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There was an article in the Wall STreet Journal this weekend that touched on this topic, though it was focused on men and why it is so hard for them to "grow up". One of the points that the article mentioned was that guys these days have "toys" that last well into adulthood. Xbox, PS3, Wii.... can be played from elementary school and beyond. When we were growing up, guys had to give up their toys because it just wasn't appropriate to play with Stretch Armstrong or baseball cards or Matchbox cars forever and ever...
There was an article in the Wall STreet Journal this weekend that touched on this topic, though it was focused on men and why it is so hard for them to "grow up". One of the points that the article mentioned was that guys these days have "toys" that last well into adulthood. Xbox, PS3, Wii.... can be played from elementary school and beyond. When we were growing up, guys had to give up their toys because it just wasn't appropriate to play with Stretch Armstrong or baseball cards or Matchbox cars forever and ever...
Dont know if it is the xboxes or not. But It does seem to me many dont mature anymore till they start pushing close to 30. Dont know if they want to try and live like the people they see on reality tv or what .
I do see that it is tuff for any young person to get started in life now without a college education. The old days of going to a high paying factory job right out of high school are very long gone. I have young cousins 19, 29, 31 and they all decided college was not for them. 19 and 31 still live at home and work crummy low paying jobs, the other is living off welfare and government housing. College is a must now for young people to get a good start.
About 4-5 years ago when I was manager with people reporting directly to me, I had an interesting situation occur for which I was not prepared.
I had a guy working for me who was 25 years old. Very nice guy, not a great worker. He was somewhat lazy, little initiative, missed deadlines, never accountable, etc. Well, we had his performance evaluation and needless to say that he did not do very well. He just couldn't understand it. Didn't know how to handle criticism. It wasn't like I put him on any disciplinary action plan or anything; just "hey, you need to work on this and that."
Well, my phone rings the next day and it is his mom. She 'kindly' let me know that my observations were incorrect and that her golden boy was a gift to our company, etc. I told her that I respectfully disagreed and politely discontinued the conversation. Thank god we didn't have parent/manager conferences!!
So yes, I believe over-nurturing can be a negative for young adults.
Dont know if it is the xboxes or not. But It does seem to me many dont mature anymore till they start pushing close to 30. Dont know if they want to try and live like the people they see on reality tv or what .
I do see that it is tuff for any young person to get started in life now without a college education. The old days of going to a high paying factory job right out of high school are very long gone. I have young cousins 19, 29, 31 and they all decided college was not for them. 19 and 31 still live at home and work crummy low paying jobs, the other is living off welfare and government housing. College is a must now for young people to get a good start.
I don't think this has really changed all that much in the 40 years since I turned 21. Many of my cohorts, including, by some standards, me, fooled around a lot in their 20s with job changes, etc, etc. It just wasn't so noticeable back then. Lots of people, particularly women, married young and had kids young back then, so instead of trying to make it in the "real world" they were home raising kids, b/c that was where women belonged when they had kids 40 years ago. Guys could work in the mills or whatever, didn't have to have a "professional" job to make a decent salary. This isn't "True Confessions" so I'll just say I had several jobs in my first year out of nursing school, and was married and divorced before I was 30. I know many others who did similar.
I told my older daughter that I thought most people kind of make a mess of their 20s. She recently told me she is now starting to agree with me. She will be 27 next month. She hasn't really made a mess of her life, but has many friends who've been in and out of toxic relationships, several jobs, etc.
I don't think this has really changed all that much in the 40 years since I turned 21. Many of my cohorts, including, by some standards, me, fooled around a lot in their 20s with job changes, etc, etc. It just wasn't so noticeable back then. Lots of people, particularly women, married young and had kids young back then, so instead of trying to make it in the "real world" they were home raising kids, b/c that was where women belonged when they had kids 40 years ago. Guys could work in the mills or whatever, didn't have to have a "professional" job to make a decent salary. This isn't "True Confessions" so I'll just say I had several jobs in my first year out of nursing school, and was married and divorced before I was 30. I know many others who did similar.
I told my older daughter that I thought most people kind of make a mess of their 20s. She recently told me she is now starting to agree with me. She will be 27 next month.
I think this is a very important post. I look at 20-somethings now and I am amazed that they expect so much (and so much of themselves) when they are still under 30. I look at the bios on my sons friend's Twitter pages and there are 25 year olds calling themselves "Fill-in-the-occupation Extraordinaire" or "I'm 25 and Perfect" and I blink twice. I like the self confidence but at the same time I think some of them are going to be crushed if they fail. Fourty years ago I thnk we all kind of knew there was a real good chance we were going to mess up. Because we were still learning and growing and we knew it.
I'm a little younger than you and I absolutely agree. Most people in their 20's are still finding themselves. (To borrow a phrase from 40 years ago.) I fear a little for the ones who expect perfection and nothing-but-good-things right out of the gate. It rarely happens.
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She 'kindly' let me know that my observations were incorrect and that her golden boy was a gift to our company, etc. I told her that I respectfully disagreed and politely discontinued the conversation. Thank god we didn't have parent/manager conferences!!
