Anyone living with parents? How to stay sane during self-quarantine?

[Mekanos]

I was living with a friend last year working up in LA but both the job and living situations ran their courses so I moved back home with parents with the intention of taking a few months to work locally temporarily and figure out my next long term job/living situation. This was back in January.

Suddenly CV and I could be living here a long time. I'm very thankful for having a secure place to live but man living with your parents as an adult can be tough especially during a pandemic. They are struggling with passing time while being mystified at how I can spend hours browsing the internet or playing video games like it's nothing.

Anyone else in a similar situation? Feels like they don't have many hobbies and they're already getting cabin fever.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

Don't talk back to them that much. Just agree, nod, and then go to you room. I don't even eat in the same room with them. I love them but they can be too micro managing

 

[jiggle]

Distract them with a bebe' and play videogames

 

[Goddo Hando]

Don't talk back to them that much. Just agree, nod, and then go to you room. I don't even eat in the same room with them. I love them but they can be too micro managing

Click to shrink...

Dont breathe on them too much, or touch them. Seriously

 

[GuessMyUserName]

Been with my dad since I moved back from Japan... now that he's retired too... yeah he has no idea how to spend his days - no hobbies, nobody to be around be me, he gets bored and takes a nap a lot. Lies on the couch and watches what I'm watching... I honestly would love to stay alone in my room but he's pretty needy to have someone around.

The only thing he really has in life is his appointments with doctors and physiotherapy. He started regularly checking out thrift stores since my sister started collecting furbies since he at least gets to use some time to help her out he feels.

*edit*

Oh yeah he has one hobby that's rather unbearable - trawling tweets and youtube videos about Joe Biden. It's some incredibly bizarre obsession he's built up, it riles him up so much but sometimes I'll wake up and hear an old Biden my dad's watching on Youtube again it's insane, his anger at Biden has just about overtaken his hatred of Trump over the last year and he's made it into the only hobby he has in life.

 

[TaySan]

I'm living with my parents currently and i mostly just stay in my room and game anyways lol but i have a good relationship with my parents. My brother and his bf and my father head butts all the time and it gets really bad sometimes.

Just do what you have to do.

Don't talk back to them that much. Just agree, nod, and then go to you room. I don't even eat in the same room with them. I love them but they can be too micro managing

Click to shrink...

My father is like that to a TEE. I just don't even like hanging out with him sometimes because he nit picks every little thing i do.

 

[GNOSIS]

I'm Asian. I'd love to go back and live with my parents if it's not because of my job. I live like a king when I'm with them.

I don't get western mentality regarding living with your parents at all.

 

[Mekanos]

I'm Asian. I'd love to go back and live with my parents if it's not because of my job. I live like a king when I'm with them.

I don't get western mentality regarding living with your parents at all.

Click to shrink...

you try bringing a date home to your parents lol

(not that I'll be doing that for a while...)

 

[GNOSIS]

you try bringing a date home to your parents lol

(not that I'll be doing that for a while...)

Click to shrink...

I'm gay so that's an entirely different can of worms...

 

[kai3345]

wish i was at home. at least i'd have someone to talk to lol. feel like im going to get cabin fever pretty quickly

 

[Kevers]

I'm supposed to be moving into a new place come April so I hope nothing stops that from happening at this point.

 

[Ricelord]

Don't talk back to them that much. Just agree, nod, and then go to you room. I don't even eat in the same room with them. I love them but they can be too micro managing

Click to shrink...

this is the only answer.

 

[Seductivpancakes]

I'm Asian. I'd love to go back and live with my parents if it's not because of my job. I live like a king when I'm with them.

I don't get western mentality regarding living with your parents at all.

Click to shrink...

Yea I don't understand the shame with living with your folks while you're preparing financially to move out.

But I also don't enjoy being pampered by my mom, trying to micro manage me or invading my privacy so those regards, moving out is the best option.

 

[chefbags]

I live with my mom and my brothers. My mom is going through chemo and my brothers and I have had different heart conditions scaling from a hole in the heart, a heart murmur, and one having open heart surgery.

So if any one of us gets the virus I feel like we're suuper fucked lol.

My work still has me coming in so being extra cautious is key.

 

[Faenix1]

Eh, I can't afford to live on my own and my mother can't afford to live by herself so it's kind of a win-win.

We just.. get along, I don't know. We leave each other alone. Sometimes we're in the same room, other times we're not.

Not quarantined, but I do spend majority of my time at home. She's a filthy TV hog though. lol

 

[Mekanos]

Yea I don't understand the shame with living with your folks while you're preparing financially to move out.

But I also don't enjoy being pampered by my mom, trying to micro manage me or invading my privacy so those regards, moving out is the best option.

Click to shrink...

yeah I love my parents but having my habits and behaviors constantly given an opinion on is tiring. And knowing that it's possible for weeks we could be the only three people talking to each other I want to prevent as much arguing and fighting as I can.

 

[Bor Gullet]

I'm Asian. I'd love to go back and live with my parents if it's not because of my job. I live like a king when I'm with them.

I don't get western mentality regarding living with your parents at all.

Click to shrink...

From what I've seen, there's much less of a stigma these days.

 

[sirap]

My dad has his own hobbies and the cats keep him entertained so we're cool.

 

[Deleted member 50540]

It looks like this is about to be me :/ all my plans to go and work on my own in an apartment downstate cancelled in just a couple days. Now I'm stuck at my parents house having to pretend to not be upset about it, which yeah I'm being privileged but it's hard not to be disappointed.

I myself am trying to see if I can do any online classes. If that doesn't work out I'll see if I can brush up on translating stuff. My parents have been trying to watch a movie or show every night, which generally means rom-coms which are alright although they get stale fast...

 

[Mekanos]

My dad has his own hobbies and the cats keep him entertained so we're cool.

Click to shrink...

Wish we had a cat, we were talking about getting one a few weeks ago. Would help keep them distracted.

 

[linkboy]

I live with my parents and one brother who are all hardcore Trump supporting Republicans.

It's fucking hell. All I hear is all political, all the time. They'll believe any fucking article they read that hates on Liberals or Democrats.

Most of the time, I just put my earbuds in and ignore them the best I can.

 

[GNOSIS]

Yea I don't understand the shame with living with your folks while you're preparing financially to move out.

But I also don't enjoy being pampered by my mom, trying to micro manage me or invading my privacy so those regards, moving out is the best option.

Click to shrink...

I get that. I'm a very private person so I love living by myself now. But gosh, I hate cleaning. It helps that my parents just let me do whatever I want since I was young. They respect my privacy too. So moving back to their place is not such a bad idea in my mind.

The thing is, the idea of my parents being old alone without me living with them is heartbreaking so I will have to find a way to move back or let them stay with me eventually.

 

[TaySan]

I live with my parents and one brother who are all hardcore Trump supporting Republicans.

It's fucking hell. All I hear is all political, all the time. They'll believe any fucking article they read that hates on Liberals or Democrats.

Most of the time, I just put my earbuds in and ignore them the best I can.

Click to shrink...

My parents are like that, but the other way around. My mom hates Trump probably even more than i do which shocked me. Sometimes it can get a little bit too much when it's at the dinner table. Otherwise their cool with me :D

 

[Seductivpancakes]

I get that. I'm a very private person so I love living by myself now. But gosh, I hate cleaning. It helps that my parents just let me do whatever I want since I was young. They respect my privacy too. So moving back to their place is not such a bad idea in my mind.

The thing is, the idea of my parents being old alone without me living with them is heartbreaking so I will have to find a way to move back or let them stay with me eventually.

Click to shrink...

Yea that gets to me too. Especially since my folks don't speak much English.

Making sure my mom isn't consumed by the Corvid-19 scare is like a full time job as it is.

 

[GamerJM]

I live in the bay area, where the options for millennials are either live with your parents, live in a cramped apartment with four other people, pray you get into a lucrative tech job, or move somewhere else. So yes I live with my parents.

For self-quarantine it's fine since I just stay in my room most of the time anyways. I think my parents are gonna make me go to brunch with my grandparents tomorrow which is, uh, scary though. My mom is taking quarantining pretty seriously but my grandparents aren't because they think they have superhuman immune systems and she doesn't really want to argue with them about not going to brunch.

 

[Pau]

I don't envy you, OP. Are there any hobbies you could introduce them to?

I'm Asian. I'd love to go back and live with my parents if it's not because of my job. I live like a king when I'm with them.

I don't get western mentality regarding living with your parents at all.

Click to shrink...

I grew up being told that I wouldn't move out until I got married just like the rest of my family and thinking of living with your parents in adulthood as the norm. But even then I totally understand the American mentality of getting out as soon as possible. :P

Maybe it's partly a gender thing too. In my experience (with Colombian families), there's much more of an expectation for daughters to clean, be involved with whatever is going on in the kitchen, run errands, take care of other people's kids, etc.

 

[Mekanos]

I don't envy you, OP. Are there any hobbies you could introduce them to?

Click to shrink...

Mostly watching movies... which is hard to find movies all three of us would want to watch. We just watched one tonight.

My mom is obsessed with Pokemon Go and spends most of her waking hours playing it with her friends, so she's not used to being cooped up in the house all day. My dad really doesn't have much, he likes photography, bike riding, and travel... obviously a no go right now. He'll probably find some home repair stuff to do, he has a pathological need to fix things (he's a workaholic currently between jobs, so you can imagine how antsy he gets).

Feels like on the other hand I've spent my whole life training for this moment, watching anime, playing video games, and browsing the internet for hours on end. I'm in my environment!

 

[Rellodex]

I don't mind the parental micromanagement. Yes, it's intrusive but they're doing it because they care about you. Not everyone relates personally to their parents, like beyond a parent/child relationship, and that's perfectly okay.

I drop the video game/internet stuff when I'm staying with my parents. They're getting old and I want to spend quality time with them. Usually I'll cook dinner, joke around with my mom during the daytime, and watch some bullshit sitcom or action comedy with my dad and his super fucked up radiant color automation plus television.

I've run the gamut on "don't just sit around let's go do something" and "let me calibrate your damn tv." Took me longer than I'd like to admit to realize that those aren't the things they want to do and I have to respect that. A lot of their choices and tastes don't make any goddamn sense to me but they've lived like twice the amount of time I and (I have to assume) have had experiences and gained insight the likes of which I cannot even fathom.

I do get tired of being interrogated over not wanting to eat like 3 hamburgers for dinner, or sleeping in past 8 am, or the photos my friends post on Facebook, or not drinking enough milk.

But it's my parents. Wtf am I going to do? Ignore them?

 

[Deleted member 40179]

I love my parents. If you can help it don't let them discover the YouTube or news apps on your TV, otherwise you'll get lots of the same annoying ads for very short content. Haystacks is ok, it has the local news so it's not as dramatic as the cable networks. I will say there are some gems on YouTube that I would have never found thanks to the algorithm that targets an older demographic, vintage rock concerts, wholesome non-clickbait viral videos, etc. I'm tempted to create a YouTube account for the living room TV cause the recommendations are way better and of greater variety than the stuff I get on my personal account.

Get them into a Amazon or Netflix show, Little Women, Anne with an E, Lost in Space are all great. You'll never like the movies they watch, accept it. Handheld Switch has been a lifesaver. Go for a walk if you can, sidewalks and parks are unsurprisingly empty. Bake with your mom. Take up writing and always have a notebook handy, parents say the darnest things.

 

[Choppasmith]

I'm Asian. I'd love to go back and live with my parents if it's not because of my job. I live like a king when I'm with them.

I don't get western mentality regarding living with your parents at all.

Click to shrink...

Yea I don't understand the shame with living with your folks while you're preparing financially to move out.

But I also don't enjoy being pampered by my mom, trying to micro manage me or invading my privacy so those regards, moving out is the best option.

Click to shrink...

Not Asian but I love visiting my mom and being pampered honestly. Just found out I'll be in quarantine with her in a couple weeks when I go visit her and I'm not bothered a bit. I can definitely see it as a small doses thing though.

 

[Zombine]

You said self-quarantine and not involuntary—meaning you do have the option to leave the house. Do you have friends locally? I would just crash with them or a partner that is around locally to break up the family togetherness.

 

[ItchyTasty]

I would love to have some company if I have to self-quarantine. I live alone in a small studio apartment, I will go insane.

 

[Dreamwriter]

Every family is different. Me and my retired parents are introverted, so when I was living with them for 4 months between jobs, we tended to just hang out together and do our own separate things, talking at mealtimes and the occasional random trip shopping or going for a walk.

 

[ResetGreyWolf]

They are struggling with passing time while being mystified at how I can spend hours browsing the internet or playing video games like it's nothing.

Click to shrink...

Well, communication is key.

I myself am trying to see if I can do any online classes. If that doesn't work out I'll see if I can brush up on translating stuff.

Click to shrink...

Depending on what it is you want to learn, there are loads of awesome online classes that are either free or that will cost you like a fiver a mount. Go for it, it's a great use of this extra time you're spending at home.

Don't talk back to them that much. Just agree, nod, and then go to you room. I don't even eat in the same room with them. I love them but they can be too micro managing

Click to shrink...

If you're a teenager, this is a perfectly normal behavior. If you're an adult, then you probably need to sit down with your parents and have a real conversation about what's bothering you.

 

[Mekanos]

You said self-quarantine and not involuntary—meaning you do have the option to leave the house. Do you have friends locally? I would just crash with them or a partner that is around locally to break up the family togetherness.

Click to shrink...

I don't feel like I should be infringing on my friends at a time like this. No partner, though the last girl I dated lived an hour away, so lol.

 

[deimosmasque]

Don't talk back to them that much. Just agree, nod, and then go to you room. I don't even eat in the same room with them. I love them but they can be too micro managing

Click to shrink...

This.

They're always going to view you as your child no matter how old you get, how independent you are, or how mature you are.

My partner and I had to move back in with my parents at one point. We spent most of it living in one single room because anything else was basically their rules and their rules only.

I was in my 30s.

Parents who will take you back in always mean well, but they have their own lives too and have their own ways of doing things. Especially if you've not lived with them for a while.

Respect their boundaries and try to get them to respect yours that's the only way you can deal with it.

 

[arcadepc]

I am a calm person so I don't mind if they have the TV on max volume that can be heard throughout the house or when they discuss things out loud. Same for my brother, though now he lives on his own. Though my sister couldn't handle it when she stayed with them.
There will be some unavoidable squabbles and bickerings but they'll be forgotten

 

[ZackieChan]

Perhaps they want to see their unemployed adult child doing more than browsing the internet and playing video games for hours on end? I know I would. Are you learning new skills, searching for work, starting a side business online, or any number of other productive things?

 

[Officer Big Mac]

Steal their social security checks and buy animes

 

[Mekanos]

Perhaps they want to see their unemployed adult child doing more than browsing the internet and playing video games for hours on end? I know I would. Are you learning new skills, searching for work, starting a side business online, or any number of other productive things?

Click to shrink...

lol

I have a job, but thanks for the condescending assumption. My dad's not even sure if I should keep going at the current rate.

 

[How About No]

Perhaps they want to see their unemployed adult child doing more than browsing the internet and playing video games for hours on end? I know I would. Are you learning new skills, searching for work, starting a side business online, or any number of other productive things?

Click to shrink...

🤦‍♀️

 

[saenima]

Perhaps they want to see their unemployed adult child doing more than browsing the internet and playing video games for hours on end? I know I would. Are you learning new skills, searching for work, starting a side business online, or any number of other productive things?

Click to shrink...

This nonsense is the result of 'work is the only measure of human value' propaganda. If you're not productive you're trash.

Smh

 

[ZackieChan]

lol

I have a job, but thanks for the condescending assumption. My dad's not even sure if I should keep going at the current rate.

Click to shrink...

Ahh, misunderstood. Main point stands, though - to them it looks like you're wasting your life

 

[Mekanos]

Ahh, misunderstood. Main point stands, though - to them it looks like you're wasting your life

Click to shrink...

Do.

Do you know what's going on in the world right now?

 

[Sibylus]

Perhaps they want to see their unemployed adult child doing more than browsing the internet and playing video games for hours on end? I know I would. Are you learning new skills, searching for work, starting a side business online, or any number of other productive things?

Click to shrink...

Ahh, misunderstood. Main point stands, though - to them it looks like you're wasting your life

Click to shrink...

The OP was less than ten sentences and spelled everything out, are you for real?

 

[Officer Big Mac]

The OP was less than ten sentences and spelled everything out, are you for real?

Click to shrink...

The OP was vague in regards to his employment status. He had the intention to work which isnt the same as having work.

 

[ZackieChan]

Do.

Do you know what's going on in the world right now?

Click to shrink...

Not sure how that prevents what I said.

The OP was less than ten sentences and spelled everything out, are you for real?

Click to shrink...

I am, in fact, not real
OP wasn't too clear. Trying to think of things from the parent's perspective.

 

[Sibylus]

The OP was vague in regards to his employment status. He had the intention to work which isnt the same as having work.

Click to shrink...

I am, in fact, not real
OP wasn't too clear. Trying to think of things from the parent's perspective.

Click to shrink...

I don't grok what, if anything, was unclear. Pandemic has thrown a spanner into the works of his immediate plans and now parents have cabin fever, so they're awkwardly stuck in place together for the time being.

 

[Zombine]

I don't feel like I should be infringing on my friends at a time like this. No partner, though the last girl I dated lived an hour away, so lol.

Click to shrink...

It's a weird time for sure, but if your friends want to hang just hang. Also, there are lots of girls looking for quarantine and chill. 😅

 

[Vector]

I left my apartment for now and am staying at my parents as my Uni has suspended all courses and the city they live in is smaller and less prone to an outbreak. It's not all bad though, my mom loves playing Mario Kart with me and seeing Netflix shows and it's pretty great for bonding lmao