Call Me Clingy, But I’m Totally Down With My Kids Living With Me Forever

I love being snarky about the “joys of motherhood,” but there’s more below the surface, I promise. Motherhood is stressful, challenging, and also amazing because I’m surprised to learn that I love my kids so, so much.

Like, a lot. Not the kind of love where I want to eat them so that they can live inside me forever and become a part of me, but the kind of love where I really enjoy hanging out with them, even as a baby and a toddler, and the thought of them moving out makes me want to die.

Granted, I have about 18 years to go, but it’s not enough, I tell you! You can imagine my happiness when I saw this recent Department of Education study that highlighted the fact that “more men and women age 27 [are] living with their parents than with roommates.”

HOORAY! I shout as I throw confetti in the air with glee. This is excellent news for me as a young mother that really can’t stand the thought of parting with my children for life. And I know someone out there will make it a point to tell me that I will “feel differently” when they are teenagers, in a delightfully patronizing tone, but we’ll see about that.

My parents started charging me rent at home as soon as I was 19. On the one hand, I appreciated that they taught me responsibility, but perhaps because of divorce and a new stepparent, I felt very unwanted. I moved out shortly thereafter and was scared shitless to be on my own. I felt very alone, and I know that is all part of the growing up process that I now appreciate, but I also wish that my parents had been more welcoming to me at the time.

I don’t know if my kids will live with me until the age of 27, but I can only hope. I want them to grow up and be amazing men, but I would also be not-so-secretly happy if they spent a few extra years at home.

(Image: Ljupco Smokovski/Shutterstock)