I want to make two points. First: People on this website tend not to have grown up poor, but let me assure you that that demographic of Americans has no proble

I want to make two points. First: People on this website tend not to have grown up poor, but let me assure you that that demographic of Americans has no problem with independence. My friend has had a job since he was twelve, and until he moved out (at 18) he had to pay his share of the household bills. And he has bad credit because when they needed money his mom borrowed money in his name. Second: Im a college student, so I see a lot of people floundering with new found independence. First people who grew up poorer can, in general, cook, clean and shop properly. Of those that grew up in wealthier families, the "only" children are the ones that tend to struggle at first. In the end though, most of them figure it out. Large universities are pretty good at fostering independence. Primarily because they don't really care about their students. Either you figure it out or flunk out. I know that anecdotes of peoples parents coming with them to interviews are common, but I don't know a single person who has had this particular indignity inflicted on them. In general I think that adults in the United States are fairly good at being independent from their parents and American Universities have helped with this. I also know that Asian, and Japanese universities have a reputation for coddling their students, to the point that American professors are wary of taking them on as grad students (not to say that some of them aren't fantastic students because they are). I also know that Japanese parents are far more likely to support their children financially into their adulthoods than American parents are. So while I agree with many of the sentiments here I want to point out that Americans do force their children to be independent. They just wait until they are 18-25.