The Panic of the 30-Somethings, and More
By Jordan Kisner
How Thirtysomethings Are Redefining Adulthood
By Kayleen Schaefer
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In the 1950s, sociologists came up with a checklist for entering adulthood: finish school, leave home, make your own money, marry and become a parent. Only once a person had managed all five, the thinking went, were they finally an adult. “These markers are supposed to be some sort of an end,” Schaefer writes. “When we arrive at them, we will know what we’re doing and who we are.”
Are you laughing — or crying — yet? In her thoughtful and well-paced evaluation of “adulthood,” Schaefer explores the struggle today’s ascendant adults face in getting anywhere near these goals “on time.” Her tone is both skeptical of these 70-year-old benchmarks and sympathetic to the many people, like herself, who feel anxious and ashamed for failing to meet them. It’s not that 30-somethings are ditching school, independence and traditional family life out of rebellion, but that their efforts are frequently thwarted. They are facing “the fear that may have been on the edges of our consciousness before: We may never get where we want to be.”