Magna wrote:
My wife lived with her parents until she was either 29 or 30. She supported herself during that time. She was a "surprise" baby as she was born when her parents were already older than couples normally are when they have children. Her parents, therefore benefited from having her live with them.
After we met I did suggest that she move out on her own. Not for selfish reasons on my part, since I had my own apartment, but so that she could live independently if even for a short time before we got married. She moved into an apartment and lived with a roommate for about a year before we got married and she's glad she did.
OP, since you're paying your own way, I see no problem with you living with your parents. Paying your way shows that you are capable of living independently.
My grandparents had a rule for my Mom and her brothers when they were growing up and that was that they had an option of continuing to live at home after age 18, but as soon as they turned 18, they had to pay rent. I definitely think I'll institute the same rule for my own children when they get to be that age.
I agree with this. My mother allowed my abusive older brother to live with her until he was age 32 without paying any rent whatsoever;
He is subsequently not a proper grown up and is like a child.
He is not autistic and could have lived independently if he had chosen to or been forced to.
She enabled him to behave like a child and never grow up. He doesn't behave like an adult or have any concept of how hard it is for many people struggling to find accommodation and live alone
He only left because he moved in with his wife
I'm autistic, significantly handicapped, and she kicked me out. I also simply had to leave because my brother was verbally abusing me on a daily basis so badly.
I had to struggle for years with severely impaired executive functioning (for example) and so on, including living in homeless hostels.
So whilst I now am only able to be independent due to social housing, my whole concept of being alone & scraping by, surviving & managing & living independently is much, much further developed than his, despite the fact that I've had a severely handicapping illness to deal with, and he has not.
It's all pretty shocking
So yes I think it's bad for a healthy, non-handicapped person to be given the message they can sit in someone else's house and behave how they like and never have to leave for as long as they want.
Buying food for them, washing up for them. That's not creating an adult. It turned my brother into a kind of oversized child monster.
As far as I'm aware he now let's his wife do everything for him in her flat