When Did You Leave the Nest?

[RedAngie]

I moved out of my parents' home two years after graduating college, at age 24. It was mainly because my job was 45 minutes away and I got tired of the commute. If I had a closer job I might have stayed at home longer.

I rented a two bedroom apartment with a co-worker.

 

[Floridaman999]

I left for college in August of the year I graduated high school and have not lived there since.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The summer after my sophomore year of college, I moved into a rental house with my fiance.

 

[larissawbb]

I left at age 16. I had skipped two grades in school and was the youngest in my class. I went to college and my mom turned my room into a walk in closet.

 

[soccerdad72]

Officially, after graduation from college (22). I lived away for the four years of college, but was home (most of the time) for breaks and summers.

 

[Meriweather]

When I got married at 20

 

[mnrose]

I left home for a summer job as a nanny within a week of graduating high school. Except for brief stays of less than a week, I never lived at home again. In college, I worked summer jobs away from home. After college, my boyfriend (now husband) got an apartment where I went to law school. It was a different time to be sure. But, I never got a penny from my parents for college or law school. Everything we have, my husband and I earned ourselves. We were both extremely self-reliant from the time we graduated from high school. It was good for me.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

I guess I technically left the nest when I went to high school at 14. I went home for breaks, but never lived there full-time again.

 

[Hikergirl]

I was 21 when dh (then boyfriend) and I moved in together.

 

[ronandannette]

After high-school; I was 18 at the time. In those days it's just what you did.

 

[runwad]

25 when I got married.

 

[lovegrumpy]

I left at 19 then moved back a year later. Left again when i was 21. Got married and moved with my hubby to his new duty station and haven't looked back.

 

[Colleen27]

I left at 17, and other than a few months when I left my son's father a couple years later, I stayed gone. My mom and I have a good relationship now, but we didn't do well living under the same roof.

 

[L&Lfan]

I left the nest at the age of 22. Moved from SC to MA. I commuted to college, lived at home and worked retail to save money until I graduated.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

At 18.

I left home for a summer job as a nanny within a week of graduating high school. Except for brief stays of less than a week, I never lived at home again. In college, I worked summer jobs away from home. After college, my boyfriend (now husband) got an apartment where I went to law school. It was a different time to be sure. But, I never got a penny from my parents for college or law school. Everything we have, my husband and I earned ourselves. We were both extremely self-reliant from the time we graduated from high school. It was good for me.

Same.

 

[SaintsManiac]

When I was 18. Went back to mom a couple of times. Luckily she always took me back

 

[tvguy]

24, when I got married.
My MIL made my wife pay rent when she was still at home. I offered to pay my mom rent, and THAT almost got me thrown out of the house! My mom found it insulting that I would even consider paying rent to live "at home".

 

[kimblebee]

I was kicked out when I was 19. I wasn’t allowed to take anything but my clothes and books and knick knacks. Luckily, a friends mom let me sleep on her couch for two weeks while I found a place to live.

 

[wenrob]

It’s complicated. When I was sixteen I visited my mother over the summer after not seeing her for two years. There was a boy. There was turmoil with my stepmother back at home. It escalated and well, there was that boy so I moved in with my mom right before I turned seventeen. In my head, that’s when I left the nest, I had never lived with my mother before. I moved out and in with that boy the day I turned eighteen. As it turns out that boy had a drug problem and became abusive. I moved in with my grandparents for a few months. But you know how this story goes: boy cleaned himself up, was a new man and couldn’t live without me so I went back. Yeah, it ended up worse than before. By now my dad had moved back and my stepmother pulled me aside, said she could see what was happening and there was no shame in coming home. So I went home. Then my sister came home and then my brother. I was nineteen going on twenty when I moved out permanently. Always worked, always took care of my own things but I’m forever grateful to my grandparents and my folks for giving me a soft place to land when I needed it most.

 

[CrankyDad]

Nobody with self respect will post here if they lived there past 25.

I got a sister in law still with my in laws. She is 52. Can you imagine.