Columnist
‘When will my kids take over Yuletide preparations?’
As I garotte myself on a badly strung tinsel strand and dislocate a shoulder trying to wedge the turkey into the freezer, I wonder when the time will come that my kids take over all Yuletide preparations?
What was Mum’s age when my sisters and I suggested she take a back seat and leave the turkey-basting and Brussels sprout over-boiling to us? Whenever it was, Mum must have felt that all her Christmases had come at once.
My fear is that we’ll still be stuffing walnuts up fowl orifices at dawn when we’re ninety bloody seven.
Why? Well, because we’ve raised kidults. At 30, most of my generation were married, paying off a house, with a car in the drive and a baby on the way. Most 30-year-olds today are renting, working in freelance jobs, on dating apps and living for the weekend, with no savings. Many have never left home, with parents still doing their shopping, mopping, cooking and cleaning.
Apparently we’ve brought our kids up so badly that they’re starting university with no life skills. While choosing college courses, our mollycoddled offspring are also booking onto ‘Adulting’ classes. I kid you not. This is now a subject being offered in places as prestigious as Berkeley and UCLA in the States to teach young, inept offspring how to master life skills like… being able to tell when fruit is ripe, DIY, car maintenance, mending holes in socks, balancing meals, basic etiquette and relationship guidelines around ‘boundaries, red flags and compromise’. (Clearly, a course all us parents should sign up for immediately!)
Studies reveal that the average British student will pick up 50 vital life skills during the university years, including how to do laundry, make spaghetti bolognese and assemble flat-pack furniture. Two-fifths of students were shocked by how little they knew when they left home. Some revealed they didn’t even know how to switch on the oven. Understanding the disadvantages of eating mould al
