It’s time for full honesty and it might be brutal, but if you drop out of college, move back home with your parents, and have no direction in life, then it’s safe to say that your parents failed somewhere along the line, or there’s something in your life that’s hampering the kickstart that you really need. Watching Andie the Great is going to be kind of like keeping your eyes glued to a car crash even though you know you should look away. The tragedy is somehow magnetic, and on top of that, it’s a very real issue that goes on in this country that too many people have found as necessary to reach the next stage in their life. It might not have reached epidemic levels, but being as noticeable it still presents a bit of a problem since it makes a lot of people wonder just what the upcoming generations are going to be like if this is considered normal enough for so many people. The parents that allow it aren’t much of a help since quite a few parents are passive enough to let their kids move back in with them in order to get their feet under them so that they can move on with their life. But those that are like Andie, who appear to settle back into their comfort zone, are an issue since like it or not, moving them once they get settled again is about as easy as pulling teeth with a pair of plastic pliers. There have been several cases of kids moving back in with their parents once they find out what life is like in the real world, and it’s enough to make a person shake their head since while some people accept it as needing to let these people ‘find themselves’, others might see it as a way of allowing the individual to shirk responsibility and just be a mooch for a while.
There are those of us that have moved home in order to get our feet back under us after a rough time, and having parents that will help out and let a kid move back, so long as they’re working or going to school or doing something to be productive, is all well and good. But taking more than a month or two to find yourself is an issue largely because it means that the person has come home just to roost and become a burden on those that are ready to move on to the next stage of their life. Like it or not, there isn’t a lot of pity for people that come home just to be the kid again, since those of us that have been in this situation, and there are quite a few thanks to how hard real life can be, have already learned what it’s like to come home and try to be a mooch. Some parents will just sigh and give in and accept that their kid is home again and there’s nothing else to be done for it, while others will say ‘nuh-uh’ and will make their child work, go to school, or do something to earn their keep. At this point in life, parents have given quite a bit to their kids and both want and deserve to live out their later years doing what they want to do while confident in the knowledge that their kids are out in the real world doing what they can to get by. There’s nothing wrong with helping a kid out when they’re down and being there when they need someone to simply acknowledge that life is hard, but moving back home and doing virtually nothing as it would appear Andie is going to do doesn’t necessarily make one ‘great’.
It sounds like I’m being harsh, doesn’t it? You’d better believe it since one of the best lessons a parent can ever give their kids is the idea that in the real world very few people are going to care about them apart from those that are either family or are friends that will help them out when they’re in need. But the general lesson that most kids need as they grow, and too many don’t get, is that the world won’t provide everything they need unless they’re willing to work for it. So school’s too hard, then maybe it’s not for that individual and they would be better doing something else. Work is too hard? That’s too bad, find another job. Can’t find a job? Keep looking. People don’t care? Welcome to the world. There are so many lessons that parents need to impart upon their kids that are being missed these days that we get movies such as this and many others that seek to normalize the act of ‘finding yourself’ instead of finding a place in the world, for yourself. Much like a car accident, we’ll be paying attention to this movie for as long as we can bear it.
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