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The Dog Phenomenon
From time immemorial, the human race has obeyed the biological imperative. Societies traditionally channeled much of their energy into reproducing themselves. Until now. Parenthood is falling into obsolescence, to be replaced by such simulacra as dog parenthood, cat parenthood, and plant parenthood (not to be confused, of course, with Planned Parenthood). About one out of every two dating profiles features the words “dog mom,” “dog mama,” or some variant thereof. Millennials spend lavishly on dogs. They live for dogs, talk about dogs, think about dogs — everything short of worshipping them.
Why is this happening? The usual explanation takes the form of economic determinism. Raising children is costly. “Raising” a dog is less costly. Lacking money, the argument goes, Millennials “raise” dogs instead of children. This may be part of the explanation, but not the complete one. Something else is happening — something more insidious, and something likely to stand in the way of parenting even if all financial burdens were lifted by a benevolent state. No, Millennials fear a different kind of burden, I think. Here’s my theory:
Millennials* will sometimes say “OK Boomer” as a way to insult old people they deem to be outdated and irrelevant. The phrase is a slight at the Baby Boomer generation. This intergenerational teasing is fun because many of the Millennials had Baby Boomers as parents. As 
If you look at the leadership in our federal government you might be tempted to say, “OK Boomer” yourself, but there is a problem with that. Joe Biden is 78. Nancy Pelosi is 80. Mitch McConnell is 78. None of these people are young enough to be called Boomers. At a time when Boomers should be stepping aside and letting the super-cool Gen Xers take over, we have leadership that looks at Baby Boomers and calls them “kids.” I mention this because I saw that the 
