Missing living at home under one roof with the rest of your family is perfectly normal. We have endless memories in the family home, both happy and sad. That combination of time and memories mean that when the time does come for children to move out of the family home and into their new home, it can be a very emotional time for both the children and the parents.
The team at David Wilson Homes wanted to explore how the family dynamic changes after a child has moved out of the family home. Therefore, we conducted a survey of over 2,000 Brits to reveal the things that both children and parents miss and enjoy the most about living together. Furthermore, we have also revealed how often children visit their parents after moving out, along with how many of us want to move back in together as a family.
While moving out of your parents’ home brings the opportunity for new adventures and greater freedom, there are also aspects of living at home that children miss after they have moved out.
Having meals made for you is the comfort that children miss the most after moving out. No matter how hard we try, sometimes there’s just no matching the taste of your favourite meal cooked for you by your parents.
Furthermore, half of respondents said they miss spending time in the company of their parents. Other sentimental reasons why children miss living at home were eating together as a family and watching TV together. More than a third of Brits also miss being looked after when they’re ill.
One of the biggest adjustments children face when moving out is the impact on their finances. Therefore, it’s no surprise that nearly half of Brits miss having a larger disposable income. 36% are nostalgic for a time when they didn’t have to do their own laundry, while 25% of children also miss the convenience of having free car rides on demand.
Nostalgic memories of living together as a family aren’t exclusive to children. Parents also have no shortage of things they miss about living under the same roof as their children.
Coming out on top was knowing that their children are home safe, with nearly two thirds of parents missing the comfort of knowing their children have got home safe. No matter how old you get it won’t stop your parents worrying!
We also found that parents are more nostalgic for certain aspects of living under the same roof than children who had moved out were. 40% of children claimed that they missed eating together as a family, but this jumped up to 56% for parents. Likewise, 32% of children missed watching TV together compared to 49% of parents.
Having their meals cooked for them and being looked after when they’re ill were both high on the list of nostalgic memories for children. Interestingly, both also ranked high on the list of things parents also missed. 38% of parents stated that they missed cooking for their children, and 33% missed looking after them when they were ill.
Moving out of your parents’ house isn’t all about missed memories and lost conveniences. Taking top spot as the thing that children enjoy the most about not living with their parents was having more independence and more privacy. Almost half of Brits also enjoy having more alone time.
The freedom to make more of your own decisions and not have to live by your parents’ rules was a key theme across the top 10 things adults enjoy the most about not living with their parents. 43% enjoy not having to share control over the TV and 39% like being able to have their friends/partner over whenever they want.
Likewise, parents also benefit from a number of perks after their children move out, the most desirable of those being cheaper house bills. Not having to clean up after them, having less shopping to do and not doing their laundry anymore were also found to be amongst the most desirable benefits.
Parents were found to not get as excited about certain aspects of having a quieter house. While 60% of children enjoyed the extra privacy of living away from their parents, only 33% of parents felt the same way about having more privacy of their own.
How often children visit their parents after moving out
We also asked both parents and children how often they see each other once the children have moved out and were pleased to discover that 1 in 2 children visit their parents after moving out at least once a week.
27% will also visit multiple times per week, with one out of ten children visiting at least four times per week. All of which just goes to show however sad it might be when we reach the stage whereas parents we bid farewell, it’s highly likely that we’ll still be seeing plenty of each other.
Furthermore, 75% of children will visit their parents at least once a month, with sons and daughters both equally likely to visit the same amount.
The top things parents still do for their children after they’ve moved out
Even after moving out, there’s still no shortage of things that we rely on our parents to help us out with, no matter how old we get. Topping the list of things parents are most likely to still do for their children after they have moved out is buying them an Easter egg.
One in three children still get an Easter egg off their parents and one in four will still get an advent calendar off them at Christmas. Our study also revealed that daughters are almost twice as likely to receive an Easter egg (39% vs 21%) and advent calendar (28% vs 15%) from their parents than sons are.
More time-consuming tasks that also featured in our top 10 list include looking after a pet and watering plants when away on holiday, helping with DIY jobs in the house, acting as a taxi service and sitting in the house for parcels and tradespeople. However, nearly 90% of parents won’t pay for their child’s Netflix subscription after they have moved out.
How much do parents and children want to move back in together
Just because the children have moved out of the family home doesn’t mean that there’s no chance of them ever returning to take up residence again in the future.
Our survey found that 23% of children who had moved out of their parent’s house already, said yes when asked “would you ever want to move back in with your parents”. Men are also more likely to want to move back in with their parents than women are, with 30% of males agreeing compared to 20% of females.
We also discovered that parents are more likely than the children to want to move back in together. 28% of parents want their children to move back in with them compared to 23% of children. Furthermore, 55% of children were definitive about not wanting to move back in with their parents, but this number dropped to 41% for parents.
