Grow Up, Millennials — And Stop Taking Money From Mom And Dad

WBUR-FM's Cognoscenti ^ | October 28, 2014 | Amory Sivertson

[2ndDivisionVet]

Last month — gulp — I turned a quarter-century old. To the boomers rolling your eyes right now and thinking, Twenty-five? You’re just a kid! I say this: Yes, by some standards, I am. By Beyoncé’s standards, I should have at least six albums and a fashion line under my belt.

Regardless, 25 feels significant to me, so when I came across the headline “25 is the New 21” on The Atlantic’s website, I was intrigued — and soon, discouraged.

Meet Emma, recent college graduate, daughter of the article’s author, Randye Hoder, and, apparently, exemplar of my generation’s extended childhood. Emma works 30 hours a week at a “well-respected magazine,” and she lives several hundred dollars a month beyond her means. Her parents pay her college loans, car insurance and phone bill, and, together with Emma’s grandmother, they throw a $500-a-month stipend her way.

Some parents might call this a “safety net.” I call it a drug. Support like that — with a stipend, to boot — promotes and rewards a lifestyle that a young person like Emma simply cannot afford on her own in this stage of life. What incentive would she have to refuse it?

Emma is in good company. According to the 2013 Clark University Poll of Parents of Emerging Adults, approximately 74 percent of today’s emerging adults receive financial support from their parents. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s 2012 Millennial General Research Review found that 36 percent of millennials depend on such support.

I have every reason to believe that Emma works hard at her job....

[oblomov]

“emerging adults”?

[Personal Responsibility]

Author is 100% right. The money is like a drug and unless the kid is mature for their years, getting them to kick the habit is like getting an addict to kick heroin.

[Veggie Todd]

Mom and Dad: Stop giving your adult children money.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Hipsters.

[KoRn]

I’m sort of on the border between being a ‘Gen-Xer’ and a ‘Millennial’, and I find the Millennials to be the worst in virtually every way. Our society no longer raises boys to be MEN. Too many young guys today have grown up to be ‘Pajama Boy’. This makes for good job opportunities, because those little pussies are gonna have to call an actual MAN to do their ‘dirty work’, because they probably don’t know how to use a screwdriver.

I more identify with the Gen-X generation. Reagan/Bush, and probably Clinton were the presidents during my formative years.

I remember after a couple of years of 0-Tard, I found myself longing for the days of Clinton, and THAT’S pretty dammed BAD!!!!

[zek157]

Don't depend on the millinials buy your assets for anything near what you paid for them when it's time for you to sell down and retire. They have been screwwed and will not be paying their part of the ponzi. “I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” ― Thomas Jefferson

[Farmer Dean]

Every time they try to kick the habit,their work allergy kicks in.

[VanShuyten]

From the article:
“To those parents, I would ask: What would your child’s life look like if you took away that monthly stipend or stopped paying her student loans? Would she go hungry? Or would she learn how to budget in order to accommodate a lifestyle she can afford on her own? I also wonder when the cut-off for financial assistance is. This kind of enabling can be a hard habit to break.”

That’s easy. Food stamps, Obamaphones, Sec 8 vouchers.....

[-YYZ-]

Sounds like Emma’s maybe interning at this magazine, which could be viewed as a continuation of her education, which her parents (and grandmother) are helping to fund. Not unusual for those from the upper classes, as I understand it. I guess it all depends on whether what she is doing now is leading towards lucrative employment that will allow her to live in the style she’s accustomed, or if she’s just playing around on her parent’s dime. If the former, it’s maybe justifiable, if the latter, not so much.

[redangus]

My stepson had a little of that going on after he graduated from college couldn’t find a job while mom kept sending him a monthly check. I suggested she turn off the spigot. She called him a said his last check was in the mail. In a week he had his first real job. He has since gone on to grow up, get married, start his own company and have a baby. It’s amazing what the thought of being suddenly poor and hungry can do for your focus.

[zek157]

What would it be like if a education costs went up at the same rate as wages? instead of $1.2T in debt kids would be able to pay for tuition with summer jobs like we did. A semester cost the same as a4 year degree at the same state school I graduated from in the early 90’s.

Job creation since 2006 isn’t what the 6% official unemployment rate woud suggest. It’s more like the official inflation rate, you know it’s BS if you buy food.

[DoughtyOne]

I've got a novel idea.  Let's let others life the life they want, parents and their children, and choose to obsess over something else.

I don't like the idea of parents supporting thier adult children, but me get involved even with advice?  Ick!!!


Ramirez's latest political cartoon LARGE VERSION 10/28/2014: LINK  LINK to regular sized version of Ramirez's latest, and an archive of his political cartoons.
In this political cartoon, Ramirez presents, "Ebola's Ode..."

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...this is a general all purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

[Vermont Lt]

My daughter graduated a few weeks ago. She already has a job. She went to orientation yesterday. This morning she starts her OTJT. She said last night that she is looking forward to taking over her car payment, insurance, and her phone.

She is going to save us $500 the first month.

My wife and I are excited about her pro-active approach. I am not in a rush to have her move out—but that is coming.

I guess we did something right.

[Nea Wood]

Twentysomethings? I know people in their 30s, 40s, and even early 50s who are living with their parents, accepting money from their parents, or their parents bought them their house or car.

A friend of mine has a son who’s almost 30. He hasn’t worked in almost 10 years and sure isn’t going to start now. “Well...he gets nervous on job interviews,” his mother excuses him in whispered tones behind his back. Of course he does, since he hasn’t been on an interview in almost ten years! So he gets to live with Mommy while SHE pays the bills and even cooks his meals. I often wonder how he explains this to the girls he dates. When I was dating age, a guy “still living with his mom” was to be avoided. Maybe now, all of the twenty-somethings are living with their moms so there’s no stigma.

Not sure where this will all end, but it doesn’t look good. The wealth of the Greatest Generation, baby-boomers, and Gen-Xers won’t last forever. They’re living off the fumes of it now.

[Tzimisce]

...so they’re offended that the kids act entitled to things?

Their parents act that way. Kids are just mirroring their parents.

[Kenton]

So he gets to live with Mommy while SHE pays the bills and even cooks his meals. I often wonder how he explains this to the girls he dates.

"Oh... uh.. yeah, I live with my parents to help take care of them... uh... I mean they live with ME so I can help take care of them... uh, well now that you've asked, the house is technically in my mom's name, but I'm buying it. Or we've talked about that, but it's not final, but SOME DAY, becuz she's not gonna live forever, so uh..."

[Rinnwald]

“To those parents, I would ask: What would your Corvette look like if you took away that monthly stipend or stopped paying her student loans...”

Red or blue. I haven’t decided yet.

[SamAdams76]

I'm very fortunate. My two sons, both still in their early to mid 20s, are out on their own and I don't give them a cent. I do have them over for Thanksgiving and such and my wife and I go all out to give them a good time when they visit, but when the holiday is over, they are back in their own apartment, paying their own bills.

I know they are exceptions to the rule.

When I growing up in the 1970s, it was still considered unmanly to live with your parents past 18 - or past the time you got out of college. That's what drove me to get out. I joined the military at 18 and never went home again. For a couple years after my discharge, I lived in a ratty apartment. and ate a lot of Kraft & Macaroni cheese (5 boxes for a dollar!). Drove around a beat up AMC Pacer that smelled like gas. But I had my own life and quickly improved upon it. Now I have an upper middle-class lifestyle that I earned all on my own dime.

I've heard the arguments pro and con but I'm convinced that adult children living at home is a bad idea for all involved. It robs the children of ambition and decreases their chances of even marrying well. What fine woman wants to marry an overgrown kid who dresses like a slob, plays Nintendo games and participates in fantasy sports leagues while his mother makes his bed for him in the morning and does his laundry?

[SamAdams76]

I also meant to add that for the parents, it robs them of a much deserved period of their life when they should be re-discovering their marriage, going on vacations together (that don’t involve amusement parks), and maybe down-scaling to a smaller home instead of still making beds, doing laundry and worrying about where their overgrown children are when they aren’t there at 2 in the morning.