NYP: This week we learned that, for the first time in 130 years, more young adults ages 18-34 are living with their parents than in any other arrangement. We also learned (or were reminded) that students at Oberlin, one of the most prestigious colleges in the country, are wee wailing babies who are having the all-day equivalent of night terrors. You can hardly speak to them without using “magic circles” to soothe them.
These two trends aren’t coincidental: Millennials, and the generation following them, are reforming the country. What they’re creating amounts to the Childish States of America. If our national symbols were to be revised accordingly, the bald eagle would have to be replaced with a Teletubby. MORE
We need more fathers like Brad
Such shameless self promotion, Brad.
Lol, damn it, you got me. Talk to my kids about that. My father told me one time the problem with being a parent is that you really only get one shot at it. And now I can tell you he was absolutely right. As usual.
Poor Joan’s got La Raza after her now.
The morning after my high school graduation night, my father asked me at the breakfast table if I was going to college. I laughed and said heck no! I hated school. He said he’d pay for it, but still I declined. He then proceeded to inform me that rent day would be the following Friday and every Friday after that. I told him I didn’t have a job yet. He said I’d better find one quick because rent day was Friday. I found a job and when I walked in the door Friday, he had his hand out and said the rent was fifteen bucks. I paid every Friday until I decided the Air Force was beckoning me to join, so that’s what I did. We need more dads like my dad.
Until I was about 14 years old, my dad was the smartest guy in the world. Then from 15 to about 25 years old, my dad all of sudden became this old fool who was out of touch with the world. Then after 25, dad suddenly became as smart as I remembered him when I was 14 years old – maybe smarter.
After I graduated from college, my parents’ attitude was “go forth and be stupid, but learn from your inevitable mistakes.” In the intervening decades, I’ve been up, I’ve been down, and I’ve been somewhere in between – but it’s the ride I’ve enjoyed and will always be grateful for. Yeah, it was tough knowing that I was expected to sally forth into the great unknown after my schooling was done, but my folks prepared me as best they could, and then expected me to act like a real adult. Too many millenials are missing the experiences and the ride of their life – things I was expected to undertake at 21.
Thanks, mom and dad.
My daughter is 12. She must maintain an A average, keep her room clean, wash her own clothes and do yard work and wash dishes for a small allowance from which she must save 20%, and buy all her own “wants”. I do all this to prepare her for living indepndently in 6 years. I’m sure I’ll cry when she moves out but that’s why they say being a parent is tough, not because diapers are hard to change.
In about an hour I turn 43, half the age of all you octogenarians. The past week I’ve been forcing my kids to train their bodies with me. No more school means no more pussyfooting around, this is the summer to grow the hell up and it starts with confidence in their abilities. Not to mention the beer belly I’ve been growing needs to fuck off, so I’m right in the fray with them. They both want a number.. A number of pushups, chinups, situps, miles… No numbers, when you can’t do any more, I want 10 more. Bitch about it and do 20 more. It’s getting done in the cracker family, there are no more excuses. Because we need to depend on each other; a 2-way street. And by-golly for the first time in a while, I feel years younger and the kids hang on to every word I say. My 9 year old is a badass built like a tank, on par to get his taekwondo black belt by Christmas.
There is much wisdom before this comment. Thanks to all the good parents that shape the lives of the next generation!
Well, duh. These loserino spawn are living at home BECAUSE MOM AND DAD MAKE IT TOO EASY FOR THEM TO STAY.
They pay no room and board, get free housekeeping. Who wouldn’t want a cushy arrangement like that?
I’ve always had advice for people who are trying to get their adult children out of the house. I tell them “Use the guaranteed Jeannette Yonkers technique: charge them room and board. I left skid marks.”
Adult children are like bears. Stop feeding them and eventually they will go away.