That’s fair, but I think you’re using a narrow definition of peers. I’m sure you found online support and communities where you could be yourself a bit more than in high school. Certainly at 16 your own journey through society, online and in person, will have a greater influence on you than your parents worldview. These are all peer influences, since there is no hierarchical relationship between you.
Your parents worldview is a starting point, and by 16 most teenagers have already started forming many opinions which oppose their parents’ worldview. That gap expands as you get older.
How much can your parents be to blame for you thinking it’s okay to be a 38 year old dependent when you have access to all the information in the world from in person and online peers, to all the media ever produced that tells you society expects more from a 38 year old. Even in this fake meme it’s clear that the parents have been telling this middle aged adult for decades that this isn’t okay. You don’t kick someone out you’ve been caring for for 38 years “all of a sudden”, it’s the last option on a very long list.
I don’t think the shut-in believes it’s normal or okay to be a shut-in. It’s a feeling of complete failure to fit in and isolating as a result. The longer the shut-in is ostracized (or keeping themself ostracized), the stronger the feeling becomes that they do not fit in, they will never fit in, if there was ever an opportunity to fit in they surely missed it now. Being a 38 year old shut-in is actually very believable to me,it isn’t exactly a situation that challenges your beliefs or motivates you to change.
Sure, it’s harsh to put this all on enabling parents, but you also don’t get to 38 without enabling. You don’t leave the “last resort” on the table for 10-15 years. The very long list should be exhausted within 2 years and one of the options should be a therapist specialized in shut-ins. Beyond that, you’ll just have to hope and pray that one day something clicks in that brain and they start taking charge of their own life.
That’s fair, but I think you’re using a narrow definition of peers. I’m sure you found online support and communities where you could be yourself a bit more than in high school. Certainly at 16 your own journey through society, online and in person, will have a greater influence on you than your parents worldview. These are all peer influences, since there is no hierarchical relationship between you.
Your parents worldview is a starting point, and by 16 most teenagers have already started forming many opinions which oppose their parents’ worldview. That gap expands as you get older.
How much can your parents be to blame for you thinking it’s okay to be a 38 year old dependent when you have access to all the information in the world from in person and online peers, to all the media ever produced that tells you society expects more from a 38 year old. Even in this fake meme it’s clear that the parents have been telling this middle aged adult for decades that this isn’t okay. You don’t kick someone out you’ve been caring for for 38 years “all of a sudden”, it’s the last option on a very long list.
I don’t think the shut-in believes it’s normal or okay to be a shut-in. It’s a feeling of complete failure to fit in and isolating as a result. The longer the shut-in is ostracized (or keeping themself ostracized), the stronger the feeling becomes that they do not fit in, they will never fit in, if there was ever an opportunity to fit in they surely missed it now. Being a 38 year old shut-in is actually very believable to me,it isn’t exactly a situation that challenges your beliefs or motivates you to change.
Sure, it’s harsh to put this all on enabling parents, but you also don’t get to 38 without enabling. You don’t leave the “last resort” on the table for 10-15 years. The very long list should be exhausted within 2 years and one of the options should be a therapist specialized in shut-ins. Beyond that, you’ll just have to hope and pray that one day something clicks in that brain and they start taking charge of their own life.