"Because they're our kids": Montreal parents on paying adult children's bills
Adriana Gentile's CityNews report on an RBC survey finds parental help stretching well into children's late thirties, and the comments are full of viewers' own stories.
CityNews
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 51,999 views a day, 17 times a normal first day on this channel (3,068).
Canadian parents continue supporting adult children financially
"It's not about luxuries," RBC's Lucianna Adragna says at the top of the report. "It's actually about supporting everyday essentials."
The survey she describes finds that one in five Canadian parents still helps a son or daughter aged 35 to 40. In Quebec, a third of parents say their children aged 18 to 40 are not yet financially independent. Adragna sums it up in five words: "Support is lasting a lot longer."
Reporter Adriana Gentile took the question to the streets of Montreal, and the parents she met answered without much hesitation. One woman says she and her husband pay for everything, as long as they can afford it. "We're the parents, so we do that, period," one man says. Another puts it more simply: "Because they're our kids. And if you can, you do."
The second half of the report is less sentimental. Lin Sok, a financial security advisor and mortgage broker, warns that parents who gift a down payment or clear a child's credit card debt can put their own retirement at risk. "It directly impacts their own future," Sok says, before offering a fix that starts much earlier: "Start them young. Have open conversations with your kids about money."
The Short drew about 29,000 views in its first nine hours, while a CityNews Short usually collects around 3,000 over its whole first day. The comment section changed even more: a typical Short here gets a couple of comments on its first day, and this one had more than two hundred.
Housing is the subject viewers return to most, with many saying owning a home feels out of reach. Others tell their own stories. A man in his forties describes leaning on his parents to change careers and go to graduate school in his thirties, and says he does not expect to repay them. A Gen X viewer remembers being asked to pay rent at 18 and moving out right away. One commenter asks why help from parents is judged so differently from an inheritance, and another hopes the children being supported now will be there to care for their parents later.
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What viewers say
I am 42 and I also used my parents' help when I had to change my career and go to graduate school in my 30s. I am now working again but I don't feel that I can repay that money to them 🥺
@mizuki024See it on YouTubeI'm so TIRED of supporting my adult child! And that adult child is MEEEEEE!!!!!!
@BattleganzSee it on YouTubeTends to be that way when everything is so expensive, and this is coming from someone who constantly worked, it still wasn’t enough. Give your parents a big hug if they help, one day that love will not be there
@The_Shogun_95See it on YouTube
3 more comments
Gen x here and I recall my parents told me at 18 that I was now responsible for my own expenses and they asked me to pay rent. I moved out immediately and never moved back.
@stockfeeder666See it on YouTubeI hope the adult children reciprocate when their parents need help in their vulnerable old age in terms of care if not finances.
@nancyhsu5565See it on YouTubeas Filipino i think this is normal maybe not 100% financially.
@sudburynoypi8149See it on YouTube
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- Channel
- CityNews
- Subscribers
- 601,000 ▲ 1,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 3,116,220
- Channel views, pace per day
- 800,335 (on a normal day: 386,818)
- Video published
- October 11, 2026
- Video views so far
- 28,861 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 51,999
The numbers
A local news Short about family money traveled much further and faster than CityNews's short clips usually do, and its comment section grew even more.
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