to ask what age you moved out of your parents' house?

[jackiesil]

I only ask because there is a "buying your first home" thread that I was commenting on (I was musing about how I've managed to land on my feet, but my brother, only a few years younger than me, is facing a much more difficult environment)... and then just now I've read a thread where the mother of a 14 yr old was commenting that she has to wake her DD up and make breakfast etc etc.

ANd my first thought was "cor blimey at 14 I was only a year away from moving into nan's and pretty much living as an adult", and so it surprised me. Not that I know it's normal - my parents split up when I was just past my 15th birthday, and to stay in the same school to do my exams it meant living with my nan for a couple of years before uni (in the end it worked out very well, i got a huge awakening into the real world (i helped out around the house and stuff) and was all the close to my nana/grandad for it).

so, what age did you move out of your parents?

And do you think you should have moved out sooner? later? What did you learn or wish you could go back and tell yourself?

(I wish I could tell myself to be easier on my grandparents from the start - I was quite a troublesome child and it took me a few months to realise that I couldn't shout and swear about curfews to my nan in the same way I'd been used to with mum. I regret being such a pain back then.)

The week I turned 16 and into a bedsit.

"Not that I know it's normal " was meant to be "Now, I know it's not normal " argh!

Moved into a shared house.

I was 19.

17

then 19

then 22

then 24

Finally moved out properly at 25 though..

I was 16 when I first left home.

18 to Uni then back for a few years finally bought a flat and moved out properly at 23

I was 18 basically. I went off to uni, spent 2 months at home after graduating and got my own rented room in the meantime, and moved out again asap. But I'd had to do all my own washing, cooking etc for a couple of years before that too. I have a facebook friend who still tidies her 18yo's bedroom, does all his washing for him, wakes him up in a morning, etc etc. I can't help but think she storing up trouble for him in the future. How is he ever going to learn to be truly independent is she's constantly there as a maid for him?!

21 when i moved in with then DP now DH

16 years old...it was right for me

I do wish (in some ways, sometimes) that I had stayed on at school, in which case I would have stayed at home longer i suppose

I was just 20, moved into a rented house with my boyfriend where we stayed for a year before buying a similar house round the corner with some deposit help from parents.

I loved it - made me finally feel like a proper grown up. But if I could go back to my then self now, I'd have told myself to leave a year or two earlier and got a flat/houseshare, lived the single life for a bit - something I always feel I've missed out on.

18, when I went to university.

Went back for about 18 months at 23, initially just until I got a job, as I'd moved areas on splitting up with XP, but then they let me stay while I applied for and saved up for a postgrad course.

I moved out of my Mum and step dads just after my 17th birthday. I rented a bedsit with the money my Dad had left me. Stayed there for 2 years, then bought a shithole of a flat and moved back with my Mum for a few months while I did it up.

18 - into flatshare with then boyfriend and crazed Rigsby-esque landlord (his screensaver was a photo of the woman he became obsessed with/stalked and caused his wife to throw him out over). Happy days.

I was almost 19 (went to university, returned for holidays). Then I went back for a year a few years later when I was unemployed. I think I was very lucky and have no regrets or wishes that I had done it differently. I went into self catering Hall the first year, and shared houses after that. An easy, gradual introduction to real life.

17, with my ExDH. We rented half a house from his Dad, but I couldnt stand his dad or the house so we moved to my my parents for 6 months until we bought our own place. Still 17. I got on great wiith my parents, but the desperatly wanted to go it alone, and did.

I was 17 I left home to do a GAP year 6,000 miles away from home. That was a wake up call!

Moved back into a granny flat in my folks' back garden when I got back, and lived there for the duration of Uni. Basically fended for myself (got myself to and from work, to and from Uni, did own washing, had own entrance etc)

Officially moved out and into a flat share when I started my first job after uni.

18 (constantly broke so back with parents)

then 21, with car, good job, mortgage etc.....then it all went downhill

Left at 17, but stayed local, went back at 22 for almost a year, then moved 400 miles away.

18, to university - although I went home in the holidays. When I finished uni I didn't go back though, I moved into a shared house.

15. I had left school at 14 and managed to get a factory job.

I completely hated living at home after the age of 12. If I could go back and tell myself one thing it would be "this is totally the right decision."

I am also bewildered when I see threads about posters worrying about their 12yo crossing the road etc. when I was nine I was commuting to primary school on the train!

Left for Uni at 18 and never really went back for more than a few weeks afterwards.
I am also amazed at some FB friends who seem to do everything for their adult DCs - even to the extent of getting up before them to wake them, making packed lunches, booking flights when they are visiting friends in Europe ( and it could only be a direct flight as he couldn't cope with a transfer

Nearly 2 weeks after my 20th birthday moved into a house I'd bought with my boyfriend (now DH). Gosh, that's nine years ago now!

I went away to university when I was 19 but I don't really count that as officially "moving out".

I've lived away from my parents since I was 15, my mum stopped cooking and washing for us from about the age of 9-10.

I was too young to be so responsible, but I do think it is a parents job to teach their dc to take care of themselves.

17, to be a Community Service Volunteer for a year. Back for a month or two, two or three times, after that.