Aged eighteen equals adult or not?

[Cooperate for freedom]

Listening to a mother moaning on the radio about her son who had just refused two jobs whilst on the dole, complaining that the rate was too high has me thinking on the ridiculous system that is operated in this country.

In my view the mother should ask her son to contribute the full economic cost to living at home and i am confident the "son" would suddently feel incentivised. Of course she won't because she'd sooner mammy him like a baby.

It is time for the parents of Ireland to stand up and remind the state that at aged 18 their children become "adults" and should be treated as such.

It is the state's job to pay for their third level education and associated costs if they are out of work not the parent's role.

For too long well meaning mammies and daddies have assumed the mantle of provider until aged 25 in some cases undermining any move to to a social structure that treats adults as adults.

Perhaps treating the 18 years old plus like adults might promote a more responsible attitude to their own lives and permit their parents the freedom to actually spend some of their wages into the economy rather than on third level education for their children.

[Tim Johnston]

Sometimes I think University is just expensive daycare.

[stakerwallace]

Sometimes I think University is just expensive daycare.

I have heard of parents ringing college lecturers in recent years to berate them about their adult children's results etc. Talk about the elongated childhood!

[White Horse]

Families are not economic units.

[Cooperate for freedom]

Families are not economic units.

Tell that to the government who assume that parents should bear the economic cost of mainating adult children who have been failed by the state e.g unemployment etc.

Of course if i was not asked to pay any tax into a central pot i wouldn't make such a request.

[4horsemen]

Tell that to the government who assume that parents should bear the economic cost of mainating adult children who have been failed by the state e.g unemployment etc.

Of course if i was not asked to pay any tax into a central pot i wouldn't make such a request.

+1
Also, tell that to various parties promoting the return of fees at third level in the expectation that parents will pay for their adult offspring!

[RobertW]

I have heard of parents ringing college lecturers in recent years to berate them about their adult children's results etc. Talk about the elongated childhood!

It definitely goes on everyday in most secondary schools ( and one-sixth of them are 18)......but at third level??? If your Ma is ringing the lecturers at third level then you've no business there in my view.....the embarrassment of it.

This is presumably part of the cultural entitlement environment which grew up during the so-called "boom" years.

[Watcher2]

I'm not saying I agree with it, but in most cases its the parents that pay the €1500 college fee/admin charge and therefore feel they have a right to ring.

[MacAibhne]

It definitely goes on everyday in most secondary schools ( and one-sixth of them are 18)......but at third level??? If your Ma is ringing the lecturers at third level then you've no business there in my view.....the embarrassment of it.

This is presumably part of the cultural entitlement environment which grew up during the so-called "boom" years.

I know a 25year old girl whos mother called to get her exams passed...and it happened

[Platinum knob]

I am getting so bored with all this ageism.

No, not all 18 year olds are adults. Some 16 year olds are more mature. Some over 65s can well afford to pay their own bus fares, and for their own passports for their foreign holidays. Some over 65s are struggling to buy food and to heat their homes. Some 25 year old are still at home with mammy doing their washing. Some 21 year olds have left home and are working hard and paying their own way through life.

Making up government policies based on age alone is lazy politics!