It can suck dealing with the constant ‘anyone who doesn’t move out at 18 is a failure’ talk. I am a bit older, have my BS degree and am also working part time and living with parents. I earn above minimum wage and could afford to move out, but don’t see the point in getting an apartment 15 miles down the road and am saving my money instead. My goal is to eventually move far far away (career opportunities in my field are sparse here in the midwest) and am looking at moving to a place like Seattle, Boston, the bay area, Raleigh, etc. when the economy improves and jobs come back. So I can either spend all my money now by living a few towns over while working a PT job, or I can save my money so I can eventually move far away a few years from now and not have to go into debt if I face troubles.
The older people who post on this thread really need to consider that younger people are entering the real world after 30 years of Reaganomics whereas you guys entered it before supply side economics helped crush the middle class. Wages are suppressed, jobs are scarce, tertiary education is expensive, health care is unreliable/unobtainable, housing is more expensive, etc. This isn’t the 1970s anymore when a person could get a high paying factory job at 18.
With the country facing so many economic problems over the next 50 years (entitlement programs coming up short, health care spiraling out of control, income inequality, natural resource shortages) people are going to have to accept living a more 3rd world lifestyle. That includes 3 generations in one home.
I said 20. If you are in school or helping take care of an ailing parent or something there is no ceiling, but if you are not really doing anything but sleep and party you have to GTFO. If I had a child who, on their 19th birthday, was an unemployed slacker without being in school I would make a point of spending that 19th year helping them get on their feet and find a place to live that isn’t my house. If on their 20th birthday they weren’t gone of their own accord they would be kicked out and the locks changed.
What will happen to my kid if I am killed in a car accident? What happens if I lose everything in a lawsuit or in the stock market and can’t take care of them any more? They need to learn at a pretty young age how to make it on their own. They need to figure out 101 tasty things to do with ramen noodles and what it is like to have to hand wash clothes in the bathtub because you can’t afford both gas and laundry this week. It is important that they figure out how to be independent before it becomes a real hardship to do so. Beyond that, I think letting my kid stay at home without a job or school or something to keep them busy pretty much takes them out of the dating pool and leaves them to be alone forever or only have needy, desperate people to date. I don’t want that for my potential kid.
It really depends on the situation.
My son is 18 and starting college this term. That’s 4 yrs min. and ideally a few more. I really doubt he’ll live here the whole time, but he is more than welcome to as long as he is a funtioning member of the household (does his own laundry and his share of the housework, abides by the rules, etc…)
He has raised the issue of living on campus/elsewhere (he’s going to a local university) and I have no problem with that EXCEPT that it really makes no sense UNLESS he can get funding to cover it or earn enough to pay for it.
As a student on grants and scholarships, working enough hours to cover rent and bills and food etc…and still taking the min. credit hours he has to to get his funding is not really plausible. And to take out a ton of student loans to cover it is just stupid, imo, when you have a place to live free.
First time I went to college, I was living on my own and working full time and going taking classes on an extreme PT basis…took FOREVER, but I didn’t have the option to live at home or go FT.
Next year, he can apply for living on campus and maybe get funding that will cover it…I think it would be a good experience for him. (and, hmmmm, a home office/exercise room would be sortof cool ;))