Moving out home... What age was you?

Will never forget the conversation I had with mum and dad at 16 - cocky, stubborn, definitely thinking I knew best and absolutely not wanting to play by my parents' home rules - after being out one night, barely out of school, deciding there and then that I would be moving out the following day. 

And I actually did.  I still remember my parents words to me. Sarah you live here with our rules, or you move out… next thing I’m packing a suitcase up 

I moved to the top of the road into a one bed flat with an older friend. She was 18 or 19 at the time, I think... she had a couch so that's where I crashed. I look back now and realise it was definitely the wrong thing to do, hindsight is a beautiful thing though and if I knew then what I know now I obviously wouldn't have done it. Moving out young and living in the situation that I did back then was the start of a very deep, prolonged spiral that took every will in the world to get out of and I wish with every part of me that I could turn back time and go home to my mum and dad when they asked me to. One of the things about life is that you have to live and learn along the way though isn't it. 

Imagine if all we had to deal with now was parental house rules and a respectable curfew hey. We didn't know we were born did we?!

I moved back briefly when an ex-partner and I bought our first house and it needed renovating. That was a fun experience - my childhood bedroom was a loft room that couldn't fit a double bed in there, the shape meant that we could only fit in two singles, so we slept in separate single beds for the duration ... maybe that set the tone for the rest of the relationship and was an omen of things to come, who knows. 

I believe the average age of people moving out of their parents' homes these days is around 25. I think it's hard for people to know what to do for the best really, especially with buying seeming like an impossibility for most and the extortionate cost of renting. Some people want to stay home as long as they can, maybe to save money and maybe for the family aspect, and others (like me) think they're grown when still wearing a uniform. 16 year old me thought she was wiser and knew better, so was definitely mature enough in my head to make that step. I couldn't imagine Alfie moving out of home at 16! 

It definitely made me stronger, more aware and lessons I learned I'll carry with me for the rest of my days, but it isn't something I'd ever recommend. Some of those lessons I'd rather have never learned, and I know now that being home with mum and dad when dealing with those late-teen/early 20s problems would have been just the antidote needed to get through it all a little easier.