How old were you when you moved out of your parents’ house and why did you?

[Junaluma]

I was 25. I lived at home during university but I met my then DP while I was at university. I guess I moved out as I wanted to start a life with my now DH! Still see my parents on once a month or so.

What about everyone else?

16 and for years it was so hard. There is actually much less security for a 16 year old leaving home than an 18 year old - no access to overdrafts, lower hourly wage, unable to drive, wouldn’t even know where to start with benefits but I imagine less access to that too.

It did make me though. I have nerves of steel now - anything difficult I just think to myself, I’ve already done harder stuff than this. I do get disproportionately angry about this generation’s tendency to overparent and the frankly unsurprising failure to launch that happens as a result though, but I appreciate that’s partly my issue.

I don't consider it as leaving home to go to uni. If that were the case, then some of us left home between 8 and 11 to go to boarding school. Same thing imho.

19 - 22 left for gap year / uni.

23 left permanently - I say permanently they live 11 doors away so sometimes it feels like I never left.

18- moved to London to college and DH (then boyfriend) happened to be moving to London too so after a year or so we moved in together and stayed in London for 7 years.

21, and only stayed that long as I had to be made officially homeless before I would stand a chance of getting homed

22. I stayed over at a new boyfriend's house and never left.

snap! Except I was 17.

I never went back ‘home’

22, three days after graduation for a job 120 miles away in a big city

I was 18, I'd left school after a year of 'A' levels and my mother decided to rent our house out to my older brother and his friends, including my boyfriend, while she went off to live in South Africa pursuing some man, and sent me to live with my dad and stepmother.

My brother told my boyfriend I couldn't stay over, and my stepmother made it clear she did not want me there. My boyfriend had a friend whose mother had recently died, and his father had moved out of their council house to go live with his girlfriend, so we moved in with him and his girlfiend and his little brother.

Fun times.

Never went back, moved to London with same job 2.5 years later and never left

21, bought a flat with my (now) husband

I was 22 when I moved out of my mother’s. I left for university and never returned!

17 I guess to go to uni- but my bedroom was still there.
18 to get married. So that was probably the real moving out time- bedroom became guest room.

17. My parents divorced and there wasn't really a home to live in after that.

20, finished uni and had my first job.
Dad told me it was a good thing as he could no longer live with me and Mum under the same roof and he wasn’t getting rid of my mother.
Mum and I had a difficult relationship at that point

17 . It was a pretty miserable atmosphere and I was glad to escape.

22 moved for a job more than 300 miles away from my parents

I was just 19, moved into a bedsit in a house converted to “rooms for young ladies”. Shared bathroom, £10/week first floor, £12/week ground floor, in 1975. I was working full time in an office, I had a car, and a steady boyfriend. I moved out because I didn’t like living with my parents.

18, to move to a different country

21. Into my now DH and I's first rented house. I am very independent and wanted to spread my wings and get my own space. My family were always a bit dysfunctional so it was nice to have some space of my own.

19. Got a job in another city that came with accommodation. Moved again, this time a flight away, a year later. Still here.

Some of these are so sad!
17, my parents split up and were both focused on their own next steps, also the atmosphere in the house was awful.

16, moved in with then boyfriend who is now DH.

Emotionally abusive parents, former Communist country.
Best decision ever. 😁

17, it was truly awful living at my parents' house.