“parasite singles”—who were blamed for everything from low economic growth to low birthrates. Even as the phenomenon became less a matter of personal choice, the tensions and criticism resulting from it seemed to rise.
Whether the intensive and incessant involvement of today’s parents in the daily lives of their children has, in the end, helped the Millennial generation or held it back is a hard question, and one outside the scope of this book. At its worst, one can see in the relationship between helicopter parents and their teenage or twenty-something children a new form of codependency, destructive and debilitating. But it is difficult to criticize parents for offering whatever assistance they can in these times. And it is more difficult still to criticize young adults—particularly those with no degree and few imminent prospects—for taking it.
What often gets lost in the discussion of parents’ continuing assistance to their children today is that the children, by and large,have always planned to return the favor. In a 2005 Pew poll, 63 percent of Millennials said they felt a responsibility to allow an elderly parent to live in their home one day if the parent wanted to do so. That’s a slightly lower percentage than in Generation X, but much higher than in the generations before that. (Only 55 percent of Boomers and 38 percent of the Silent Generation felt the same way.) By a variety of measures, the bond between this generation of young adults and their parents is stronger than those between past generations of parents and children, and so is the sense of mutual obligation.
But obligations of nearly every sort—current and future—are growing harder for young adults to meet, as high expectations collide with limited means. According to one recent poll, just 16 percent of eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds were saving money, and about two-thirds were in debt. In 2009, according to Pew Research,12 percent of adults younger than thirty-five said they’d acquired a roommate, 15 percent had delayed marriage, and 14 percent had put off having a child. Surely all those numbers are higher now.
In nearly every way, the Great Recession has delayed the ability of young adults to reach the milestones that society has always associated with full adulthood, and to assume the responsibilities that many of them want to accept. With each passing year of economic weakness, more and more of them find themselves swimming in a seemingly endless adolescence, whose taste has long since grown brackish, and from which they cannot fully emerge.
A S ECONOMIC MALAISE lingers on, the ideas and ideals of twentysomethings—about politics, society, the nature of life—are slowly changing.Millennials entered the Great Recession as the most politically liberal generation in many decades, and as the most socially liberal ever. And between 2008 and 2010, the number who called themselves liberal held steady. Yet cynicism about government’s efficacy is growing. By 2010, 37 percent of Millennials said that althoughthey might like to see the government play an active role in the economy in theory, they weren’t sure they could trust the government to do that effectively.When asked whom they trusted more to solve the country’s economic problems—President Obama or Republicans in Congress—27 percent said “neither.” Confidence in elected officials fell between 2009 and 2010.
Economic troubles are sanding away the generation’s openness and confidence as well. According to one 2010 survey, just 28 percent of adults younger than thirty believed that most people could be trusted, a lower figure than in prior years. And nearly one in three said they believed their financial well-being primarily depended not on their own actions but on events outside their control. Forty-two percent, a plurality, believed globalization had decreased the opportunities available to them.
The changes now taking place in Millennials’ political
Whether the intensive and incessant involvement of today’s parents in the daily lives of their children has, in the end, helped the Millennial generation or held it back is a hard question, and one outside the scope of this book. At its worst, one can see in the relationship between helicopter parents and their teenage or twenty-something children a new form of codependency, destructive and debilitating. But it is difficult to criticize parents for offering whatever assistance they can in these times. And it is more difficult still to criticize young adults—particularly those with no degree and few imminent prospects—for taking it.
What often gets lost in the discussion of parents’ continuing assistance to their children today is that the children, by and large,have always planned to return the favor. In a 2005 Pew poll, 63 percent of Millennials said they felt a responsibility to allow an elderly parent to live in their home one day if the parent wanted to do so. That’s a slightly lower percentage than in Generation X, but much higher than in the generations before that. (Only 55 percent of Boomers and 38 percent of the Silent Generation felt the same way.) By a variety of measures, the bond between this generation of young adults and their parents is stronger than those between past generations of parents and children, and so is the sense of mutual obligation.
But obligations of nearly every sort—current and future—are growing harder for young adults to meet, as high expectations collide with limited means. According to one recent poll, just 16 percent of eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds were saving money, and about two-thirds were in debt. In 2009, according to Pew Research,12 percent of adults younger than thirty-five said they’d acquired a roommate, 15 percent had delayed marriage, and 14 percent had put off having a child. Surely all those numbers are higher now.
In nearly every way, the Great Recession has delayed the ability of young adults to reach the milestones that society has always associated with full adulthood, and to assume the responsibilities that many of them want to accept. With each passing year of economic weakness, more and more of them find themselves swimming in a seemingly endless adolescence, whose taste has long since grown brackish, and from which they cannot fully emerge.
A S ECONOMIC MALAISE lingers on, the ideas and ideals of twentysomethings—about politics, society, the nature of life—are slowly changing.Millennials entered the Great Recession as the most politically liberal generation in many decades, and as the most socially liberal ever. And between 2008 and 2010, the number who called themselves liberal held steady. Yet cynicism about government’s efficacy is growing. By 2010, 37 percent of Millennials said that althoughthey might like to see the government play an active role in the economy in theory, they weren’t sure they could trust the government to do that effectively.When asked whom they trusted more to solve the country’s economic problems—President Obama or Republicans in Congress—27 percent said “neither.” Confidence in elected officials fell between 2009 and 2010.
Economic troubles are sanding away the generation’s openness and confidence as well. According to one 2010 survey, just 28 percent of adults younger than thirty believed that most people could be trusted, a lower figure than in prior years. And nearly one in three said they believed their financial well-being primarily depended not on their own actions but on events outside their control. Forty-two percent, a plurality, believed globalization had decreased the opportunities available to them.
The changes now taking place in Millennials’ political
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