Maybe it’s an entirely rational return to multi-generational households of the past due to rising costs and diminished prospects of employment. Three or four people working part time might bring in enough to keep the mortgage company, taxman, electric utility and insurance company at bay with enough left over to eat. Maybe a child with a job of any kind contributing to household expenses is necessary to hold it all together, in other words.
There is a difference, I think, between family being together and a family with no adults.
I was working for a paycheck when I was 13. Some kids on farms are doing real work before that age. Such steps toward being “grown up” don’t seem to be part of our culture.
Heck, consider the WW2 generation....off to war as late teens, early 20s.
Today, the picture of people that age are almost as far away from that as one can imagine. Worshipping the latest gadget from Apple is what I generally see them doing.
That is exactly what is going on in our household. We got hit with job loss/major health problems in a matter of 2 months. We subsequently lost our home. We are in recovery stage, but it’s been at a snails pace. My 23 yr old son has worked since he graduated high school, but hasn’t moved out because we are pooling our resources. He could live on his own, but right now we can’t quite make it without him because we have 2 more still in school, and we all are living better together than we would be apart. He’s a great young man, nothing immature about him, I think he’s very generous and caring to stick around. And he loves his younger brother and sister, and wants to help them and us.