Up & Coming Weekly

THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET It’s Complicated by MARGARET DICKSON As a faithful and indisputable member of the Baby Boomer generation, I have watched CNN’s Larry King’s interview with Rolling Stone Mick Jagger several times, complete with some of the great music of my formative years. The aging rock star is a primary poster boy for the American generation that refused to grow up. Many of us are still fi ghting it as hard as we can with new joints to replace the ones we wore out, and all manner of “youth enhancing” creams, pills and procedures even as our fi rst Social Security checks are being cut. It seems that we are not the only ones having trouble growing up. So are our children and grandchildren. Young adulthood, it seems, just isn’t what it used to be. Recent surveys of Americans and sociological reports confi rm what many of us are seeing in our own families and in those of friends — that the markers of adulthood and independence are being pushed farther out than they have been in past generations. And that change is happening quickly. The traditional markers of adulthood, most notably the completion of one’s education and marriage and children, are taking longer to achieve or are being achieved in non-traditional ways. The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood has been studying such changes and says that it is indeed taking young people between 20 and 34 longer to fi nish their educations, to marry and have children, and to establish themselves in the workplace, than ever before in our nation’s history. Reaching 21 is no longer the beginning of independence for many young people. One clear indication of this is Congressional passage of a healthcare reform provision allowing parents to retain children on their health insurance policies until the age of 26 as long as the children remain in school. Frank Furstenberg of the Research Network puts it this way, “A new period of life is emerging in which young people are no longer adolescents but not yet adults.” Then there is marriage and children. A mere 30 years ago, in 1980, the median age of a fi rst marriage was 23. Today it is 26 for women and 27 for men, which is what I am seeing among my three 20-something precious jewels and their friends. In addition, the numbers of women who delay having children until 35 or later is on the rise. A recent report from the Pew Research Center fi nds that delayed motherhood is a change that includes all ethnic, racial and income groups and that it has taken fi rm hold. Indeed, a cousin of my precious jewels’ generation had a beautiful baby boy this month and will celebrate her 35th birthday in September. So what are we to make of these changes? Are they result of changing social and economic circumstances or individual choices? Probably both. CORRECTION In the June 16 issue of Up & Coming Weekly some information was incorrect in the article on Ali Durham. • Durham did not participate in gymnastics in high school, she was a cheerleader. • She met her husband Duke in Baltimore, but not in the tattoo parlor. • She studied psychology, not physiology. We apologize for the errors in fact. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Your source for: N ,EWSEW VIEW VIEWS, ARTS ARTS & We Baby Boomers experienced, and sometimes demanded, changes in our culture that began in the 1970s and are still playing out among our children and grandchildren. Our generation went to college in record numbers, including those of us who are women. In addition, the women’s movement pushed us along, opening up educational and career opportunities rarely available in our mothers’ generation and before. During that period as well, our nation’s economy began the ponderous shift from a manufacturing economy to one that continues to be service-based and requiring a more educated workforce. These changes allowed and sometimes encouraged women to delay marriage and children while they pursued education and workplace experiences, hence today’s older and more educated mothers. Andrew Cherlin, a professor of sociology and public policy at Johns Hopkins University tells us that there has been a “huge change” in only 20 years. In 1990, 41 percent of American mothers had a college degree. Today that fi gure is 54 percent. Certainly, our nation’s economic struggles play a role as well. Many young adults who have prepared themselves and are ready to enter the workforce at what we think of at a traditional age fi nd no jobs available for them to do. Even the jobs once considered entry level or “starter” jobs are fi lled with older, more experienced workers who have had to move down the employment ladder as employers cut their workforces. I have read that our young people are the ones who have been most affected by the Great Recession as they have had to delay entry into the workforce, in essence, delaying adulthood. This phenomenon is most apparent in young people who have had to come home to live with their parents again, the so-called “boomerang generation.” A young couple in our family has moved in with her parents, a “temporary” arrangement expected to end now that the husband who has a master’s degree has fi nally found employment, but others are not yet so fortunate. Economic indicators blessedly point toward a gradual recovery, and I have faith that our nation will pull out of this. I am convinced, though, that the social changes begun four decades or so ago are with us to stay. MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer It is, as the saying goes, complicated. COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or editor@upandcomingweekly.com.    ®         T 484-6200    ®   JUNE 23-29, 2010 UCW 5

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