‘The door has already been firmly shut in his face’: A parent’s Reddit comment about Gen Z son’s despair

A comment on Reddit’s r/jobsearch has struck a nerve far beyond the usual job hunt frustrations, after a parent described watching their 20-year-old son, who has been monitoring the economy since he was 16, conclude that homeownership, a new car, and starting a family are simply not in the cards for his generation.

“He told me the other day he’s not bringing kids into this world and by then he’ll probably be dead in the dystopian/apocalyptic world we’ll be facing in the future,” the parent wrote. “Instead of the world being at my feet when I graduated from college, he feels like the door has already been firmly shut in his face.”

What makes the post land is that the parent isn’t dismissing their son’s fears as youthful pessimism. They’re asking what to say because the numbers, as they put it, don’t lie.

The son spent nine months applying to more than a hundred jobs for an entry-level position at an office supply store. He’s since been promoted to manager, and now tells his parents stories about highly qualified people working there at entry level because it was the only thing they could find, or because they needed it as a second job.

“I simply couldn’t believe that an 18-year-old looking for an entry-level job would have to wait that long to find it,” the parent wrote.

The responses

The thread drew responses from people across different ages and circumstances, and almost none of them tried to offer reassurance.

One commenter described walking past HR at their workplace and watching young people line up hopefully for job interviews. “It actually depresses me a bit because I know how few people we hire these days and how many past coworkers have been let go in the last few years. I don’t know why they schedule all these interviews when they are likely only giving one person a job.”

Another connected with the son’s decision not to have children. “I’m in my 40s and never really wanted kids personally, but now I wonder how anyone can bring kids into our world. Like, I want to be happy for the parents, but I’m filled with worry over what the future holds for the children. And I’m sure as a parent it’s painful to see your son so disillusioned.”

One commenter brought a concrete professional example that illustrated how the squeeze extends even to postgraduate qualifications. “My coworker was just telling me today that her daughter, who recently graduated with an MSN and is now a licensed Nurse Practitioner, is struggling to find a job in her area and is having to interview for positions in other states. Apparently, she’s too green for everyone hiring near her.”

Another 20-year-old responded directly to the son’s situation with recognition rather than contradiction. “I feel the same way as your son, and he is probably right. I told the same to my dad; he doesn’t believe it, and on top of that, I am wasting a ton of money for a CS degree, but this AI crap f***ed up everything.”

One commenter extended the frame beyond the job market entirely, pointing to climate science research on issues like coral reef collapse, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and the passing of 2°C temperature thresholds. “Anyone who has been paying attention to recent climate science research knows that this is especially true. Bringing new kids into what’s coming is terribly selfish IMO. People are almost entirely unaware of how scary the future is looking, regardless of how the job market is.”

What this thread is really about

Taken together, the responses paint a picture of a generation that is not being dramatic — it is being rational. The son in the original post has been watching the economy carefully for four years. His conclusions — that homeownership is unlikely, that entry-level work is nearly impossible to find, that the future looks bleak enough to make having children feel irresponsible — are not the product of teenage nihilism. They are the product of paying close attention.

What makes the parent’s post so affecting is its honesty about not knowing what to say. The usual parental reassurances — work hard, get your degree, things will get better — have been tested against reality and found wanting. The son has worked hard. He did find a job, eventually. He was promoted. And he still believes the door is shut.

The thread doesn’t offer a resolution because there isn’t one to offer. What it does is confirm that one generation’s despair about the future is not a failure of imagination or resilience — it is a reasonable response to the world as it actually is, as seen by people young enough to be living in it without the buffer of established careers, property, or savings accumulated in a different era.

For Singaporeans and readers across Southeast Asia navigating their own versions of these anxieties — graduate unemployment, housing costs that outpace income growth, AI disruption of career pathways — the Reddit thread reads less like a foreign story than a familiar one, told from a different country but landing in the same place.