Are today's twentysomethings spoiled, coddled brats who sponge off their parents and wander aimlessly through an entertainment-addled existence? Or do they face unusual challenges that make it difficult to follow the time-honored high school-college-adulthood script? Both assertions were on view this week. In the Wall Street Journal, Jeff Zaslow writes about the "crisis of coddling" in American families as millions of twentysomethings move back in with their parents, and offers recommendations for parents faced with a kid who won't grow up. But in USA Today, Haya El Nasser reports that the coddled young adult - presumably emerging from the cocoon of soft America into the rigors of hard America - faces challenges that previous generations haven't. These include rising housing costs that make getting a first apartment or house difficult, and an average $19,000 in college loan debt (far higher for those with graduate/professional degrees). As usual with any point-counterpoint of this kind, the truth is likely in the middle. Yet unmentioned in both these articles is the complicity of our K-12 education system in producing young people unable to cope with adult life. Introducing K-12 students to the notion of "accountability" might decrease the number of young adults who are shocked to discover that there comes a time when Mom isn't going to take care of you anymore.
"The coddling crisis: Why Americans think adulthood begins at age 26," by Jeff Zaslow, Wall Street Journal, January 6, 2005 (subscription required)
"Why grown kids come home," by Haya El Nasser, USA Today, January 11, 2005