The two 24 year olds have returned home. They are not my children, but they are the children of my partner. When asked how it feels, I said ‘crap.’
Don’t get me wrong, this is not a story about troubled housemates – they do their share of the cooking and washing up, and they buy their own food. But it still causes stress on me and my partner as they seem to demand so much of her time. Also I don’t think it is fair on them. If we made it too easy, why would they ever move out? This is our home but they still want it to be their home. In my generation, we didn’t want to live with our parents because the households were restrictive, but now the kids have full freedom.
So I continue to put up barriers to ensure they don’t get too comfortable – and to me, that is doing them a favour.