Sorry if it came out that way. That situation is totally understandable, but maybe you missed the bolded:
Not that abuse is categorized under “general issues”, but when I say issues, that can encompass quite a bit of reasons as to why one would want to leave.
Don’t let my poor wording offend those who genuinely needed to leave home, it was not intended to do so.
There was a time when a college degree in anything was a lot more impressive than it is now. It was a generation ago, though. (I notice that more liberal arts departments are starting to be more honest and direct now in their What use is a liberal arts degree? notices- they used to have “Companies love to hire libarts majors because they have thinking and writing skills!” and now they’re more likely to say “go to grad school in anything you want”.
And for your relevant listening and viewing enjoyment of course (since it was already going through some heads I’m sure).
Fair enough. I read it to mean that most people who left home early for what they claimed were “issues with the 'rents” were whiners. If that isn’t what you meant, then my reaction doesn’t apply. 
Careful how you generalize there. My leaving hadn’t anything to do with pride or the inability to delay gratification, and I never said there was anything wrong with the people who stayed living with their parents. I had a nest egg myself, that I’d been contributing towards since I had been working at 15. I have been working and going to school full time since I left. I’ve worked for my scholarships, payed for my books, and haven’t been in the red once since I made that decision. I had and still have a wonderful relationship with my parents, and don’t find anything wrong with the people who take financial advantage of going to school close to home. So careful how you throw stuff like that around.
I was mostly responding to Hal Briston’s assertion of “That means that another 36% of kids, who aren’t even old enough to drink yet, are saying “Well, time I got out on my own – hand me the Real Estate section of paper, willya?”
I know of exactly one person who was living on his own at 20, and that’s just because the home life was worse than being homeless.”
Moving out at 20 isn’t all that unheard of, and yeah, some of us are looking at the real estate section of the paper even though we weren’t old enough to drink. I know it’s rare in this day and age, but there are occasionally people who take on the responsibilities of being an adult in addition to crossing the legal threshold.
ETA: I don’t see anything wrong with those who stay at their parents’ place for a few years to ease their burden while attending college. However there are an increasing number of people who cross from the “easing the burden” arena into the “completely financially dependent adults” category. Unfortunately I know a lot of them.
Wish they’d told me that 4 years ago when I changed from Electrical Engineering into Criminal Justice/Sociology. grumble Stupid Michigan economy.
I’m 21 and have been on my own for two years. I graduated from college at 19 and moved across the country two weeks later. I’ve been paying my own way since then and couldn’t imagine living with my parents. We do much better apart.
I think 14 % is ridiculously low, though.
Well… so so. My inital posted mentioned “that I’ve witnessed”. There are a whole host of legimate reasons for leaving home at a young age that are totally acceptable. But there are those that I’ve talked to in which the summed up reason for leaving home was because their parents made them do “stuff”. And if that’s the sole reason, yes, that is whining. I mean, that’s acceptable too, but a silly reason. It tells me that their own place is a dump. Sure, independence and all that, but if you really couldn’t stand your parents because they made you pay a miniscule amount of rent and make you do things like chores, well I don’t get that. Problems in the family, wanting to open up social options, independence - all great reasons. Mom made me do dishes so f**k that bitch? Pretty stupid reason IMO.
Isn’t that one of the things most kids dream about, though? Being free from nagging parents? Isn’t that the thing that’s supposed to motivate people to be independent?
As a kid, my mother used to make me dust the under-side of the dining room table and arrange her bedroom closet. Chores that did not benefit me at all. I have no doubt that if I still lived with her, I’d still be doing these kinds of tasks. Why is it silly for me to want to live a life in which the only house chores I do are the ones I decide need to be done? I’d rather pay rent than have someone else’s housework on my to-do list when I get home, thankyouverymuch.
I also have no doubt that she’d make me go to church, if I lived at home. And I’d have to hear endless commentary about my hair, clothes, lack of make-up, and internet habits. I fail to see why not wanting to subject myself to such torture is “whiny”.
Yeah, it’s silly for a teenager to move out simply because they can’t deal with the rules. But if they pull it off successfully and legally, they’ve shown themselves to be mature and self-reliant in a way that the stay-at-home guy can’t claim. Whiny or not.
To each their own I guess. I myself don’t really see things like chores as a big deal. Sure, they don’t benefit you directly, but if you can’t get out on your own to afford $1500 a month (the universal number these days), seems like small potatoes to put up with it. Things like church? Yes, get out as fast as you can. 
When you say “Hell, I’d moved across the country by myself and was living on my own at 19. Not all 20 year olds are financially retarded imbeciles incapable of caring for themselves.”, it sure sounds like you are dividing the whole world into two catagories: people that moved out at 19 and finacially retarded imbeciles".
I understand that there can be good and sufficient reasons for moving out–and simple desire to be independent is a good and sufficient reason, which is why I said:
My only point was that there are as many good reasons as bad that a person might stay at home and as many bad reasons as good that they might move out–and sometimes it is foolish pride and the inability to delay gratification that moves people out when they would be better to stay put–and blanket assumptions about either are unwarrented.
FTR, I moved out at 17, as a junior in HS (though I moved back in for a year when I was in college). I certainly know it can be done, and as a high school teacher I see many cases where it has to be done. But in and of itself the act of moving out is meaningless–there is a such a variety of possible contexts possible that it could mean everything or nothing about someone’s charecter.
Meh, I disagree. In general, I think it can, and often does say a lot about an individual. Is it always true? Nope. But is it generally true? In my experience, yes.
A couple of people have brought it up, but I want to emphasize the fact that people are delaying starting families. I’ve been saving for 7 months for my house now and am still a couple of months away. Two incomes and I’d already be in my own home.
/Shooting for late fall.
True dat, DINKs can do it a lot faster.
Yeah, that sucks, I had the same problem about two years ago when I was miserable in my job at the time. What ended up working for me was having a former coworker recommend me a for a job at my current company (he’s now my boss, actually). Are any of your friends in companies that you might want to work for? It also helps sometimes to just throw on a suit and drive over to a place you might have seen an ad for and ask to speak with the HR there. That worked for a girl I knew at my last job, too.
Well, there’s where we got off on the wrong foot. I wasn’t trying to imply that there were two types of people in the world, the ones that moved out at a young age and the ones who weren’t smart enough to do that. I was really trying to combat what I felt to be the common conception that it was a load of bullshit that such a high percentage of 20-somethings were supporting themselves. If you look upthread, there’s a lot of “I know a lot of 20 year olds and none of them seem capable of doing something like that”.
As a 20-something that only knows of about 2 people who are 20-somethings that still live at home, it’s much more prevalent than most people here seem to think. Evidently it’s too expensive to live away from your parents or something now. 
I think it’s just an exercise in “This generation of kids is so much more misguided/immature/financially irresponsible than we were at their age…” Yeah, it’s tough to do but plenty of people do it every day. I looked at that same statistic and thought that there are probably more people doing it now while they’re in school to save money, but not that it was because the prospect of it was so improbable. It’s a great way for college kids who are facing the rising costs of tuition, rent, gas, car insurance, etc to get a good foot in the door before they have to be on their own.