I’m with you about not being able to wait to get out of the “nest”. I see it as an embarrassment not being able to sustain one’s self at 20+ years of age. I have to agree with the author on this piece. It is definitely a generational problem. I was in my twenty’s in the 80’s and I worked as many jobs as necessary to live on my own. I was taught that was what one did in order to become an adult. I see firsthand what the adults in my generation have done and are doing to their adult offspring. The youth will never learn responsibility as long as someone else is willing to foot the bills. These parents are retarding the growth of their “kids” by not cutting the financial apron strings. The folks I see in their mid to late 20’s seem much more immature than those of us when we were their age. I believe it is directly caused by over-indulgence and parental guilt.
I agree with you. I can only speak to my experience as a parent and admittedly an over-indulging one with the first child. I wanted to do things differently than my parents and not make my child work as hard as I had to and to experience the failures I did. HUGE MISTAKE! My parents had it correct and did it correctly. I was the one who didn’t follow their examples and thus produced one of those failure to launch sons (love that phrase). I had my come to Jesus moment after he flunked out of college (intentionally) and thought he’d lay around doing nothing because he thought finding a job consisted of browsing the internet. I gave him three months and gave him a contract that he had to sign if he wanted to continue to live in our home. If at anytime he failed to meet his obligations he would be given 48 hrs to leave. Of course he couldn’t meet them. A year later, I’m not sure if he’s pulled himself together but it is his life to have and to find.
To my dad (who is now 70)...you had it right and thank you for making my life not easy. Your other grandkids are not too happy with you since we’ve decided to more closely follow your lead:)