Well, I'm an "old lady" compared to most of you , but I left home when I was 17 to attend college, but I lived in the dorm for 4 years until I graduated, so my parent's home was still my home. I only lived at home one summer while I was in college, though, and took advantage of some fun things that came my way. The summer after my sophomore year at Clemson, I did a summer internship at Disney World in Florida. That was fun, plus my boyfriend (and later husband) was there too (we lived in a trailer park, full of double wide trailers) that Disney had rented out and had assigned roommates. The summer after my junior year in college, I worked at a Textile Mill in Columbus, GA. It wasn't all the "fun", but it did give me good training for the time when I started looking for full time work. As soon as I graduated from college, I moved into an apartment in NC to start my first job. I was married about six months after that.

The only other time that I "moved back in" was when I was 30, and my husband and I split up. It just made sense for my 2 year old daughter and me to have a little "settling down" time, before I found my own place. We were there for six weeks or so, and drove back and forth every day for me to go to work. It was about 1 hour each way, but very worth it to have my parents to help me in the evenings. I don't know what I would have done without them!