Good post -- some things I agree with in particular...
-- A year of JUCO can be a good idea for about anybody to get their feet wet, knock out general education classes cheaply, and oftentimes have better instruction. I took a good number of DMACC classes before I showed up in Ames, which helped me adjust to the new level of material from experienced or full-time instructors, and especially Dr. Woods with calculus, rather than an inexperienced or overwhelmed graduate student giving their first class.
-- Everybody's home situation is different. "Living at home" might imply a watchful parental eye, but my father worked for the UPRR and was thus gone much of the time for work. I basically had free reign much of the time, including in high school, so it was not new. The balance there is different for everybody. Ask yourself what the young adult has handled so far and how much more they can handle rapidly and plan accordingly for you and them.
-- I feel like, despite being 32, that I had more of an upbringing associated with older generations. I was walking or biking to school by kindergarten, driving when I turned 15, and my parents never had a strong interest in my academic career or my social life. They were too busy with work and their own friends to pay me much mind. I had help when I asked, especially from my grandparents more than my parents, but I knew at a young age this was mostly on me.
I look what I got in terms of parental involvement compared to what I see from your average family of defense contractor dad, corporate attorney mom, and 2.5 kids in Fairfax County, Virginia, and it about gives me whiplash. My father cannot spell "cheese," in comparison.
Those helped ease the transition for me.
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