Kids leaving the nest...

Or being pushed out…

So I’m UpHere in frozen Canada, and not even touristy Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver Canada - just Edmonton… boring, yeah.

But I’m curious about raising children and letting them go, down there - I don’t know much about the U S of A, only been to a few states over the years (wife and I are flying down and driving through Memphis/nashville/east coast/florida panhandle to NEW ORLEANS! In Feb for our 25th) anyway… sorry for the preamble. I’ve got a 22 yr boy, 20 yr boy, 17 year girl

I’m concerned about our kids moving out (it’s getting that time) - we’ve committed to helping them get a leg up and giving them a head start in leaving, getting settled and starting their own life away from here - we’ve just helped our oldest to buy his first house (for reference it was about $320,000 Canadian - so… a lot more in your dollars) - I spent 6 months putting a basement suite in for renters (basement is under your main floor southerners : ) he decided to rent the upstairs and downstairs and stay at home for a year or so until he moved in - smart I think, but now we have to do this two more times.

I was 17 when I moved out, and couldn’t even get a blockbuster card without a visa, rent was 300 a month, no internet bill, no cell phone bill… cost me $12 to fill my car - it was actually pretty easy - now the prices up here are outrageous - the gov is finally doing something about the ridiculous car insurance prices (another headache deal with) but I’m unsure as to how our kids’ generation is going to scrape by if not flourish.

How hard is it there to send your children out when they think they’re ready? Is it any different from here? Our taxes are steep, but our programs might(!) serve you well - our grocery prices are brutal (you ever bought Alberta beef?) our gasoline prices are high even though we produce it here - even PORK is getting expensive lol

I guess the long and short of it is we’ve dismissed the idea of retirement for now… this may fit under Blue's thread, sorry - because we don’t think it’s a reasonable dream that our kids can fly the coop and succeed immediately without help - just curious if the same things plague your minds in a slightly different atmosphere.