Why Do Our Children Fail To Launch?

   When we cater to children, showering them with gifts for their "love", we teach them to expect what they want to be given to them with no quid pro quo. If a spoiled child desires a bicycle and parents require him to do something to get it, like pick up his dirty clothes from the floor and maybe clean his bathroom thoroughly, and/or required to cut the grass without payment three or four times, he will may balk because he has always been supplied with  things without having to do anything for them...no quid pro quo. This child will resent having to study. He may resent having to work for income. He may resent having to deal with a used car instead of a new car. He may seek to have a new home as a first home and may try to purchase a house which he has no chance of affording.
   He may be very ready to make compromises that will slow his progress toward whatever his ideal goals are in life because he cannot see himself working and achieving those goals. He never had to work to achieve anything before. He will see himself falling behind others and he may not have a clue as to why. Not actually being able to justify blaming others for his shortcomings he may just resign himself to blaming fate, which is just blaming others for your own shortcomings.

   So the message here is to be careful with your most precious accomplishments...your children. You are doing your child a favor when you attach a quid pro quo. If they cannot find initiative in themselves to strive for success, to work for their future, their future may be your couch, your breakfast table, your third room and your  computer. It's called failing to launch and it's not rocket science.