You're Already Paying for Your Adult Child's Struggles. The Question Is Whether It's Working.
Most parents I talk to are not debating whether their emerging adult needs support.
They already know something is off. The anxiety that won't lift, the job applications that go nowhere, the late-night calls that leave you lying awake wondering if you did something wrong. The slow drift back toward your spare room.
What they're actually debating is whether coaching is worth it.
So let's talk about that honestly with real numbers.
Here's what most families discover too late: they've already been paying.
The average cost of one extra year of financial dependence, when you factor in phone bills, health insurance, top-up bank transfers, and the occasional "can you cover this?" emergency, sits somewhere between $15,000 and $25,000. Sometimes more. That's before the emotional accounting, which nobody writes on a spreadsheet but everyone feels.
A university student who drops out mid-way through because they weren't ready for the transition costs more than tuition.
A young person who cycles through three jobs in eighteen months because nobody helped them understand what they actually want is not lazy. They're lost and lost costs money, time, and a lot of worry on your end.
That's not a judgment that's just what happens when we send young people into adulthood without a navigator.
Failure to Launch coaching is not therapy, it's not tutoring, it's not a gap year program or a personality test with a debrief.
It's a structured, one-to-one process that works with your son or daughter to help them get clear on who they are, what they want, and what's actually getting in their way. We deal with the confidence piece, the decision-making piece. The "I don't know what I'm doing and I can't tell my parents that" piece.
You stay in the background which, if you've been carrying this worry for a while, is actually a relief.
Here's what that investment looks like in practice. A coaching program typically runs for six to 12 months.
The cost is a fraction of what most families spend managing the downstream effects of an emerging adult without direction. We're talking about the cost of a few months of financial hand outs, or one round of career counselling and a mediocre online course that didn't land.
The difference is that this coaching produces something those things rarely do. Movement. Self-awareness. A young person who starts making decisions instead of deferring them.
One mum whose daughter I worked with had been supplementing her daughter's income for two years. It added up to to $19,200. ($800 a month)
More than that, it kept her daughter stuck in a job she hated because she never had to face the discomfort of figuring out something better. We worked together for six months. Her daughter is now eighteen months into a career she chose, in an apartment she pays for herself.
That mum didn't stop caring, she just stopped carrying her daughter.
The uncomfortable truth is this: the longer the assistance or the help continues, the harder the reset becomes for the emerging adult.
If your emerging adult is between 18 and 28 and you've been wondering whether something needs to shift, that instinct is worth paying attention to. You don't need to have it all figured out before we speak but its time to take action
Book a free discovery call and let's talk about where your son or daughter is right now and how coaching could be the next step for them. No pressure. Just an honest conversation.
