[Sliver]

For adult kids who accept money from their parents for "life extras" (vacations, fancy cars, houses above the station you yourself have earned, aggressive savings, etc.), do your parents just slide money into your bank account? Do they give you a cheque? Are you their "employee"? Is there some other way?

I think the ways it has been to your advantage are obvious, but in what ways do you feel it has not been to your advantage to accept the money? Does it make you feel like a child to get money from your parents? Do you think they would be more proud of you if you said "no thanks, I want to do it on my own"?

Has anybody ever been offered money and turned it down in order to do it on their own?

Do you think it feels better to do something on your own - say buy a starter home with your own money versus buying a move-up or estate home with parental help?

I didn't accept much help from my parents growing up (paid for my own car, paid to move out, paid to travel, etc.) in spite of their willingness and offers of help/money; however, they did pay for my university education, so it's not like I can get too high on my horse.

Now as a parent, I really want to be able to help my kids buy their first house, pay for their schooling, pay so they can travel more than I did, etc. So I'm kind of doing a 180 now that my kids are getting older - I used to kind of think adult children who accepted parental financial help to holiday, buy cars, etc. weren't "real men" or were "spoiled" (and I still do to a degree in some situations), but I think there must be a happy medium where kids and young adults can earn a sense of self worth, pride of ownership, etc. by doing things on their own, while still receiving some help to do things that they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise.

Anyway, I'm in the process of reworking my philosophy on the whole thing. If anybody wants to discuss this, let's do it. Would love to hear other thoughts on the subject from kids and from parents.