Ask Amy: Parents don’t want son to cohabit with girlfriend
Dear Amy: After some false starts, our 20-year-old son is ready to go to college. He's retaken some community college classes he originally failed, and gotten mostly As and Bs. He's got a job, and this fall is planning to move near the college, which is 45 minutes away.
We've always said we would support him for college, but he wants to live with his long-term girlfriend. We like her, and they've been together two years, but they're only 20! She will also be in school in the city, but her family can't afford for her to have her own place, and she doesn't have anyone to live with. Our son and she want to get a place in-between their two schools and split the rent (with her parents paying the other half).
We don't like the idea of 20-year-olds living together just out of financial expediency, or pushing the relationship faster than it should go.
He's just getting his life back on track, and we think the idea of being sort-of married, and sharing a home (that the parents pay for) while going to school is just not a good idea -- for school or the relationship.
Now, however, our son says they will break up if they can't live together, because it would be too hard to be in a relationship “long distance.”
What do you think? Would you support the cohabitation? Or are we right to hold the line and let them figure it out?
Slow It Down
Dear Slow it Down: If you hold the lease on an apartment and are paying the rent, you have the right to insist that your son get a different roommate – preferably someone who also goes to his school. However, understand that the roommate you know (his girlfriend, who is nice, stable, also going to college nearby) might be a much better bet than the roommate you don’t know. Your son’s girlfriend might continue to be a good and stabilizing influence for him. It seems that she has been, so far.
If you are very much against them living together, then you should put your foot down and deny them this arrangement.
However, both of these young people are leaving home, and if they are determined to be together and stay together – they will. They will either live together – with you knowing about it, or they will simply cohabit for at least part of the time (as many 20-year-olds have done) and keep it a secret from you.
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