Pros and Cons of Living with Your Parents While at University

By Katarina Matisovska

With student accommodation rarely coming cheap, staying at home with the people who raised you is becoming an increasingly common option, with about 25 percent of young people aged 20-34 in the UK now living with their parents.

This so-called ‘boomerang generation’ (because they’ve returned home after initially moving away or going traveling) aren’t unique to the UK either. A similar survey conducted in Canada shows that roughly 42 percent of Ontario residents between the ages of 20 and 34 live at home.

Undoubtedly, there are both advantages and disadvantages to living with your folks, especially if you’re still studying and your university is close to home. If you’re considering living with mum and dad as an option, consider the following pros and cons first.

Pros

It gives you more time to figure out what you want to do with your life

One of the greatest perks of living at home is the luxury of having the time to sit and think extensively about your career decisions. You can take your time to get to the bottom of what motivates you and to work out the steps you need to take to get the job you actually want.

Conversely, when you live on your own, there’s less time to do all of this as you have to think on your feet. This often results in you being more flexible about the career decisions you make, rather than holding out for something truly special.

You can save a big chunk of money

The sky-high cost of renting in many cities popular with students is one of the biggest factors likely to influence your decision to stay at home, particularly if mum and dad will let you stay there rent-free.

Saving on rent and food until you find your dream job or work out what you're doing with your life is a great advantage of living at home during uni. Not to mention, you’ll save yourself a ton of time by not having to think about household chores as much as you would if you lived alone or with other messy, undisciplined students.

You can focus more on your studies

Obviously, not being burdened by concerns such as cooking and cleaning leaves plenty of room for long, uninterrupted study sessions. You’re also much less likely to be distracted by flatmates asking you to come out for a few drinks the night before your deadline.

Cons

You can easily fall into the comfort zone trap

Being in the comfort of your parent’s home is both a blessing and a curse. While it’s great to live rent-free and be catered for, it can stifle your ability to spread your wings and fly the family nest one day.

Rob, a 28-year-old personal trainer from London, said this about moving back home: "Treat it as a safety net, but don't get comfy – it's not a hammock. Use it as a base to build up to a point that you can take the first step towards your independence and keep your focus on that goal."

You’ll have to deal with the social stigma of living with your parents

Yes, brace yourself for silent judging every now and then. Even though a large number of students do stay home, there’s a prevailing belief that you haven’t made it as a grown-up yet if you still live with your folks.

You’ll be a bit behind in the race to be independent and self-reliant

Students at your university who aren’t living at home will probably get a head start on you when it comes to being more independent as they’ll be getting first-hand experience of adulting. By comparison, you’ll be starting from scratch when you do eventually move out.

Your privacy will be compromised

Not only will your privacy be compromised, but you’ll also be provided with abundance of unsolicited advice on how to live your life.

You’ll be more prone to feel homesick when you finally leave home

The more time we spend in our childhood home, the more attached we become to it and the harder it gets to break the ‘umbilical cord’ connecting you to your parents. People who fly the nest at an earlier age tend to adapt faster because they don’t have the memory of spending most of their adult life with mum and dad and they were forced to quickly form attachments to new places and people.

You’ll be more inclined to boomerang back home in the future

The hidden trap of any prolonged stay at the parents' home as an adult child is that it can make you feel way too comfortable. Of course, it’s really nice and a privilege many millennials can’t afford – to be able to return somewhere when things go awry. But even this privilege won’t be there forever and the sooner you can become self-reliant, the better it will be for you.

Katarina Matisovska writes for Inspiring Interns, which specialises in finding candidates their perfect internship. To browse our graduate jobs, visit our website.