Childhood's End?

Sitting around the house last night having a roundtable discussion about nothing in particular. My Senior son, who basically finished High School this week (He graduates this weekend), started a statement with, "While I am laying around this summer..." Both his mother and I and our Housemate, Ms. W, immediately pounced on that! Me: "Your time for sitting around is at an end..." The Queen: "You're gonna go..." Ms. W: "and get..." All three of us, practically in unison: "A JOB!!" I thought he saw the light... "I have to be able to get to a job....No car." But no...(Sigh) At any rate, the Queen and I, "You get the job, We'll make sure you get there. One way or another, rest assured." I don't think he has quite realized that it is time to grow up...It CAN be a shock. It wasn't for me, I had moved out my parents house at about the age of fifteen (by mutual agreement). I already was working and had been for a couple of years. But I remember some of the kids I went to school with...After Graduation it was such a shock for them (and I always wondered why) to realize it was time to become a productive member of society(or for those that could go to college) and right out of High School we don't all start with CEO wages. Things haven't changed much, except kids are much fussier about what kind of work they are willing to do. If you ain't college bound, it's time to get a job. It will not be your dream job. Probably won't even be close. Now in my (Step) son's case - he has the ambition to go to college (I think) - Unfortunately he only started really paying attention to the important stuff for the college bound High School student in about the last year and a half. Also unfortunately, he did not change his study habits and his grades were not what they could have been. Going back a few months... We sent off three applications to three colleges in Texas. Mostly to make a point (as far as I was concerned anyway) as I didn't think his GPA would support getting into these schools. And yes, I told him so. I was summarily informed that schools didn't look at your GPA so hard any more but took that in combination with other things. Volunteer work, extracurricular activities, Test scores, etc in addition to the GPA. I did my best at that time to hold a straight face as I wrote the checks. Out of the three schools he applied to, one came back and offered him a slot, but he would basically be on probation, until such time as his GPA was at a suitable level or...he washed out. This is known as working with the student. And it only works if the student is willing to be worked with. He was highly insulted and has pretty much let that go as far as I can tell. But what did he expect? He managed to squeak by in school with minimal effort (mostly) and now he will have to pay the price. He also informed us that his ultimate college choice was a school that costs about $25K a semester... I tried to hold a straight face and I have to admit I failed miserably. I laughed out loud. He had a plan, he told me... More to come...