/biz/ - Business & Finance

I’m really stubborn and full of myself so it takes a lot to make me change my mind or perspective. I had that happen a few years ago regarding living at home after 18. This will probably be long and boring but whatever.

For my entire life I thought that kicking a kid out at 18 and forcing them to be on their own was the best thing for them. It wasn’t until I met an Albanian restauranteur that I realized that it wasn’t a good idea.

He had all of his kids stay home until they finished college or got married and they all worked at the restaurant at night as waitresses and bussers. One night we were discussing this fact and I said that I was going to kick my kids out at 18 and he rebuffed me. What he said was genius.

“Anon, think about all the dumb things you do from 18-20.” He said this in a thick Albanian accent. “You go out do drugs do drinking do party and go to jail. I tell my kids, ‘stay with me and I pay your cell phone, your food, your car, your school, everything. And in exchange you work for me at the restaurant.’ It keep them home and where I can be with them when they are the dumbest age they gonna be.”

Boom. It hit me. I thought about all of the absolutely retarded shit I did at 19 off at college and realized that I would have been much more wholesome had I been forced to go home every night to my parents at that age. It makes so much sense. So unless my kid gets a scholarship for football (which is possible currently) I’m going to make that same offer to my kid. I think it’s a great way to keep a kid honest at that age but you also have to be a parent and not ignore them.