homies.

     If your parents were baby boomers, they were in an interesting position. Because most of their parents were either in the great depression or heard stories about it, there was a mentality of saving instead of spending. Well, when our parents grew up, they had enough disposable income to buy all the stuff their parents never let them get. Even in this economy it's still going on. The muscle cars are being bought by men in their forties and fifties because it reminds them of what they always wanted when they were young or of what they had when they were young. Either way, it was about their youth and who they were back then. In fact, the words "midlife crisis" weren't even used until the early 70's. That's because they didn't happen. There's no way to have a midlife crisis if you can't afford it!
     There was some good that came out of this rediscovery/reappreciation of youth. Men began telling their children how important their youth was. They lavished stories of excitement and adventure on them in the hopes their children would appreciate what their parents had tried to beat out of them.
      I think it's called the Peter Pan syndrome, when a guy tries everything possible to maintain his youth. As if they want an Animal House lifestyle to continue after they have children. One of my friends, in denial of his new state of fatherhood, went out and played flip-cup the day his son was brought home from the hospital. That's right. He got drunk the night his son was brought home.
     There is a part of me that wouldn't mind maintaining a frat house with kids. I can imagine a guy with his hat backwards, wearing a toga, drinking the brewsky, and sporting a fashionable Baby Bjorn backpack. Now get about half a dozen of these bro's to play poker together on a Saturday night. Part of me wants this, and the other part thinks it might be pathetic. When you have kids, you're supposed to be grown up, right? How do grownups act again?