In Switzerland, at 12, you get a "youth salary" to get used to independence. In Italy, at 30, you don't want to leave home.

YOUTH SALARY SWITZERLAND

Two parallel stories help us understand the problem we have with our children, when we decide to be too protective, when we are obsessed with control, also encouraged by electronic prosthetics, when we do not educate them to independence.

The first story comes from Switzerland, where pocket money has been retired. And it has been replaced by the "youth wages"What's the difference? Certainly not in the vocabulary, but in the substance. Pocket money is a sort of income we're accustomed to giving to kids without asking for anything in return. "Youth wages," on the other hand, should help our children and grandchildren become self-sufficient, aside from food and shelter, of course: the first step, accompanied by money, to then dive into life on their own and make their own way, far from home.

They are the ones, once paid by the family, to decide if, how and when to spend on a game, a movie, a restaurant. And it is assumed that by doing so, in complete autonomy, these kids will become more autonomous e more responsible. And they won't waste time or money. The "youth wage" works like this: every month, from the time the child is 12 years old and starts spending money independently, the family pays between 100 and 200 francsWith this figure there is a sort of "all inclusive" that the boy must keep in mind, without exceptions.

ALSO READ: Educate children about the value of money, even through stories and fables.

YOUNG PEOPLE WHO DON'T WANT TO LEAVE HOME

The second story instead concerns theItalyThe lack of employment for young people is perhaps the greatest national shame, but we must not bury our heads in the sand in the face of this Eurostat statistic: 60 percent of young Italians are unemployed. he is not willing to moveIn order to stay with Mom and Dad, he prefers to give up a job. What does this choice mean? Do we have overgrown children? Let's not remain prisoners of clichés and face reality. These kids, I repeat: disadvantaged compared to previous generations, must deal with a double generational damage. On the one hand, spaces are more closed, as demonstrated by the static nature of the social ladder; on the other, it is the parents and grandparents themselves who finance this inaction. Always remember that in Italy there are 7 million grandparents that they pass money, more than a "youth salary" here it is a "youth subsidy", to children and grandchildren.

Pampered at home, protected by parallel family welfare, and perhaps able to find some occasional work on the black market, many young people make a radical, downward choice: they stay at homeAnd they don't build any piece of the future. They dwell on the present, they don't throw themselves into life, and they run the risk of condemning themselves to a long, endless drift.

WHEN TOO PRESENT PARENTS DAMAGE THEIR CHILDREN:

• In Italy, you can only attend and leave school with your parents. This is true until eighth grade.
• Raising children: We're overprotective and overly anxious. And we raise children who aren't very independent.
• Child education: parents now go to school to learn
• Helicopter parents, be careful: you can do a lot of damage to your children.
• Finnish schools are teaching home economics to boys, too. And they're shuffling the disciplines.