Adultolescents

The predominant claim in the article "Bring up Adultolescents" by Peg Tyre, originally printed in the March 25, 2002 Newsweek is "parents across the country are trying to provide their twentysomethings with the tools they'll need to be self-sufficient-someday. In the process they havd created a whole new breed of child-the adultolescent" (134). The article explains that as these children go off to college, more and more of them are coming back home to live after graduation and living off their parents again. Many parents are trying to help their children become self-sufficient by paying for college and even graduate school in order to give their child that little extra push that they need so they can do things like pay for rent and cook for themselves. Tyre does explain at the end that "psychiatrists say it's tough to convince a parent that self-sufficiency is the one thing that they can't give their children," but these parents are willing to give up retirement money just to feel like their child is that much closer to having the life of their dreams (136). There might be more to this idea than Tyre explains. The parents have spent their entire adult lives trying to give their children opportunities that they did not have as children and this seems to have spread into the adult lives of their children, but the cost of living is more than it was when these kids were growing up and having a job that will pay the bills and at least some of the extravagant lifestyle that they grew up living means that they will need better paying jobs. In order to get these jobs, they need to go to school, something that was not necessary even one generation ago. Let's face it, minimum wage is less than minimum life these days. You can't even rent a small apartment for the paycheck that you can get from a minimum wage paying job, let alone buy food and other necessities. These parents have been protecting their children from poverty all their lives, why would they stop as their children reached adulthood?