Parenting Is For A Lifetime.

It seems that the majority of Americans feel strongly that once our children reach the tender age of 18, they are now 'adults'. This is the age when many mom's and dad's expect their young people to be self sustaining- capable of making their own way in the world. If this miraculous transition from child to grown up has not happened exactly on schedule, some parents believe in "pushing the bird from the nest". They are adamant that 'it' "must learn to fly on it's own."

Are we really "done" being parents, just because our children turn 18?
Why? Because our culture and society has set this limit as the age when parents should stop claiming them on income tax returns, and non-custodial parents are no longer required to pay child support? Does a number on a birthday cake really make a child an adult?

At age 18 our children need our help and our support more than ever. These next few years are crucial for them, as they experiment with all of the "adult" priveleges that our society now gives them, and make choices and decisions that will affect them for a lifetime. If a child is to go to college, they will almost certainly need Mom and Dad's help to pay for it.

A student applying for Federal Aid for for the first time will either recieve help and assistance or be denied help and assistance, based on the previous years income of his/her parents. If you have made enough money the previous year to ensure that your child will not recieve Federal Aid for college, then it is extremely important that you contribute to your child's secondary education. Refusing to do so could harm your child, and wipe out any hope he/she has of a future career. Children who cannot recieve Federal Aid, and whose parents do not contribute to their secondary education, often never attend college at all.

it is unfortunate that in America the expense of a college education is so outrageous that most young people find they cannot afford to attend, without some form of Aid. Since it is the parents income that defines whether or not a child can recieve Federal Aid, it is also the parents responsibility to assist the child in finding the necessary resources, or to provide them. A parent who is weighing the costs of a childs education, must also consider the fact that a child who attends college is more likely to be self-sustaining later in life. The money you invest in your childs college education now, is money that you will be saving later, when your child does not need to borrow money from you to meet his/her living expenses, or support his/her own family.

Learn more about this author, Randa Morris.
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