People Raised In The 60s & 70s Heard 5 Phrases Growing Up That Made Them Mentally Tough
Quaresmeira | Shutterstock In the 1960s and 1970s, the message parents were adamant about instilling in their kids was that you are capable of handling difficult things. Independence was expected, and the way parents spoke to their kids ensured they were mentally tough enough to handle life's ups and downs.
Some parenting practices that were considered normal decades ago might be considered unnecessarily harsh today. Still, there were certain lessons about disappointment and persistence that many people carried with them into adulthood. And while mental toughness isn't about pretending nothing hurts or refusing to ask for help, there is something valuable about believing you can handle what comes next.
People raised in the 60s & 70s are mentally tough thanks to phrases they regularly heard when they were kids:
1. 'You'll figure it out'
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Back in the day, children weren't always given an immediate solution to every problem. If you were frustrated because nobody was stepping in to solve the problem for you, the only person to blame was yourself.
Parents certainly helped when something was genuinely beyond a child's ability, but there was also an expectation that kids should try to work things out themselves before immediately asking someone else to take over. The experience taught an important lesson in self-confidence.
People who grew up with that mindset may have carried it into adulthood without even realizing it. When something goes wrong, their first instinct is to think. Too much guidance isn't necessarily a good thing, and kids today are struggling because they've never learned how to rely on their own abilities.
2. 'Life isn't fair'
This phrase was often meant to prepare kids for the harshness of reality. People raised in the '60s and '70s were frequently taught that disappointment was something inevitable rather than something adults should take care of for you. There are situations where people absolutely should speak up, but learning that life won't always go according to your preferences can build a certain kind of resilience.
You learn that being upset doesn't mean you can't continue. You learn that losing doesn't necessarily mean you're a loser. And perhaps most importantly, you learn that disappointment is survivable.
Understanding that disappointment is part of life can make it easier to recover from. There's also a difference between accepting that something is unfair and deciding that nothing can ever be changed.
3. 'Stop feeling sorry for yourself'
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This phrase is a bit controversial. Nobody wants a child to believe their feelings don't matter. But in many households during the '60s and '70s, children were taught not to remain stuck in self-pity.
That message could sometimes be overly blunt, yet it also encouraged a useful distinction between acknowledging pain and allowing pain to become your entire identity. The lesson was that feeling bad wasn't supposed to be the end of the story.
Everyone experiences failure. The people who recover learn how to experience them without becoming completely consumed by them. Give yourself a minute to indulge in a pity party and then let it go and find a solution. Moving forward means refusing to let one painful experience convince you that there is nowhere to go from here.
4. 'Do your best'
This phrase sounds simple, but it can teach something surprisingly powerful. Effort matters.
Sometimes the best you can do is show up and put genuine effort into what you're doing. That doesn't guarantee success, but you can't win without trying.
Kids have to learn to fail or won't keep trying. People who internalize that lesson can become more willing to take risks later in life. The point is effort and preparation.
5. 'You don't always get what you want.'
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This phrase has probably been repeated in some form for generations. For people who grew up in the '60s and '70s, this lesson was often reinforced by everyday life.
Someone who learned early that wanting something doesn't guarantee getting it may have an easier time recovering. Sometimes you ask again later, and sometimes you accept that the answer really is no and redirect your energy somewhere else.
That ability to tolerate disappointment becomes especially important in adulthood because so many things are outside our control. Mental toughness is acknowledging that something is difficult and being okay with it. The healthiest version of these old lessons is about developing confidence in your ability to respond.
MeShanda Deason is a writer with a BFA in Creative Writing from Stephen F. Austin State University and minors in Business Communication and Literature who covers storytelling, culture, identity, and human connection across editorial, journalism, and marketing spaces.
