Peter Pan-itis

Spain is on the brink of a major generational problem.

Last semester in my first culture class we had a detailed discussion one day about familial trends in Spain, marriage rates, divorce rates, average ages, etc. Many of those facts didn´t surprise me -- still feeling the effects of Franconian morality, divorce and abortion rates in Spain are less than half of their European neighbors, though rapidly growing. Like Italy, Spain now has a negative population grown rate (they average 1.2 children per mother). Religious activity is rapidly declining -- it´s rare to find people under the age of 40 in church on a regular basis.

All of that fits the "European" demographics I´ve become accustomed to in American classes. What I was previously unaware of, however, was the incredibly late age of independence.

Most students do not leave their parents home to attend university -- they just attend the one nearest to them and commute. Economic reasons are cited for this phenomenon. But then, after university, upon procuring work, most children continue to live with their parents until such time as they marry. The vast majority of all marriages now occur between the ages of 28-32. Thus, the average Spanish youth lives with his/her parents for 10 years longer than the average American.

Futhermore, the lack of personal responsibility within their parent´s homes cannot be understated. The mothers don´t make their adult children do chores. The main reason these youth stay at home is because they have plentiful food and a clean living space, which they need to exert no effort to maintain. I´ve felt incredibly spoiled here because my señora does ALL of the chores, and I´m practically not allowed to do anything besides tidy up my room and make my bed. I thought at first this was just because I was a paying "guest" -- but apparently, this is how señoras treat their own adult children, as well.

Now, as this generation actually does marry, they´re discovering problems like -- "oh, both members of this couple work full time, and...the house gets dirty! And doesn´t automatically clean itself! But neither of us knows how/has the time to do chores!" So, either they fight a lot, or they hire a maid -- but they never really accept that housechores are their own responsibility.

This "living in my parent´s basement" behaviour is especially common among guys -- full-time 29 year old lawyers and doctors still live at home. Girls tend to move in with roommates a bit earlier. But even them...

Well, let me relate one story. A professor told me that his niece is in her early 20s, and living an hour away from home to go to university. But, she drives home every Friday night with her dirty laundry, which her mother does all of. Every Sunday night, she heads back home with clean laundry, but more scarily, 10 tubberware containers full of refrigerator meals. She eats all of the meals, doesn´t even wash the tupperware out, and returns them dirty to her mother -- who cleans and repacks them for the next week.

Stories like these are usually anomolies in the U.S...but here they´re the norm. The long-term ramifications of this rather scare me.