This makes me so mad.
The Irish League of Credit Unions has just released the results of a survey they conducted about the number of parents who are getting into debt in order to put their kids through college (60%, shockingly).
I get that college fees have to be paid and our secondary school graduates need to be supported through their chosen next level of education.
If you don’t live near to the college that your child wants to attend, you also need to find the funds to cover accommodation on campus or in a suitable rental property nearby.
It all costs money, I get it.
But while I can understand parents saving up for initial fees, I’m not quite sure what’s happening with the additional €447 monthly support that parents are handing over to their college-going kids.
Is this the ‘Don’t worry, we’ll suffer while you drink your face off in the bar on €3 pints fund’ or what?
If only a quarter of students are actively working to put themselves through college, what are the other three quarters of the student population doing?
And don’t say ‘studying’, please, let’s not kid ourselves.
Most third-level education courses run a maximum of eleven hours of lectures per week with a ‘mandatory’ tutorial session or two thrown in.
The rest of the time is for ‘study’, extra-curricular activities or, (vomit), ‘finding yourself’.
Let me tell you the finest way to ‘find yourself’ when you get into the college years, my friend: go get a part-time job in the big, bad, real world would ya?!
The benefits you will reap will be as follows:
- You will get over your delicate self when tasked with cleaning the toilets of the fast-food outlet you are working in at 2am
- You will have cash in your pocket which will allow you to buy those €3 pints on your days off, save for that backpacking trip during the summer holidays and also buy you lots and lots of condoms (PLEASE buy lots and lots of condoms)
- You will learn something new; perhaps that everything costs money and that you need to work your ass off in order to make aforementioned money
- You will let your long, suffering parents off the hook and maybe – just maybe – buy THEM something nice for once
- You will meet other, hard-working bad-asses who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and prove to the world that they can earn their own keep
- You might discover an area of industry that you enjoy and want to work at in the future
- You will appreciate all those years when you didn’t have to work and your parents just paid for everything without your realising. Guess what? Your parents are legends
- You will grow up a little bit, and that’s ok. Welcome to the real world, kid.
What do you think, should students get a part-time job to support themselves through college, or is it all on mam and dad’s shoulders? Let us know in the comments on Facebook.
