“OMG, don’t come in!”
The question of privacy is tricky enough when you’re negotiating it only for yourself, but what about when you’re looking for privacy for both yourself and a guy you’re seeing? In high school, it’s possible your parents instituted a strict no-bedroom-doors-closed policy, but since you’ve moved back, this archaic rule has become seriously outdated.
Depending on your mom and dad’s views toward dating, drawing the line between what’s okay and what’s not might feel like delineating territory in a war zone. But if you’re mature enough to expect to be able to bring a guy back to your home, you’re mature enough to diplomatically handle the conversation that comes along with that allowance.
You may find that your parents are actually far more lenient than you expected them to be about the whole “are boys allowed?” question, and they’ll respect that you were mature enough to take it up with them and not simply assume their position on the subject. Don’t wait to be caught with your pants down (literally) to have the conversation. It’ll be far more difficult to make a case for your trustworthiness after your dad wakes up at 3 a.m. on a work night because, whoops, Romeo broke the trellis off the side of your house scaling the wall up to your balcony.
Be cognizant of this fact and remember that even if you’re comfortable staying over at a guy’s place sometimes, your parents probably don’t need to watch your walk of shame up the driveway the next afternoon. Your parents are fully aware you haven’t spent the last four years of your life in a nunnery, but they also probably don’t want it pushed in their face that you’re not the innocent child who thinks boys are gross anymore.
Moving back home is both a blessing and a curse. After four years, you’ve decided to take the step of returning back home to your mom, dad, and Zac Efron, and there are a great many points to be clarified in how exactly to go about coming home. It may seem like the simplest thing in the world to cross the threshold of your old front door and step back into the familiar place you’ve grown up in and returned to periodically over your undergraduate career, but not only have you changed a lot in four years, home will have changed a little in your absence, too. Negotiating a positive dynamic with your parents is key to flourishing over the course of your post-grad stay—oh, and carting the StairMaster 4000 out of your room.
Photo Credits:
http://livingwithteens.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/istock_000004337210me...
http://rlv.zcache.com/please_knock_no_entry_traffic_sign_ornament-p17565...
http://mudahmenikah.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/parents-house3001.jpg
http://www.justcolleges.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/paying-off-s...
http://thistimeimeanit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/familyreunion.jpg
http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/l543/hercampusphoto/People/Other%20m...
