Isn’t that a little harsh? What do these kids know at 18? What’s the plan they have for these kids?
Once every few weeks, there’s always an 18 years old boy on personal finance related Subreddit asking what to do because he is just kicked out of his own home.
It got me thinking, is this still a thing in America? I never seen it myself.
39 comments
TV is not real life…..
Most parents do not do this and the amount of older adult children living at home is large and increasing.
Most parents do not do this and the amount of older adult children living at home is large and increasing.
You can look up the statistics.
They don’t.
I know everyone loves to say Americans are the ignorant ones in the world but please take a moment to realize how little you actually understand about countries that are not your own. Let this be a learning moment for you.
A better question would be “Is it true…” rather than assuming your perception is already true and asking “why…”
Anyways, the very premise of your question is wrong, and you need to rethink where you get your sources of understanding of the USA.
They don’t. What the fuck are you talking about?
No one does this, unless there is something seriously wrong with the family.
i mean lots of kids are going away to live in a college for that time but no this doesnt happen automatically
They don’t. This is a Hollywood trope.
Why are you only concerned about the sons?
Very few do this.
> Why so many
How often do you think this happens? From where did you get that information?
This is only something that happened generations ago, even then it wasn’t common.
My parents knew some people who got kicked out as soon as they turned 18 but this was also back in the early 1970s and late 1960s. Of course, back then you could afford to live off of minimum wage and going to work as soon as you graduated high school was the norm. So it’s not like most of those people were without option.
Furthermore, from one of my family friends where this did happen: His parents gave him a few months to find a job and get some money. He was expected to be out on his own after that time was up.
This would NEVER happen today and I’d say this practice by and large probably died out in the 1970s. Not saying it absolutely never happens today, but I’ve never met anyone below the age of 60 this has happened to.
This is a TV/Movie trope, like most things seen on TV that we get asked about here, it is nowhere near as common as it would appear to someone watching American entertainment and not having any real world experience or understanding of the US. Neither myself or any of my peers were kicked out at 18. Most of my peers lived with their parents until their early 20s. I was 27 when I voluntarily moved out. My younger brother was in his 30s. I moved back in with my parents due to financial reasons when I was 38, I lived with them for another 9 years. Now I’m looking for a place that I’ll be able to have my father live with me.
I have never known anyone who got kicked out of their house when they turned 18 (anyone with a healthy upbringing that is).
They don’t. It’s incredibly common for 18-25+ year olds to live at home some or all the time during college or working out of high school or getting started in a career after college.
While it’s a trope used in some TV/film plots, which can cause some confusion for foreigners, it’s just exactly that. A classic plot trope, and not reflective of real life.
> Isn’t that a little harsh? What do these kids know at 18? What’s the plan they have for these kids?
Also stuff like this is going to get you some ruder answers. It’s impolite to pass a value statement or go on a tangent about a topic before even knowing if it’s true or not. The better way is to *ask first* to determine if it’s true or not before going on a rant.
I don’t personally know anyone who was literally kicked out at 18, male or female.
Playing video games and masturbating all day without any pathway to becoming a man.
This used to be common back when housing was cheap, but it was more about kids wanting to leave than parents pushing them out.
As a side effect of the cost of living crisis and housing shortage, adult children living with parents has become normal again.
They don’t, usually. 18 is the age of majority, and it is the age where you are no longer obligated to provide support to a child who is capable of providing support for himself or herself, but it does not mean most (or even many) Americans kick their children out at 18. Really, the only time kids get kicked out at that age is if they’re not getting along with their parents.
Why do all the 40-year-olds in My Country live in their mom’s basement?
Most don’t. But there are some toxic parents out there who do. And guess who will be choosing their nursing home someday?
I feel like that’s more of an abusive alcoholic parent thing to do
I’ve seen it happen to people i know, why is everyone saying people don’t do this? You’re lucky to live in a preppy area lol.
It happens. Usually you get that with families where the parent/s can’t afford the financial burden, parents who don’t want the financial burden, parents who resented having kids are kicking them out at the first legal opportunity, or they have the mistaken idea that it’s like “throwing them into the pool to learn to swim” (friend of mine nearly drowned when his father threw him in the pond this way) which is a really stupid, conservative old fashioned attitude.
You seem to be missing that America is a country of serious economic disparity and seriously lacking in family oriented education (no the right wing bullshit isn’t it), as well as the social and cultural background to promote strong family bonds.
And before people start freaking out and going “MURIKA” I’m not saying we don’t have that at all, just that it’s not a majority thing.
Once my oldest hit 18 they were told if they don’t like the rules they can pack their shit and move out. So far, my rules have been preferable to figuring out how to pay rent. I’m guessing there are other 18 year olds that choose otherwise.
In 50 years of living, I have never known anyone that has been kicked out when they turned 18. That said I have seen both boys and girls getting kicked out because they are lazy asses and refuse to get a job or go to school.
I don’t know why everyone’s acting like this almost never happens here just because it didn’t happen to them or their friends or didn’t happen on exactly the 18th birthday. It does happen and I’m sure at a higher frequency than other Western countries. It’s partly due to national ideology/mentality (emphasis on individualism and pulling yourself up by bootstraps), and breakdown of the American family and disregard for extended family as a support network, also terrible work-life balance…all in addition to domestic violence, substance abuse and poverty.
Aren’t like 30+% of millennials still living with their parents? It’s not as common as Reddit would have you believe.
It usually only happens in more dysfunctional family’s.
Mine never did but I have friends who got kicked out.
There is usually a lot more to these stories than the OP shares. There is almost always more to the story when you start asking questions and peeling back the onion.
Sometimes, 18 year olds can be disrespectful little shits that deserved to be kicked out. They don’t want to live by their parents rules anymore, and think they shouldn’t have to.
I know someone who kicked their 18 year out because he was on drugs, lied, stole, and disrespected and treated his parents like shit. They reached their limit with him. Yes, they kicked him out because he deserved it. He told other people that his parents kicked him out on the streets with no warning. That is not what happened.
That’s a different story than a gay kid with religious and/or Conservative parents. That kid is not going to live their best life in that home, and they shouldn’t live there. Are the parents assholes for kicking them out? Absolutely.
So, you never know the entire story.
>What’s the plan they have for these kids?
The parents have no plans. The plan is to kick them out because, all legal obligations for a minor have ended. Nevermind the fact that they are the ones to produce said minor.
It’s not just sons. For certain parents it’s every offspring.
They don’t
I know of 2 cases of thrown out kids.
One had all his college bills being paid and they found out he hadn’t attended classes in a year. They said go to school, get a job, or get out. He chose to leave and told everyone he had been thrown out.
The other was on drugs at 13, repeatedly arrested and in lock up. Had every voluntary rehab program the lower middle class parents could find. Was in several court mandated drug programs. When she wasn’t locked up, she stole everything she could carry from the house to get drugs. She sold her body for drugs and gave the now grandparents another child to raise.
In her early 20s the parents gave up and said she couldn’t come home again. The druggie went to jail, half way houses, rehabs, etc another half dozen times. Last year, aged 50, in a heroin DUI, she crashed her car, maimed a woman, and killed a 1yo and 2yo.
It’s actually pretty rare for parents to kick their kids out when they turn 18.
It’s not illegal, but it’s rare and would be considered a sign that the parent is a horrible person.
I’ve seen it a few time, girls and boys both, sometimes under 18. They’re “throwaways” to their shit families, because they are gay, or because they don’t want their crap tiny paychecks to go for Mom’s pills and Dad’s beer or for any other weak-brained “reason” the parents can come up with.
It’s not common, but it does happen and it’s tragic.
I have never seen this happen in real life
I think maybe some of these guys might be exaggerating and using the term “kicked out” figuratively rather than literally. Most parents will give their kids-sons and daughters- a choice after they finish high school. Either go to school or get a job and pay rent, or move out. If they have a strained relationship with parents or it’s a toxic household they may choose move out and then exaggerate it as kicked out as they probably had a tantrum about having to go to school or pay rent.
> once every few weeks
that’s like 0.004 percent of the time ! what an epidemic !