We know, statistically, that the millennial generation is delaying the embrace of traditional markers of adulthood. People are getting married much later, if at all. Couples are putting off childbearing, and when they do procreate, a lot of them are doing so without committing first. Homeownership among young people is at historic lows. These days you seem grown up if you rent, as opposed to being among the record-breaking 36 percent of youngsters still living with mom and dad.
I maintain that what we are noticing are the habits of millennial elites, the crybabies at Yale and Dartmouth for example. Too many of my students at RVCC are combat vets or are going to jobs after class, or helping mom out with the kids to act like children. Though I have noticed that almost all are still living with their folks.
in contrast to the millennials Generation X leaped into adulthood. I think we all saw our Balding Boomer parents refuse to let go their youth, the 60's, maaaaan, and decided we didn't want to emulate THAT. To paraphrase P.J. O'Rourke's observation of the Desert Storm military, 'These are the Reagan kids. These young people took one look at the 60's and said give me a haircut and a job.'
Did we ever.
In the late 1990's my bohemian sister came to visit my wife and me in Virginia. She spent the weekend hanging around with us and our other married, career oriented friends. We were all in our mid-20s.
When she left, my sister reported to the family her horror at us all, the men out of the deck drinking beer, the women in the kitchen making dinner, and afterwords cleaning up while us men returned to the deck for cigars.
'They're doing Eisenhower!' she exclaimed,
Damn right we were.
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