Quote:While it’s not good for man to live alone, it’s even worse for him to live at home with his parents.

A recent Pew Research poll reveals that though employment is up, the number of millennials living on their own is down. This failure to launch reflects a widespread cultural regression. By returning home after graduation, this generation’s doing more than just perpetuating adolescence. We’re losing at life.

There might be more room for activities at your parent’s house but there’s little room for personal growth. And if being determines consciousness, then you’ll bring your future down with you when you move back into the basement. It’s time to grow up. It’s time to move out.

We Should Love Our Parents Enough Never To Move Back In With Them

Sure, student loans suck. More than our parents, we’ve had to grapple with unrealistic dreams built on unsteady mountains of student debt. But there’s a place you can go when you’re down on your luck and low on your dough. It’s called the YMCA.

If that sounds harsh, imagine asking your old man if you can live in your old room. By moving home, you could save some cash but only at the cost of your character.

Our parents might love us but they don’t like us that much. And they shouldn’t. In civil society, the family exists to foster maturity and prepare offspring for eventual adulthood not perpetual childhood. Taxing their generosity robs them of the investment of their lifetime. Every mother and father wants to provide their kid with a better and brighter future. After two decades of sacrifice—whether they’ll admit it or not—they want a son with a career, not an overgrown boy with a neckbeard. We ought to actualize the potential they’ve poured into us. We should become adults they’re proud of.

Yea Bro, Living at Home Isn’t Cool

Whatever you do though, don’t kid yourself. Living at home is anything but cool and everyone knows it. “Hey girl, want to come back to my parent’s place?” is a line that even Ryan Gosling couldn’t pull off. Winston Churchill once observed that the spaces we occupy end up shaping us. At 22, our mother’s house is turning us back into children. Like continence, literacy, and a job, a place of your own stands as a general benchmark of responsibility. Go find one.

Cutting a rent check is the first big step toward self-reliance. Millennials don’t have to blaze trails, brave the wilderness, or build cabins to make it in the real world. We just need to scout Craigslist for a place, set up direct deposit, and maybe lower our expectations. That first apartment won’t be ideal but it’ll be necessary. More than a roof, it represents an investment in the future.

Tough finances are a burden but they don’t have to be a permanent roadblock. If you’re drowning in student debt and rent breaks the budget, find a roommate, sublease, or couch surf. Do whatever it takes, because to make it in America, you have to make it out of your mom’s house first.

Get Ahead By Betting On Yourself

None of this should discount the difficulty of leaving home. Lord knows my living situation is hardly on fleek. The place exudes a kind of refugee camp chic with makeshift bookshelves made out of milk crates, scrounged furniture, and a few cheap Ikea pieces. Food and clothing present their own challenges. Since graduation a few months ago, I’ve bleached colors and burnt minute-rice; I’ve shrunk clothes and set grease fires. It’s been rough, unpleasant, and always worth it.

Coming and going each day reminds me that I’m on my own. It’s not a great feat. An apartment’s just the most approachable manifestation of day-in and day-out maturity. Stupid or smart decisions determine whether the rent gets paid or if the lease is lost. If disaster strikes, no one’s coming to the rescue. The world won’t pause for me to get back on. And those four walls remind me, that for better or worse, I’m an adult and that each day my mundane adventure is trying to live like one.

I wouldn’t have it any other way. A cheap apartment produces perseverance; soggy ramen noodles, character; and an on time rent check, hope—hope that I can build an adult life. The goal is simple. You want your dad to say, “That’s my boy. He’s got a place of his own.”

As a generation, we can live at home and languish or we can move out and make our on way. It’s time we take a risk. It’s time we bet on ourselves. If we don’t, no one else will.

http://thefederalist.com/2015/08/03/yo-m...e-at-life/

It's an epidemic.

My brother is Exhibit A lol.

(08-17-2015 02:44 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  It's an epidemic.

My brother is Exhibit A lol.

My brother hasn't been living at home, but he has been a professional student. Went from bachelors to masters and is now starting his second year of law school! 26 years old and still going to "work" on a college campus!

Too many online video games to give up if they have to move out and pay for their own internet.

(08-17-2015 02:47 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:44 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  It's an epidemic.

My brother is Exhibit A lol.

My brother hasn't been living at home, but he has been a professional student. Went from bachelors to masters and is now starting his second year of law school! 26 years old and still going to "work" on a college campus!

Also a ton of those.

I have numerous friends who have like 3 bachelor's degrees but have never had a real job. Most are closing in on 30 years of age.

They're like Van Wilder, except more pathetic.

(08-17-2015 02:51 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:47 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:44 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  It's an epidemic.

My brother is Exhibit A lol.

My brother hasn't been living at home, but he has been a professional student. Went from bachelors to masters and is now starting his second year of law school! 26 years old and still going to "work" on a college campus!

Also a ton of those.

I have numerous friends who have like 3 bachelor's degrees but have never had a real job. Most are closing in on 30 years of age.

They're like Van Wilder, except more pathetic.

Watch it! I have 3 bachelor's and a master's, but I was also working while getting 3 of the 4, and not living at home for any of them.

I'm torn on this one... If my girls were working and investing in the years right after college I would be happy to hand some rooms and privacy over to them while they hopefully look for "the guy".

But I won't have them loafing around not building their future. If they think they have money to party and take trips then they have money for rent.

(08-17-2015 02:54 PM)dfarr Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:51 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:47 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:44 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  It's an epidemic.

My brother is Exhibit A lol.

My brother hasn't been living at home, but he has been a professional student. Went from bachelors to masters and is now starting his second year of law school! 26 years old and still going to "work" on a college campus!

Also a ton of those.

I have numerous friends who have like 3 bachelor's degrees but have never had a real job. Most are closing in on 30 years of age.

They're like Van Wilder, except more pathetic.

Watch it! I have 3 bachelor's and a master's, but I was also working while getting 3 of the 4, and not living at home for any of them.

Yes, but do you currently have employment that justifies said degrees?

I had to live at home with my parents for a month when I moved back to Charlotte from Washington, DC. My closing date got pushed back a month from the original date.

I love my parents and consider them close friends at this point, but jesus that was a horrible month. My mom went back into mom mode and after a few days of that it became unbearable. I don't know how people do it for long periods of time.

(08-17-2015 02:56 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:54 PM)dfarr Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:51 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:47 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:44 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  It's an epidemic.

My brother is Exhibit A lol.

My brother hasn't been living at home, but he has been a professional student. Went from bachelors to masters and is now starting his second year of law school! 26 years old and still going to "work" on a college campus!

Also a ton of those.

I have numerous friends who have like 3 bachelor's degrees but have never had a real job. Most are closing in on 30 years of age.

They're like Van Wilder, except more pathetic.

Watch it! I have 3 bachelor's and a master's, but I was also working while getting 3 of the 4, and not living at home for any of them.

Yes, but do you currently have employment that justifies said degrees?

My employment justifies 2 of them

(08-17-2015 02:57 PM)dfarr Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:56 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:54 PM)dfarr Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:51 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:47 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  My brother hasn't been living at home, but he has been a professional student. Went from bachelors to masters and is now starting his second year of law school! 26 years old and still going to "work" on a college campus!

Also a ton of those.

I have numerous friends who have like 3 bachelor's degrees but have never had a real job. Most are closing in on 30 years of age.

They're like Van Wilder, except more pathetic.

Watch it! I have 3 bachelor's and a master's, but I was also working while getting 3 of the 4, and not living at home for any of them.

Yes, but do you currently have employment that justifies said degrees?

My employment justifies 2 of them

I have a friend who has degrees in Hospitality and Tourism Management, History, and is now pursuing a degree in Business.

Complete idiot. But his parents are even bigger suckers for funding this nonsense.

(08-17-2015 02:57 PM)Niner National Wrote:  I had to live at home with my parents for a month when I moved back to Charlotte from Washington, DC. My closing date got pushed back a month from the original date.

I love my parents and consider them close friends at this point, but jesus that was a horrible month. My mom went back into mom mode and after a few days of that it became unbearable. I don't know how people do it for long periods of time.

My sister and her fiance had a falling out so she moved out of a nearly 5,000 sq ft house and back in with my parents. She quit her job in the meantime and went back to school. There's a little piece of land and house that my parents always liked around the corner so they paid cash for it and completely redid the house. Now she's living there for free until her and her fiance work things out (currently in the process) and she moves back in with him. She almost went CRRRRAZY living with my parents for 6 months.

(08-17-2015 03:00 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  I have a friend who has degrees in Hospitality and Tourism Management, History, and is now pursuing a degree in Business.

Complete idiot. But his parents are even bigger suckers for funding this nonsense.

I'd love getting a degree in History as a side item, but what in the hell is "Hospitality and Tourism Management???"

Reminds me of some of those college football players that go to the draft after their Soph year and are majoring in General Studies. Are you kidding me? General Studies?

(08-17-2015 03:07 PM)LSU04_08 Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 03:00 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  I have a friend who has degrees in Hospitality and Tourism Management, History, and is now pursuing a degree in Business.

Complete idiot. But his parents are even bigger suckers for funding this nonsense.

I'd love getting a degree in History as a side item, but what in the hell is "Hospitality and Tourism Management???"

Reminds me of some of those college football players that go to the draft after their Soph year and are majoring in General Studies. Are you kidding me? General Studies?

I don't really know. I think he thought it was his way into the casino business (which is huge on the Mississippi Coast).

I have a feeling student loan debt is playing a role in adults living with parents even after finding a job. So glad I didn't have to live with my parents after college. Talk about killing one's mojo with the ladies......

(08-17-2015 02:56 PM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  I'm torn on this one... If my girls were working and investing in the years right after college I would be happy to hand some rooms and privacy over to them while they hopefully look for "the guy".

But I won't have them loafing around not building their future. If they think they have money to party and take trips then they have money for rent.

My take would be a little different for my daughter. Boys need to become men, however.

(08-17-2015 03:00 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:57 PM)dfarr Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:56 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:54 PM)dfarr Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:51 PM)shiftyeagle Wrote:  Also a ton of those.

I have numerous friends who have like 3 bachelor's degrees but have never had a real job. Most are closing in on 30 years of age.

They're like Van Wilder, except more pathetic.

Watch it! I have 3 bachelor's and a master's, but I was also working while getting 3 of the 4, and not living at home for any of them.

Yes, but do you currently have employment that justifies said degrees?

My employment justifies 2 of them

I have a friend who has degrees in Hospitality and Tourism Management, History, and is now pursuing a degree in Business.

Complete idiot. But his parents are even bigger suckers for funding this nonsense.

There is actually a degree for "Hospitality and Tourism Management"... smh

(08-17-2015 03:24 PM)VA49er Wrote:  I have a feeling student loan debt is playing a role in adults living with parents even after finding a job. So glad I didn't have to live with my parents after college. Talk about killing one's mojo with the ladies......

The article is arguing that you make it happen. I did and was much better off for it. The 20s should be the best days of your life. My best times were being broke and hopping bar to bar for $1 Coronas and $2 margaritas, stretching $20 on a pack of smoke and a night of boozing, and slaying poontang. I remember one of the places I hung out had an ATM next door that dispensed $5 bills with no bank fees. Those were the days.

(08-17-2015 03:24 PM)VA49er Wrote:  I have a feeling student loan debt is playing a role in adults living with parents even after finding a job. So glad I didn't have to live with my parents after college. Talk about killing one's mojo with the ladies......

I think you're probably right.

(08-17-2015 03:25 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(08-17-2015 02:56 PM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  I'm torn on this one... If my girls were working and investing in the years right after college I would be happy to hand some rooms and privacy over to them while they hopefully look for "the guy".

But I won't have them loafing around not building their future. If they think they have money to party and take trips then they have money for rent.

My take would be a little different for my daughter. Boys need to become men, however.

I have the opposite view. It is extremely important that my daughter knows she can live independently, even if later on she doesn't find herself as the primary breadwinner.