I’m always trying to understand the motivations behind human behavior.

I blame it on years of coaching and trying to keep up with and inspire hundreds of kids with hundreds of different personalities, but, I think it’s just because I just like to know how things work from the inside out.

Recently I stumbled onto a slew of Instagram reels generated by my peers, the Gen Xers, outlining the many, many reasons that the collective you should not mess with the collective us. As snarky comment after snarky comment rang true, I started thinking about the merits of the generational divides.

Although the boundaries can be blurry, just to recap and get everyone on the same page terminologically, and according to a bunch of different things I read on the internet, the current framework of generations includes the Greatest Generation, born roughly between 1901 and 1927; the Silent Generation, born from about 1927 to 1945 (although both of my parents technically fall into this generation, so I’m going to say it ended a little bit before 1945 in my book); the Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964; Generation X, born from 1965 through 1980; the Millennials or Generation Y, those born from 1981 to 1995, and Generation Z, those born from 1996 until about 2015, but I think we’ll need a little more data before we decide if the next generation really starts in 2015, or earlier. I think the next generation will be known as Alpha, and according to E, who wants to be part of that generation, not her brother’s generation, it begins around 2010.

As I researched these dates, I realized that I have technically been coaching kids who were members of Gen X, all the way through the current generation, and it helped me to understand why lately I have been feeling like I’ve seen it all.

It also made me realize that I am a lot older than I think I am. I saw a meme recently, featuring Steve Martin and Diane Keaton in their roles from the movie “Father of the Bride,” the point of the meme being that in 1991, that’s what people who were 45 looked like. I definitely do not look at that picture and think that I am almost 5 years older than they are. Although, I was recently asked by someone if I was G’s grandmother, so maybe I also look older than I think I am.

It’s interesting to me how influential generational factors can be, even when they didn’t personally happen to you.

For example, Gen X is largely defined by parents who were divorced more than any other generation, and by being latch key kids.

Neither Steve nor I had either of those situations. Our parents never divorced, and with moms who were teachers, we usually came home pretty close to the same time as at least one of our parents.

On the other hand, both of us were accustomed to having many hours of free, unaccounted for time. Steve would be in the woods hunting, fishing or trapping whenever he could, sans cellphone of course. I spent weekends and summers riding my bike all over our neighborhood, usually heading to my best friend’s house and then both of us riding our bikes around until we found something to do.

Even though we’ve moved back into my childhood home and my kids are growing up in the same neighborhood, and I know the surrounding area is full of kids their ages, they haven’t developed the same sense of freedom that I had as a kid, and I find myself reluctant to encourage them to venture beyond the limits of our property. I’m not sure why that is, as the best memories I have from my childhood, those that I can remember without the aid of them being immortalized on social media, are from those times, and I would like nothing more for my kids to be able to replicate those simpler times. My kids, however, have other ideas, and they involve a lot more technology than I would like.

A friend of mine recently posed the question, “Does every generation just automatically think that the ones that come after them have it easier than they did?”

I don’t know that I think that at all. I don’t envy young people who have never known a world without the atrocities that happened on 9/11. I don’t envy young people who have to navigate an online world that may not be tangible, but is certainly real.

I, more than many people, can completely relate to the YOLO and FOMO mentality that younger people are accused of having too much of while they have too little work ethic. I certainly wish we had paid more attention to the work/life balance more, instead of racking up the work hours now, intending to balance them with life hours later.

This year I will turn 50, and it’s making me think a lot about age and why we act certain ways, maybe how we’re supposed to act at a certain age.

When my grandmother was 50, she was already a grandmother.

A lot changed in two generations. I’ll be a single mom with a 17, a 15, and a 12-year-old. It’s not quite what I pictured when I thought of myself turning 50.

Then again, for a long time, 50 seemed so old, and now it just doesn’t. I think I’m glad that Gen X is (quietly and sarcastically) changing what it means to be “old.”

One website I found referred to us as “perpetual adolescents.” I don’t think my kids would argue much with that one. I’ve been told to grow up on more than one occasion.

Am I looking forward to turning 50? Absolutely not. I struggled greatly with turning 40, and I expect a repeat performance as the day gets closer, but knowing that my generation has little regard for the mores of middle age helps a lot. I intend to do my part to make Gen X proud.

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News.