More Generation X References That My Kids Don’t Get

I saw him yesterday in my backyard. The first rabbit of the season.

He smiled at me with a giant, buck tooth grin as he leaped through the wooded area behind my house onto my grass. Every spring and summer, he decimates the grass, greedily dining on tender shoots and leaving humongous bald patches that he visits each night to deposit a pile of his tiny round bunny turds.

“Be vewy, vewy quiet,” I told my kids, ages 12 and 9, in my best Elmer Fudd voice. “I’m hunting wabbits!”

Blank stares.

Oh, sheesh. Really? No Elmer Fudd? I swear every kid who grew up in the ’70s watched Bugs Bunny on TV. Yet my kids have no clue what I’m talking about. It’s just one more of my beloved Generation X references that my kids don’t get.

Generation X references like:

1. I pity the fool!

I say this when one of my kids forgets to change the toilet paper role or puts the Kool-Aid jug back in the fridge completely empty.

2. What’s happenin’ hot stuff?

This one’s fun to say when I’m just checking in with my kids. Too bad they have no clue it was originated by Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles.

3. Kiss my grits.

I like to say this about things such as the dismal winter weather here in the Midwest.

Another snow storm? “Kiss my grits!”

“What’s grits?” my son asked.

4. Where’s the beef?

Every time I visit Wendy’s with my kids I say this. And every time, my kids pretend they don’t know who I am.

5. Move over, bacon. Now there’s something meatier.

When I need someone to scoot over on the couch, this is my go-to phrase.

6. Ancient Chinese secret, huh?

I loved this commercial! I’ll spout out, “Ancient Chinese secret, huh?” any time one of my kids refuses to tell me something.

7. Ooh, la la, Sasson.

When my daughter dresses fashionably? Ooh, la la, Sasson!

8. What you talkin’ about Willis?

I say this whenever I don’t understand what my kids are talking about, such as the slang my son brings home from middle school, like “on fleek.”

9. Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.

“What about daddy?” my 9-year-old asked.

Good point.

10. You’ll get nothing and like it.

As soon as my kids ask for more than the fair share at any concession stand, I whip out this little ditty from Judge Smails in Caddyshack.

(I have to confess my husband first introduced me to this saying. I guess Caddyshack is beloved by Gen X men and their fathers, especially those who play golf.)