Posted on 06/06/2010 10:11:16 AM PDT by STONEWALLS
"For years, Pat Bearce had a message for his daughter Andrea: After her college graduation, she would be on her own financially.
It has been three years, and she isn't quite there yet.
After studying broadcast journalism at Texas Christian University, Andrea decided to pursue a career as a chef, choosing a pricey culinary school in New York City. The restaurant jobs she landed didn't come with health coverage, so, in addition to guaranteeing her apartment lease in Manhattan, her parents covered her health-care costs for a couple of years. They paid her monthly cellphone bill, too. And she still has a jointly held credit card with her mother, Catherine.
"It's pretty hard to get them launched," says Mr. Bearce, a pilot at Boeing Co. in Seattle, who now says he never actually intended to enforce the deadline. "The real bottom line is that when they're done with school, they're not really done."
The latest class of college graduates is entering the real world at a time when parents are finding it more difficult than ever to get their adult children off the family dole—and may be growing increasingly stretched themselves. For decades, the gap between the student years and adulthood has been widening, and the sour economy has only accelerated that trend.
The unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds stands at about 15%, compared with 9.7% for the whole work force. Then there is the worsening indebtedness problem: About two-thirds of 2008 graduates had student debt, and that debt averaged $23,200—up from $18,650 in 2004—according to the Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit group.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
My buddy’s daughter just graduated from law school owing 100,000. He plans to help her out.
Excuse me but why all of the perks to adult children? IMHO if the nest is warm and inviting they will never leave. She can work as a chef somewhere else besides where rents are out of her salary range, she does not need a cell phone, and if she really needs a creit card there are those that you can put $X dollars onto and when it is gone she is on her own.
She was seriously depressed, but has become a bit more upbeat as she has decided to get a certificate which will allow her to teach English, she is hoping in Japan. It is a paying job, tho I'm not happy seeing her go so far away for a year or two; but she should be back around the time we toss that idiot out of the WH, and then perhaps businesses will be feeling more willing to start hiring and take a chance on a newbie.
Sounds like dads the one that has trouble cutting the strings. I have two kids in college living at home. They sleep here and that is about it. The other part of their day is a full time job and full time at college. If they intend to stay after that I will charge them rent.
It used to - back in the 1950-2000 time frame that we are now starting to see was a historical aberration. Today, our ruling classes are reasserting control, and a lifetime of careful savings can be wiped out by one or two pieces of bribe-the-poor legislation.
This has nothing to do with student loans, this has to do with a generation that was never raised to grow up. My nephew-in-law is in this crowd of schmucks, and he never went to college. He (at 25) and most of his friends just can’t wrap their heads around the idea of getting a job and taking responsibility for their lives. The only part of growing up they’re even slightly interested in is the booze and sex.
I doubt a change in government is going to change attitudes of the kids. They’re accustomed to getting what they want. Makes no difference if George Bush is in office or Barry Obama. They want to major in broadcast journalism or women’s studies and somehow think they’re going to get well paying jobs when they graduate.
Or a simple change in regulation like the May 2009 change in the regulation governing Home Appraisals that knocked 20-25% off the value of your home simply with a stoke of the pen.
Hmm, I think you are going easy on them. My two kids work, go to school... but they pay their tuition, and bills and food around the house. And, they do chores. In a way, I am already charging them rent.
100% parents fault.
Wasn’t it only when Social Security became available that parents and children were obligated to live apart?
Pre Social Security, didn’t the parents live with their adult children when they became too old to work and/or the mother was left alone?
Isn’t the general rule of “children must leave the nest” another false tool of socialism just as wrong as “women do not need men to raise children”?
Isn’t this what Marx planned?
I’m in the same boat. My adult son has been off the drugs for a few years, after I finally got him away from his mother (my ex). Intellectually lazy and still thinks life is a big party. Much like his mom in that regard. I honestly don’t know what to do with him. I tell him that the world needs ditch diggers too, but that I hope he wants something better for himself.
Part of the devils pact the Socialists in Europe made with the voters after WW2. We will transfer all the burdensome adult issues to the State, you elect, and reelect us to take care of them for you. The result, as Mark Steyn in American Alone observed, is adult children in Europe who are now retiring having never ever had to actually deal with the burdens of Adulthood.
She was seriously depressed, but has become a bit more upbeat as she has decided to get a certificate which will allow her to teach English, she is hoping in Japan. It is a paying job, tho I’m not happy seeing her go so far away for a year or two; but she should be back around the time we toss that idiot out of the WH, and then perhaps businesses will be feeling more willing to start hiring and take a chance on a newbie. >>>>>>>>>
I would also consider Taiwan and Korea. Its the same deal where they want to learn American accent and idioms from a real live English teacher. Good luck to your daughter. She has a good attitude
Communications is not really a fake degree. However, you have to be an outgoing person to use it and a lot of the people who get it aren’t.>>>>>>>>>
It is a 100% legitimate degree. The problem is too many communications majors are in it because they couldn’t settle on anything else. Not you obviously but a lot of young women are in college as kind of a finishing school and place to meet a husband...A communications degree is what many of them pick.
The don’t usually eat here unless its the weekend and I am preparing dinner for the family. They did have to kick in last winter to help with the heating bills but other then that I don’t ask for much. And they are paying their own bills. I have nothing to do with that but I will be honest and admit that if I could afford it I probably would.
My folks rented a U-Haul for my college graduation gift. I had no job, no prospects, but knew they were serious. I moved in with a friend in the “big city” and worked 3 jobs until I finally found a “good” job. It’s what you have to do in order to grow up.
Isn’t the general rule of “children must leave the nest” another false tool of socialism”
Well, in my case, after I left for college at 18, I never did live with my parents again. In the summer I roomed with friends, etc. Living was much cheaper in the 60s.
Quite frankly the main reason why I moved out was so I could have sex. So...
Now that my daughter is back at home, there is an unspoken agreement that there is none of that going on that I know about.
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