I don't have a very standard viewpoint on this issue. I have to work, because I'm going to pay for college all on my lonesome. I don't think my mom even knows what my grades are. My family is very closeknit, and we spend a lot of time going to each other's concerts and performances, but my mom demands that we each be independent. We all do our own chores, work for our spending money, buy each other Christmas presents, and take turns cooking and cleaning.

I know several people that are very dependent on their parents, though, and not all of them are losers. One of the most intelligent people I know has her mom come into school every week to talk to her teachers. This girl is all ready taking college courses, and she has no real ideas of her own where she wants to go to college. She does know exactly what colleges are good for the sports that her parents want her to do, and which colleges are good for the major her parents want her to take, though.

EVENTUALLY everybody has to learn how to do their own dishes, right? Parents don't live forever. What happens to a thirty year old kid when he gets kicked into independence forcibly?