The American Sociological Journal Context reports that today 46 percent of women and 31 percent of men have finished school, left home, gotten married, had a child or become financially independent by age 30.
But contrast that with 1960 when 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men left their parent's nest!
In other words, young people are growing up more slowly than they did 50 years ago.
Source: Trends E-Magazine, January 2009
Wouldn’t you agree that the reason children of today leave their parents nest so much later is because they don’t have the responsibilities children of the 60’s had? Fifty years ago it wasn’t unusual for children to drive tractors or heavy equipment because they had to work the family farms and it just wasn’t as congested on the roads as it is today. There was also a “draft” which forced boys to become men much quicker and the women have always matured faster. Our children grew up with less responsibility and went to college after high school having worked little and almost always driving a new car. Money wasn’t an issue for our kids as all they had to do was ask. Perhaps today’s economic crisis will change that because many folks in the ‘boomer’ generation have lost their early retirement opportunity’s in real estate expectations and retirement plans because of a faltering stock market and economy. This may be a good thing happening because of these difficult times.
Keith Kessler-