Kick Your Kids Out of the House at 18 There was never a question that I would be leaving home at 18. My parents did help me with college, and I came home on the weekends a lot my freshman year, but much less so as time went on. When I got out of college, moving home wasn't an option. My parents didn't want me there, and I would have been ashamed to mooch off them. Instead, I got a crap job, got roommates, and started making it on my own while driving a barely functional car my parents got me in high school. Did I visit? Did I ask for advice? Did I get some help from my parents here and there? Absolutely. But you're not really an adult living your own life until you're out of your parents' house. "Oh, but it's tougher today...." No, it's not. Early on, my jobs sucked. I always had roommates. I had very little money. It was not fun, but I sucked it up and made it work. That doesn't make me exceptional; it just means I was doing what an adult was expected to do. One way or the other, kids shouldn't be staying with their parents through their mid-twenties. They need to get out on their own, make their own way, and forge their own identity as something other than Mama and Daddy's little boy or girl.
