As a young adult living at home, what did your parents do for you/provide for you, and what was expected of you in return? For parents of young adults, how does that differ from what you do for/expect from your young adult children?

I was discussing my friend’s young adult sons with her the other day. We were talking about what she and her husband do for them, and what we were provided with as young adults living with our parents.

When I was 18 (mid 1980’s), I paid $300 a month rent to my parents. This was more than any of my friends paid their parents. I paid my car repairs, car insurance, registration, gas, clothes, etc. and also bought my own car. I did my own laundry.

My friend had a similar experience with what her parents provided for her.

For her young adult sons, she and her husband pay for the car, repairs, insurance, phones, registration, gas, clothes, etc. (I recently asked a question on here where I discussed how her son called her a name when he was demanding that she lend him her car). She also does their laundry.

When I was young, the rules of the house were “as long as you’re living under our roof, you cannot come home when you want to. You come home when we say you do and if you don’t like it, you can move out.”

I did move out shortly after, as I thought that $300 a month was a high rent to pay, with a curfew too.

Everyone else that I knew could come home whenever they wanted as soon as they turned 18. When my sister came along 19 years later, she could stay out all night when she turned 18.

What did your parents provide for you, as a young adult? Did they pay your car insurance, gas, etc.? Did you have to pay rent? Did you have a curfew or could you come home whenever you wanted?

As a parent of young adults, what did you provide for them? How does it differ from the way you were raised?