Parents scold 22-year-old son for wanting to move to the city for his job instead of continuing to live at home: 'I just don’t want to be 25 and still living in my childhood bedroom.'

They should be glad he wants to spread his wings.

Not all parents are excited about their kids growing up. In their ideal world, their adult children would live with them indefinitely, spending every evening at the family dinner table and every night sleeping in their childhood bedrooms. You would assume that failure to launch would distress nearly all empty nesters, but you'd be surprised by how many aging parents are not ready to move on to their next stage of life. They miss the feeling of having their family together all the time, and their child's independence gets in the way of holding on to that fantasy.

Some parents want their adult kids to live at home for practical reasons. Maybe one of them has issues and needs their kids to help out during flare-ups. If they live in a high-cost-of-living area, they know their kids would really struggle to save any money if they had to spend half of their income on rent. These practical considerations should be kept in mind, and if living together benefits both the parents and their adult children, then they should go for it. But no adult child should be held hostage in their childhood home under any circumstances. It doesn't matter if their parents don't think they can support themselves. If a young person is eager and willing to go out on their own and live in less-than-ideal conditions for the trade-off of independence, their parents should encourage them to do so. They're going to learn a lot more from three years of living independently from their parents than they'd learn from pretending like they're still in high school. They might sacrifice some savings by choosing not to live at home, but it might be worth the peace of being responsible for yourself.

via Curated Lifestyle (Unsplash+)

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
The parents in this story should be thrilled that their 22-year-old son has found a job and is ready to move to the city to start his adult life. Instead, they're angry that he's not choosing to live at home to save money. He has lived at home for 22 years, and he's ready to spread his wings!
Am I the bad guy for wanting to move to the city instead of staying at home, even though my family thinks it’s selfish?

via u/fjskahhdbf
via u/fjskahhdbf
via u/fjskahhdbf
via u/fjskahhdbf
via u/fjskahhdbf
via Curated Lifestyle (Unsplash+)

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
via u/fjskahhdbf
via u/fjskahhdbf
via u/fjskahhdbf
via u/fjskahhdbf
via Eduardo Ramos (Unsplash+)

_{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
via u/fjskahhdbf
via u/CMeNaught
via u/onemasterball
via u/Havenfall209
via u/Illustrious-Shirt569
via u/Phalonnt
via u/Ok-Complex5075
via u/Usual-Owl9395
via u/ReadMeDrMemory
via u/ShipComprehensive543
via u/Actual-Hamster4692