NYT Magazine: 'What is it about 20-somethings?'

Long but interesting piece, subheadline: "Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?hp

The traditional cycle seems to have gone off course, as young people remain un­tethered to romantic partners or to permanent homes, going back to school for lack of better options, traveling, avoiding commitments, competing ferociously for unpaid internships or temporary (and often grueling) Teach for America jobs, forestalling the beginning of adult life.

Question: Did anyone here live with their parents after college? Does anyone still? I did, for just a couple months - three at the most - while I was looking for a place after graduating. But I'd probably fit into this story, as well. I didn't get married until I was 28. I've lived in a bunch of apartments, signing one one-year lease after another. Haven't owned a home yet. Drank too much. Stayed out too late. I've only had two employers, though.

The living at home thing, though, floors me. I have first-cousins my age - early 30s - still living at home. One brother and sister who are still at home and, I swear, always will be. My best friend's parents have three over the age of 25 still at home (my friend is married with children, so he's not one of them).

 

It's not an official trend until Faith Popcorn gives it a name!

 

I did the same ... apartments, late nights but at the same time, I spent the majority of my 20s working my way up the ladder to the current shop I'm at now. I look back on it and wished I had taken a summer to travel, to see things I know I won't be able to see now, thanks to work committments.

It's a decade to really find yourself (four years of college ends up being too short) and I kind of blew it. That being said, I find that those in their 20s these days are getting worse. I know a number of them who are just going back to school, getting a number of degrees in various fields, before they realize what they really want to do.

 

And they just keep standing on my lawn! What is it with kids these days and their lawn-standing ways? They are also known to be found hippin' and hoppin' and bippin' and boppin'. I just don't get them.

 

That's not really what the story is about. It's more about how psychologists are now starting to recognize the 20s as a distinct developmental stage, the way they finally began to with adolescence in the early 20th century.

 

A better question would be "what is it about their parents?"

 

I don't think it's a psychological thing at all.
There's a lot of people in their mid-to-late 20s who don't have the quality jobs that were there 20 years ago that would rather save money on rent, save cash and travel.

 

The ability of young people to delay adulthood seems directly tied to their parents' willingness to allow it to happen.

This dovetails with another link I saw this week -- U.S. News & World Report annual college rankings. Specifically, I was looking at the list of liberal arts colleges.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-rankings

The interesting thing to me was that the top 10 all have a sticker price of $40K or greater. Yet the average student finishes four years with debt around $10-11K. It ain't all scholarship money.

 

I honestly don't think that the kids going to Williams and Amherst are the ones living at home at 30.

 

What, I have to read it just to comment on it? That's old-school.

 

Nah, I should have been more explicit about the thesis in the original post.

 

Pardon my bluntness, but you are so, so wrong. Or have we all forgotten about the douchebag from Colgate who's living at home because that $40K a year job is beneath him?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/business/economy/07generation.html

The kids who go to Williams and Amherst are usually prepping for a graduate degree that's going to cost the parents even more. (Hence the New Yorker cover depicted in the Times mag article.)