Kids will eat almost anything they've helped to create, even if it's something as simple as letting them hand you stuff out of the refrigerator.

Well, that's not true of every kid. I was hanging out with the moms of a super picky 4-year old and a super picky 2-year old last night and they've tried every trick to get the girls to eat different things. And they just won't. The 4 year old has verrrrrrry slowly added things (like apples, for example) into her mostly chip-based repertoire but it's been rough going. the 4 year old has a twin brother who is a total omnivore so her mom at least knows it's not nurture that's making her daughter so picky. They do have a big garden growing right now and the 4 year old claims she will eat stuff she's grown. We'll see. She's mostly interested in the "baby peanut" (they planted a peanut plant).

Except he has been doing exactly that - loafing on their dime - for two years already, and he expects to come right out of a (IMO second-tier) liberal arts school and get a job in finance making $75K a year like his brother did right away.

My parents certainly helped me out during my post-Drive / strike-induced unemployment. But, at some point, you gotta man up and take the job you don't really want to take. Also, I was expected to pay them back.

Well, that's not true of every kid.

I had one girl in our Daisy troop who wouldn't eat cookies or Teddy Grahams. That was startling for me.

Except he has been doing exactly that - loafing on their dime - for two years already, and he expects to come right out of a (IMO second-tier) liberal arts school and get a job in finance making $75K a year like his brother did right away.

When I saw he turned down the job offer, I lost sympathy. It might not be a job you *like* (horrors!) or the perfect job, but it's a job. Like Kristen said, man up. You don't have to keep it forever.

like his brother did right away.

I suspect this is key. I also don't think working your way up always works like it used to. I don't think Mailroom to Management happens much anymore. People, at best, hover around supervisor, and there's this sort of feeling like once you're in a rung, that's where you'll live forever.

I think his taking the convo with his parents seriously means he takes the situation more seriously than as if it were something he is owed.

Yeah, that NYT guy turned down a job that's $11,000 a year more than I make, and I'm 37 and have two Master's degrees. (I mean, if making money was my heart's desire, I could have chosen a different profession, but seriously, let me wipe away my tears with my PLASTIC HAND).

Eh, the job he turned down does not pay all that much for a major metropolitan area. Not that he should have turned it down or been so whaaaaaaaaaa about it, but it's not that much more than my first (underpaying for the industry) FTE offer after college, and that was a while ago.

I had one girl in our Daisy troop who wouldn't eat cookies or Teddy Grahams.

Like, any cookies? That's a new one to me.

Yeah, all three of us kids did the move-back-home thing at various point in our lives. Both my sis and I did a year or so after graduating from college when we were laid off from our jobs, and my brother did two years ago when he separated from his now ex-wife. When Mom told me last year that he wasn't paying rent, she thought I was criticizing her and pointed out that he's just doing what we did in our early 20s. Doesn't bother me--now that she's in her 70s and living alone, I think she really likes having him around, and it eases all of our minds that he's there for her when neither sis nor I are even in the same time zone.

I don't think Mailroom to Management happens much anymore.

I don't know about Mailroom to Management, but in my company, I know of several people who have worked their way up from admin positions.

Eh, the job he turned down does not pay all that much for a major metropolitan area.

It's almost exactly what I make, in NYC, with a kid in fulltime daycare, and I've been out of college 10 years.

[I'm not saying it's a lot, but it's well above a living wage, especially for someone just out of school.]