Sep 29

Sep 29 How to Survive Temporarily Living with Your Parents

I recently moved back in with my parents at the end of July for a few reasons. One being, since moving back to Ann Arbor from Lansing, I didn't realize how expensive the rental market was here. Two, I had two not-so-great roommate situations in about eight months, yikesss. Three, it would really help with the savings (aka radical savings plan as me and my girlfriend like to call it) for my move.

This is my first time moving home since I left for college at 17 and let me tell you, I am really independent, so this decision forced me to swallow my ego and pride. I'm not going to lie, I did feel a bit ashamed and defeated. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with living at your parents as a young twenty-something, if you have the opportunity and you are using that opportunity wisely, then by all means! For me, it was hard to make the decision to move home, but so far I am glad I did.

After being home for a few months, I thought I might share the survival tips that I am currently using to adjust to life back at home.

Survival Tips for Temporarily Living with Your Parents

Offer to Help Out

This is just a general considerate thing to do when someone does you a favor, but you should definitely offer to help out when your parents offer to let you live at home, rent free or otherwise. Some suggestions for how to help out could be cleaning, cooking dinners, grabbing the mail, taking the trash bins out, mowing the lawn, organizing/making improvements around the house, laundry, etc. You should definitely at least be doing your own laundry and cleaning up after yourself at the very least.
Set Boundaries

This one is a definite must! Especially since in my case, I have been living alone for five years now and whenever I am back home with my parents even just visiting, they would try to treat me like I am in high school again. This is a tough one to navigate though because yes,they are doing you a favor by living at home, and yes, they are your parents and you should hear them out.

Bear with me though, you are allowed to set boundaries and you are allowed to set limits for what you will tolerate. Some boundary examples could be what topic areas in your life that are and/or aren't up for discussion, when and/or how you will communicate, how you will make decisions in your life, etc. I should note that you should communicate and honor these boundaries in a respectful manner of course. You have the right to live your life the way you see fit, however, it is their house and you should respect their boundaries as well.
Make your Presence as Un-Obtrusive as Possible

The easiest way to avoid any conflict is to attract as little attention as possible while you are there. What I mean by this is, I am home very rarely and when I am home I try to keep to myself as much as possible. I'm not having a bunch of friends over all the time, I am not blasting loud music or TV shows, and I'm not bringing dates home; you get my drift. I try to bring as little attention to myself as possible because I want them to think of my living there as no big deal in case I ever have to do so again; never burn a bridge is basically what I am saying here.
Don't Overstay Your Welcome

Last tip is to not overstay your welcome. Please make sure when going into this, you have a rough end date or goal in mind and make sure you communicate that date or goal. Please do not be like my brothers and be a never-ending freeloader. I made sure to communicate my goal of moving by October/November early on and even though that date has now been pushed back to January (post on that soon), I made sure to communicate that to them and make sure it was still okay with them.

I really hope these tips help anyone currently living with their parents or considering moving back into their parents house. Comment below if you have any additional tips, I would love to hear them and I'm sure other readers would too!