What is the right age to leave home?

[Johnny Law Man]

What age should a child be leaving home at?
How old were you when you left home?

I lived with my mom until I was 20. I had a job and paid her rent. I left to move in with the love of my life, which lasted about 2 months total...

My sons will be allowed to live in my house until they are ready to leave it...hopefully they will be ready to leave before I am ready for them to leave!

[BVP]

I want to leave the house when I go to college. So about 18 years old.

[Jared]

When one of two things happens:

They are truly able to financially support themselves
or

The home situation is not so good, and the child is legally an adult. This is the more difficult of the two, but if he or she can get work and maybe find a roomate, its a start. Unfortunately, sometimes they aren'tr mature enough to do so, and do things like have parties instead of saving money.

I left at 17 for college and had my own apartment. Not because I hated my parents, but because it was time for me. I was the black sheepm and I am something of an old soul. But that is not common. I had a part time job during school and a full time and part time job every summer in college. So I could pay my yearly rent in one shot and all my other money was for whatever, gas, books, beer, dates, savings, etc. I had to be willing to work my ass off. I got along better with my parents when I moved out, I think because I had chip on my shoulder to prove that I was responsible, and they could trust me, and stop hinting that they thought I would be up to no good on my own. When I showed my mettle, they backed off.

[OrangePeel]

What age should a child be leaving home at?
How old were you when you left home?

I lived with my mom until I was 20. I had a job and paid her rent. I left to move in with the love of my life, which lasted about 2 months total...

My sons will be allowed to live in my house until they are ready to leave it...hopefully they will be ready to leave before I am ready for them to leave!

my parents wont provide for me after the first 3 years of college, so hopefully by then ill have a full time job.

[Jared]

my parents wont provide for me after the first 3 years of college, so hopefully by then ill have a full time job.

Why only the first 3?

[PAINTERDAVE]

hey

I moved out at 18.

Stupidly got married at 19.

Bought my first house at 20.

Divorced the cheater, sold the house at 22.

Moved my crap into my folks house, then lived in a van in California. And then...

Everybody has a story

[Alastor]

I first left home when I was 16... maybe barely 17. It was not a pretty picture.

I moved back in with my mom when I was 18 I think... thank God.

I moved out again when I turned 20, got my own pad with a roomie... and then about four months before my 21st I went into the military. Haven't lived with my mom since.

I think it's harder now. There was some economist that pointed out that in 1950, a single person could afford a studio apartment, gas for the car, insurance for the car, food and bills and still have money to spare on a part time job.

Today... that's not remotely possible. I think it takes longer to prepare kids to get out into the world now, not just because the world is more complex, but because of economics too. They're simply not well equipped to face the world at an early age.

Depending on how things go for me in the next few months, I might be moving back in with mom again too. We'll see... God help me.

[Dream]

When you go to college or tech school. If you're not on that path -- you SHOULD be kicked out by 18.

[The Dark Knight]

I left at 18

[Alastor]

When you go to college or tech school. If you're not on that path -- you SHOULD be kicked out by 18.

I don't want my kids to go straight to college or a vocational school.

I want them to learn about life and the world, and the people within it - so that what they learn in school has some experience to go with it - and so that they're more driven and focused.

I went into college after the military. A lot of kids did come straight in from high school - and they bombed out (in fact the drop out rate in colleges is around 2/3). One of the reasons is because the kids quite clearly were simply not interested in being there!

They wanted to be out, doing things, learning about themselves and each other, discovering the world.. not sitting in a classroom.

Plus, without any real world knowledge or experience to base it on, everything they were learning was hypothetical, distant, and thus confusing and more challenging for them to grasp. They had no real experience to hang all their knowledge on - and they got lost.

Some also lacked the motivation of course... and there's nothing like flipping burgers for a year or two to teach one to be motivated in school.

Nah, I don't want my kids to go to school from the time they're 5 till they're 22. I want them to explore their world, and learn about more important things than what the inside of a classroom looks like. I want them to learn about life so they can understand all the information being thrown at them, and so that they've had their time to go be wild and crazy, and are thus ready to hunker down and get to work.

I'll encourage my kids to go dork off for a couple of years at least. Even if that means they stay at home with me and do nothing but drink and flip burgers... they need their time to discover themselves and their world.

Just rambling I guess.

[NJBRONCOSFAN]

****, I'm 24 and just moving out now.

I agree with what jared said...you leave when you can financially support yourself, or when things are just no good.

I make decent pay, but I get along great with my mom..(it's just me,my mom, and my younger bro, 22)...around here, most people don't move out til about that age..22-25...a lot of that has to do with property value...living right outside the city, rent is damn expensive...you'd be hard-pressed to find anything at all for under 1000.00, and that's for one bedroom, not-so-nice, apartment.
In the city, 1000.00 will get you nothing more than a studio, and being that NYC is where i'd like to live, i'm saving up extra money now, so god forbid i lose my job or something comes up, i wouldn't need to move out, or live paycheck by paycheck.

[Alastor]

Hrm... that's interesting NJ, because it made me realize that my uncle lives across the street, my sister is less than four blocks away, my brother is in the back alley across from me, my mom is three miles up the road, and I have two other cousins that live within a two mile radius of me.

I guess I've never really left home after all, except while I was in college and the military.

Heh.

[Peerless]

I think whenever you can make it on your own............. like jared said.

[Dream]

I don't want my kids to go straight to college or a vocational school.

Well, I know for a fact if I don't go now, I probably wouldn't go later. Over two-thirds of kids who wait a year to go to college end up not going in the first place. Where your statistic on kids dropping out because they're not interested right after high school is true, it's also true that 2/3's of those who wait a year or so end up not going anyways.

I'm going to have to say college is one of the biggest growing experiences one can have. (From what people have told me) Infact, most kids don't spend most of their time in a classroom while in college. I'd estimate that kids in college put around fifteen hours a week in school. My brother is a full-time student and has a full-time job. He'd be lucky to even see classroom's more than five or six times a week.

Plus, without any real world knowledge or experience to base it on, everything they were learning was hypothetical, distant, and thus confusing and more challenging for them to grasp. They had no real experience to hang all their knowledge on - and they got lost.

Not for me, that's why I'm going right away. I've lived in the real world, held down several jobs so I think I have a pretty good "grasp" of reality. If they hadn't worked previously, they can always do a work-study or an internship to actually aid in what they're studying in school. I consider that a building block for a student to put their acquired knowledge to use.

Your assertion on that is probably true for most college kids, but it's entirely false for myself and vocational students. Vocational/Tech schools are all hands-on. It's completel field experience. It's no wonder that kids who go to tech schools usually end up having it easier for them in the future because everything they did was hands-on. For the majority of people I know anyways. Vocational students put in twice as much effort and time into earning their degree in two years than a college kid does in four.

Nah, I don't want my kids to go to school from the time they're 5 till they're 22. I want them to explore their world, and learn about more important things than what the inside of a classroom looks like. I want them to learn about life so they can understand all the information being thrown at them, and so that they've had their time to go be wild and crazy, and are thus ready to hunker down and get to work.

Personally, I don't think there is anything more important to a person than their education. That is living life. I consider learning to be more valuable than working at McDonald's. But that's just me. No offense to any of you, but I wouldn't be allowed to stay with my parents if I was in my early twenties, they'd find it unacceptable. Maybe that's just the Midwest, where things come cheaper and it's probably more easier to get on with life here rather than in the big cities where financial circumstances may hinder one from moving out ASAP. For me, I want to get the Hell out of Dodge. I want to prove to my parents I can make it on my own. I know I can.

Different strokes for different folks. It's more than apparent our past experiences shaped who we are. Maybe our upbringing's differ. My parents divorced when I was early, my sister is eight years older than me and my brother is four years older -- so we kind of grew up fast.

I want to grow up, leave my home and move on with my life. There is nothing for me here. My dad is 49 and he can retire in several years -- he's also on his way to a promotion which will probably locate him somewhere in Lincoln, Omaha or Denver. My mom is looking to move on with her life, move out of the prairie and start over again. My grandparents are fading and it's apparent they don't wish to spend much time where I am right now. My family is spreading apart so I've accepted the fact I hav to move on as well.

Moving out right away to me is a strong point in showing I'm a strong person who isn't dependent upon others for stability. I plan to work while I'm in college as well -- and not be there just for the ride. For the last year or two I've basically done everything for myself, even helping my mom pay the bills from time to time if needed.

That's how I feel anyways Alastor.

[KnightOLB53]

18 sounds about the right age. Thats when i plan to leave. I do think its funny those 30+ year olds that still live with there perants.