You Can Almost Always Tell An Elder Millennial Is Having A Midlife Crisis When They Start Doing One Of These 3 Things
syedfahadghazanfar | Shutterstock A midlife crisis usually conjures images of a man with fresh highlights covering his greys, rolling up in a Corvette, hoping to recapture a feeling of youth. While pop culture and generalized stereotypes have solidified this image, a midlife crisis looks a whole lot different now.
Elder millennials are among those approaching midlife, and how they're coping with it seems to be a result of the interplay between what they were told to do their whole lives and the state of the world. A combination of economic factors and a yearning for simpler times makes the millennial midlife crisis very different from generations past.
You can almost always tell an elder millennial is having a midlife crisis when they start doing one of these 3 things:
1. They're trying to relive their childhood
One of the biggest tells of elder millennials having a midlife crisis is that they seem to be regressing to their younger selves. Not to be young and hip like older generations, but to genuinely find comfort in feeling youthful again. Anything from rewatching their favorite kids' movies to going to Disneyland to doing arts and crafts.
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This is because older generations had the luxury of being almost too comfortable with their lives, and needed a midlife crisis to disrupt it. On the contrary, elder millennials are dealing with an economy that is so volatile that they long for the safety and security that aspects of their childhood offered.
Self-proclaimed millennial Mom Elle stitched a TikTok post, capturing the essence of her generation's midlife crisis perfectly, "Yeah, um, we're retreating. We're going back to the childhood that we didn't get to have, but that we saw on TV, and we're also going to game our way into some other place where housing and cars are affordable, and there are grandparents to watch our children. So that's what I'm doing."
2. They're picking up the most random hobbies
Gen X parents are rather notorious for establishing the helicopter parent stereotype. Not to mention, millennials came of age during the 2009 recession, which saw massive layoffs. As a consequence, millennials felt they were often told what to do and how to live their lives, at the expense of pursuing what they actually cared about.
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Now that they're of age and feel empowered to think independently, the elder millennial in a midlife crisis will likely pick up a hobby that feels totally out of the ordinary. Millennial Nayara shared in a recent TikTok post that the midlife crisis hobbies popular with her peers: playing pickleball, making homemade sourdough, collecting bags, going to yoga/pilates, gardening, and gaming.
People went nuts over the post and commented their own uproarious pursuits, "I'm definitely the crotchet and sewing millennial," one shared. "You forgot trinket hoarding," and a personal favorite, "I actually went bookish with a sprinkle of birdwatching." If an elder millennial is picking up a random hobby, it's probably for the best to just let them do what they wanna do.
3. They're just saying and doing uncharacteristic things.
One thing that elder millennials do share with previous generations is that their midlife crisis comes with a host of things they, as individuals, would never have done in the past. Echoing the previous sentiment of not feeling like they could ever truly live life to the fullest, coming-of-age, elder millennials experiencing a midlife crisis are going to say and do things that are absolutely wild.
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In an article from The Sunday Times, writer Lotte Jeffs hilariously exposed the new groups of millennials riding the proverbial wave of a midlife crisis. Jeffs broke the cohort going through midlife into 5 hilarious groups: the ones advocating for an open marriage, the ones partying at the club every weekend, the ones dabbling in psychedelics, the ones starting a podcast filled with nonsense, and even the ones proudly doing van life.
And honestly, more power to them. When you reach a certain age, you're entitled to start living life the way you want to. Midlife is a second act. That means embrace the change. Lean into that nostalgia. Start a podcast and birdwatch to your heart's content.
Luke Aliga is a writer with a degree in Technical Writing and Communication who covers relationships, culture, and human interest topics.
