NMNK LINKED TO IMMATURITY? HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THE ECONOMICS?
Recently I heard about an article on the Internet from Britain which said that the reason so many young people are NMNK is that they refuse to grow up!
The number one reason I feel is that economic times are difficult. It's not easy to be in your twenties and have the kind of job that allows you to be self-supporting and put money away for the day you can be married - especially not if you want to be married, have children, and have a stay-at-home mom or dad! So many young people graduate college, and after that bout of freedom and responsibility from family, come home and move back into their bedroom in their parents' home. Then what?
I think there is another consideration besides economics though, and that is these days families are smaller and parents and children are optioning for an extended family. Instead of children leaving the family home permanently after college graduation (or the age of 18), and perhaps living so independently that they rarely see their parents, instead parents are helping raise grandchildren and children are staying to do elder care for their parents, sometimes inheriting the house a result. The interdependency is what family is all about.
Whatever the case, I object to the idea that it is never mature to live with your parents, return to your parents after college, and so on. It takes maturity to make it through four or more years of grinding college classes, to succeed at that. It also takes maturity to know that you cannot afford to live in an apartment even with roommates, or that you don't want the lifestyle that having roommates often brings. It takes maturity to know that you do not want marriage, or marriage and children at any time in your life, that you cannot afford to do so and that you would not want to burden other people as a result of your behavior.
Sister
The number one reason I feel is that economic times are difficult. It's not easy to be in your twenties and have the kind of job that allows you to be self-supporting and put money away for the day you can be married - especially not if you want to be married, have children, and have a stay-at-home mom or dad! So many young people graduate college, and after that bout of freedom and responsibility from family, come home and move back into their bedroom in their parents' home. Then what?
I think there is another consideration besides economics though, and that is these days families are smaller and parents and children are optioning for an extended family. Instead of children leaving the family home permanently after college graduation (or the age of 18), and perhaps living so independently that they rarely see their parents, instead parents are helping raise grandchildren and children are staying to do elder care for their parents, sometimes inheriting the house a result. The interdependency is what family is all about.
Whatever the case, I object to the idea that it is never mature to live with your parents, return to your parents after college, and so on. It takes maturity to make it through four or more years of grinding college classes, to succeed at that. It also takes maturity to know that you cannot afford to live in an apartment even with roommates, or that you don't want the lifestyle that having roommates often brings. It takes maturity to know that you do not want marriage, or marriage and children at any time in your life, that you cannot afford to do so and that you would not want to burden other people as a result of your behavior.
Sister
(First posted December 15, 2012)
C 2012 Never Married No Kids - BlogSpot
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