I wonder if Italian parenting is different than, say, Canadian or American parenting.
I live in Canada. When I was a kid I walked to school by myself (from age six, possibly earlier), then learned to take the bus, and so forth. A lot of parents today hover over kids past the age of twelve, refuse to let their kids walk to school (it might be impossible if you live in a "bedroom community" suburb), they're terrified of letting their kids take public transit (that place with a lot of witnesses, and at least in Canada security cameras)... and these are the same parents who walked themselves to school as kids (uphill, through the snow, both ways) while playing by themselves or with friends outside after school while their parents were at work. All of this due to fear. At least this is how things are in Canada and the US. I truly hope that's the only island of fear.
I think the parents in these scenarios are still scared for their now-adult kids. They won't throw them out as that kid who is incapable of getting an education or finding or getting a job would become homeless. Of course, the kid realizes they won't get kicked out, so they don't put in the effort. What will happen when their parents pass away? Perhaps the kids are expecting an inheritance.
I Googles Italian welfare. Here's a sample of what I found:
Parliament approved on Thursday an anti-poverty package aimed at providing financial relief to the growing number of hard-up Italians battered by years of economic stagnation and high unemployment.
It is the first such attempt in Italy to set up a permanent safety net for poor families, with the lion’s share of the national welfare budget traditionally earmarked for pensions.
...(snip)...
The government says it will offer up to 480 euros ($506) a month to the needy, favouring couples with young children and jobless people aged over 55. It has put aside 1.6 billion euros for 2017 and promises more funding in the years ahead.
The cash will come with strings attached, including demands that dependent children go to school, that they are vaccinated and that the unemployed commit to seeking a job.
In fact, welfare in Italy is so different from Canada and the US that at first I wondered if I was reading badly translated articles. In Ontario, Canada, a recently unemployed person can get over $2,000 per month on unemployment, but it only lasts nine months or so, and you have to have worked enough hours in the past year to get that. The pay rate is based on what you were paid before, too, so there's no guarantee that the payout will be that generous. Italy and the US have something similar, though I didn't follow up on details (eg duration, amount of payment).
Afterward (in Ontario) you could go on welfare, but that pays less than $700 per month, if you are a single employable adult with no children, which is just barely enough to live off of if you have roommates. This is apparently more generous than the proposed Italian plan ($506 per month, in USD, so probably about the same, but apparently for people
with children). In Canada, you can stay on welfare until you "retire", although you have to (theoretically) prove that you looked for work.
Those "kids" should be reading up on Italian-language welfare articles and planning for their futures.
