With college in full swing again, I thought that I would write a piece on why living at home is the greatest thing ever and why you shouldn’t move out until you have to. This has to do with college and/or after graduation and/or you have a bad neighbor that you want to get away from and your parents have an extra room available…whatever the reason is, you should live at home!
1. No Rent
Who wants to pay their rent or their mortgage? Who wants to willingly give their landlord their hard-earned money or take out loans so that they can pay their electric bill? That’s what I thought.
2. Free Food
I love to live at home because whenever my parents go out to eat, they will take me with them which means a free meal. That can also lead to free ice cream and maybe even a free movie...are you catching my drift? And sure, they could call you to see if you wanted to join, but you have to drive to them which uses gas and they may have already eaten and you might have to blow off plans that you had so a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is looking better than ever.
3. Free Gas
My dad and I have a deal where if I fill up his extra gas cans for the lawnmower he will fill up my gas tank. This could never happen if I lived anywhere else. I mean, even living at home, sometimes he tries to give it to my sister.
4. BATHROOM
At my house, everyone has their own bathroom. I only have one sister so each of us have a bathroom and then my parents have one. There is also a half bath downstairs. Long story short—I can shower and brush my teeth and go to the bathroom and put my makeup on WHENEVER I WANT. And even before we moved and my sister and I shared a bathroom, it wasn’t bad because she is only one person. I know her, and her mom is my mom which means that we will get the good shampoo.
5. Family
I understand that this might be a reason that some people want to leave home, but not me. I love my parents and my sister and my dogs and cats and I wouldn’t be able to take them with me if I moved so there’s that. Plus, who else is going to stop watching Grey’s Anatomy to bring you toilet paper?
6. Responsibilities
I understand that there are responsibilities wherever you live, but isn’t taking the trash out or feeding the dog better than washing all your dishes every night and cleaning up after your roommates and making sure that you went grocery shopping and getting home early so that you get the one spot in the alley and don’t have to park on the street?
7. Lack of Added Stress/Brighter Future
I should have put this at the top
of the list because this is the most important I think. Without the loans and debt (because of the no
rent and the free food) you will leave college in a much better spot than people
who will have essentially another car payment for years to come. This creates less stress because your future
looks bright and because if you get sick or can’t work for a week, your
electricity won’t get cut off. You also
have more money to save and you have more money to do more fun things like
buy your own Netflix account (not that anyone would ever do that).
Living at home is the best of both worlds. You get to ease into the world one activity at a time and you have a constant support system no more than two rooms away at all times. It is also nice to have a friend’s apartment to stay at on the weekends, but be able to concentrate and do school work on the weekdays at your house.
