Is there a stereotype of Italians who live with their parents? That one is a new one on me.

RexTalionis: Is there a stereotype of Italians who live with their parents? That one is a new one on me.

Ya. Maybe it's because we don't have many Italians living around me (I'm in the most Portuguese part of the eastern United States), but I've never heard that one.

RexTalionis: Is there a stereotype of Italians who live with their parents? That one is a new one on me.

Not Italian families in America, families in Italy. It's a more well-known phenomenon in Europe, but I've heard of it before. Here are a few links on it:

Why Italy's mamma's boys can't cut the ties

No babies? Italy blames its 'mamma's boys'

In Italy - Living at Home Well into Your 30's is Perfectly Normal

Italian parents fight to evict 41-year-old son

OK, serious question here. Why do we, as a culture, value moving off and having our own separate household? Wouldn't it make more sense to have several incomes coming into a single (larger) household? Not talking about 35 year old kids sponging off mommy and daddy, but rather several family units living together under a single roof.

Cazzi mei, Subbino! Thank you! I thought the same thing but could come up with a headline. Che furbo che sei.

ginandbacon: Cazzi mei, Subbino! Thank you! I thought the same thing but could come up with a headline. Che furbo che sei.

Cara mia, Tish! You spoke Italian!
/Cue Gomez Addams creepiness.

SurfaceTension: Not talking about 35 year old kids sponging off mommy and daddy, but rather several family units living together under a single roof.

Mobility would be a lot bigger issue now than it was even one generation ago. Uprooting an entire extended family = enormous pain in the arse even in those rare households where everybody gets along.

Also, noisy sex = awkward.

SurfaceTension: Why do we, as a culture, value moving off and having our own separate household?

Because we have a large number of firearms, and don't do the whole "screaming match one minute, fine and dandy the next" thing too well.

/Currently living in a house with four women
//Penthouse Confessions, it ain't
///Never sit down to crap without checking the paper situation, because b*tches will leave you stranded.

SurfaceTension: OK, serious question here. Why do we, as a culture, value moving off and having our own separate household? Wouldn't it make more sense to have several incomes coming into a single (larger) household? Not talking about 35 year old kids sponging off mommy and daddy, but rather several family units living together under a single roof.

Because conservatives sold people on the idea of the "traditional family" being a mom, a dad and their 2.4 children and a dog, living in the suburbs with a car in the garage.

Never mind that the traditional family is a fiction created for television, of course.

RexTalionis: Because conservatives sold people on the idea of the "traditional family" being a mom, a dad and their 2.4 children and a dog, living in the suburbs with a car in the garage.

Never mind that the traditional family is a fiction created for television, of course.

Blaming "conservatives" is shallow thinking. It's marketing, plain and simple. They push this idea on you, they can sell more houses, more cars, more furniture, more appliances, more paint, more plumbing fixtures, etc. They've gotten very good at making you fixate on sh*t you don't need; so good, in fact, that our entire economy is driven by it, and sputters and damn near fails when we stop.

I still maintain that putting more than an immediate family unit in a house increases interpersonal friction exponentially, and not in a porny sort of way. Well, unless the house is large enough that you can designate areas of it as "wings". Even the kumbaya-singingest granola-eating pacifists will strangle one another with their bare hands on a long enough timeline.

RexTalionis: ginandbacon: Cazzi mei, Subbino! Thank you! I thought the same thing but could come up with a headline. Che furbo che sei.

Cara mia, Tish! You spoke Italian!
/Cue Gomez Addams creepiness.

Ma dai! Dobbamo chiaccherare qualche volta, caro :)
/tunes out the creepy.

^dobbiamo *sospiro*

ginandbacon: RexTalionis: ginandbacon: Cazzi mei, Subbino! Thank you! I thought the same thing but could come up with a headline. Che furbo che sei.

Cara mia, Tish! You spoke Italian!
/Cue Gomez Addams creepiness.

Ma dai! Dobbamo chiaccherare qualche volta, caro :)
/tunes out the creepy.

If only I kept up with the years of Italian I took in HS.

RexTalionis: ginandbacon: RexTalionis: ginandbacon: Cazzi mei, Subbino! Thank you! I thought the same thing but could come up with a headline. Che furbo che sei.

Cara mia, Tish! You spoke Italian!
/Cue Gomez Addams creepiness.

Ma dai! Dobbamo chiaccherare qualche volta, caro :)
/tunes out the creepy.

If only I kept up with the years of Italian I took in HS.

I actually have a HS degree from an Italian liceo. Everybody wanted to st next to me during English tests...

Well no shiat, try coming to Connecticut. You're going to pay $800 a month just to live in a one bedroom apartment on the fifth floor of a project in a section of town where there's a 1 in 4 chance at any given time you're going to get shot and / or robbed. Want to get a house or a condo or anyplace that's doesn't involve living in the slums? Better find 2 or 3 roomates, because there's no way in hell you're going to be able to afford rent and / or mortgage, bills, and food on your own. Unless you're already super rich, or on Section 8, then there's plenty of nice places for you to live.

Unless the cost of housing comes back down to earth and hits realistic market rates, we're going to go back to the days where you and your entire extended family are all living under one roof.

The biggest issue here really is all the Section 8 housing. Landlords don't want to charge realistic rates, they're only interested in renting out to Section 8 since it's guaranteed money. That's why you end up with these projects that are falling apart and turn to shiat. If you're not in the top 10% of the bottom 10% you're pretty much SOL.

spman: You're going to pay $800 a month just to live in a one bedroom apartment on the fifth floor of a project in a section of town where there's a 1 in 4 chance at any given time you're going to get shot and / or robbed.

Bridgeport?

RexTalionis: spman: You're going to pay $800 a month just to live in a one bedroom apartment on the fifth floor of a project in a section of town where there's a 1 in 4 chance at any given time you're going to get shot and / or robbed.

Bridgeport?

or New Haven or Hartford or Waterbury or New London or New Britain take your pick.

spman: RexTalionis: spman: You're going to pay $800 a month just to live in a one bedroom apartment on the fifth floor of a project in a section of town where there's a 1 in 4 chance at any given time you're going to get shot and / or robbed.

Bridgeport?

or New Haven or Hartford or Waterbury or New London or New Britain take your pick.

Well, I've never lived anywhere near there, although I only just recently moved to CT 2 years ago.

Affordability isn't the only issue. Now you have to have good credit even to get in to a place. Most kids that age have no credit. My son is 22 and would love to move out.

SurfaceTension: OK, serious question here. Why do we, as a culture, value moving off and having our own separate household? Wouldn't it make more sense to have several incomes coming into a single (larger) household? Not talking about 35 year old kids sponging off mommy and daddy, but rather several family units living together under a single roof.

Socialism.

Just don't touch the hair.

I live with my parents and I'm 25. Same with a lot of my friends. It's really fairly normal at this point.

It's not for a lack of job, I make good money. I just have massive student loans and it doesn't make sense to have to pay both loans and rent. It's not so horrible, I get along with my parents and really the only major problem is the commute from Long Island to Manhattan. And I'm making great progress on my loans, though I started with so much that I still have a long way to go.

RexTalionis: Is there a stereotype of Italians who live with their parents? That one is a new one on me.

It's not even a stereotype. It's normal over there.

I can't live with my parents anymore. They won't let me turn on the air conditioner during winter, nor do they let me open the windows during winter.

cgraves67: In America's non-urban environments housing and transportation are relatively cheap.

Were.

Gdalescrboz: It's not because they cant find a job, its because they dont need one. Their family and gov't pays for everything

Look, worker efficiency and automation have been, are, and will continue to be continuously increasing. The birthrate will decline as poorer nations industrialize, but one day in the near future we're going to be at a point where we simply don't need 10%, 15%, 25% of the populace to work. Hell, we might already be there.

So what's your solution to how we address this situation? Note that "just starve" isn't a solution, as millions/billions don't starve, they kill you and take your sh*t.

When my son turns eighteen, we will through a nice party for him, maybe take a little trip, and when we come back, the locks will have been changed and he will have a choice of paying rent or going to college and living at the dorms.

Of course, if he's anything like me, he will move out at the earliest possible time (i.e. the week after high school graduation). It wasn't that I didn't like my home life, I was just aware that I was an adult now and should be able to take care of myself.