Military was a no-brainer for me as I did not want to go to college right after high school and I didn’t want to keep living with my parents either. The military wasn’t exactly like I expected it to be but it did get me out on my own at an early age and once discharged, I never had problems getting employment. In fact, I have zero experience being unemployed. One job leads right into another. In my mid 50s and I have to go back to the age of 13 when I last did not have a job. That was the year I got my paper route.
That could be my biography, too, except I started working at that age wielding a shovel for twelve and a half cents an hour. Never a problem getting a job until over fifty. And then, fuggedaboudit. LOL
Our experiences are similar. Parents can prop kids up to give the appearance of success among their peers. But until the supports are gone and they have to start assuming their own responsibilities—with no one else to fall back upon—they aren’t fully fledged men and women. Their parents do them a disservice if they can’t build in them the confidence to strike out on their own.