... I'm like 28 and wondering about the same thing.
I'd like to preface it with a little bit of my profile as well
First rented a flat as a student in 2011 with a roommate until 2016, I went back at parent's house occasionnaly on the week-end.
Moved to a much bigger flat in 2016 with same roommate.
2017 I moved for a year abroad for let's say, life experience, had a roommate occasionnaly but lived alone for the most part
I came back this summer in my home country back to parent's house, began new fairly high income job this month and I intend to financially help my family at some level (maybe not directly through cash but other means)
Now for more personnal matters I'm in very very good terms with all members of my family living at home, I spend a fair amount of time with each of them (including hours weekly on a bike with my father which is his hobby, hours doing groceries watching movies/tv with my mother, watching stuff,cooking and running a bit with my younger sibling) talk to them a lot about pretty much anything, there's also a lot of tension between my parents and I try as much as I can to help them improve their relationship. I'm very well aware my presence help them to have something in common, discuss about and so on.
I also am a kind of fatherly figure and role model to my younger sibling (s/he pretty much straightforwardly wrote that in a essay at school when s/he was 13y old) and we have a strong relationship where I try to help him/her get on with life and smoothens as much as I can his/her relationship with my parents (there used to be a lot of tension between him/her and my father and I acted as a cushion as much as I could)
By all means everyone involved seems pretty happy that I'm there.
Bu then come the social pressure, so I'll use a post above to reply somehow
Freedom
Life experience
Dating
Privacy
Social life
Relief for your parents
Post-shower naked strolls through the living room while you skull a lager on a hot summer day
- Freedom : I'm not sure what it has to do with anything, how do you define freedom in the first place? Why is that that living alone means freedom more than with others people? I don't feel like constrained in freedom in any way in my current situation, I'm doing what I want, coming back and leaving when I want, going where I want and so on
- Life experience : I do agree on that one, however that doesn't mean living by yourself should be the aim for everyone in the end, what's "expected" of us is to have our own family later on anyway. If anything living by yourself is a waste of money (both for you and for others because that contributes to higher house/rent prices) if there are no advantages in terms of commute or things to do next to your home
- Dating : that's the biggest valid point
- Privacy : Like freedom I see no problem on that front either
- Social life : Talking about a personal case here but most of my friends are in the big city while l'm living/working in the suburbs 1h commute from their home, so yeah they won't come to my house often (they already did though), even if I rent my own place that still wouldn't be convenient and the size of the flat wouldn't be worth it on top of it (don't think I could afford much more than 30-40m²). Outside of that I'm hanging out just fine and living with my parents has no impacts whatsoever on that
- Relief for your parents : It's actually quite the opposite and I've talked to them about that multiple times to be sure
- Post shower naked strolls : I'm actually... doing that almost, just a towel to hide the weenie and that's it, my father does it too and we are pretty cool with that. Overall I'm alright with my naked body in many circumstances lol (I'm an onsen lover)
Maybe I'm missing things here and there so anyone can feel free to explain them to me, but imo it has more to do with your relationship with your family and how you live as an individual overall,.
I'm not some lazy ass that comes back at home put his ass on a chair waiting for dinner, go sit my ass in front of a computer, ignore my parents, ask them for money, get yelled at for being noisy at night when I come back drunk (which can happen) and so on, we are in a mutual relationship of trust and help and I'm very happy for that, it is much better than the classic relationship that I heard from friends often which is just a "oh yeah they exist" about their parents.
If anything I'm here to contribute to improvement in the house, lately I've also reminded my parents how before they used to say that they would go back to the area where they grew up (hundreds of km from where we are) and I like them entertaining the idea of doing that after my father finish his 42y of hard work, and I'm pretty adamant that I shouldn't be in any way a factor that prevents them from doing what they want (which, ironically, I am because of our good relationship to begin with)
But yeah I feel like in our, western, societies there are some huge pillars that are hard to move and it's just unthinkable to do without them and of course it happens I that I'm checking the boxes for most (casual alcohool drinking, be in a relationship/date, live by yourself, eat meat) :p
