I’ve devised the perfect solution to adult kids living at home. Out at 20, welcomed back at 30

September 25, 2026 — 11:30am

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Anyone who’s known me for more than, say, 40 seconds, will probably know my thus-far unrealised dreams include taking Keith Urban to the disco, being a nan, having laser hair removal on my chin, and taking an adult gap year with a bursting money belt and no set route.

Terrific as they are, they’re just the warm-up acts for my giant ambitious goal: living in a share house with the adult children and their partners and dogs and anyone who wants in.

Becoming an empty nester five years ago was simultaneously one of my life’s greatest triumphs and tragedies. I’m starting to think I’ll never be over it. Still feels like a rat is eating my heart.

Back in the mid-1980s, sitting in the backyard of a Carlton share house – smelling jasmine, hearing a screen door slam over the fence, half-cut on Coolibah – I’d yearn for something. Love that didn’t hurt, to know the answers, to be less rackety. Something.........

© Brisbane Times