Growing up is always a hard thing for many of us. On one hand, there is a part of us that is anxious to start planning for our future, and on the other hand, there is a bigger part of us that wants to do all the things that we were never able to do when we were younger. I guess the lure of the outside world will always be enticing, especially for people who hit 18. Before 18, they were not allowed to club, drink, smoke (not that everyone abided by those rules anyway), and suddenly their 18 and a whole new world filled with immense possibilities starts to unfold before them. Hence they go crazy (in a sense) clubbing, drinking, etc., and blowing off a heck load of cash on all these frivolities.
I guess the parents suffer alot during this change when they see their kid grow up and is slowly engulfed by this outside world. They are torn between unconditional love for their kid, no matter how much he infuriates them, as well as exasperation and the desire to just give up on him. As their 18 year old start experiencing more of the world outside, he'll gradually start to sink deeper into it, while at the same time, treating the home more and more like a hotel whereby he only need check in for his occasional shower and meal before checking out again to roam the streets of the outside world. If a kid is rebellious by nature, repeated attempts by parents will more often than not, fall on deaf ears, with the 18 year old giving them the cold/invisible treatment. The greatest shortcoming of any parent would have to be their ability to still love their kid no matter how far off the road he strays. No matter how much their kid lies to them, takes money from them, yells at them, etc., they still refuse to give up, even though sometimes they say they do. Maybe it's that inherent nature of the parents which make them take all these crap in their stride, and makes me want to just shake them to their senses.
In my opinion, parents should just leave their 18 year old alone to fend for himself if he finishes his month's allowance within the first 2 weeks of the month. I don't see why parents keep giving in to their kid's requests to borrow cash from them. They were given a certain amount of money, and it's up to their resources how they make it last throughout a month. Again, it's that unconditional love of a parent that forces them to keep lending their kid money to buy expensive and unnecessary materialistic items. No matter how much they say they wash their hands off him and that they want him to learn from his mistakes, they still cannot help being who they are - a parent. I don't see why the 18 year old has to be sponsored to make his own mistakes. Really, where is the point in that? Sometimes, these kids are just so controversial. They crave independence, yet they cannot survive without their parents giving in to their whims and fancies time and time again.
In time to come, the home turns into a battlefield, with both sides yelling at each other because one party cannot get what he wants, and the other cannot implement what they feel is right. The people who really suffer would be the ones on the sidelines because it's of no fault of their own that they come back to a home with such an unfriendly atmosphere, and where everyone is just on tenterhooks around each other. I say just cut off all ties and throw the 18 year old out on the street and leave him to fend for himself and learn from his own mistakes the hard way. Where is the point in love and sympathy when it's not reciprocated? He is just treating the parents as machines. Or maybe I'm just not cut out to be a parent because I have little room in my heart for such abominable people who are so pathetic that they seek solace from a world where materialistic gains are worshipped, and where acceptance is only derived from being a mindless part of the crowd. There is no space for individuality. No time for sensible thought. All they have time for is clubbing and partying. It's as if their trying to squeeze in as many hours of partying into their lives as they possibly can, and this is reminiscent of people who have been lost in the desert for 10 days and finally chancing upon an oasis. They are like depraved or something. Poor deprived sad, sad, sad souls.