Kfergos, I don't think that everyone in your generation is self absorbed. We all think whatever we are going through at a particular time is "the most important thing" at the moment. Hence, the phenomenon where women can only talk about their babies, or buying a house, etc.
My kids are definitely not self absorbed. However, because of the economy, things aren't exactly how my older son wishes they were.
I did exactly what I wanted to for most of my life before I met my DH. I was wild as hell in high school and wasted my college years by living with and marrying the wrong person. When I got divorced, I had no plans to remarry, but met my DH when I least expected it, although I was still quite young. I also was vehemently anti having kids, until one day I became obsessed with it and that was that. I always knew I never wanted to be a stay at home mom and took a lot of crap for not feeling guilty about that. At work, I was often told that "I thought like a man
."
Well, 30 years later, I am still married and my kids turned out fine!