Failure To Launch: Italian Family Seeks Legal Aide In Getting 41-Year-Old Son To Move Out

If you feel bad for parents housing their newly graduated children in a poor economy, consider this news item: a couple in Italy has sought the aide of lawyers to help persuade their 41-year-old son to leave the nest.

Despite having a job and his own income, the son refuses to move out. But it’s not just the company of his parents that makes looking for his own domicile unattractive. He likes the perks of home including having his meals prepared and his clothes washed.

His parents who, according to my conservative calculations are most likely getting on in years themselves, read like slaves to their son’s “demands.” The BBC reports that caring for their son well into adulthood has even compromised their health, namely the mother:

“We cannot do it any more,” the father was quoted as saying.

“My wife is suffering from stress and had to be hospitalised…”

With the assistance of lawyers, the couple has given their son a letter giving him six days to move out. If the son does not vacate, the Venician court could issue a protection order for the couple against their son.

While many European kids tend to be in no hurry to flee their parents’ homes unlike their American counterparts, this story reads like a blatant manipulation of parental love. Contrary to popular opinion, a mother is not a slave.  And although clean clothes and warm meals are befit for growing children and adult kids who have fallen on hard times, “demand[ing]” them well into adulthood reeks of entitlement.

It’s too bad this family can’t call on Sarah Jessica Parker to relieve them of their spoiled son, or perhaps saddle some other woman with his inability to care for himself.

(photo: moviegoods.com)