Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., has written a new advice book for parents on how to prepare their clueless kids for adulthood in today's rough-and-tumble economic times.
"The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis – and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance," will be released May 16.
The Nebraska Republican "diagnoses the causes of a generation that can't grow up and offers a path for raising children to become active and engaged citizens," according to publisher St. Martin's Press.
"He identifies core formative experiences that all young people should pursue: hard work to appreciate the benefits of labor, travel to understand deprivation and want, the power of reading, the importance of nurturing your body – and explains how parents can encourage them."
In his book, Sasse, who served as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, discusses the crisis faced by the nation's youth.
"Raised by well-meaning but overprotective parents and coddled by well-meaning but misbegotten government programs, they are ill-equipped to survive in our highly competitive global economy," St. Martin's writes.
"Many of the coming-of-age rituals that have defined the American experience since the Founding: learning the value of working with your hands, leaving home to start a family, becoming economically self-reliant – are being delayed or skipped altogether."
The book also cites "daunting" statistics 30 percent of college students dropping out after the first year, and only four in 10 graduating. As well, one in three 18- to 34 year-olds live with their parents.
Sasse, a married father of three who also served as president of Midland University in Fremont, Neb., sees the trials of this generation as "an existential threat to the American way of life," according to St. Martin's.
"[Sasse] diagnoses the causes of a generation that can't grow up and offers a path for raising children to become active and engaged citizens."