To Move Back In With Your Parents After You Graduate Or Not: That Is The Question

By Francine Fluetsch on July 12, 2014

This article is brought to you by CORT, a subsidiary of Berkshire-Hathaway and the world’s largest furniture rental and relocation services company. To learn more about how we can help college students like you, click here.

image via 14thstreetmag.com

After the caps have been thrown and the goodbyes have been said, it’s time to decide where you are going to live post college life. Moving back in with your parents is always an option, but is it the right one for you?

Here are some reasons why you should move back and why you should steer clear from it.

Advantages:

Free room and board*: Moving back in with your parents can definitely be a money saver, especially while you are job hunting. Getting your own place can be pricey, and right after you graduate, the last thing you probably want is to move in with more roommates. Sure you might still be sleeping in your old twin bed in your Hello Kitty themed room, but it sure beats buying all new furniture.

Living at home also means a stocked fridge and someone to cook for you. No more Ramen binges for you.

*Results may vary. To this free rent comment, my mom said “who says there is going to be FREE rent? #notyourmama.” I’m not even joking about the hashtag.

Some parents will ask you to pay rent, but having them as a landlord is better than an actual one (well, let’s hope so).

A clean house: Unlike a post college person’s house, you know that your house is going to be clean. You won’t have to be disgusted by the mess your housemate left in the kitchen, and if there is a mess from a sibling or something, you’ll have no problem telling them off since it’s your family.

Family company: David Deck, who just graduated from UC Santa Cruz, said living at home means you have “a mama to drink wine with.”

Sure your family can get on your nerves, but they can also provide wonderful company. You’ve lived with them for most of your life, so going back can be comforting.

It will also give you a chance to bond with younger siblings that grew up while you were away and that might not fully know you since you left when they were small. Gaining these relationships is awesome, and they will appreciate having you around.

Disadvantages:

Less freedom: To your parents, you are always going to be their little kid. Especially if you have younger siblings, your parents will start telling you what to do and when you can do things, just like when you were younger. After having four years of getting to tell yourself what to do, this can be extremely frustrating. This may cause constant clashes to the point where living with roommates again might not be sounding all that bad.

Chores are another big fighting factor. You are used to cleaning things when you feel they need cleaning, not everyday when your mom sees a speck of dirt on something. You wont be able to leave your dishes in the sink and “save them for later” like you could in college, and staying out all night probably won’t fly.

And having sleepovers with your S.O? Sure you might be in your 20’s, but parents get really weird about it, so that’s probably a no-no as well. The problem? You can’t really fight them about anything because it is their house, so sadly, their rules.

Younger siblings: Since times have changed from when you were little, you will notice that your 6 year old sister has an I-phone, and all these other things that you never had. Especially if you are the oldest, watching the baby in the family can be really annoying.

Finding your place back in the family after you were gone may be a little different than you thought. You and your mom used to go on hikes together? Well now she is taking your sister to get her nails done. Younger siblings can also bring out the child in you again, where you start bickering over the stupidest things.

The same old: Moving back home will almost make it feel like nothing has changed. Even if you love where you live, it is definitely nice to get away—maybe not too far but still far enough—so you can start your life fresh and have it actually feel like a new adventure, not just like you were gone for a bit but now everything is back to normal.

If you move back home and go about the same routine, chances are you will become bored out of your mind.

No friends: A lot of people lose contact with their high school friends, and if you live far from where you went to college, you might be a bit of a loner. Sure you have your family, but they have lives too, and can’t be hanging with you 24/7.

Making friends out of college can be a challenge too, so until you find a job, you might have a lot of those staying in and binging it to Netflix kind of nights (not that there is anything wrong with that).

So whether you move back in or you don’t, there are good parts and bad. You can always try it out and if it doesn’t work, you can always leave. Good luck!

Looking for a more convenient way to furnish your off-campus apartment? Rent stylish furniture from CORT and save time and money. For more information on furniture rental packages, click here.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format