Movin' On.

I was 13, I was tall for my age, I could cook a mean lasagne to feed myself, I knew my way around a tough neighbourhood and I was ready to leave home. Okay I only had a few dollars of pocket money saved that wouldn't get me far but the thought of leaving home was instilled at a young age. It didn't go away through the high school and university days that saw me lie about my age and pack shelves at Woolies when I was 14, until I finally left home to never return. It was all about moving out and growing up but I wish I had been born a little later because I'd much prefer today's trend of staying home and never growing up.

Things are different today as 30 has become the new 18 and the question popping up about why kids are not leaving home has caused many a Dad more grey hairs than they care to admit. The failure to launch, the boomerang kids, the lack of seasoning and the fear of the outside world has seen either an elongated departure period or a mass migration back to Mum and Dad that sees kids not growing up till their third decade or not at all. Where we might have had issues bringing work home while Mum made the bed and ironed the shirts, today the luxury lifestyle of having old servants looks after you is becoming de rigueur.

The Boomers may have joked that growing old was mandatory but growing up was optional, while they started work early to amass the world's fortune to now find they are reinvesting that cash into their adult children at home. No one is sure what impact this will have on the kids staying or the parents doling out the funds but the trend is affecting what was thought to be the traditional cycle as young people avoid commitment, compete with siblings for the upper bunk at age 30 and avert any beginning of adult life.

A recent New York Times article pointed out the five traditional tenants of adulthood, completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying, and having kids have been pushed back by the Millenials who are happy to continue to share the remote control with Dad. The average of seven jobs in their 20s, huge student loans and not having disposable income if they actually moved out, has opened the eyes of the squatters in the next room. So why not stay home and party, go to school forever, have your mates over for dinner, get your Mum to drive you to the pub and do your laundry, what is the worst that can happen?

I'm packing my bags, I'm going home, I'm sure Mum will be happy to see me drive up and she'll have the kettle on in no time. Then it's off to work in crisp shirts, a cut lunch, pocket money for a quick pint after work and maybe Dad will have the footy on when I get home. Sounds good to me, why go anywhere else?