All posts by Tom Bissonette

Tom Bissonette is a former Clinical Director, College Counselor, and a Developmental & Prevention Educator. He taught courses on Adolescent & Young Adult Development at the U. of TN at Chattanooga for 20 years. During his tenure as a psychotherapist and faculty he created an effective model for helping people understand their own development. This “Asynchronous Development Model” was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education. He has trained educators and therapists across the country on applying the model to assess and support students/clients growth. Tom recently won awards for his short stories and published his first novel, These Waning Walls.
Authors A-H, Generational

Cross-generational Adulting – by Tom Bissonette

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A Boomer’s plea for unity

I was a bit put off when I first heard the term “adulting”, the traditional noun turned into a verb. It sounded like an excuse young people were using to buy themselves more time to step up to the demands of being a “grownup.” I grew tired of hearing how hard adulting is. I briefly had the same mindset as the other old guy who complained about the “Peter Pan Syndrome” of today’s youth in a TikTok video which set off the viral “OK Boomer” retort on Instagram and other social media. Since I was still somewhat indoctrinated in traditional views of human development, “adulthood” was a landing place after certain basic criteria were met. One’s chronological age plus official legal status as an adult was usually enough to claim it, maybe with a modicum of independence thrown in.

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