My three adult kids still live at home. Help! Submit advice to this question.
Every week, we ask readers to think like an advice columnist and submit their advice to a question Carolyn Hax hasn’t answered.
Dear Carolyn: I feel like I’m living in some kind of movie where no one ever grows up. My three children all graduated from college. One has a job in his field but it pays crap and he’s hoping to go back for his PhD. My other two have jobs but not ones using their college degrees, and they have no plans to move out without stable jobs. They all live in their childhood bedrooms and our family dynamic is much the same as when they were younger: my cooking and cleaning more than they do; my nagging at them not to leave dishes throughout the house and to pick up after themselves; my asking for them to take care of the dogs so I can have a break — and sometimes just getting a shrug in return.
My husband, God love him, just doesn’t see mess and is unbothered by it. I need my family dynamic to change — I cannot continue to be the authoritarian figure, and need my kids to be more communal in their approach to living and just more responsible. They aren’t teenagers.
How do I get this family dynamic to change when I’m the only one who cares?
