ACROSS THE GAP: Should We Be Worried That Kids No Longer Find Their Parents 'Old-Fashioned'?

For better or worse, the generation gap is narrowing. A recent survey on ‘Family Values in the 1990s,’ commissioned by Good Housekeeping and conducted by The Roper Organization, finds children certifying their parents as ‘up-to-date’ rather than ‘old-fashioned’ about such matters as kids’ clothes, entertainment, preferences in food and consumer products, even music. Does this mean parents are capitulating to their kids’ tastes, or vice versa? Sounds like some of each, though (somewhat reassuringly) the survey also finds that kids pay more heed to their parents than to friends, siblings or teachers on a range of important matters – including sex, drinking, spending money, what to study in school and AIDS.