ZERO excuse for any parental support past 18 unless the kid has severe disabilities.
Old enough to reproduce, old enough to take on full adult responsibilities.
My dad left home at 15 (lied about his age to join the Army), mom at 16; I can’t conceive of what a failure it must be like, parent or kid, to have ‘em around at 20 or unemployed at 25.
ZERO excuse for any parental support past 18 unless the kid has severe disabilities.
I’ll give you two examples. One a colleague of mine, the other a relative.
Colleague: Daughter went against his wishes and at age 18 married a guy entering the US Army. In relatively short order she had 3 kids. The husband got shipped to Iraq. He came back messed-up, with PTSD. Ran off with another woman and they got divorced. Daughter had no marketable job skills so he has been subsidizing her living with the 3 grandkids while she tries to finish school and start a career (thusfar without success).
Relative: His flighty, immature, unmarried daughter went and got herself knocked-up during a one night stand. The father is a druggie and eventually ended up in a prison several states away. She has had 9 jobs in the past 5 years, either because she proves to be incompetent, or cops an attitude with her boss and tells him to go f*** himself. Relative is letting her and her son live with him and subsidizes their living expenses.
When asked why they are doing it both of them reply “because its the only way to save my grandkids”. Doing anything else would leave them at the mercy of their schmuck-brained bad attitude moms.
I told my kids for close to 18 years, when you turn 18 you are out the door. When the oldest reached 18, she went to trade school. She quit after a year and went to work, and got her own place. I actually tore the wall out of her bedroom, and joined it with the Master bedroom to make a suite, and told the younger ones to “let that be a lesson to you” They didn’t waste any time launching on their own when it was time.
My 25 year old daughter is unemployed and moving in with us this summer and I could t be prouder of her.
Oh - she is moving In After she graduates from medical school. She will start her residency after graduating at the top of her class. She is moving in to save money to pay her student loans down quickly. She will pay her share of household expenses and contribute to the daily routine as able while working 80+ hour weeks. Not all millennials moving back in are lazy or bad news.