I liked being where I was (DC), but it happened to be far enough away/close enough WRT to home (2 hours by train) that I really only spent holiday breaks at home, and I always spent the summers working for the Summer School and staying on campus. And yet I still managed not to grow up in ways I should have, but what can you do?

I can't fucking imagine wanting to go to college two blocks from my house and six blocks from my high school! Jesus, I couldn't wait to get away, reinvent myself and put thousands of miles between myself and my childhood.

This was me, and I've been at least a couple hours away since I was a teenager. (moved to Philly in my teens) My parents were awesome, but I needed to live elsewhere. In later years (my 40s) I bought the camp in Otter Lake next door to Mom, because with the decades came a new appreciation for being close. But that was only for summers.

I do think that part of this difference is generational. My sons would have lived home forever. Bobby lived with me until 25, even after he was married. The only way I got B Jr out of the house was to subsidize his rent and/or give him a job.

eta: I know countless parents now who have adult children that just don't want to leave. This was not the case in the 70s, at all.

more of a generation gap, for sure.

Yah, I for sure wanted to be out of the house, but I always enjoyed going back for holidays and such. It wasn't the family -- it was just time to go.

The work Subaru was fob-only, so the transition to my new used Subaru with a fob-only has been only mildly disorienting. At least I am no longer trying to pull the Sonic's handle (as I did with the work car) or search for the open button on the work Subaru's fob.

Really only mildly missing standard transmission -- but that's also because this is a much better, more powerful car -- and so quiet, especially when it switches into the near-silent EV mode. I've had it about three months and I've only filled up three times, but then I've mostly been keeping close to home and work!

I wanted to be a million miles away and got it.

Wish Mac had the ambition/drive to do what is needed to go out on his own.

Ion, cleaning is exhausting. Parents arrive in just over a week and I’ve still not done all I want to get done prior to their arrival.

When StY was seven he told me "When I get married I'm gonna bring my wife home and live with you and Dad." StE was eager to launch at 18, and did, to community college in another town in state, with his gf. StY couch surfed with friends for a while, moved in with his gf for two or three years, until they broke up and he boomeranged. When we moved out west we left him the house to caretake. When he met the woman who's now his fiancee, she became a stabilizing influence, and we actually love her, we gave him the house. They've renovated and are now living there.

So, you know, it wasn't us. It was the house.

ETA: I couldn't wait to get away. Unfortunately my choice of school was in town. I wheedled until I was able to live in the dorm instead of driving home after midnight on late nights on set, and had a thorough grounding in All Sorts. Theatre, Dance, and Music kids from all over are a fantastic study in sociology. My three semesters was equal to a year in NYC, opening my eyes to the joys of diversity and the expanse of life other than my own little existence. Also to auditions, hard work in classes, and the realization that my talent was less than I'd been led to believe and my ambition and love for the art did not balance my ability to live with rejection. Invaluable. And then I married a military man and spent the next years on accompanied tours in the US and Europe. Eventually, we came "home" and spent the next forty years raising kids and caretaking my elderly parents. So when those jobs were done, we fled to the other side of the continent. Thus leaving the kid with the house.

Timelies all!

I wanted to get far away from my hometown when I chose my college. My parents put a 500 mile distance limit on schools. Out of the schools I got into, I chose the one furthest away. (It also was in a big city, which was appealing to me since my hometown was a smallish suburban town with nothing to do.)

Ugh, I am so tired. We did a two-night overnight with Mr. S, and of course he was up before 6 each morning. And of course he was bored and hungry, so we couldn't go back to sleep.

I went to college in freaking Rochester, New York, just to prevent my parents from visiting me.

I probably would have gone to Wesleyan if it weren’t close enough to my home at the time that my mother could have just DROPPED IN. So Philadelphia it was.

Now I have a 21 year old living with me and she’s lovely but needs to work on her independence. She’s working again now, which is good, but a $20 an hour wage is not enough to pay for an apartment here, or with her friends in Boston. So some of the whole “kids staying home” thing is The Rent Is Too Damn High.