TTSR Boomers and Boomerangs

"The Thomas Sowell Reader" by Thomas Sowell, pg. 12, Boomers and Boomerangs

     There was a time when Grandparents would move in with their children and grandchildren if they were widowed or had financial issues, but that time has past away.  Now it is very common for children to move back in with their parents once they have left.  Adults that left home only to return, used to feel ashamed that they were living with their parents.  Now it is becoming more popular for them to come back, unashamed, and with a family of their own.  Such people are known as “Boomerangs”.

     In 1970, there were about 2 million under aged children living with their grandparents.  Twenty seven years later, there were nearly 4 million.  This is a growing family circumstance in which 33% of the time parents are leaving their children with grandma and grandpa.

     If this is the way things are turning, what will happen when the last of the responsible generation, those who are taking care of the aged and the young, pass away?  The ‘Me’ generation will be left on their own with no one else to throw responsibilities at. 

     In homes where parents and children are living together, there are many kids raising themselves because their parents are to busy.  In other words, mom and dad are both out working on their own careers while their kids are growing up alone.  When asked about this, the most popular answer among parents is that they are both working to “make ends meet”.   “Yet, within living memory, it was common in working-class families---black and white--- for the husband to work and the wife to stay home to raise the children.”  Seems like it wasn’t a problem for them to “make ends meet”

     Are people so much poorer today than they were then?  Absolutely not, the poor people of today have luxuries that those middle class people couldn’t afford.  It is just that “Making ends meet” is an easy way for couples to avoid the responsibility of raising a child.  They do not want to because there is a system where kids get sent off to school and other responsibilities are taken care of by others.  Should we be surprised when there is no sense of parental responsibility?

Sowell, Thomas. The Thomas Sowell Reader.  United State of America: Basic Books, 2011.

1 Samuel 3:13  “For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them.”

Proverbs 22:6  “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

Galatians 6:7  “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

Psalms 127:3-5  “Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.”