I spoke to an audience of parents recently and found a common thread among their concerns for their children. One after another, they shared how their child or teen:

Unfortunately, this is a pattern I hear too often from educators, parents, coaches, and employers. There are issues that have diminished the drive for maturation in many kids. I see less holistic maturation and more categorical maturation. Too many teens, for instance, have lower aspirations to get their driver’s license when they’re eligible, they’re less likely to move out of a parent’s home as adults, and they prolong their adolescence as they postpone various adult responsibilities. Truth be told, adolescence is expanding on both sides: kids enter adolescence earlier, being exposed to realities sooner, yet they remain in it longer, postponing adult tasks.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that all of these current realities are terrible. Throughout history, adulthood has arrived at different ages in cultures around the world. I’m only suggesting that if our young adults are capable of growth and progress and we let them settle for less, we’ve failed in our job as caring adult leaders.

My goal in this brief series of posts is to identify the handicaps that today’s emerging generation faces and then identify how caring........

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