momentum of ageing

How can something so symmetrical as an age difference be played against you? Why don’t your parents try to understand you instead?

Generational gaps affect only the means through which age specific tendencies get manifested, not the tendencies themselves. Humans have not changed much after all. We still pass through the same stages of life! Since understanding involves cutting across appearances and reaching beyond manifestations, the gap between you and your parents is indeed quite symmetric.

…or is it not?

Ageing has a forward momentum. We age forwards and our exceptionally enlarged frontal lobes are enlarged for thinking forwards. So physically and cognitively we have a better grasp of our immediate future than our immediate past.

Your parents are ageing with a momentum that is directed away from you, while you are ageing with a momentum directed towards them. Although the age difference indeed stays static, this asymmetry skews the situation against you: It is fundamentally easier for you to understand your parents.