Animavore wrote:I doubt there's many know much about how to deal with real life when first leaving the home. Even if you have practical skills like changing a tire or lifting a cabinet, it's not going to prepare you for paying bills and taxes, or having to join the rat race, or dealing with banks, living with others who may be assholes, or simply just living alone.
My own mother, arguably, done everything for me growing up. I still had to learn it myself. Can't live with mum forever. Unless you can get a girlfriend who does everything for you, but who does that any more.
Well, there were when I went to college. We didn't see parents at student housing when I went to college, not many, anyway. Most of my friends got themselves into college, and drove themselves there, or took a train/bus. Those who hitched a ride with parents generally just wanted to be dropped off, not some sort of inspection and move-in assistance. Fuck, by 3pm on the first day, half the apartments smelled of weed and freshmen were handing each other beers as introductions.
The practical skills like changing a tire and lifting a cabinet are just examples. What is being referred to is the ability to figure this stuff out. To take care of stuff without asking. I mean, an 18 year old who needs mom to go shopping is really rather embarrassing.
By the time a person gets out of high school "paying bills" should be a skill learned, like operating a dishwasher and a washing machine. A parent should oversea a teenager's saving for purchases, opening a bank account, that sort of thing.
The idea of an 18 year old going off to college oblivious of how to deal with people who may be assholes seems rather bizarre to me. But, I realize it's becoming more and more the norm, if it's not already the norm.
I mean, nowadays, you get shit like this:
http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7308 Student activists at Brown University are complaining of emotional stress and poor grades after months of protesting, and blame the school for insisting that they complete their coursework.
“There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes, and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on,” an undergraduate student going by the pseudonym “David” told The Brown Daily Herald Thursday. “My grades dropped dramatically. My health completely changed. I lost weight. I’m on antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills right now. Counselors called me. I had deans calling me to make sure I was okay.”
I mean, what a fucking embarrassment. Just pathetic. He is enrolled in university, and he is complaining that the stress of "protesting" is kicking his ass. And, he has counselors and deans of students calling him to make sure he's o.k. Really? A grown man takes on extracurricular activities that the university has no interest in and is none of their business, really, and this grown man finds he can't handle it and his schoolwork, and somehow this is someone else's problem?
And, the big issue the guy was protesting about..... Columbus Day. He was protesting two articles published in the student newspaper -- opinion pieces -- that defended the celebration of Columbus Day. I mean, what the fuck kind of protest is that? Other students publish opinions in the free press about a holiday that has been celebrated for generations, and this is causing such distress that he's missing classes, seeing counselors and is so openly and evidently distraught that deans at the university are calling him to see if he's o.k. I mean, come on...
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar