CEO Says Adult Kids Who Still Accept Money From Their Parents Have No Right To Say Anything Bad About Them
He claimed that adult children should be nothing but grateful to their parents if they receive any financial support.
BearFotos / Shutterstock Gary Vaynerchuk, more commonly known as Gary Vee, is an online personality and the CEO of the media company VaynerX.
On his podcast, "The GaryVee Audio Experience," Vaynerchuk recently made a bold statement. He claimed that adult children should not say anything negative about their parents if they receive any form of financial support from them.
Vaynerchuk claimed that adult children who still accept money from their parents have no right to say anything bad about them.
"If you take money from your parents and you're over the age of 22, get their names out of your [expletive] mouth," Vaynerchuk frankly stated. "Kiss the ground they walk on."
He claimed that adult children have no right to say anything rude or disparaging about their parents if their lifestyles are being helped by their family. Vaynerchuk also insisted that any parents who financially aid their children have the right to say whatever they wish without complaint.
"You don't want [your parents] to have a say?" Vaynerchuk questioned. "Stop taking the bag."
He added that if adult children wish to stop taking money from their parents, then it should be in every aspect of their lives. For example, he insisted that adult children should stop allowing their parents to pay for their Uber because their credit card is attached to the account, and stop using the Netflix family plan, instead paying for their own streaming services.
Comments on Vaynerchuk's viral clip were divided.
Some users, many of whom were fellow parents, heavily agreed with Vaynerchuk's opinion. They claimed that adult children need to be more grateful for the fact that their parents still pay for their things, including phone bills, car insurance, and other miscellaneous expenses.
"Say it loudly for the ungrateful grown kids in the back!" one user wrote.
However, this viewpoint is incredibly manipulative. It perpetuates the idea that adult children owe their parents for giving them life and that they have no right to criticize or hold their parents accountable for the trauma that they may have experienced during childhood and beyond.
"This is the exact opposite of the kind of parent I want to be," one commenter shared. "I want to support my kid and also have them make independent choices."
"GaryVee is the parent who holds everything over your head," another user wrote.
Money from parents shouldn't come with stipulations and strings attached — it should just be only be given out of care because a parent doesn't want to see their child struggle financially.
Parents often use money to weaponize control over their children's lives.
Vaynerchuk's opinion fails to take into consideration the number of parents out there who use money as a way to exert control over their adult children's lives. They use money as a way to keep their children under their thumb, just because they can.
However, by having children, parents signed up to be providers, and to hold any of that against them is incredibly toxic.
It's an incredibly American ideology that once a child turns 18, they should be out on their own without any support from their family. Many parents encourage their children to move out immediately, or if they choose to stay home, charge them rent.
However, what people fail to realize is that even though the age of 18 is seen as an adult in the eyes of the law, 18-year-olds are still children.
They're young and naive — they have no idea what adulthood even means. So, to believethat a freshly turned 18-year-old who is no longer in high school suddenly has the ability to provide for every aspect of their life is just ludicrous and unrealistic.
Even young adults who are over 22 — the age Vaynerchuk named as the cutoff — are struggling to provide for themselves, due to inflation, the housing crisis, the cost of higher education, and the astronomical prices of rent in many cities across the country. Not even to mention the skyrocketing prices of basic things like groceries and gas and the near impossibility of finding a high-paying entry-level job.
It's always been hard for me to wrap my hand around parents not wanting to do everything in their power to provide for their children, even if they are considered adults. Why should the help of a parent mean that their child now owes them everything? And why should said financial aid mean that a parent is now above criticism?
Children who experience this type of behavior from their parents often end up with unresolved trauma and the expectation that everything given to them comes with a debt attached. That's no way to live.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.