Arrested Development of Adult Children

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As the economy continues to falter and adult children forego marriage to doggedly pursue careers, many are accepting and depending on a wide variety of aid from their middle-aged parents, from pocket money, rides, dinner-to-go and laundry service to home improvement and even help with their backbreaking moves.

The dynamic is documented in a new study from Purdue University, whose authors argue that adult children are getting more help – even after they’ve left home – than only a generation ago, because it’s “a more complicated world.”

“Parents are stepping in to get their children launched into adulthood. They’re like 25 before they’re really getting the hang of things,” said study author Karen Fingerman, the Berner-Hanley professor in gerontology at Purdue.

The study, published last month in the Journal of Marriage and Family and funded by The National Institute of Aging, looked at the relationships of 633 Philadelphia-area parents, aged 40 to 60, and their 1,384 children, aged 18 to 33. The authors found that many of the grown children were having trouble weaning themselves off the parental teat: 76 per cent got domestic help monthly, 79 per cent got money most months and 93 per cent got a check-in chat or other emotional support weekly.

The grown-up kid’s secret weapon: mom and dad - The Globe and Mail

Oh brother.