Reaching adulthood: is it harder now than when we did it?

[JimBob1952]

It's much harder. Student debt is one issue; sky-high housing prices are another (both for renting and buying.) And I think it's more confusing just to be an adult in terms of what you're supposed to do and how you're supposed to behave. People now act like kids well into their 30s and 40s, but in some ways that's perfectly understandable.

 

[Murrmurr]

a) Cars have so many safety features now, dying in a wreck is an oddity, not common place. Vaccines, plentiful, no tetanus, diphtheria, measles, polio and others that killed off the young.

b) Farming is now corporate mainly, no family farms where you can fall into an argur, get stomped by cattle, run over by a tractor.

c) Rare you see kinds riding bikes with no protection, cops would be writing, public be shaming, CPS be taking.....

a) That's great if you can afford a newer car. Not many 20 and 30-somethings can, and a lot of adults in general struggle with it. But it's getting easier to qualify for car loans, so there's that.

b) I'd have loved to raise my kids on my family's farm but it was "bought-out" by a huge dairy corporation. A young couple has virtually zero chance of starting their own family farm these days, unless they're farming only for themselves and can live with the million and-a-half rules imposed on them.

c) Uh, true, but I'm not seeing the up-sides there.

 

[Remy]

It's hard to know. Over time some kids were better prepared. Some kids had better parents than others. Some kids were abused, some weren't. Divorce. Single parents. Kids scapegoated. On and on. The internet can be a big area to bully children.

I can say if I had the information I had now, I would have done different. But many would anyway.