Under their roof
Living with your parents is something that definitely has its ups and downs.
Cicero wrote: ‘What is more agreeable than one's home?’ While he has a point, I’m not sure he would be of the same persuasion had he lived at home with his parents later on in his adult life.
When I first started my four-year University degree I lived with my parents for the first and final year, but in order to gain some life experience, I moved in with housemates during the second and third. Having done it this way I can certainly see the advantages and disadvantages involved.
Independent living
Living with your parents means you never really acquire the life experience and independence you will come to rely on in later life. You lean on your parents too much and Mum and Dad are more than happy to do too much for you and so in that way you are indebted to them.
And if you fall out with them, they remind you just how much they have done for you and that their 27-year-old son shouldn’t even be living with them in the first place. Plus you can never win an argument - no matter how high you rank on the debating team - as they have the golden clincher: ‘It’s my house, and if you don’t like it you can move out!’
There’s no comeback from that argument because you know they’re right. It’s not quite your home anymore, not as an adult anyway. You can’t throw parties, have lots of friends over or live in filth if you so choose to – it’s a bit like being under house arrest.
The perks
Then there are the positives. Mum and Dad save you an awful lot of time cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing your clothes which frees you up to get on with your academic studies. Plus you’ve got all those home comforts and material possessions that have been acquired over the years such as the internet, a comfortable settee and chairs and a well-stocked pantry.
A word of advice
Despite all the advantages, a word of advice: it is far better to pay lodgings and chip in with the housework so as not to feel completely at your parents’ mercy. That way you don’t have to struggle to justify living there. It’s always worth remembering it’s due to their kindness and love that they allow you to live there in the first place. And finally, I started with Cicero so I may as well end with him: ‘Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others’.
Written by Oliver Howells.
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