Seriously though, in the first part of my statement you quoted I ALSO said “I agree that college has infantilized young adults to some extent…but it affords people the opportunity like never before to learn, travel, experience, and otherwise focus on developing themselves before becoming attached to another.” Extending the period of “youth” is a different topic than the problem of raising (or NOT raising) bad ass immature kids who can’t handle ANY level of responsibility even into their 20s and 30s. I’m someone who has worked since being in 8th grade, and have always held down my share of responsibilities. Shoot, at my school they had us balancing checkbooks, managing stocks and learning about insurance in middle school. That being said, at age 18 or 20 I’m sure I *could* manage a household completely on my own if I had to, but I’m not at all ashamed to say that I wasn’t *ready* to. At that age I was in college focusing on an extremely rigorous academic curriculum and taking advantage of opportunities to travel the world and all sorts of experiences I would’ve missed out on jumping into a 9-5 just to say I’m an “adult”. It’s a delicate balance and I’m all for instilling wisdom into your kids and raising them like you friend…just remember times ARE different and you also have issues when you force people to grow up too fast.

AMEN to the childifying of Adults!!!!!! That’s part of the point John Singleton was trying to make with Baby Boy, but I think it was lost on a lot of people. Casting Snoop in a movie will do that. It’s weird though, because adults are getting more childlike and children are acting more like adults, with damning consequences. We have little girls wearing thongs and spending all day on cell phones and MySpace-ing with boys. And then we have adults who think having a baby is like having a new toy. 18 year old girls who think they should be married and 30 year old men who think they should be free to play the field forever, despite having 3 children and long-suffering (and often stupid) baby mommas. Boys need to have condoms attached to their penises until they are 25 and girls need fathers.

Just like stated above, some parents just let their kids be kids until they’re in their 20′s…then all of a sudden try to flip the switch and turn on the “adult mode.” Doesn’t work that way.

I want to shake your fucking hand.

I only think this is true because people don’t raise their kids to be mature in this day and age. During my grandmother’s generation, you were raised with the EXPECTATION that you could take care of a household, make wise decisions etc. by age 16. Guess what??? My grandparents did and most people throughout human history did! Today, people give their teenagers tons of freedom and ZERO responsibility and NO consequences – that’s why the average person can’t handle marriage, mortgage or anything else until they are at least 25 (if not 30). We have stretched childhood into the 20s and no one seems to be noticing. Our society is psychologically babying people.

I have a friend who purposefully raised his daughters to be wise. He told them as a stated goal that they should be able to run a household and their lives by age 14-16. Guess what? All of his kids are now over 14, have good heads on their shoulders, and never fell into the crap other girls their ages fell into. They also have either chosen decent boyfriends or said no to dating until someone decent came along. Kids rise to a challenge. THe problem is most parents think it’s a challenge to get their teenager to wash dishes, much less do anything else. Then again, my friend is a dad who is married to his children’s mother and actually interested and involved in his children’s lives…but don’t get me started.

Bottomline: Kids rise to a challenge. THe problem is most parents think it’s a challenge to get their teenager to wash dishes, much less do anything else. If you don’t put wisdom into your kids, then foolishness will come out by default.

And to those people who think just cause you got married at 20 and haven’t yet managed to get divorced three years later, doesn’t mean you can whip out the champagne cause your marriage was a success and will last forever. People don’t stop developing mentally until their 30, shit together or not. Come calling when you hit 35. Also, the reason why marriages lasted years ago when people got married young was b/c society was different then and there also was a stigma to getting divorced. Not saying it won’t work when it’s done young, but odds are odds.