"Half of American parents are unable to save as much as they’d like too for retirement, and their grown offspring — whom they still count as dependents — are to blame, according to a new Bankrate survey."
"Instead of bankrolling their grown kids’ lifestyles, parents would do well to keep an eye on their own finances while teaching their children financial independence, experts say."
"It’s overwhelmingly a bad idea for parents to support their adult children, mental health experts say. Providing one’s progeny with a financial lifeline well into adulthood can deprive them of developing important tools that will serve them later in life."
"If they don’t take care of their own finances, they don’t learn to manage bills, make sacrifices or be autonomous."
"Relationship psychiatrist Dr. Laura Dabney agreed that prolonging this kind of support is imprudent, no matter how well-intended it might be. Children develop self-esteem by thinking through and overcoming obstacles on their own, she explained.
"When you write your first rent check or car loan check it feels so good to be able to face some problem and fix it for yourself," Dabney said. "So when parents or anybody steps in to save kids from all pain they deprive them of this valuable experience — this self-esteem builder — and they start to get the impression that they can’t solve problems on their own and they regress to this immature, child mode."