Collectively, my parents' grandkids have far more struggles than their kids. Are we kids worse parents than Mom and Dad were? Possibly, but also we're raising our kids in a different environment with different pressures. (When I was a young adult, I could live frugally in a one-bedroom apartment on a minimum-wage salary, and I was able to buy a house on an administrative assistant's salary. Today a full-time minimum wage job won't cover the rent on a one-bedroom apartment in my city, let alone any other expenses.)

That said, LW sounds really focused on a particular view of success for their kids. "Menial jobs" -- is this someone who'd think their kid's a failure if they became a successful HVAC technician, for example?

And while I have concerns about how well my kids will navigate adulthood (and will consider it a roaring success if one of them manages to graduate from high school, let alone get any college degree), if they don't know how to do chores etc. it's because Spouse and I didn't teach them.