Kids leaving the nest...

My basic parenting philosophy is that your job is to have your kids prepared to be a successful adult. You can define successful a lot of ways, but for me it roughly means having them ready to live on their own and handle their own affairs (rent, medical, transportation, etc).

I have a 22 year old recent college grad living in NYC as a young corporate type. We are subsidizing her rent to a degree, and she is still on my health plan (I'm already paying the 'family' rate so there is no savings to me to boot her and it saves her some dough) and my cell phone plan. Almost everything else is on her, and she is very interested in becoming financially independent. I think in 2 years she will be off my books completely (aside from flights home - my wife and I have decided we will always buy tickets home for them if they need it).

Then I also have a 20 year old college sophomore who goes through money like water. He's a major work in progress, financially speaking - we tightened the screws this summer and lots more to go. He will get there, if for no other reason than he knows we will cut him off shortly after college. When he failed to get a summer job on his own last summer I put him to work at a friend's commercial laundry facility. Washing the dirty sheets from FQ hotels seemed to get his attention - he's already looking for a job for next summer to avoid the laundry.

Every kid is different but I am hoping that by around 23 or 24 they will both be Actual Adults.