Creative Parents Love their Kids to Death

I met these people tonight. Upscale, creative, living in exurbia. Love their kids. To death. They sent their two girls to an arts high school, then the older one to an expensive art school. She graduated last year. I saw her art online. It's not bad. Whatever that means. Can't find any work (duh) and moved home. Works as a waitress now. Thinking about moving to Brooklyn or Santa Fe. I had the strangest feeling, watching her parents. They seemed stunned. Why? That their willingness to spend on education and "creativity" yielded nothing for their daughter? We (creative parents) like to think we are doing the best thing we can for our kids when we encourage "creativity." We encourage them to write and paint and make music, we accept how little influence they get from their teachers that there is a world "out there" that doesn't have "openings" for creative young people. Not that creativity isn't important. It's needed everyone. Business needs it, even government needs it. But there are not "jobs" for artists and writers and filmmakers. Even when they get "practical" (web design, illustration) they are positioning themselves for nothing. Why is this so?
One thought is that it's a by-product of the decline in religion. We have substituted creativity for religion (the best that is in all of us, honed as it exits). That's part of it. But here's the awful thought. If we really loved our children as passionately as we THINK we love our children, why would we do this to them? Why wouldn't we prepare them better for "the world out there"? Is it our own delusion that they can break through the odds? Or is it a kind of (yes, boomer) selfishness. We like the idea of being parents that encourage creativity. Teaching kids the world is hard is no fun. And thankless. When we delude ourselves by spending all this money (you see we care, we spend money!) aren't we really setting them up for disappointment? The big crash. Sure we can blame it on the economy (recession), whatever. But it's been true before the recession; the recession just makes it more visible because the crap jobs they can get are worse than the ones they could get before. Entry level positions in firms they don't want to work for but will end up working for. Benefits, et al.
It's sad really to wonder if we really love our children as much as we think we do. Maybe we're lazier and more self indulgent than we want to see.
Ouch.