Room for Debate: Living Off Mom and Dad -NYTimes

The 40-Something Dependent Child

My comment as posted in the

NYTimes, Oct 29, 2009

35 is the new 18. And this was true long before the current economic downturn.Many moderately well off upper middle income families never pressured or required their kids to feel that they had to choose a career or to follow up on the
expensive college education they completed. At 35 and 40 they still do not know what they want to be when they grow up. As a mental health professional, I can tell you that many of these people are clinicallydisfunctional and stuck in irrational behavioral and thought processes which prevent meaningful orientation
to work and achievment. They are supported by their parents now; who knows what will become of them when their parents pass on and the money runs out. It is true national epidemic. And underlies the need for mental health counseling in any national health insurance program.