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Original poster

Do your parents still live in your childhood home?

72 replies

KingKhazi · 26/07/2023 17:20

The thread about how many times have you moved inspired me.

My parents divorced when I was 3 and haven't seen my dad since. I've never really had a childhood home as we moved house every 2-3 years. My mum has lived in 3 properties since i Ieft home. I find it quite sad really as i don't feel particularly comfortable at my mums house as its not mine if that makes sense and I feel like a guest really. I never stay over and only really spend a couple of hours there. She feels the same at mine.

OP posts:

Caipirovska · 26/07/2023 17:58

Ours do - but my DP re-purposed the rooms as soon as we moved out and if we went back to stop we were vey much guests so it soon stopped feeling like home to any of us.

IL had three homes in DH childhood - he still has his room sort of even now - smaller room - very small- was set up for GC. We've probably stopped there more as they do have the space and don't expect us to stop else where but I don't think it feels like home - few people around still from DH childhood.

We'll likely move - DC have had two houses they remember and two they don't. We'll probably have to move again before we retire for work reasons. Eldest has just swapped rooms with youngest - hoping she'll be off to Uni soon. Longer term would have to repurposed for IL to stop - as they currently get a hotel but as soon as a double room with bed space is free would expect to accommodate.

ThreeKneeRepeater · 26/07/2023 17:59

No, the house that my parents designed and had built, and we grew up in was sold when my dad died a couple of years ago.
Although I still live nearby I go out of my way not to pass it. I couldn’t bear to see someone else living there.

AlltheFs · 26/07/2023 18:00

No. We moved twice when my parents were married and then my parents bought their own homes. I feel at home at both of those places though as I lived there at/after uni.

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Families

FlappyFish · 26/07/2023 18:02

Yes. We moved there when I was 8. It will always be home.

Dibblydoodahdah · 26/07/2023 18:03

No my parents downsized when I was in my 20’s. My dad then moved in with DH and I for a while when my mum died. He now lives in his own place about 15 mins away.

avocadotofu · 26/07/2023 18:05

Yes my mum is still in my childhood home.

BigFloppa · 26/07/2023 18:06

No parents don't live in my childhood home. I moved in with for a period after my divorce so I have lived in their current home which gives it a nice feel when I think about it.

cocksstrideintheevening · 26/07/2023 18:07

No. We moved around all over the place due to parents work. My mum is in the same place she has been since I was 23 but I've never lived there.

Doesn't bother me at all / not something I've thought about tbh.

HideousKinky · 26/07/2023 18:08

We are in our 60s and have lived in our current house for 25 years. Our children were 4, 7 & 9 when we came here so they really enjoy returning to it as the family home. They all have partners now and one has a baby so we have no plans to move as we want to have room for them & their families when they visit. There is a huge tree in the garden that our children used to climb and it gives us pleasure to think one day our grandchildren will climb it!

Popfan · 26/07/2023 18:10

Yes they do, have been there 50+ years which is lovely.

SpindarellaRockafella · 26/07/2023 18:11

What an interesting range of responses. Great thread.

Im in the ‘parents divorced and I had loads of homes’ camp including a few stints abroad and later boarding school.

when I bought my own home in my 20s, I did so just because it was sensible. I had no idea it would be my home for nearly 20 years and would see all my growing up as an adult, various boyfriends, all the stuff that goes with being footloose and fancy free in your 30s and finally somewhere I ended up bringing my now husband to and where we bought our baby home to.

so oddly, in a way, that house was my house of lifetime and now we’ve moved away as a family I still feel homesick for it. I guess it was the constant id always craved.

after a couple moves now, and completing a build, I go between getting excited that this home (complete with granny in situ in annexe) will be the forever family home our child will remember forever and will always have ‘their room’ as some of you describe, and then thinking “c’mon let’s take that job offer in America and go!”

overall, I think, right now at least, the family home forever will win out.

CC4712 · 26/07/2023 18:14

Yes, my parents bought the house 5yrs before I was born and still live there.

My nan lived in the same house for 61yrs, before moving to a care home

Dontcallmescarface · 26/07/2023 18:17

Mine did from 1972 when it was new, right up until they died in 2020..dad always said the only way he'd ever leave was "feet first". He got his wish.

Toasty280 · 26/07/2023 18:17

My parents still live in the home that they were in when I stayed with them when I was 21-I'm now 46. However between birth and 21 they lived in ten houses and lived my my grandparents multiple times (between 3 countries) so can't exactly say they are in my childhood home!

StopStartStop · 26/07/2023 18:19

Yes. My dad built his house in 1959 and lives there still. My late mum's ashes are in the house.

Ozgirl75 · 26/07/2023 18:20

Yes, mine have been in the house since I was seven, so coming up to 40 years now. They’ll never move by choice but it’s a lovely old cottage so I can see why they don’t want to. Equally, can I imagine them there in their 90s? Tricky. Their neighbour was in her little cottage until she died in her mid 90s with carers so maybe.

onlylovecanhurtlikethis · 26/07/2023 18:21

My parents stayed in the family home until they retired then sold. I felt sad and a bit rootless for a while but looking back they renovated it loads and it didn't look like the house I remember from childhood.

I think my parents found it the hardest - they bounced around between rentals for a few years and a smaller property and then bought a "family" sized home but in a location where children and grandchildren would want to visit so they are recreating that family home feel for the new generation

JaninaDuszejko · 26/07/2023 18:29

No, but my brother does. I grew up on a farm and we've lived in the farmhouse for generations. The fourth and fifth generation I personally remember are living there now. My parents built a smaller 4 bed house to retire to once DBro went home to farm.

VoluptuaSneezelips · 26/07/2023 18:33

My parents divorced when i was in primary, I moved alot in younger years and my current home ive been in since I moved out of my mums. My uncle still lives in my grandparents house though, it was originally our great grandparents house and has seen the family through both world wars. Nobody in the family uses the front door when visiting, only time i've seen it used is when someone has passed away. We cut through as it's a terraced row with built in ginnels between each house and let ourselves in the back gate, then shout from the kitchen hello and to see if anyone wants a brew. My aunt and prior to her my Gran would always appear and grab the biscuit tin, put out crisps in bowls and/or little cakes on a plate, sometimes offer to make butties if it's lunch. One of my uncles used to have a dog and even she would get lunch and a bowl of water. I have never lived there but it feels like home.

illiterato · 26/07/2023 18:33

No - they moved when I was in my late twenties - dsis and I are close in age and both moved out permanently after Uni. It was a good thing as House was high maintenance and huge garden and up a massive hill- like so steep you could barely cycle up it.

Echobelly · 26/07/2023 18:35

They moved out of it about 15 years ago, shortly after DH and I got married - the weird thing is how their current house, though smaller and a semi-detached rather than a detached, just feels like the same place to me! It's from same era, quite different layout to the house I grew up in, but with all the stuff in it, I feel almost as though I lived there.

MrsCharlieD · 26/07/2023 18:36

Unfortunately not. My parents divorced when I was 18 and our house was sold. I was heartbroken, I'd buy it back in a heartbeat if I could but unfortunately it is way out of my budget. My mum still lives in the same village though but I really loved that house. We had a huge garden with a giant pear tree and a tree swing. I have so many memories of it.

LosingTheBelly · 26/07/2023 18:38

No. My parents lived in a little semi when i was born. (50 years ago). They moved out when I was 3 as they had bought a house off plan. We lived with paternal Gps for 12 months then the house until I was 17. Then i moved out to go to uni and they moved to a little place very rural with 9 acres. When I was about 40 they moved from that place to their current home- also a new build in a commuter belt town with good transport links to a hospital.

Spendonsend · 26/07/2023 18:39

No, my mum is in her 3rd house since i left home and my dad is a nomad, he rents abroad and is on his 5th country.

YoureRockingTheBoat · 26/07/2023 18:41

Not at all. We all moved when I was in my early teens, and when my dad died about ten years later my mum moved again. That was about 25 years ago, and I never have learnt my way around her ‘new’ kitchen!

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