How many years (if any) did you live with your parents, after 18?

[Bicoastal]

In my case, a bit less than a year with my folks after graduating, then I moved into an apartment. However, I am currently between semesters for my MA at NYU, and due to a job/housing screwup, I am back with them until the end of the July.

So, it's only about 8 weeks total. But it's long enough to remind me, aged 25, of the sheer...unsexiness of it all. In August, I spend a month playing sax on a Cozumel-bound cruise ship, but right now it seems AGES away.

[riderinthestorm]

1. I can't imagine having to move back home.

I graduated high school and stayed until college started (while working a full and part time job over that summer), then I never went back for anything more than just the usual holiday breaks like T-day or X-mas.

You have my sympathies.... :hug: There might have been bloodshed if I'd had to live back home for any length of time. Every single student loan dime was worth it to ensure I had my own place to retreat to instead of going home.

[Bicoastal]

2. Actually, there's one thing I forgot to mention.

They go out of town for 3 weeks tomorrow--I get the house all to myself! It's a nice one, too--two stories in Santa Monica, complete with outdoor hot tub...

Am I too old to don sunglasses, briefs, and pump up Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll?"
:headbang:

[RedCappedBandit]

3. Well, i'm about to turn 20..

and i'm still at home.. but i'm leaving next semester.

So I put 2-5!

..Course, they're helping me pay for school for now.. so it doesn't even count.

[qnr]

4. heck, I only spent about 3 years /before/ 18 n/t

[fizzgig]

5. five years

i lived on my own for about 8 months in college, but moved back home to help out my dad when my mom left. moved back out about two years ago

i'd move back there in a heartbeat if i could, but my dad is super rad

[Inchworm]

6. i was 16

Dad called me a ,"hippy lookin pool hall hustling drunk." I moved out :D

:hi:

[murielm99]

7. I moved out as soon as I turned 18.

I ran away once before that, too.

I put myself through college. My parents are fundies, and hell on wheels. They were abusive and controlling. They now attempt to have a relationship with me and my family. I keep it very superficial.

I have tried to provide a loving home for my children. Of course I want them to be independent. But my daughter had to come live here for a few months after she broke up with her partner. I was glad to be able to offer her a safe haven until she could figure out what to do next. I would never have been able to go back to my parents. Quite honestly, I would live on the streets before doing that.

[NMDemDist2]

8. I left 4 days after my 16th birthday and never looked back n/t

[NewWaveChick1981]

9. I went to college at 18 and never moved back home

:) Granted, Mom put me through college, and she paid the room and board bills there. However, I only came home during breaks and on weekends, and I never moved any of my stuff back home. After graduation, I got a job and an apartment. I'm 44 now, and I've never once considered moving back with Mom. :) I'm much too independent for that, and I would not put that burden back on her.

[Lost4words]

10. I moved out at 19 never went back, except for visits!

my sister moved back with the parents and stayed!

[skygazer]

11. Left at 15

Never went back. When I was about 22, we lived with my then-husband's parents for close to a year - what a horrible experience that was! Nice people but after 7 years of doing my own thing? :scared:

[fudge stripe cookays]

12. Eight long, tortuous, soul-sucking, self-loathing years...

Because of a bad breakup in Denton (ex and I had same major, same minor, lived in the same dorm and had all the same friends-- I had to escape), I ended up quitting school just after my junior year.

My mother was caught up in her stupid personal drama of a relationship (where he and I fought about anything I wanted to do!). I couldn't even buy anything for a future apartment. Everything out of her mouth was "Well don't buy a toaster, because when Doyle and I get married, we'll have two." Never occurred to her that I was trying to start fresh, without EVERYTHING I OWNED being hand-me-downs from a man I hated.

I could not get my shit together until 1990, when she finally divorced the asshole. Finally, in 1992, I was FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.....

[LeftyFingerPop]

13. I live with my Grandmother now...

the old dear is 109 years old. I got her outside changing my transmission fluid now, and later, she said she will move some of my old books up to the attic for me.

Now excuse me, the ball game is on.

[China_cat]

14. -2

[ChaoticSilly]

15. Never left, well not permanently

I sold my house when I broke up with my ex-gf and moved back in with my mother to get out of debt. Many people consider me a loser because of it, but it's a good deal for both of us. I get cheap rent (I have to argue with her to get her to take as much as she does) and she gets some extra income and doesn't have to live alone. I don't have a family of my own (and probably never will) so I just ignore all the snide remarks.

[Nikia]

16. I came back for summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college

After regressing during that time, I decided that it would be best not to come back for any significant amount of time since.

[seemunkee]

17. I was still 18 in high school

and then I commuted to college. It was just my mom and I and the dogs, no big deal.

[Rue]

18. Haven't left yet.

I'm approaching 26 now. My circumstances (psychological difficulties, graduate school and not having a car) practically require parental support, though I fully expect to be out of the house in no more than 2 years. Gotta give my parents their freedom sometime, you know . . . ;)

[Adsos Letter]

19. I enlisted in the US Army (Field Artillery) as soon as I turned 17...

...and that was that. They did have to "sign" for me, though, 'cause you can't enlist on your own until you are 18.

:D

[Withywindle]

20. I went to college a year early.

Skipped a grade like a lot of kids - it just happened to be my senior year of high school. So I left a month after my 17th birthday, and was never in my home town for more than two weeks at a stretch ever since--20 years this fall!

Sometimes I get nostalgic, but really, staying there any longer wouldn't have done me any good.

[Ariana Celeste]

21. I left the day I turned 18. Now I'm coming back.

No idea for how long.

[Pushed To The Left]

22. Haven't moved out yet

My economic situation looks like it will be improving soon, so I know that it won't be a permanent situation! On a side note, when I was working the Obama table at the Tustin Chili cookoff, I got into a conversation with the other Obama supporters about my living situation and how judgmental so many people were about it, especially on talk radio and online. They seemed genuinely shocked that people were that narrow-minded, and they were very supportive. It felt great to talk to some truly open-minded people!