Is it just ME?

Or is a court evicting a ‘kidult’ a sad sign of the times?

An American judge has ordered a 30-year-old man to move out of his parents’ home because the lazy layabout repeatedly refused to get a job or go when his mum and dad suggested it was time to fly the nest.

Hoorah, I thought, when I first heard the news. At last, a victory for parents in an age when kidults feel entitled to hang around for ever rather than take responsibility for themselves.

The number of young adults living with parents is at an all-time high, with 26 per cent of 20 to 34 year olds still in the family home.

Now I understand there are often good reasons for this — such as the increasing costs of buying a home.

But there are plenty of poor reasons, too, and I blame both the overindulgent parents and their lethargic offspring.

I cried buckets when my son left home, but he was 24 and he couldn’t continue to have his socks folded by me.

Not so for a number of his friends. Like the 30 year old with a PhD, who dreams of being a rock star and spends his days composing on his mum’s sofa. Or the daughter of another friend who, at 29, is still interning because she has already changed career three times. Her mum washes, cooks and cleans for her.

This does a child no favours, disabling rather than enabling, which is surely the parental role. We mollycoddle our kids as they chase their dreams, then resent it when they rely on us.

All of which has resulted in a syndrome psychologists call ‘failure to launch’. While not an illness, it does neatly describe the situation where thirtysomethings find it difficult to start adult life and form adult relationships.

Evicting your kidult, as the New York couple did, may sound cruel, but it could be the kindest parental cut of all.

At last victory for parents in an age when ‘kidults’ feel entitled to hang around for ever