Stop the blame game

One of the characters in Julian Barnes' England, England has this rule - that after the age of 25, one should not blame one's parents anymore.

I think this is a fantastic rule, it should be made into law if possible. Because then it will teach one to be responsible over one's own life instead of just shifting the blame onto where it all started - your parents. I think too many people use the blame game much too easily, be it serial killers or ordinary people on the street.

At some point in your life (and 25 years of age seems to be a good place to start) you should just stop blaming everyone and everything else in your life, and take charge of your own life. If you succeed, you have yourself to thank, if you fail, you have yourself to blame.

If you're not happy with the way things are, do something about it. Don't just sit and whine and say if only I had my own room, or if only things were different, or if only they loved me more or whatever other convoluted excuses that you can think of, if only if only if only, I would be better off today. You can't change the past.  But you can change the future. You are your own person, so why keep blaming the past?

After you are 25, you’re on your own. You can think for yourself, you know right from wrong, you can do whatever you want to do. If you don’t, don’t go blaming anyone else but yourself for your hesitation or fear of the unknown. Because that’s what it really is. You don’t do something because you don’t want to or because you are fearful. Not because you cannot. There is no such thing as cannot anymore. If you don’t do something or do something after you are 25, whatever the outcome, it is your own doing. Not anyone else’s. Certainly not your parents’.