Bookshelf Battle

Hey 3.5 readers.

Have you heard about this one?  Do a web search for it and you should find an article about it.

Short version.  There was a 30 year old man living in his parents’ house.  Mom and Dad wanted him to move out.  They gave him five written notices to move out and when the son didn’t move out, they took him to court to evict him.

So, this has become a funny story like, “Oh my God.  Adults have become such losers that parents have to go to court to make them move out of the house now.”

I side with these parents.  I haven’t read anything to make me believe that they are bad people with bad intentions so as far as I can tell, they probably wanted their son to get out, get a job, live his life, become a productive member of society.  (In fairness, I don’t know if he is an unproductive slug or anything, though one of the notices from the parents tells him he needs to get a job.)

I think it’s good that the parents did this and in their defense, I wonder if they would have held off on court action if son had just taken some life improvement steps – i.e., helped around the house more, gotten rid of a broken down car the parents wanted off the property, gotten a job, etc.  The parents probably wanted some signs that son was working on improving and seeing none, they saw no need to continue letting him live with them.

Although the son does come off as a bit of a dingus, I do want to defend young adults, maybe not this guy, but in general.  I keep hearing commentators saying, ever so shocked, “Millennials have the highest rate of adults living at home, those lazy bums!”

And while this guy isn’t the best representative, there isn’t much recognition of why so many young adults are living at home.  The economy tanked in 2008, was a shit show for years and is only starting to show signs of getting better recently.  Maybe some are happy to live at home but I assume many are not.

House prices are higher than ever too so who can blame a young person for saving for a few years until they can make that down payment?

Keep in mind a college degree isn’t worth as much as it used to be.  It used to be that if you had a college degree, you had it made.  Now everyone and their uncle has one.

So…yes, this story is funny.  I think the parents did the right thing here and son might have been spared some embarrassment if he’d met his folks half-way and demonstrated some kind of intent to turn things around but overall, yeah, keep in mind that it isn’t as easy to get a good, life sustaining job as it used to be.

Discuss.