If Your Adult Son Lives at Home, Do You Know How Lucky You Are?
If he’s anything like mine….definitely
My youngest son still lives with me, and can I just brag a little bit about how nice it is? If you don’t have an adult son who’s never moved away from home, you don’t know what you’re missing!
First of all, I’ve tried (gently) kicking him out of the nest before.
It just didn’t take.
He told me he has considered moving out, but where I live is only two blocks away from where he works, plus he’s got his room (aka “man cave”) set up just the way he likes it. Besides that, our little house was paid off about nine years ago, and I take care of the utilities. So, I can see how he’d be reluctant to take on an apartment on his income.
I mean, he has it made financially by staying right where he is.
The extra money he saves allows him to buy things like the electric bike he just spent $600 bucks on. (That’s money he earned by writing on NewsBreak, by the way.) And a month later, a mountain bike. He loves his new hobby and can afford to indulge just a little.
But if he wanted to move out, I wouldn’t stop him.
In fact, I’d probably help him, because that’s just the kind of mom I am. I’d take him meals and put them in his fridge. I’d still do his laundry. I’d tidy things up. But I can’t think of a single scenario in which he would be convinced that moving out is a good idea. There are no head hunters or supermodels beating a path to our front door.
Now, I don’t say any of this to make you feel sorry for either one of us. While it’s true he literally has all the comforts of home, I also have come to realize what a valuable asset I have as well.
As I get older, I have come to need more and more assistance around the house. He is not only great with appliances and fixing minor repairs, but he loves working in the yard and planting flowers, hedges and planting and maintaining his own vegetable garden.
He is amazing with computers, coding and can tell me why my phone is acting wonky. He’s fixed plumbing issues and taken his electrical battery out of his car to fix it. Everything that he takes apart is reassembled with no mystery bolts and screws left over.
So what if he gets absorbed in his video games sometimes on Saturdays? So what if he wants to explain Elon Musk’s plans for SpaceX, or how the motors in wind turbines work, or argue that I should give up my van and go electric?
It’s worth it when we’ve finished dinner and kick back to bond over the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Yep. Totally worth it.
What a great kid. ***************************************************