When are children no longer children?

And not just children, either .when a friend of mine recently remarked to the effect that they’re always your children whatever age they are, I strongly disagreed, and a right set-to we had about it. I’m sorry, but in my book a 36-years-old is not a child; it may be your offspring, but it should be more than capable of standing on its own two feet, by that age.

In this particular instance, these friends, I know have quite a few money worries of their own. They are deep in debt; granted, usually through disastrously bad financial management} and they are facing a retirement in not that many years time that will see them in seriously straitened circumstances. After all, if the standard old Age pension is just about your entire income, especially in the current financial climate, life isn’t going to be easy.

With some other friend who are a bit younger then us, they have three kids still living at home, all of whom are now in their twenties paying a few bob as a token rent. They seem to spend all their time running them around and all their money subsidizing their activities.

And the result always seems to be that the more money such indulgent parents spend on their kids, the more the kids expect it as their right and less inclined they are to get of their backsides and do something for themselves.

Out here I know of a number of couples who regularly fork out money they can ill afford to pay for their entire family to come out for s holiday and then have to pay for every meal, every drink, and every excursion whilst they’re staying with them.

That’s fine and dandy if you’ve got the cash, but not so good if you can ill afford it. And do the kids seem to realize that, let alone appreciate it? Do they let alone appreciate it Do they heck as like!

When l first started out as a married person, four decades ago, I don’t recall us getting much help at all from our parents my in-law paid for the wedding and my parent paid for the honeymoon, and that was about it.