What do parents owe adult children?

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2020

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We speak to those who argue parents should give their children money long into adulthood - and others who say the whole of society should be responsible, not just parents.

Raphael Samuel is a 28 year old businessman in India who tried to sue his parents for giving birth to him - without his consent. An Indian court threw out the case on grounds of absurdity, but Raphael isn’t giving up. He’s now filed a case demanding that all parents prove - before they give birth - that they have the ability to give their child the ‘right to life’ - something he thinks should include being able to provide an education, proper food, and healthcare. He believes parents’ financial responsibility for their children doesn’t end when the child hits 18 years of age. In Italy, where almost two thirds of 18-34 year olds live at home, we hear from Tobia della Puppa, who explains why it can be hard to explain to the older generation why this is the case. We also get the perspective of Nina Bandelj, a sociology professor at the University of California Irvine, who tells us how children went from being economically useful, to “priceless”. (Picture: Older person’s hand giving coin to young person’s hand; Credit: utah778/Getty Images)

Producer: Sarah Treanor, with extra production in Italy from Vera Mantengoli

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC with me, Manuela Salagossa.
0:07.3	Coming up, what do parents owe their adult children?
0:10.8	And has the COVID pandemic changed the financial equation?
0:14.4	It's difficult to have like a monthly income, you know, necessary to face all the costs of a life away from home. You know, it's
0:22.3	heartbreaking because we want to be independent, but we cannot. But should it just be down to
0:28.3	parents to help their adult children through times of hardship, or does the whole of society
0:33.0	have a stake? A child is priceless, their future is priceless. Their potential is priceless. But today,
0:40.1	that requires intensive investment in money. Love money and parenting coming up here in Business
0:46.7	Daily from the BBC. The idea is to make every parent fear before they actually have a child,
0:57.1	because nowadays they don't think about the decision before having a child.
1:00.3	So I want to make them think that my child could actually sue me.
1:04.5	Raphael Samuel is a 28-year-old businessman in India.
1:08.4	He tried to sue his parents for giving birth to him without his consent.
1:13.3	Now, an Indian court throughout the case on the grounds of absurdity, but Raphael isn't giving up.
1:18.7	He's now filed a new case, demanding that all parents prove before they give birth that they have
1:23.8	the ability to give their child the right to life, something he thinks should include being able to provide an education, proper food, health care and so on and so forth.
1:33.3	See, my point is very simple that if you have a child, you have to take care of it completely.
1:40.4	Once you've got the money, once you've proved to the government that, yes, I have the money, I have the resources, etc.
1:46.1	Then at least till complete education, by law, the parent has to pay for them.
1:52.9	And if possible, after education, a certain amount of maintenance.
1:56.1	Because in India, what happens is you get an education but you don't get a job.
1:59.9	That happens very often. And you get a job that is way below your education level. So the parent who has, you know, brought you up in poverty or whatever, he's not paying for you either. Or even if he's not brought you up in poverty. He's got money. He's not paying for you. He says, no, you're not my responsibility after 18. And that happens,
	...

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