People have studied our generation, and one of the things they noticed is that we define "adulthood" by a variety of symbols rather than by a single hurdle you pass. For example, it used to be that graduating from university was the stamp of adulthood - after that, you're a grownup, time to go do grownup things.
Now we're a generation that defines adulthood as "walking into a grocery store, realizing you can buy ALL OF THE COOKIES AND NOBODY WILL STOP YOU, but also realizing you no longer want to." We are the pragmatic and stubborn generation, so we assemble adulthood out of bits and pieces - financial independence, stable relationships, emotional balance, etc.
So maybe that house in the photo is just another little part of being grown up to us: having that means being an adult, and once we're an adult maybe this will all stop being so scary all the time.
Of course, the joke is on us, that 1950s life is unattainable now; there's no way you can support two cars, two kids, a house, and a spouse on a single salary these days.
I sometimes wonder how much of it is just that we grew up that way, and many of our parents grew up that way, and now it's just become "normal". Not many people who grew up in North America remember a time when grandparents did a significant part of parenting, or many (most?) city families shared a house with other families by separating floors.
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Now we're a generation that defines adulthood as "walking into a grocery store, realizing you can buy ALL OF THE COOKIES AND NOBODY WILL STOP YOU, but also realizing you no longer want to." We are the pragmatic and stubborn generation, so we assemble adulthood out of bits and pieces - financial independence, stable relationships, emotional balance, etc.
So maybe that house in the photo is just another little part of being grown up to us: having that means being an adult, and once we're an adult maybe this will all stop being so scary all the time.
Of course, the joke is on us, that 1950s life is unattainable now; there's no way you can support two cars, two kids, a house, and a spouse on a single salary these days.
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