It’s time to ‘shut up and listen’ to millennials

“Daddy, sometimes I want you to just listen and not try and solve everything.”

My daughter said this in her junior year of college. Now she is a college graduate with not one, but two undergraduate degrees. It’s a quote I haven’t forgotten. I think of it every time I talk to someone or am in a meeting.

I thought of her statement the day after a snowstorm paralyzed the New York City area last December. After shoveling, my daughter and I settled down in our TV room and had a glass of wine together. We talked into the night, just me and my “little girl.” I listened.

We’ve all been there

Our conversation that night covered a range of topics, but it wasn’t unusual; we always have long father/daughter conversations. I used to have the same type of conversations with my son, who is a member of Generation X.

I thought of my parents and the spirited discussions my brothers and I had with them. “They just do not understand us,” my brothers and I would always say. From our clothes, politics, hair styles, and even our taste in music, we did not always agree.

As Yogi Berra would characterize it, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

Boomers, wake up. We have all been there.