AGING BABY BOOMERS LEARNING THEIR KIDS DON’T WANT THEIR PARENTS’ CRAP

As baby boomers age and think about moving out of the family home and begin to downsize, they are discovering their grown children do not want their stuff. Collections of figurines, china, crystal, souvenier spoons, books, dolls, paintings and the like are just not what your kids want to have to deal with. Randy Frost, a psychology professor at Smith College and co-author of “Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things”, says, “When people try to throw something away, they feel like they are losing personal history, losing a little of their identity.” But most young people today see trips, vacations, and photos as the repository of family memories – not shelves full of mementoes.
* “You’re gonna need a bigger thrift store.”
* Scary thought: Warehouses and warehouses full of unwanted porcelain babies.
* “Kids, would you like to take some of this stuff?” “Where – to the nearest dumpster?”
* Ask yourself this: Can you put in on a computer? If not, your kids don’t want it.
* PHONE TOPIC: What thing of your parents are you most worried about having to inherit?