As a gen-Xer, I remember in the 80’s we hated our parents and they hated us so we couldn’t wait to be out of the house and live as “punks” which basically meant living like mad substance abusing hobos.
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Read that article again. The son didn’t say that. Rather, it was the author of the Mashable article (Shelby Slauer), clearly making a joke.
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I was looking for the word “overgrown” in the linked article, but don’t see it.
Based on that word being in the title of this post, I was thinking the adult-child was morbidly obese, which contributed to his not wanting to leave. But no, no mention of that.
The article’s author, Shelby Slauer, was a bit sloppy when she applied some color to her writing.
The line:
Under this legal reasoning, my parents probably should have sued me when I was a kid.
Isn’t a quote from the adult-child being sued; it’s the author tossing in her two-cents, and being funny…
Shelby does standup in NYC and contributes writing to nice places.
From the article:
However, the son is saying he legally wasn’t given enough notice.
I don’t see how you can get to the age of 30, living in your parents’ house and not pick up on the fact that you are expected to move out at some point. Usually the sooner the better. The notice should have gone out twelve years ago.
“…wasn’t given enough notice.” Pft.
five notices over the past few months
That’s more than a landlord will give you if you aren’t paying the rent or cleaning up after yourself.
Good luck on the outside, Michael. And to his parents, I hope you’ve planned well for the future. You do not want this guy taking care of you when you’re old.
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Oh wow, thanks Mr.Shiv! You’re right. I’ll fix that.
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OH! I’ve seen this flick…I rather enjoy it actually! Lemme get some popcorn…
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It’s not necessarily applicable to this particular case, but boomer era economics do not apply to millennials.
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As a member of the dreaded cohort of millenials, I too was allowed to continue living with my parents after high school but only so long as I worked and attended college, continued to help around the house, paid my own bills (gas, car insurance, phone), and chipped in for meals. In exchange I got some secondhand furniture when I got my own place. Some of my friends doing postgrad stuff still live with their parents.
Both of my parents were shown the door when they turned eighteen, so I appreciate their patience.
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I’m sure that’s why he was allowed to stay as long as he was, although given the timing I’m also sure that not long after his 25th birthday something to the effect of “you can stay here until you’re 30, but after that you have to find your own place, so get cracking” was uttered by the parents. That was the point that they should have started charging him for room and board as well, but Junior sounds like a “special” child so it may not have been worth the constant grousing and demands.
The Boomers did a real number on their Millenial children. At least Gen Xers like myself weren’t coddled into believing we wouldn’t be screwed over by the neoliberal economic policies embraced by older generations.
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I couldn’t wait to get out of my parents’ house. They weren’t bad people mind you, but we did not get along. Throughout high school I daydreamed about my own place. Our relationship improved dramatically once we no longer lived under the same roof.
Now I’m wondering if my folks were just playing the long game.
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I loved both my parents and got along with them fine, but after four years living away from them in college and getting a taste of independence I would have gone nuts if I had to move back in with either of them.
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Well, you think they thought you were out.
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My sister got along much better with them, though even she was glad to move across the country for college. But my mom and I fought constantly. After I moved out, she mellowed and I matured enough for us to get along well. Some people just can’t stand living together.
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This sounds a lot like the affluenza case, but different.
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I think I’m more GenX (is that what came immediately after Boomers?).
Sounds like my time post-high school. I had a hard time at that time in my life, not knowing what I was supposed to do, had no guidance, all my friends were getting (seemingly) high paying construction labor jobs (in which I had no interest). Fumbling around in junior college while working at min-wage jobs, then finally maturing enough to get into a 4-yr university. In the end, I did ok.
I guess my point is that the step after high school isn’t easy, especially if there is no support, guidance or backbone on the part of the parents. And it’s not getting any easier. I see it in my own extended family, though I won’t get into that since it seems to be a sensitive subject. (Though I will say it mirrors near exactly what I saw in the original post, though the subject is over 30.)
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Same here.
No matter how ‘stellar’ anyone’s parents may be (or not), you’re still never really ‘grown’ while living under their roof.
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I think so, if you were born between ~1965 and 1980? My parents consider themselves such. They’ve certainly gotten the GenX economic treatment, as we’ve commiserated.
Edit to add: Agreed it’s not an easy transition, but guidance and backbone are kind of important. I also know of someone in my extended family who’s a middle-aged ‘teenager’ who would be a poster child for this sort of thing. No degree, no long term career plans, always moving back in with one of his parents when whatever latest scheme failed to pan out. It’s… a peculiar sort of drama.
How very American. Only here would a couple have thirty years to influence their child’s behavior and then cut immediately to a lawsuit rather than truly do the work of addressing their own failure.
“What are we supposed to do? I mean, we already wrote FIVE LETTERS?!”
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