I thought this article from the Timberdoodle newsletter on the same subject was interesting.
Moving out at eighteen is a fairly recent, definitely cultural idea, one which regardless of the spiritual implications makes no economic or ecological sense. Does every eighteen-year-old need his own stove and refrigerator? How many square feet of housing are wasted on a solitary individual when the more prudent solution is to share? Why are some people getting their knickers in a knot over the emissions of cows while ignoring the massive impact this exodus of young people has on carbon footprints?
Read the rest of the article here.
What do you think? Did your parents require that you were out of the house at a certain age?
4 comments:
I lived with my parents until I was in my early twenties. They would have let me stay as long as I liked, but when a girl friend asked me to rent a house with her, I was excited. I felt my parents rules were too restrictive and I wanted to be free. Well, I could write a book on the "misadventures" of my self-centered lifestyle. Of course, I didn't even realize how selfish I was, and probably still am to some degree.
I didn't leave my parents' house for good until I got married at 26 also. In Northern VA, the living expenses were extremely high and restrictive for those seeking to move out. When I turned 18 I lived in the college dorm during the week, during the regular semesters. I stayed home one year before moving to Louisville KY, going to school there. When I returned home and got a job, my Mom talked about letting me stay but paying rent, which all ceased once the marriage proposal came. Since graduating college, I have always felt that I was welcome to remain home, but not without strings attached.
I think the opportunities you were given depend on the opportunities your parents were given.
I left home immediately upon graduating high school, and I was only 17. My parents were splitting up at that time and I went to live with a college graduate who was like a brother to me. My father had left home at age 15 to go to war (WWII), so I was actually given more time at home than he had had. My older brother had been encouraged to leave home at age 15 when he started getting into too much trouble.
One of the things that made my heart open to the idea of marrying someone from Asia is the fact that I noticed kids there are seen more as an asset than a liability.
I wondered about this. While living there I noticed that geographic and economic conditions over there make it essential for more than one generation to share a home. So a new bride often comes to live with her husband and his family. Sometimes it is the groom that lives with the bride's family, but either way, the parents live with the grandparents knowing that they will have to care for their aging parents all the way until they are laid to rest.
In return, they get shared resources, wisdom, accountability, and lots of help raising the next generation. I guess this isn't new. It's a pattern we see often in the old testament, isn't it!
I saw one thing in Japan that may seem controversial or even wrong to most people here. There are companies that are much quicker to hire an unmarried lady who still lives at home than one who had moved out. They also unashamedly expect a lot of office ladies to quit and make room for other newcomers when they get married. Imagine that! It's as if they expect them to go home and raise a family or something.
I have recently been homeshooling my soon to be 18 year old, as she studies for her GED. Wrestling right now with the fact that my soon to be 18 year old needs to keep living with me, and the fact that sometimes we drive each other up a wall. IN the end, I am hoping she will stay, attend school here for awhile, get a part time job. But we live a long way away from things, and she has never seen the world. I worry. She seems confident, self assured and thinks everything will be just fine. For more of my insane life, check out my blog. Aloha. Have tagged yours. Im going to show it to my daughter :)
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