I am 23 and live at home and do not pay rent! *law and order noise* This is my story.

For the past year I was working an unpaid internship full-time and also working a paid job one day a week, and I offered to pay nominal rent but my parents said I should put the money towards student loans instead, so I did that. I did/do a solid amount of chores around the house, but my mother does do my laundry, because she says it’s easier to get a full load of darks if she can just do everyone’s together. I do feel guilty about that, but isn’t it also kind of stupid just to insist on making it more difficult for everyone to preserve my pride?

I just got a job that pays enough to live on, and if I can’t find a place to move out to, I will start either paying some rent or buying my own groceries or some combination of the two. (My mother has said that she likes having me at home because my dad is away for work a lot and she does not want to be in the house by herself all the time, so I feel only slightly guilty about the whole deal.)