Slouching Toward Adulthood
How to Let Go So Your Kids Can Grow Up
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“The helicopter parent has crashed and burned...Sally Koslow [has] documented a generation so cosseted that they have lost the impetus to grow up or leave home. The over-involved parent has gone from paragon of caring to a figure of fun.”—Lisa Endlich Heffernan, The Atlantic
Parents once dreamed of dropping their prodigies at first-choice colleges and sighing with relief at a job well done. Nowadays, though, mothers and fathers are stressing about whether Jessica or Josh will boomerang back after graduation—and still be there years later.
Why are so many wunderkinds now s-l-o-w-l-y slouching toward adulthood? Panicked after reading that twenty-eight is the new nineteen, Sally Koslow—journalist and mother—searched for answers. Part hard-hitting investigation and part hilarious memoir, Slouching Toward Adulthood is a heartfelt cri de coeur that can help families negotiate life around the unexpectedly crowded dining tables for years to come.
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Novelist and former McCall's magazine editor Koslow casts a keen eye on the "not-so-empty-nest" phenomenon that besets today's baby boomer parents. She calls their children "adultescents," these 22- to 35-year-old "well-educated Americans postponing full maturity and its attendant responsibilities" who return home from college for financial and other forms of support, from laundry to career advice. Koslow shares myriad anecdotes (including ones about her own sons) gleaned from her year's worth of interviews and research. She is not unsympathetic, acknowledging that indulgent parenting ("we've spoiled kids to an unprecedented degree in human history") feeds the younger set's frustratingly laid-back attitude, and a depressed economy and slow job market don't help, either. She notes that subsidizing the kids hurts parents' own plans for retirement, travel, or just privacy, and expresses frustration with adultescents who don't see the need for a goal-oriented approach to life. One off-note: the chapter on the risks of delaying pregnancy, which focuses solely on women (don't men want kids and need to be informed planners, too?). Overall, though, Koslow provides plenty of food for thought for parents and adultescents who want to understand each other and perhaps change things for the better.
