Cut The Cord

 When a baby is born, most doctors attending the birth, have the mother or father cut the umbilical cord. It's unfortunate that this symbolism doesn't  apply to the  issue of adult "children" living with their aging parents. The female adult of twenty-seven years, in this radio article example, is living with her parents, has an MA they paid for, a full-time job, pays no rent, and contributes little to the household costs or work. She admits it. Her parents are in their seventies. I don't know if this tale disgusts you as much as it did, me. This adult "girl" complains somewhat, of not having the freedoms she wishes because she lives "under her parents' roof". What? I thought I had heard wrongly. The whole story sickened me. My heart bled for the parents. The piece gave, as examples, similar weird situations. Most of the takers were young women who called themselves "children". A child is someone who has not reached adulthood and has no means of supporting themselves thus they live under parental care. Girl or boy. Parents today provide everything for their children and spend their lives indulging in their childrens' every need and want. It looks wonderful, but in the end, that child has to make it on its own.  Many of the parents expect nothing from their young adults in sharing the work and expense of  a household and when they "come back home" the grown child thinks it will continue. Parents have done their job and deserve to enjoy a child free life again. Sure there should visits. Because a grown child in its twenties can't have every little thing it once did as a child, doesn't mean it will or should continue when they grow up. Why isn't this lesson clear?  Their parents sacrificed for them. Now it's their turn. They learn responsibility only by using it.  If the adult child has a job, it's a personal duty to take up their own survival in this demanding world.  Gone are "mommy and daddy". They did their job.  Yes, you are going to live in a place unlike your once pretty little bedroom. Your parents, the adults you lived with for so long as a child,  might let you live in their basement or spare room for awhile. But if so, you have to fend for yourself and pay up as well: groceries, rent, your expenses. It's not a free world any more. No, you won't have the shiny new car or a great wardrobe. You will be among the huge growing numbers of young people out there struggling under difficult times. Your parents want you, after a life of ease that they paid for, to become an adult. They struggled. Now it's your turn. Buck up. You're the adult now. The cord is cut.