View Full Version : At what age did you leave home?


The Bard of Wigan
05-20-2008, 04:54 PM
I was 16 when I left home, I couldn't wait to get out.

I think that this has an effect on my writing for the positive. Anyone over 21 still at home isn't trying.

Wreybies
05-20-2008, 05:02 PM
I was 16 when I left home, I couldn't wait to get out.

I think that this has an effect on my writing for the positive. Anyone over 21 still at home isn't trying.

I left a week after high school to join the USAF. I was 18.


Don't be so hard on those still lving with the 'rents. I returned to my parents home after the Air Force so that the money I had saved would allow me to pay for university without having to work. It was thier wish so that I could focus on my studies. Plus my parents are actually really cool.


It's not always so cut and dry. :rolleyes:

Rumpole40k
05-20-2008, 05:08 PM
20. No real story behind it, it was just time.

The Bard of Wigan
05-20-2008, 05:10 PM
I left a week after high school to join the USAF. I was 18.


Don't be so hard on those still living with the 'rents. I returned to my parents home after the Air Force so that the money I had saved would allow me to pay for university without having to work. It was their wish so that I could focus on my studies. Plus my parents are actually really cool.


It's not always so cut and dry. :rolleyes:

Maybe you're right.

I always have to laugh at those who pontificate about everything and everyone without ever having stood on their own two feet.

It's like a poet who only writes from the brain rather than the soul. Structurally they're right, spiritually they're void of any true meaning.

Wreybies
05-20-2008, 05:19 PM
Maybe you're right.

I always have to laugh at those who pontificate about everything and everyone without ever having stood on their own two feet.

It's like a poet who only writes from the brain rather than the soul. Structurally they're right, spiritually they're void of any true meaning.



Hmmm..... Although your reply is somewhat ambiguous in its tone, I’m going to choose not to take umbrage. :rolleyes:

I’m 38 now, so my return to the home of my parents in order to attend university is years and years in the past.

There are cultural aspects to this question that also come into play. I am traditionally Latino and the oldest male child. It is expected for me to remain with my parents, helping them, until such time as I marry. This is common in traditional cultures which have very tight familial bonds and which answer to different definitions than those found in nontraditional cultures.

Well, I’m gay, so the getting married part just ain’t gonna’ happen. Leaving for the Air Force directly after high school was a shock to my family and I received many phone calls from extended family members obviously in cahoots with my parents to try and talk me out of it.

Like I said, not always so cut and dry. :rolleyes:

Domoviye
05-20-2008, 05:21 PM
I left at 21. I'd have left sooner, but I didn't have a car to make it halfway across the country to Alberta. I also did my first year of University at home, otherwise I would have had to wait another year due to lack of money.
And than I moved back at the age of 25. So some people thought I was a Momma's boy who didn't want to leave. Proved them wrong by leaving at 26 and going to China.

Cogito
05-20-2008, 05:23 PM
I left college the first time before I was 20, and at that point reinvented my life from the ground up - moved into my own place, found a job, broke off al contact with family. I only had enough money to feed me to my first paycheck, and as that was before I actually HAD the job, it was no walk in the park.

That was over 30 years ago, and I've managed pretty well.

But I don't make a point of laughing at other people. I respect most people until I have been given reason not to.

mammamaia
05-20-2008, 05:25 PM
17... went west, 'to seek my fortune'... the lure of 'exotic' LA was too much to resist, since my older sister was out there and i was still stuck in the boring suburbs of NYC...

exactly 40 years later, i left home again... that time, left both my home and my old self behind to became 'maia' and wander the world homeless and possessionless for a decade, before settling here on tinian, when i got too old to keep schlepping all over the planet...

The Bard of Wigan
05-20-2008, 05:30 PM
17... went west, 'to seek my fortune'... the lure of 'exotic' LA was too much to resist, since my older sister was out there and i was still stuck in the boring suburbs of NYC...

Wow I'd love to be stuck in either of those places to live.

I had two incredibly dull spells in Dublin Ohio and Pittsfield Mass when I was younger, dull people, dull places. But New York. . . . . .well that's different.

The Bard of Wigan
05-20-2008, 05:37 PM
Hmmm..... Although your reply is somewhat ambiguous in its tone, I’m going to choose not to take umbrage. :rolleyes:



You're reading into something that doesn't exist. I'm merely making observations not judging you. After all, I would be a little off mark to assess you or anyone else as an individual based on a few comments on forum.

:)

silverfrost
05-20-2008, 05:46 PM
I'm not so sure what you mean by "leaving home." 'Cause I left home when I was seventeen-years-old to go to college, but I was still dependent on my parents. I just graduated from college nine days ago, and yet I still moved back in with my parents and I'm financially dependent on them. Finding a full-time job out of college is much harder than anyone ever thinks it will be. Perhaps after I get a job, I'll find my own place.

The Bard of Wigan
05-20-2008, 05:50 PM
I'm not so sure what you mean by "leaving home." 'Cause I left home when I was seventeen-years-old to go to college, but I was still dependent on my parents. I just graduated from college nine days ago, and yet I still moved back in with my parents and I'm financially dependent on them. Finding a full-time job out of college is much harder than anyone ever thinks it will be. Perhaps after I get a job, I'll find my own place.

To be fair silverfrost it was probably a poorly thought out thread that I posted, as from country to country, culture to culture it differs greatly.

You do what you need to do and good luck with your life my friend.

silverfrost
05-20-2008, 05:55 PM
To be fair silverfrost it was probably a poorly thought out thread that I posted, as from country to country, culture to culture it differs greatly.

You do what you need to do and good luck with your life my friend.

No way--I think it was a fair question. :) I guess people do think of it differently from culture to culture, though.

lordofhats
05-20-2008, 06:25 PM
18 (If going away to college for 2/3 of the year counts as moving out), but I do return for Christmas and the Summer.

Gone Wishing
05-20-2008, 06:45 PM
Unofficially, 14. Officially, 16.

lessa
05-20-2008, 07:20 PM
I left home at 17 to get a job in the big city of Toronto.
Went home at 19 to go to college.
Really left home at 20 to get married.
Never went home again but my two son's are welcome to back home
whenever the need may arise. Families included.
what else are mom's and dad's for besides love.

ChimmyBear
05-20-2008, 08:25 PM
I was in and out of my mom's house around 14 maybe 15.

I was 17 when I moved out to get married......not my best decision.

Crazy Ivan
05-20-2008, 09:03 PM
I ran away from home when I was 6, to avoid going to Wal-Mart. I was gone three hours. My parents never noticed.
But I tell you, those three hours helped me grow as an individual. They provided valuable life experience.

Torana
05-20-2008, 09:30 PM
lol I was expecting something like that from you Ivan :p

I left when I was 18. Moved out after getting my first decent job and went to live with a total baffoon....had two kids.....walked out.....now I'm 24 with two kids, 4 and rising 3 and back with my parents.

I stay here to help my parents out financially and around the house as well. My mom has a terminal illness, and my father has a broken disk in his spine or something like that....I forget now. I was so little when it happened.

But that will all change once me and my partner get everything sorted and I move closer to him........

Kit
05-21-2008, 03:26 AM
I will be moving out in September, can't move out yet because i'm still 17 and its hard to actually move out here without parental consent unless you run away and become homeless, are leaving care or get pregnant and get a council house. Even with parental consent, most people privately letting a property won't let to an under-18 due to extra regulations they have to follow and the whole "immaturity" aspect.

Still, i'll move out a month after I turn 18 - which is September. I've already paid the deposit on a place just finishing my exams and stuff.

On a side note, just because you live with your parents doesn't always make you dependent on them. Since I turned 16 I have supported myself well enough, and I work usually 24 hours a week around my full-time education. I paid for my own driving lessons, car and insurance and now I still pay for my own food, fuel, toiletries and clothes. Before I could drive, I paid for bus fare and stuff.

(Occasional exception with food, if mum cooks for the whole family I do usually get fed. But I have to buy my own food whilst i'm at school or work, and only usually get one meal a day, if any, provided).

Frost
05-21-2008, 03:49 AM
I dont live at home now - I go to boarding school, so 15.
But im still dependant on my fam and go home in the holidays.
I suppose Ill leave again come uni time.

tehuti88
05-21-2008, 07:54 AM
I was 16 when I left home, I couldn't wait to get out.

I think that this has an effect on my writing for the positive. Anyone over 21 still at home isn't trying.

I am 31 and still at home, due to being disabled (I receive disability from the government and am in therapy) from severe social anxiety. So I'm not sure what I'm not "trying" hard enough. :confused:

I write very frequently and prolifically though.

Charisma
05-21-2008, 09:24 AM
Don't know when I'll leave home, and don't really care. I hate the idea of having to leave home (and don't give me the reason of 'cultural differences'). It's not supposed to obligatory, IMO. It's everyone's choice.
If it were in my hands I'd keep my parents with me all my life. Of course, anyone willing to live away might as well do so, it's a personal choice. :) I, as I mentioned, despise the idea.

mammamaia
05-21-2008, 05:21 PM
bard... on the 'small world' front, i had relatives in pittsfield, spent some summers across the road from pontoosic lake...

Wreybies
05-21-2008, 05:23 PM
bard... on the 'small world' front, i had relatives in pittsfield, spent some summers across the road from pontoosic lake...

I lived in Sewickley for a summer when I was a kid. Does that count? :D

The Bard of Wigan
05-21-2008, 05:40 PM
bard... on the 'small world' front, i had relatives in pittsfield, spent some summers across the road from pontoosuc lake...

Lake Pontoosuc!!

I still have friends who have a place they built at the lakeside. They also own the nearby club formely known as the Home Club.

To be honest I had some great times there whilst working at the summer camp in Hinsdale, Camp Emerson.

Happy days indeed. :)

the norse atlantic saga
05-21-2008, 06:54 PM
I'll be leaving in 3 months and I'm thrilled about it. I'm 18.

Cogito
05-21-2008, 07:10 PM
bard... on the 'small world' front, i had relatives in pittsfield, spent some summers across the road from pontoosic lake...

It is a small world. I lived for a while just over the New York State border from Pittsfield, and went to high school at the foot of Lebanon Mountain.

shadow tiger x
05-21-2008, 09:48 PM
Well i was 15 when i moved out of home. I moved right in with my boyfriend whom is now my husband and e have been together for 7 years with 1 16 month old and another on the way, but it was never that great at first with a over protective brother that told me that i was breaking my parents hearts well you could just imagin what i did lol. My big brother never spoke to me for 3 and a half years even stopped my nephews from talking to me. My mother and father couldn't have been happier my mother is a retired chef and my father is not far away from retiring as a loader driver, they go caravaning every winter and just live life to the fullest. I am now 23 happely married and i am makeing a family of my own...

I don't beleave it matters if you are 15 or in your late 20 if you are happy living at home with your parents then good for you.
It doesn't matter wether you are 15 leave home and beleave you are better off because you are able to write better i know some 30 to 70 year olds that can write better than some of us younger ones doesn't mean they left home early in age or late in age...

RomanticRose
05-21-2008, 10:42 PM
I became a ward of the state when my parents were killed, so I suppose that was one "leaving."

At eighteen, I "aged out" of the system and moved into the dorm.

oldyi
05-27-2008, 04:35 AM
As Latino, our familial bond is tight.
We remain with family when we have no job for leaving and left while we got a job far away from home.:)

Cicero
05-27-2008, 12:22 PM
I'm 16 ( 17 tomorrow, hooray. ), so I still live at home. :) I will move out when I go to college in a year and a half.