At what age should you fly the nest?

As soon as possible.

I find dating very difficult because I am a woman who owns a home. I do not want to date a man who lives with his parents. If you are over 30 and living with your parents, that is seriously pathetic. If you are taking care of a sick parent or you own a home and your parent(s) live with you, that's a little different. But at 30+, if you do not have your life together, you should NOT be dating.

You should probably stay away from some of the international men, when I was in Italy this year, I was impressed by the homes who had 3/4 generations. Eating a meal in those homes was like an amazing experience.

Many years ago.............. moved out of my parents home at 18, married at 18. I had been working for years before.

When you no longer intend to live by parents rules, it is time to go. Our home only has two people who are the adults and make the rules. When that no longer works for you it is time to move out and get your own home. Our children (choosing not to go to college at that time) moved to start their own lives in their own homes at 18.

Once you are 18, it really is not your choice when you move out, it is the parents decision.

23

My daughters 20 and is moving to Australia in January, shes very independent very mature. its killing me but thats another story

Aww, bless you, (((hugs)))

I think it's smart to live at home through college - saves a crap ton of money. That's what I did. But if money was no object I'd say leave sooner IF you're ready. My brother left right away, but my sister and I stuck around until after we'd finished our educations and had gotten started in our careers. It worked out well. I've been totally independent and I've never had to ask for any help from my parents since I left home. They set me up with a good foundation. Yay Mom and Dad! :smooched:

I was 22 many years ago when I married and moved out, but I always knew that I had a home with my parents if I needed to return at a time of crisis - still could. My daughter is 19, lives away at college most of the time and comes home at holiday time and for weekends - she knows that my home will always be there for her, my house is her home and she will always be welcome. I guess we're lucky that my family have a close relationship - I might have to ask her to contribute financially when she'll be able but I would never ask her to leave.x

19 when I moved out - to live in London closer to my first job. Moved back for a couple of weeks when I was 21 and between properties (mum didn't charge me rent but I did my washing, paid for the food shopping and helped with the cooking and cleaning for the two weeks) - then moved to my rented flat out of London. I think it depends on the circumstances but for me it was necessary for the sanity of both me and my mum! And I'm now 37 and married - but regardless of that, could never move back. I love my mum to bits - but our relationship improved so much for only seeing each other in small bursts (she lives 4 miles away) - I just think that there comes a point where you all need distance and independance. But as I said, it depends on circumstance - we are all different

I'm 29 and live at home, I also work full time and go to school, and could give zero f*cks.

amen.

That may not be on purpose, he can't just bring a girl home. Imagine THAT walk of shame. hahaha

My son (18) and daughter(22) both have their own bedrooms, own door key and both have their partners sleeping over whenever they feel like it. I assume they have a normal & happy sex life; I wouldn't know, I always knock first before taking them cups of tea in the morning :happy: The only shame is if they didn't have nice clean sheets on the bed! :bigsmile:

I think people should move out at 18. Personally, I moved out at 17 due to starting college then. I think it's okay for parents to offer financial assistance to adult children if they can, but I don't think there is any obligation to do so.

Went to Uni at 18, I went home for 3 months at summer, and since then have spent a maximum of a week there at any one time. Getting out of my house was one of the main reasons I went to Uni, and the booze. And the sex.

As others have said, it depends on individual circumstances and where you live. I'm 28 and still live at home and certainly did not expect that to be the case by this age but it works well in our circumstances.

I live in the UK and the plan for both my sister and I was to live at home when we went to University. My mum has severe health problems so has never been able to work, my dad works very hard but we're a working class family so we didn't have a lot of money to spare, so our parents wouldn't have been able to offer any financial assistance for accommodation/bills if we moved out to go to University and they felt that they wanted us to focus on our studies than juggling full time work and full time study. Both of us worked part-time and that was non-negotiable. My parents didn't take any rent off us while we were at University because we weren't really making enough to make a huge difference to the household and instead, let us use it for our own social lives etc. My sister was always less sensible than me and drunk her money away or spent it on clothes where I tended to save mine.

I was one of the unlucky ones to graduate from Uni just as the recession hit. Even though I had loads of work experience, lots of voluntary experience and a pretty much flawless academic record, I couldn't get work. I was literally applying to EVERYTHING. Eventually I was offered a job working as a carer. It was full-time but low pay so moving out at that point wasn't an option as I wouldn't have been able to afford my own place and I couldn't get a second job to top up my income as the job I was in required a lot of flexibility in working hours and they could ask me at the last moment to change my shift etc., so it would have been pretty difficult to find a 2nd job that could work around that. I paid rent to my parents while working full-time.

After 9 months in that job and struggling to find other jobs and getting nowhere, I decided to go back to Uni to do my PhD. I discussed this extensively with my parents because again, it would mean staying at home. They were very supportive and so I'm now at the end of my PhD.

My plan had always been to finish the PhD and travel for work wherever I needed to go, so I'd be moving out at that point. Circumstances, however, have dictated otherwise. My mum has been really ill recently and needs a lot of care. We also have a pup who is technically my dog but my mum adores, so I'd feel quite bad taking the dog away from her if I moved elsewhere. So now the plan is to look for work locally so between my dad and I we can hopefully work around each other with shifts etc. so that there will always be someone there to care for mum. I'll be paying rent again once I'm working full-time again.

As it happens, my parents and I get on fabulously and all three of us are the types of people who love having a chat. My dad works weird shifts and can be away a week at a time and my mum would be really lonely herself, even if it wasn't for her care needs. Similarly, if I lived myself, I think I'd be a bit lonely not coming home to have someone to talk to and my dad is the biggest chatterer of us all, so the bigger his audience, the happier he is!

The long term plan, I think, is for me to get settled in a job and then let dad retire and I'll pay the bills and return the favour for everything he's done for me. That means we'll still all be living together but with me the one bringing home the bacon instead of dad. Everyone seems to be happy with that set up. I do feel a bit socially judged sometimes for still living at home but I guess I get on with my parents and they get on with me and we all relish the opportunity to spend time together, so that's a positive thing for us in our situation but I can see how that wouldn't work for most people.

When your parents tell you to P off

If you are 18 or older, as soon as you are financially able to. There is no point in staying with your parents after that (unless you need to take care of them). You need to grow up.

Also, if you go to college, live on campus if possible. It is a good way to transition to living without parents.