Victoria had been saving up her scholarships for more than a year to move away from her father and me in her fourth year. It was her start-up capital, which her father and I also invested in, and generally promised to pay half of the rent at first, so that her daughter would pay half as well and more utilities. She chose a small apartment, but with repairs, so the cost was acceptable. With a part-time job online and studying it was quite possible to pull through.
We were in no hurry to move things, even because the apartment had no closet, only a hanger and a dresser. It was much more convenient to take seasonal clothes from home, not cramming all the shelves with winter clothes while it was summer.
Being proactive and broke to independence, Victoria in the first two months, spent all the money saved, buying a coffee table, a bookshelf, then three times a housewarming party with friends. She did not immediately admit to me and my father that she had very little money; she suggested that her boyfriend move in with her so that she could pay less, but that did not really save the situation either. Adam wasn’t particularly clean, and he also wasn’t a very comfortable man, with whom her daughter said it was hard to relax and she was constantly worried that she was doing everything wrong. They broke up and separated after a month and a half, and the daughter called all in tears and started asking to go back. She couldn’t afford to live in a rented apartment yet, and it was more complicated than she thought.
I know some kids who have been living alone since their freshman year and feel great, and some who can’t move out until they are thirty, but I’m glad Victoria tried living alone for a few months and now appreciates her parents’ home and what her father and I do for her more. And in the future she will think more carefully about moving out or such important events, because you have to calculate your own strengths and capabilities first.
