Why I Don’t Want To Raise Independent Children
Why is it a ‘failure to launch’ if your children live at home? I look at my children and think about this. I don’t want them to go anywhere, and I’d like to remain close as adults. The western parenting goal is for your children to leave, but why would you want this? Don’t you like them?
I grew up in America, on the launchpad. My parents liked me, but the assumption was always that I would grow up and leave. Then I moved back to Sri Lanka and discovered another culture. I guess you could say South Asian culture, but this was also western culture before the 1950s. The nuclear family is a recent anomaly, larger family groups is the norm.
Anyways, down here, young people usually live at home until they’re married. They usually return home when they have kids. All of this would somehow be considered failure in the west, like you ran into hard times or something, but it’s not like that at all. These are good times. You get to spend time with people you care about. Young adults get to support their parents, and parents get grandkids. You get free child-care, shared food, and love. We’re not making rockets here, to be launched headlong into the capitalist wilderness. We’re making families.
